Blair's airliner made 1,450-mile trip to fetch gourmet meal

[emad]

The Independent
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
09 October 2004


It must be one of the longest-distance takeaway orders in history. A British Airways jet carrying Tony Blair back from his whirlwind diplomatic trip to Africa made a 1,450-mile round trip to stock up on prawn risotto, asparagus mousse and cheesecake.

The Boeing 777 flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi and back while Mr Blair was holding talks in the Ethiopian capital to pick up a consignment of in-flight food ready for his return trip to London. Downing Street staff and press were happy with the hot dinners after they boarded the plane on Thursday, but others were not so sure.

Stephen Tindale, the executive director of Greenpeace and a former adviser to Labour, said: "He should have eaten Ethiopian food, sourced locally. The more we fly, the more people will die from climate change, and Africa is in the front line."

The packed visit programme for Mr Blair and his entourage started at 7.30am with a visit to a children's centre in the Ethiopian countryside. Mr Blair's day ended with a working dinner with the Commission of Africa.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=570400


Maybe he wanted to feed the kids?????????????????

[Flubadubya]

1. Let them eat cake...

<sarcasm>

[Pale_Rider]

13. No ... let them eat prawn risotto, asparagus mousse and cheesecake.

:evilgrin:

[AP]

2. The story is confusing. A British Airways jet? This was a regularly...

...scheduled flight? BA doesn't fly charters. Are they saying that this jet substituted for the flight that was regularly scheduled to run that leg? Was this the regularly scheduled flight and it simply picked up food on the outbound?

It makes no sense. Sounds like spin.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. All BA Jets...

Are part of "The Queen's Flight" which supplies aircraft for the travel of Britain's leaders.

[AP]

5. See quote in post 3. Flight obviously carried passengers too.

[AP]

3. The truth is saved for the last two paragraphs:

A British Airways spokesman said that the flight to Nairobi had been scheduled because the airline had no catering contract in the Ethiopian capital and could not keep food on board during the Prime Minister's visit. He said: "We fly to Nairobi daily and we carried some food, so during our downtime in Addis we flew there to pick it up. It made sense and the food was good quality."


A Downing Street spokes-woman insisted it had not asked BA to fly to pick up supplies. She said: "At no point did Downing Street ask BA to do anything other than follow normal company procedures; quite the reverse, because it was made clear matters like this were a matter for the company."

BA used the PM's plane to make a regularly scheduled run. It carried passengers out and back, and simply picked up food after the outbound leg.

The Independent is deliberately trying to make it sound like the plane carried no passengers and only the food.

[emad]

7. Blair's plane flies off-message for gourmet delights: The Times

By David Charter

WHILE Tony Blair was in Ethiopia discussing ways to save the famine-hit continent of Africa, his chartered plane was on a 1,400-mile round trip to restock with gourmet food for his dinner. The British Airways 777 used by the Downing Street party and accompanying journalists received permission from No 10 to leave Addis Ababa and travel to Nairobi, the airline hub in the region, to restock.

As it turned out, the resulting atmospheric pollution (and food) was unnecessary — as far as the Prime Minister was concerned anyway.

Mr Blair dined with his hosts President Meles in the Ethiopian capital before boarding. The only passengers who had dinner on the flight back to London were his aides and the travelling media. Last night Greenpeace said that Mr Blair should be deeply embarrassed by the “unnecessary” round trip for the gourmet five-course menu, which included asparagus mousse, prawn risotto and champagne.

A spokesman said: “Climate change is killing 150,000 people a year — when people fly, people die. It’s incredibly embarrassing for the Prime Minister, who has been championing action on climate change, to know that his airplane was engaged in such frivolous activities and he should immediately condemn it.” British Airways said this type of journey was “common practice” for its premium chartered service. But a spokesman admitted that, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps the journey should not have been made.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1301851,00.html

[AP]

8. BA says they have regularly scheduled flights between Addis and Nairobi.

It sounds like they just used the BA flight to fly the regularly scheduled run and picked up food.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. No; they have a scheduled flight to Nairobi from London

they used that to take some food from London to Nairobi; they flew the charter plane from Addis Ababa to Nairobi to pick that up, and have it ready to feed the people on the flight from Addis to London.

From the Independent:
"A British Airways spokesman said that the flight to Nairobi had been scheduled because the airline had no catering contract in the Ethiopian capital and could not keep food on board during the Prime Minister's visit. He said: "We fly to Nairobi daily and we carried some food, so during our downtime in Addis we flew there to pick it up.""

and from The Times:
"British Airways said this type of journey was “common practice” for its premium chartered service. But a spokesman admitted that, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps the journey should not have been made."

So BA has made it clear that the flight from AA to Nairobi could have been avoided. The blame for this does lie with BA, though (perhaps Blair could make it clear that in future they shouldn't be making trips that long to pick up food when he charters them).

[joshcryer]

12. Geez, talk about spin! edit: wait

It's neat that he got his meal from almost 2k miles away, but the suggestion that it was done simply for the meal is stupid.

edit: wait, I am interpreting this to mean that the "regularly schedualed run" is actually a fucking catering run? Correct me if I'm wrong.

A British Airways spokesman said that the flight to Nairobi had been scheduled because the airline had no catering contract

[Doosh]

6. If this was Kerry, it would be headline news on Drudge/FOX for a month

[clydefrand]

9. Extravagance makes me sick when so many

people are starving to death. I'm beginning to hate powerful people. Self-absorbed...they don't care who has to sacrifice as long as it isn't they who are doing the sacrifice. You noticed how Bush made a point of saying...Tell Blair, etc. they aren't part of the coalition. They have made sacrifices, too, just like we have. What sacrifice has the village idiot made during his life? I'd say none.

[MichiganVote]

10. Did he save any scraps for the Bigley family?

[Nordic]

11. British imperialism was always about finding a good meal and sunshine

Really, who can blame them?

:eyes:

[RedSock]

14. as long as no one got a hair cut

it's all cool.