Spoof buses story drives readers to distraction

Timesofmalta.com joined the April Fool's fun this morning by publishing a spoof article about the Labour government planning to bring back the old yellow buses. Readers reacted with a mixture of incredulity, anger, happiness and outright disbelief to the ‘news’ that the often maligned Arriva service would be replaced with the vintage buses and their famously uncouth drivers. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130401/local/old-buses-drivers-to-return.463644 By midday, when tradition dictates April Fool’s jokes are supposed to end, the story had been viewed around 40,000 times on timesofmalta.com and had attracted more than 2,000 recommendations on Facebook. Many readers were suspicious about the timing of the story but moderators waited till noon before uploading the more discerning comments so as not to spoil the joke.  By 1.30pm nearly 1,000 comments had been published. As is often the case, many comments were tinged by a political hue. Opponents of former Transport Minister Austin Gatt were eager to jump on the bandwagon and turn the screw at the news that much of the public transport reform he oversaw in 2011 would be reversed.     Other readers were concerned about a...