YOU know the story of the Emperor's New Clothes?
It looks like Boris Johnson has been weaving a pretty canny web of bluster, nonsense and – some would suggest – bare-faced lies in recent years.
In 2011, Boris said we'd get a Croydon to Crystal Palace tram extension.
In 2012, he said the same thing – posing with thumbs-up in front of a tram with the words 'CRYSTAL PALACE' on it, in case you didn't quite get the message.
Later that year, lo and behold, the much-hyped Tramlink failed to appear on the mayor's transport plan for the next decade.
But fear not – in March this year, the bluffing bouffant strode back into Croydon and announced a Crystal Palace tram extension was back on the agenda – though we might have to wait until 2020 for it to materialise.
Now, it seems Boris has gone off the idea again – he's led us all down the Piccadilly Line, but set off down the Bakerloo instead.
Literally, in this case, as a seemingly ambitious/unlikely aim to extend the Bakerloo Line has suddenly been thrust ahead of any tram extension.
Does Crystal Palace need a tram? It could be argued there are more benefits in extending the link to, say, South Croydon or Sutton.
But this isn't the point. It isn't that Boris Johnson has said no to a Crystal Palace extension, rather he's flip flopped his way from one position to another and, frankly, misled the people of Croydon.
He blusters in, flicks his blonde locks and honeytraps us all like lovesick teenagers: "Boris is going to give us a tram extension, isn't he great?"
In reality, we've all just been suckered in and taken for a ride. Perhaps we were the silly ones for taking his claims and photocalls at face value.
As we said at the outset, it's The Emperor's New Clothes – and we've been left as the poor peasants.
