During an appearance on last Thursday's Daily Politics, Tory group leader and blogger Roger Evans defended Boris holding on to what Andrew Neil called, in the context of David Cameron's recent instruction to his shadow cabinet, his "second job" - writing that £250,000 a year column for the Telegraph:
Evans: "I'm told it takes him an hour on a Sunday evening."
Neil: "So the Telegraph is being short-changed?"
I'd say so. Even if Boris is a very fast writer, a column of that length and prominence should have more than 60 minutes spent on it. Perhaps Roger's been misinformed, but I'd be embarrassed to take so much money for so little work.
Neil then moved on to the matter of Mayor Johnson's taxi bills. Roger offered a defence, but went on to say that in his new role as chair of the Audit Panel he will be:
"...taking a look at taxi expenses, among other things. They are high and they do look unreasonable to people. We will be putting rules in place to bring that under control in future."
As if Boris hasn't enough close examination on this issue coming his way. No doubt Roger enjoys the full support of his fellow Tory AM Brian Coleman in taking this firm line on value for money. But will the Telegraph's management follow the Tory group leader's lead?
