Steve Norris - Legend!

I've never really heard Steve Norris speak before, and my views on him had been coloured (regrettably) by reports of serial womanising and the supposed negative implications of his job with Jarvis that was spun like crazy by Red Ken's team (which, sadly, I accepted a little too uncritically). However, on his inaugural appearance on 18 Doughty Street last night I loved him from the off... He said, quite openly, that frankly a £100,000 salary was going to leave him quite a bit short if he stood again for Mayor. You really wouldn't get that frank honesty from many Labour politicos, would you?

And on substantive issues that I care about, Norris said:-

1) He'd try to get the Routemasters back, or design new ones. I love these buses: the iconic design, the hop-on, hop-off open platform, the natural air conditioning winter and summer, the fact that they had ticket inspectors to verify and collect fares, and provide information and assistance. Truly Ken was a complete **** when he got rid of them.

2) He'd scrap the bendy buses. Hurrah! They're worse than the conditions in which cattle are transported, and they make me sick when travelling facing backwards.


3) He'd be quite happy for Britain to have an amicable split with the EU and leave on good terms...(OK, so he's not the foreign secretary, but anyone who's open about that gets a cheer from this quarter).

What a legend.

Sorry Newmania: I'll leaflet for you for the council, but this guy seems seriously good news as a prospective London Mayor...