The Clapham Omnibus is associated with rather
stuffy assumptions about what
the great unwashed public think, e.g. "So, Minister, what would
the man on the Clapham Omnibus say about the reduction in
tax on
whisky in the new
budget? Wouldn't he prefer
cheaper beer? Hmm? Hmm?"
Back in the days when the phrase was more common,
Clapham was mostly a cheap but
respectable,
ordinary place to live, full of ordinary respectable chaps who held ordinary respectable opinions. These days, however, it's full of
gastropubs and is inhabited by large numbers of people who own
labradors and call their children Henrietta.
They rarely travel by bus.
It's now used as a deliberate
archaism, or by
politicians attempting to be witty on
Radio 4.
Tragically,
London has outbreaks of
Heritage Fever and so the Number 88, an ordinary, unassuming single-decker bus, was repainted and renamed as the Clapham Omnibus some years ago.