So, it wasn't just a lame stunt, then?

You might have thought that, like his appearance at Pride, Boris Johnson's decision to embrace Lily Allen was more about photo opportunities trying to reposition him as being intouch and modern than a serious attempt to do something about knife crime. But, oh no, it really is a genuine initiative:

Speaking about the meeting, Johnson told BBC 6music: "I welcome any constructive suggestions on combating knife crime and Lily Allen has already proved her commitment to help address this problem.

"I welcome her proposals and am keen to explore further how she can help us address this serious and distressing problem.

"There is nothing romantic or glamorous about knife crime and I'm delighted Lily will be using her considerable profile and fan base to spread that message."

Getting Lily Allen fans to tell people that there's nothing glamorous about having your face carved off with a Kitchen Devil. Yes, that's genius, that is. Presumably iTunes will, in future, feature a tick box for you to affirm you don't like knives before you can download a track from Alright Still The Only Record She's Made.

Having a meeting with a popstar and coming away convinced that, hey, if only we could tell the kids that knives are bad, it'll make a difference. Is that really the best they can do?

Mind you: even as they were meeting, the crime figures were released showing a 22% drop in violent crime. And that was just on the strength of Allen posting a message on her MySpace.