Comedian Eddie Izzard has said he is prepared to take the flak for wanting to pursue a career in politics.

We have learned a lot about the Mayor of London in this past week

Imagine if you got on the bus, Tube, train or tram this morning without paying. Imagine if you could travel into town, day in and day out, without ever paying a penny. From next year, this is exactly what you'll be able to do if you live in the capital of Estonia. And you won't even get arrested.

It's a tribute to Boris Johnson's rapturously received speech yesterday that, almost unnoticed, he secured a warm round of applause for Sir John Major. Certainly the last Tory PM retains a place in the public's affections, but now the premiership of the whipping boy of the Tory Eurosceptic bastards has been fully rehabilitated even in the eyes of a still Thatcherite-leaning party conference.

Winning second term as London Mayor would not preclude standing in the next general election

Alongside the council elections on Thursday, some 10 British cities will be voting on whether they want an elected mayor. It is to be hoped that they all vote "yes". At their best, mayors are not only a dynamic addition to local democracy, they are powerful figureheads for their city's identity and can help to reinvigorate slumping public interest in politics.

Inside Westminster

Few journalists mention Boris's slights against black people: all that talk of 'piccaninnies'

Prices are political. On one level this is a statement of the obvious. Of course the price of goods or services is political. Voters get worried or angry about how much things cost. Leaders who want to win elections must take note. Except that for the past three decades, the price of things is not something voters have got especially worked up about.

London's three top mayoral candidates published details of their income and tax payments yesterday but the row over their personal finances looked set to continue.

Ed Miliband has met Labour's major union donors more than 20 times since he was elected leader of the party in 2010, it was disclosed yesterday.

'It is read from the cabinet to the nursery'

The unending quest for populist, eye-catching initiatives with which Ed Miliband might be personally associated steers us into the realm of tax avoidance. Sadly this proposal would do nothing to rebuild fraternal bridges, but Little Ed is advised to announce that, as PM, he would fulfil an old Labour pledge to close a gaping loophole.