Treasury special adviser Jim Penny is enjoying a pint with his party HQ colleague Sam

Jim: Anyone would think we’ve just discovered buses judging by all the fuss the Government’s making about how they’re the solution to poverty as we know it. I mean they’ve only been around 100 years, most of the time they’ve been late or come in twos and threes, yet suddenly there’s Boris finding £5bn under the sofa and chucking it at bus companies saying literally ‘on yer bike’ and lo and behold poverty is abolished, the ‘left-behind’ have caught up and the North/South divide is history.