What to make of yesterday’s story that Boris Johnson is re-organising his team of appointed advisors to ensure the wider public know they’re not actually running anything?
The decision certainly brings some of that transparency Boris keeps promising to introduce to the GLA, but it’s 14 months too late and only clears up some of confusion he helped cause in the first place.
Johnson says the decision to call his advisors exactly that rather than directors “will eliminate the potential for confusion among external audiences who would generally expect a director to have line management responsibilities”.
Not much to argue with there but it’s a shame Boris seems unwilling to extended that logic to the two remaining so-called ‘deputy mayors’.
Sir Simon Milton is to become Chief of Staff, Kit Malthouse is the Deputy Chair of the MPA, both job titles convey the undoubted importance of the post holder, their seniority and the Mayor’s regard for their skills so why persist with the now discredited deputy titles?
Is Boris really just too afraid to own up to an idea that didn’t work out? No politician likes to admit they got something wrong, but a Mayor who came to office promising openness and transparency shouldn’t fear admitting when things don’t work out the way they hoped.
To persist in doing otherwise in the face of obvious evidence would be to exhibit the sort of propaganda one might find in Pyongyang.
Leo says
July 6, 2009 at 2:27 pmIs Boris Johnson’s Zip or Key words : Transparency and Accountability code for Delirious and Deluded ? Maybe it’s the other way around , please someone enlighten me ? To me it is possible that those in City Hall have realised that The Mayor’s complete failure would also be a very bad reflection on them also , with unfore seen knock on effects , so it is possible that they have all come to a sensible arrangment to prevent a public outcry that would put the entire GLA in the spotlight with far reaching consequences that would harm them all . Let’s face it , how the hell does Boris Johnson get away with this level of incompetence ? Are people in City Hall not asking the right questions , if not , Why ? If Boris Johnson held any type of job elsewhere he would have been sacked or forced to hand in a resignation by now , that is for sure. There are many unanswered question’s thats for sure , but why are people also not asking The Right Question’s ?????????.
TawkinSenz says
July 7, 2009 at 3:50 pmThe ‘joke’ is long over now.
It was funny watching Boris be a bufoon for the first 6 months or so, but now it’s serious.
London is going to be hit hard in this recession as the bulk of the financial jobs are lost here and we need a clear and competent leader – not someone who simply brings in people to speak and do for him.
Nobody ever really asked why Boris never made it off the back benches did they? It seems the people of London may have been fooled, but the Conservative party certainly weren’t.