Boris Johnson promised us Routemasters. And that’s what we thought we would get. (At least, that’s what most people thought he was saying. But now he’s saying no, he didn’t, he said different buses from the Bendybus.  Hmmm.)

No, what we’ll get is new Routemasters.

The Mayor has announced two competitions for designing the new Routemaster – one for amateurs (‘imagine’), and one for professional design firms (‘design’).  The amateur competition is just a bit of fluff really – prizes are up to £1,000, but they’re being awardedfor ‘fun’ and ‘creativity’.

But the professional competition might come up with a design for ‘a new bus for London’.

Hm. That’s an interesting phrase, because it doesn’t actually contain the word ‘Routemaster’. Which was, after all, one of the main planks of Boris’s election campaign.

Blogger Torytroll has spotted this, too, and comes up with a hard-hitting conclusion.

Never mind. While we may not get our much loved RMs back, the competition should provide us with some amusement.

 Photo credit:Uli Harder on flickr

Post from: The London Traveler