Boris Watch

Cast your eyes over Boris’ statement on Lewis:
I believe that my deputy Mayor Ray Lewis is being made to suffer now because he has had the guts to serve in this administration and because he has had the courage to speak out against a stifling orthodoxy that has failed too many of our children. These [...]

A screenshot doesn’t do justice to the frustrated, bemused faces Boris was pulling at the press conference when stood next to Ray Lewis, so I’ve cropped a closer-up video clip out of the BBC London footage and uploaded it to YouTube.
The short clip shows Ray denying all knowledge of the things he is being questioned [...]

Whatever 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 today’s allegations against Ray Lewis, they’re having their doubts about the wisdom of their decision.
When announcing the [...]

A press release from the GLA confirms that Boris is supporting Ray Lewis against today’s accusations. Titled Boris Johnson and Ray Lewis confront malicious allegations’ the piece repeats Boris’s press statement.
‘I believe that my deputy Mayor Ray Lewis is being made to suffer now because he has had the guts to serve in this [...]

Having suspected from Dave Hill’s earlier post that this afternoon’s press conference was forced on Boris and Ray rather than being some interesting announcement, I kept an eye out and found this on the BBC:
Ray Lewis, a key aide to London Mayor Boris Johnson, was barred from working in the Church of England after allegations [...]

Boris’s Deputy Mayor for Young People, Ray Lewis is to be investigated after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him, reports the Guardian. Lewis denies any misconduct and Boris is defending his decision to appoint him.
Update: had to happen eventually on a multi-author, one-subject site I suppose: Tom’s interesting post appeared just five seconds [...]

For completeness’ sake, the last part of this week’s If… strip from the Guardian.
By the way, I’m posting this after the Ray Lewis stuff broke but tricking the blog into putting it earlier, so don’t think you’ve gone mad and not noticed this post being here before this evening: it wasn’t.

© Steve Bell 2008
While that’s [...]

While views have been flying back and forth regarding the validity of James Mcgrath’s sacking, the ex-aide has been quietly consulting his lawyers. Pandora at the Independent reports that letters have been sent to the BBC, demanding an apology after their misquoting.
Originally the BBC quoted McGrath as saying to Marc Wordsworth that “black people who [...]