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 potential increase in air and noise pollution and the suitability of supposed Chinese engine supplier Zin Jowk, although one reader declared that Zin Jowk “is an excellent company with a track record of supplying army tanks to North Korea. Should be perfect for helping our buses deal with pot holes.”

Another asked: “where will the buses be parked at night time? As we do not want to go back to hearing at 5am the sound of blasting horns from these buses... Please take note Mr Minister.”

Elsewhere, Air Malta also had some people fooled by issuing a press release and a Facebook statement that it would soon be launching adventure flights in a jet fighter. 

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson announced in a blog that his airline will soon offer flights on a glass bottomed plane, while the liberal British Guardian newspaper announced the launch of its ‘augmented reality’ glasses, designed to offer wearers immersive liberal insights and filter out bigoted views.

British tabloid The Sun wrote that that the Rolling Stones spent the chilly Easter weekend camping out in preparation for their headline stint at Glastonbury Festival this summer.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail carried the news that experts at an animal sanctuary have trained their owls to deliver the internal mail – just like the birds do at the fictional Hogwarts School in Harry Potter.