Mexico’s leftist president-elect has announced that he is looking for a buyer for the presidential plane – a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner – that his predecessor acquired two years ago for £302m. “It’s not just an efficient, modern plane – it’s a comfy plane, with a bedroom, a restaurant, with lots of space,” said Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The 65-year-old, who is due to be sworn in on 1 December, was elected by a landslide in July on a social justice platform. One of his campaign pledges was that he’d sell the plane and travel on commercial airlines. In September, he spent four hours waiting for a one-hour flight that had been delayed by weather. “I’m not going to change my mind because of this,” he said at the time. “I’d die of shame to use such a luxurious plane in a country with so much poverty.” (The Week. 17 Nov 2018)

I assume, like me, you must be exasperated with all the bad news – the self-adulation, the financial greed, the pandering to big companies….and so on. Nice to hear about a politician who (a) wants to save ordinary taxpayers money, (b) wants to fulfill a promise, and (c) is not personally on the make.