Hair splitting or untruths
It hasn’t been a very good week for the Lord Mayor of London.
Boris Johnson now says he was "misled" by his deputy, who resigned yesterday.
Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People, resigned after claims of dodgy financial dealings and inappropriate behaviour during his time as a vicar in east London in the late 1990s and head of a youth academy scheme in 2003.
Boris Johnson’s confidence is now “shaken" as he says he was led to believe that Mr Lewis was a magistrate when in fact he has only “ passed all the interviews for it… had a letter confirming that I have been recommended for appointment to the board.” (Mr Lewis words) He suggests that this is only relevant if you are a fully paid up member of the “hair-splitters convention”.
Maybe, but one person’s hair splitting is another person’s blatant untruth.
And Johnson’s words today - “He (Lewis) has a God given power to divert youth from the consequences of guns and knives” – are slightly worrying to say the least. “God given power” ? Are we soon to be expected to worship at the knees of these politicians who so easily fall from grace and show themselves to be less righteous than the majority of us?
Of course members of the Labour Party have immediately attacked the mayor's administration and the Conservative leader David Cameron. Hazel Blears says that after just two months, the “new administration in London is in complete disarray.”
Clearly this is so. 2 resignations in 2 months is not a good track record for any group or party.
But the most worrying aspect, I feel, is that Lewis hopes to support Boris Johnson in an “unofficial capacity”. In what capacity and how “unofficial”?
This is something that the public need to know, surely. Openness and transparency can only be effective when all the facts are known and these facts are shown to be true by independent means.
Boris Johnson now says he was "misled" by his deputy, who resigned yesterday.
Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People, resigned after claims of dodgy financial dealings and inappropriate behaviour during his time as a vicar in east London in the late 1990s and head of a youth academy scheme in 2003.
Boris Johnson’s confidence is now “shaken" as he says he was led to believe that Mr Lewis was a magistrate when in fact he has only “ passed all the interviews for it… had a letter confirming that I have been recommended for appointment to the board.” (Mr Lewis words) He suggests that this is only relevant if you are a fully paid up member of the “hair-splitters convention”.
Maybe, but one person’s hair splitting is another person’s blatant untruth.
And Johnson’s words today - “He (Lewis) has a God given power to divert youth from the consequences of guns and knives” – are slightly worrying to say the least. “God given power” ? Are we soon to be expected to worship at the knees of these politicians who so easily fall from grace and show themselves to be less righteous than the majority of us?
Of course members of the Labour Party have immediately attacked the mayor's administration and the Conservative leader David Cameron. Hazel Blears says that after just two months, the “new administration in London is in complete disarray.”
Clearly this is so. 2 resignations in 2 months is not a good track record for any group or party.
But the most worrying aspect, I feel, is that Lewis hopes to support Boris Johnson in an “unofficial capacity”. In what capacity and how “unofficial”?
This is something that the public need to know, surely. Openness and transparency can only be effective when all the facts are known and these facts are shown to be true by independent means.
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