BORIS LOSES ANOTHER APPOINTMENT IN CLOUD OF SLEAZE
Boris loses another appointment under cloud of sleaze
The deputy chair of London’s fire authority (LFEPA) yesterday become the fifth Boris Johnson appointment to leave City Hall in shame. Bertha Jospeh was forced to quit after spending almost £1,000 of cash donations for children’s charities on ball gowns for herself. She was suspended from Brent council for six months last October for bringing her office into disrepute but Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to remove her from the fire authority.
Boris Johnson approved the promotion of Bertha Joseph to deputy chair of LFEPA despite her having been found guilty by the standards board. The deputy chair receives £19,705 a year in allowances.
Councillor Joseph lost her appeal on 9 February. The judge who heard her case said her actions could have deprived two charities of income. The charities involved are the Down’s Syndrome Association and Starlight, who work with seriously and terminally ill children. The police are reportedly investigating whether her actions broke the law.
Len Duvall, Labour’s leader on the London Assembly, said: “You have to question the integrity and judgement of this mayor standing by someone who has been disgraced and banned from public office. It’s not the first time one of the mayor’s appointments has had to leave under a sleazy cloud but he could have done the right thing a lot sooner. This is someone who spent money intended for children’s charities on clothes for herself. I’m amazed it took so long for the mayor to decide she was unfit for office.”
Boris and his appointments
Jun 2008 - James McGrath – forced to resign after saying African-Caribbean Londoners could “go home” if they didn’t like Boris Johnson
Jul 2008 - Ray Lewis – forced to quit amid allegations about previous roles and lying about being a magistrate
Dec 2008 - David Ross – forced to resign over issues relating to FSA regulations
Jun 2009 - Ian Clement – sacked after lying about using a GLA credit card to pay for meals with his lover, groceries and repairs to his Jaguar. Convicted of fraud.
Andy, surely worth updating this story to say her resignation came only hours (or was it minutes!?) after she voted through spending cuts to fire services at the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).
Read Len Mulholland in the Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/19/boris-johnson-bertha-joseph-london.
No doubt Adam Bienkov’s blog has covered it too.
Comment by Ben — 19 March, 2010 @ 11:31 am
Boris gets rid of them ASAP and the whole thing is immediately forgotten by that section of Londoners who actually matter, the electorate. If Livingstone had done the same thing with Jasper he might have just survived but instead he claimed that it was all a racist conspiracy and didn’t get Jasper to resign until it was too late. While we are on the subject Lee, can you tell us where the three and a half million quid that disappeared went to?
Comment by terry fitz — 19 March, 2010 @ 11:37 am
In view of the fact that Bertha Joseph is black, shouldn’t Socialist Unity, rather than celebrating her resignation, be running a piece on how she was hounded out because of a witchhunt against black people?
After all, that is about the strength of your logic regarding the resignation of Lutfar Ali. According to that ‘logic’, it would appear you have some kind of racist agenda regarding Bertha Joseph.
Tut, tut. Your attempts to divide the white people and black people of London, and to create divisions within the black community, will not be allowed to succeed, etc etc…
So yes, great juxtaposition of articles, Andy and Co. Will you be shooting yourself in your other foot too?
I would swear you are some kind of right wing plant working to discredit a section of the left by making it look clueless, cynical and dishonest.
Comment by Anonymous — 19 March, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
boris and his admin are a mess- corruption and incompetence surround the sackings and resignations-bring back ken for his clean, principled, progressive and effective administration-delivering for londoners-not just a few cronies and a mayor who defends the city, the four by four, and his newspaper column
Comment by titch mitch — 20 March, 2010 @ 7:11 am
Looks like I was deleted for taking the piss out of the “Dear Leader” Andy E Neuman.
Comment by terry fitz — 20 March, 2010 @ 7:18 am
et tu Brute?
Comment by Michael Rosen — 20 March, 2010 @ 7:31 am
#6 Que?
Comment by terry fitz — 20 March, 2010 @ 8:46 am