A timely reminder that a politician with blonde floppy hair and a semblance of a sense of humour is still a politician.
Boris Johnson's supporters justified the piece of illiberal fuckwittery that is the banning of the drinking of alcohol on public transport, saying "he is carrying out a key manifesto commitment".
Remind me. What was the key-est of all of Boris' manifesto commitments? The flagship policy, if you like? Was it perhaps:
- The bendy bus is unsuitable for London's streets, they are twice as dangerous as non-articulated buses and have almost three times the rate of fare evasion. I will phase out bendy buses and run a new competition to find a 21st century Routemaster that has full disabled access, runs on clean fuel and has conductors.
Are, we, after less than two weeks, starting to see the Boris Team weaselling out of this particular manifesto commitment? Er...
The Mayor's plans for a new generation Routemaster may not happen, his new transport boss admitted today.
Kulveer Ranger, Boris Johnson's director of transport policy, said that a design competition would be launched - but if no bid was good enough they would look again at the pledge. He added that although Mr Johnson is very keen to bring in a new-style bus in place of bendy buses, they would not press ahead with the idea for the sake of it.
...
But in a departure from Mr Johnson's policies, Mr Ranger said the new design would not necessarily be "hopon, hop-off" with a conductor, as on the old Routemasters.
He said: "Whether or not we have a conductor depends on the design of the bus. We want people to be creative...If we find there are initially no suitable bids we will review [the policy]."
So, to translate: There's a good chance there will be no new bus and, even if there is, it is very unlikely that it will be one that could reasonably be described as a 'Routemaster'.
It's the oldest trick in the book of representative democracy. Wait until you're elected, then tell the people who elected you that your policy is unworkable, despite the fact that you've been aware of this all along. Not a whole lot the voters can do about it now, is there?
Boris Johnson: Disingenuous cunt.
More: Boris Watch