Boris Johnson dismisses £250,000-a-year Telegraph column as 'chickenfeed'
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Independent Minds
London Mayor Boris Johnson dismissed the £250,000-a-year he earns from a second job as "chicken feed".
Mr Johnson also insisted it was "wholly reasonable" for him to write newspaper columns on the side because he did them "very fast".
The comments risk infuriating millions of Londoners struggling to make ends meet amid the economic downturn.
And they are unlikely to please David Cameron, who has ordered his shadow cabinet to give up extra work in the run-up to the general election to show their "commitment".
Mr Johnson, who is paid nearly £140,000 for his day job, was quizzed over his lucrative contract with the Daily Telegraph during an interview for the BBC's HARDTalk programme.
He responded: "It's chicken feed."
Pressed on whether voters would agree with that description, the mayor said he was being "frivolous".
But he went on: "I happen to write extremely fast. I don't see why on a Sunday morning I shouldn't knock off an article, if someone wants to pay me for that article then that's their lookout and of course I make a substantial donation to charity.
"Maybe that money shouldn't go to charity, maybe you'd rather I didn't make those contributions to charity. It seems to me to be a wholly reasonable thing to do."
Mr Johnson said: "I think that frankly there's absolutely no reason at all why I should not, on a Sunday morning before I do whatever else I need to do on a Sunday morning, should not knock off an article as a way of relaxation."
Mr Johnson decided to continue with his columns for the Telegraph after being elected last year, but donates £50,000 from his annual fee to charities.
Asked whether Mr Cameron approved of his extra work, the mayor seemed oblivious to the instructions issued by his party leader.
"Well I'm not a member of his shadow cabinet and I'd like to see what the detail of that is," he said.
Labour's deputy leader on the London Assembly, John Biggs, said: "Londoners struggling through the recession will be astounded that their Mayor is so out of touch with reality.
"A quarter of a million pounds may be chicken-feed to him but the overwhelming majority of people in the capital can only dream of earnings like that.
"How can we have any faith in a Mayor who believes earning more than 10 times the majority of those whose interests he is supposed to represent amounts to nothing more than chicken-feed?"
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Comments
What's the odds the charity donation is offset nicely in his tax bill?
You're not funny Boris - you're fat!
I'd like to see this grinning oaf get by on minimum wage or live on benefits, which is the fate of many millions in this grotty, bankrupt hole of a country.
"Chickenfeed?" To write a few lines of bollocks for a newspaper and receive a quarter of a million pounds a year for his "efforts"?
He has encapsulated perfectly why I - and rapidly growing numbers of the long-suffering British - utterly loathe the entire political class.
There are so many working in public sector organisations who will never reach such grand salaries in their public sector roles and those are the ones he needs to show lamentable respect.
Yes writing pays well, but above all use the gift wisely.....
But there again he's not spending a fortune on party political PR like the previous one did. Remember the paper strewn across London, all those trees cut down so that absolute clap trap saying how wonderful a job was being done by the previous administration. If that's the only thing Boris is doing wrong and all you can talk about is one of his silly comments he really must be doing a very good job.
I think Boris has been very restrained, he has seen some horrendous money wasting schemes and some almost criminal uses of tax payers money and he has quietly shut them down with no big political statements. Actually he has almost been statesman like and certainly seems to have been a good mayor so far but thankfully he keeps coming out with the occasional Boris clanger to remind us he is human. And he doesn't spurt that politicospeak that we used to suffer hearing.
At the moment I find him very refreshing. He's concentrating on the job more than the previous mayor did and maybe he should actually talk more about some of the previous regime's howlers and what he has done with the money instead. Whilst he still can make a balls up of his term in office the benchmark was not really too high. i actually voted for KL the first time round but it was time for a change.
Who would want Gordon Brown to pen a column in their spare time, maybe a Journal of Psychiatry? Which cabinet Minister's columns would you like to read? Hopefully soon they will have the time to write them.
Gordon Brown has written a number of books, Britain's everyday heroes being one, I don't think Boris Gump was in it, I think he was in rich and clueless, or was it rich and strange. It's not the money that's the issue, it's the reasoning. He has a very difficult job to do yet he admits he takes time, all be it very little time, to pen tripe even he considers the ramblings of a bumbling idiot. If he gets paid to do that? what other part of his character is up for auction?. It would appear if you have a spare 250grand you can buy some influence.....???...or can you...?...I would assume the Telegraph are re-negotiating his salary given the fact he writes his plop while doing one.
Always have the attitude that dont knock people down to your level, move up to theirs.
God I hate this countrys knockem off the perch shit.
Cluck, cluck, cluck !