If there’s a single word I’m expecting to sum up Boris Johnson’s Mayoralty, it’s ‘incoherence’. The man himself is frequently described even by close allies in terms that leave no doubt that they consider him highly intelligent but mentally undisciplined, and it would be surprising if this overactive underachiever didn’t bring those qualities to City Hall. Here’s the first evidence that this may well be something to watch out for [via Mayorwatch]:
This morning the Mayor’s press office announced that: ‘The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has today announced the appointment of Ray Lewis as Deputy Mayor for Young People.’
Now I’m an awkward sort of a chap and I have an issue with the use of the term ‘Deputy Mayor’ because the role of the Deputy Mayor is a constitutional one set out in the 1999 Greater London Authority Act.
The acts allows for “a” Deputy Mayor who “shall be appointed by the Mayor from among the Assembly members” and so Mr Lewis doesn’t fulfill the legal requirements under the 1999 to be called the Deputy Mayor.
Now, this may not seem much, clearly Boris (or his team) is pushing a line that it’s OK, don’t worry, our chap isn’t going to govern alone, he’s going to have a Lean Mean Team of professionals behind him. Fine, but you can’t actually call them ‘Deputy Mayor’ any more than I can call my cat ‘His Royal Highness The Prince William’ and expect to have him accepted as second in line to the throne. Otherwise we may end up multiplying Deputy Mayors until we have to appoint a Deputy Mayor For Deputy Mayors. On which note, how’s that cost-cutting going, by the way, Boris? You know, the elimination of waste and jobs for the boys?
Tags: 5 Comments
5 responses so far ↓
Has Boris assumed that he can appoint a Deputy Mayor for each age group? Can we, for example, expect a Deputy Mayor for toddlers and a Deputy Mayor for pensioners?
Interesting list of names on the board of the ‘Eastside Academy’
Steven Norris and Francis Maude. Also noticed one of their philosophies with interest
Respect for others, particularly elders, does not need to be earned
I assume that especially true if you went to a public school, Eton maybe.
I wonder whether the young Boris Johnson was respectful to his elders whether they’d earned it or not? Particularly if they, say, ran restaurants in Oxford when the Bullingdon were dining?
now Tom you know the answer to that.
Isn’t one of things that Eton teaches its ‘boys’ how to deal with adults at their level.
Not sure respect even comes into it. Just looking down on everyone else
[...] was in Boris’s puppeteers’ minds when they decided he should give most of his advisers the confusing and misleading titles of “Deputy Mayor for…”, I’d be willing to bet that in the face of the reporting of [...]