Boris may not be so good at spotting ‘crass’

During recent the row over Ian Clement’s misuse of his corporate credit card, Boris Johnson made a reference to knowing when something’s ‘crass’.

I wonder then how much input he had in a press release containing his thoughts on tomorrow’s marking of the 7/7 bombings.

The release is embargoed until after midnight but I think it’s possible to respect the conditions on which it was issued while pondering whether it might have been a little “crass” to include the following in the notes to editors:

“Since elected last year, the Mayor has provided funding for an increase in visible policing on the transport network across the city, with an additional 50 British Transport Police officers and the complete roll out of 32 safer transport teams.”

What’s the conclusion that we’re being asked to draw from this statement? That under Boris the bombings might not have happened? That somehow the presence of a few more hi-vis vests on July 7th might have prevented the bombings? The deployment of just about every police officer in the capital certainly didn’t prevent an attempted repeat two weeks later.

There’s something seriously wrong with Boris’s crass detector if it doesn’t make a very loud sound when his administration uses the anniversary of people’s deaths to talk up his performance.