Letters: Edinburgh bike scheme deserves a better name than '˜Boris Bikes'

Edinburgh bikes should not be referred to as Boris Bikes writes Gacin Corbett. They deserve to have a more suitable name. Do you agree?
Edinburgh bikes should not be named after a failed politician writes Gavin Corbett.Edinburgh bikes should not be named after a failed politician writes Gavin Corbett.
Edinburgh bikes should not be named after a failed politician writes Gavin Corbett.

Bikes deserve a better name than Boris

IT is hugely welcome that Edinburgh at last has a fleet of street bikes for residents and visitors alike to enjoy. It is a scheme that has the backing of all political parties in the city chambers.

But I must take issue with your headline calling them Boris Bikes. The London scheme, from which this ­label comes, was fully worked up before Boris Johnson became mayor of the city. Johnson simply happened to ­arrive in post for the time of their public launch. However, it is a neat metaphor for Johnson’s career: a shallow showman who is shameless about ­taking credit, all the while displaying the crassest political judgement of any UK politician of his generation.

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So let’s be proud of Edinburgh’s street bikes in their own right and give them a name that is befitting our capital city. What about asking readers to come up with something better than the first name of a failed MP?

Gavin Corbett, Green councillor for Fountainbridge-Craiglockhart.