Fourth plinth gets a vending machine

Arts News: As part of the restructuring of Britain’s arts funding, and to provide an additional revenue stream for next year’s Olympics, the government unveiled a coffee and snacks machine on the fourth plinth yesterday that will stay there “for the forseeable future”.

The machine, which will be accessible by rope ladder, will dispense hot and cold beverages, chocolate bars and other snacks round the clock to anyone brave enough to climb up and get them. Stopping on the plinth to sit and enjoy the view would be prohibited however, and subject to an on-the-spot £100 fine.

Tourist enthusiasm for a genuine Twix from the heart of London’s theatreland means that the machine could take several thousand pounds a day. Restocking times have been estimated at every 20 minutes.

“For all the effort involved it would probably be better to get a hot-dog stand up there,” mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone told listeners to Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, “but that would involve the coalition giving a damn about the ordinary working man, which of course they don’t. They’re only interested in handjobs. And massive buckets of pound coins.”