Channel 4 tries to stuff Boris

I have just been watching an attempted stitch-up of Boris Johnson by C4 Dispatches.

The reporter, previously unknown to me, was a snide cove called Antony Barnett. Never heard of him but he could sneer for England. His interviewees consisted of a variety of political has-beens and never-heard-ofs.

Boris is certainly not your average on-message politician but at least he tells it as it is, is clever, and has an original take on the problems facing our capital. So he got rid of Sir Ian Blair. Bravo. That's more than any other politician managed when it was abundantly clear Sir Ian had lost the confidence of Londoners. He wants to replace bendy-buses with new routemasters. Why not? Routemasters were an iconic symbol of London.

Boris will grow into the job just as Red Ken did. (Ken's big problem - he is a man who really cares about London - was not realising he had had his turn and no-one can go on forever).

C4 has done its reputation no good by this cheap, one-sided, apology for a programme.