The Henley MP is trying to rectify that. In addition to his Back Boris website, and promise to resurrect the Routemaster, Boris is now bringing out the big guns, with a vow to scrap the western congestion charge zone.

Less than a year old, the extension covers most of Kensington and Westminster - areas you might think home to people who could reasonably afford the £8. Yet a vote-sniffing Johnson has clearly gambled that the gross unpopularity of the zone could endear him to the Mahiki and yummy-mummy crowd.

In an interview with BBC London, Boris deployed facts like a chess grandmaster on an aggressive gambit, describing the charge as "punitive" and claiming it had delivered a 15% increase in traffic. He talked of plans to reduce the fine to around £40, and allow drivers five days to pay the fare.

Boris also outlined a few other tidbits, tubthumping about his ace-in-the-hole, namely the retirement of the bendy bus, and a novel plan to issue police with "hand-held scanners" to detect knives and other offensive weapons, thus sparing the inconvenience of a strip-search. He didn't suggest whether this is a feasible technology or a flashback from a half-remembered episode of Blake's Seven, but still, it's the idea that counts.

Camera cluster pic from jeroen020's Flickrstream