That didn’t take long. Those Londoners who taught electing Boris over Ken might be a hilarious jape got a wakeup call today, when he announced he’s scrapping the deal between Venezuela and London, where Venezuela’s state oil company delivered oil in return for city planning advice from London, a deal that meant London’s poorest people travelled for half price on public transport. Boris doesn’t want to do business with a “third rate dictator“, you see. He also suddenly developed a conscience about how “the bus operation of one of the world’s financial powerhouses being funded by the people of a country where many people live in extreme poverty”.
A bit rich coming from a Tory, especially one as high profile as Boris, who for all his clowning on tv is also one of the nastier examples of his ilk. He can dress it up in moral platitudes as much as he wants, but this is a nasty trick to play on London’s poorest and Venezuela alike, both of which profited from the deal Livingstone made with Hugo Chavez. It’s no coincidence this policy change was released on a bank holiday weekend.