Well that was money well spent - didn't anyone think of AI?

[Greenmantle]

https://order-order.com/2026/09/15/exc-burnham-cha...

[Earthdweller]

£73k to wrap a bus so Burnham could stand in front of it for two minutes and have his photo taken

I should at this point insert a long list of expletives !!

I'll say that again seventy three thousand pounds

FFS

[Patio]

Someone will be along shortly to call it nothing more than a rounding error/tiny percentile of the budget so doesn't matter

73 fkING GRAND!!!!

[IJWS15]

Labour - what do you expect!

[Furbo]

Greenmantle said:

https://order-order.com/2026/09/15/exc-burnham-cha...

Liked this comment:


"The wheels on the bus come off and off,

Off and off, off and off,

The wheels on the bus come off and off,

All. Day. Long."

[oyster]

Is there a going rate to compare this to?

[Furbo]

oyster said:

Is there a going rate to compare this to?

I feel sure that somewhere there MUST be published figures for what it costs to hire a bus and have it wrapped.

[butchstewie]

oyster said:

Is there a going rate to compare this to?

That was my question.

I really can't imagine that if a private company wanted to do that that would be the cost.

[RichFN2]

That's insane! Even the most expensive luxury double decker coaches are no more than £1800 a day to hire, with a potential 15% added on to cover the driver the fuel costs.

How they got to £20k for coach hire and £4500 in additional costs for fuel etc is beyond me, and then we have the £48k wrap.

Would he nice to see an itemised invoice for all this, and details of the companies involved. The cynical part of me suspects the companies involved would have personal connections to several politicians within the Labour party.

[Sporky]

To be fair it's not like they set fire to the money. It went to one or more companies who paid suppliers and employees and so on.

[Slow.Patrol]

Struth.

Someone using AI could have mocked that up in a few minutes for £250.

We are being led by donkeys.

[andy43]

Furbo said:

oyster said:

Is there a going rate to compare this to?

I feel sure that somewhere there MUST be published figures for what it costs to hire a bus and have it wrapped.

https://www.monsteroutdoor.co/blog/bus-advertising...
13 grand here to wrap a double decker, plus design work, plus bus rental.
Total waste of tax payers money.

[Leon R]

10 years ago to put a full Cadbury livery on a challenger 604 aircraft it cost 10k.

I would expect a bare metal respray of the bus to cost quite a bit less than 70k.

[Countdown]

For that price they would have been required to carry out a full tender exercise. It would be interesting to see if someone FOIs it

[JoshSm]

Someone has really taken the piss with every part of that bill. Smells fraudy.

[55palfers]

https://www.expeditional.co.uk/how-much-does-a-bus...

Andy wuz rooked.

[Mr Penguin]

Slow.Patrol said:

Struth.

Someone using AI could have mocked that up in a few minutes for £250.

We are being led by donkeys.

Who have been suspiciously quiet for the last couple of years.

[Gareth79]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbIyghITU6P/

"Andy Burnham’s £2 Bus Fare Cap Announced With Quick Fire Activation. The policy announcement was activated through partners WPP 650, JCDecaux, Ambient Media, and First Bus."

Basically they weren't going for the cost-effective options...

This page suggests a full bus wrap is 35-40 man-hours of labour, taking 2-3 days for a team (how that adds up to £10k+ in labour charges, who knows....) https://www.leewhite.co.uk/bus-wraps/

So 10 days hire tops, £2k/day from a company with thousands of buses and presumably plenty of spares...

[RichFN2]

Gareth79 said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbIyghITU6P/

"Andy Burnham s £2 Bus Fare Cap Announced With Quick Fire Activation. The policy announcement was activated through partners WPP 650, JCDecaux, Ambient Media, and First Bus."

Basically they weren't going for the cost-effective options...

This page suggests a full bus wrap is 35-40 man-hours of labour, taking 2-3 days for a team (how that adds up to £10k+ in labour charges, who knows....) https://www.leewhite.co.uk/bus-wraps/

So 10 days hire tops, £2k/day from a company with thousands of buses and presumably plenty of spares...

So an outdoor advertising company, an 'out of home' advertising company, a transport company and a media agency unit within WPP created to handle the UK government's £1.5bn public sector communications and media buying account.

Looks like WPP 650 subcontracted this out to the most expensive companies they could find, no doubt with various departments involved in the process all adding their markup to the final cost.

[hidetheelephants]

NP&E will be wall to wall bks if you make a new thread every time Paul Staines vomits an article into existence; isn't one thread for whining about Burnham enough?