Sympathy for Boris?........................................nah!

Updated

It seems hard to believe, but yesterday I swallowed two bits of Conservative spin, hook, line and sinker.


The Tory spin was delivered by one Boris Johnson about Ray Lewis:

These allegations did not stop him from becoming a JP. They did not stop him from becoming an outstanding and respected prison governor.

It turns out that Ray Lewis is not and never has been a Justice of the Peace. He was recommended as a Justice of Peace. Ah. In his statement yesterday, Lewis said that those who drew a distinction, between being a JP and being recommended to be one, were members of the "hair-splitting convention". That's obviously not justified. In his statement the previous day Lewis actually said: "I have never knowingly done anything that would be inconsistent with my position as a Justice of the Peace." It really is remarkable bluster to accuse of hair-splitting people who point out the fundamental difference between "my position as a Justice of the Peace" and "my position as someone who has been recommended to be a Justice of the Peace".

Secondly, Lewis was not a "prison governor" as Johnson stated. It turns out that he was a warder of sufficient seniority to be on the same grade as some prison governors.

Linda Jack has written well about this. I don't agree that Boris deserves sympathy here, though. Lewis certainly deserves sympathy. He carried out a "misdemeanour" many years ago but he has worked hard to do his bit for the community. His life and that of his family is now, if not in ruins, near to it. And all because of a stupid mistake by Johnson. Johnson over-promoted him. If Boris had stuck to the constitution of the Greater London Authority and selected one deputy mayor from the assembly, they (Johnson and Lewis) would not be up to his neck in this mire. Boris could have simply appointed Lewis as head of a working party or as an informal ambassador or as an adviser. Such a lowish profile would not have attracted all this furore.

Some say Johnson meant well and deserves sympathy. Come off it, Johnson is intelligent enough to know he wasn't taking on a job as parish clerk for Stackton Trestle. He was egotistical enough to put himself up for the job as Mayor of London. And now it is blindingly obvious that he doesn't even understand basic recruitment practices - a fundamental skill for any manager of a large organisation.

Let's not forget that it was the Conservative party as a whole, led by Cameron and Duncan-Smith, as well as Johnson, who got themselves worked up into a corporate lather about Ray Lewis. They went over-the-top and now they are, quite rightly, paying the price. I am not sure that Mr Lewis deserves to be caught up in all of this, though.

Thanks to Alex Wilcock for the info about the deputy mayor role.