December 2007 Archives

Apologies for a lack of recent comments here on this blog, especially to our keen reader(s) at the Greater London Authority / Mayor of London's office, who, seem to be keeping tabs on this blog daily, according to our web server logfiles.

The Mayor of London's publicly funded public relations department seems to have backed off, for now, from issuing more carefully selected "factual" propaganda, which usually seems to counter straw man allegations which were not actually made , or which are peripheral to the revelations published in the Evening Standard by their investigative journalist Andrew Gilligan.

They have revealed further stories, which give the impression of sleaze, corruption and incompetence by the London Development Agency, Ken Livingstone and his inner clique of politically appointed apparatchiki. e.g

.

Police called in over City Hall scandal

Andrew Gilligan
21.12.07
Police have been called in over the City Hall grants scandal amid new allegations of fraud, violence and intimidation.

A leading London MP has written to Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, urging him to order an inquiry into how a scheme run by two associates of Lee Jasper - one of Ken Livingstone's most senior advisers - spent more than £172,000 in grants.

Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey said Mr Jasper and the Mayor's London Development Agency had "serious questions" to answer over the South London Green Badge Taxi School.

[...]

The Standard has uncovered a string of allegations that LDA cash was given to associates and friends of Mr Jasper, described by the Mayor as "one of the most valuable people" at City Hall, with little or nothing to show for the £2.5 million spent.

Mr Livingstone, Mr Jasper and Mr Grey have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

The London Development Agency's press release simply oozes with Cover Your Backside weasel words.

The allegations made by journalist Andrew Gilligan of the Evening Standard on December 5th 2007 seem to have hit a nerve with Ken Livingstone and his army of taxpayer funded political spin doctors:

Ken's aide and lost millions

Andrew Gilligan
05.12.07

A senior adviser to the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, is under GLA investigation after at least £2.5 million in City Hall money was channelled to organisations controlled by himself, his friends and his business associates.

Lee Jasper, the Mayor's director of equalities and policing, is at the centre of a network of companies which have received large sums of public money from Mr Livingstone while appearing to do little or no work in return.

[...]


Andrew Gilligan's Comment is Free piece in The Guardian, also rings true:

No answers from Ken

Despite his furious attacks on the journalists investigating him, London's mayor has yet to answer key questions about the Lee Jasper affair

Andrew Gilligan
December 14, 2007 6:30 PM

[...]

If you bother to read the numerous weasel worded Official Press releases from the Mayor of London's propaganda machine, helpfully linked to in the comments by a publicly paid spin doctor pretending to be an ordinary member of the public, you would be forgiven in assuming that some Orwellian Ministry of Truth has infected the supposedly politically neutral taxpayer funded Mayor of London public relations department.

Ken Livingstone seems to have surrounded himself with a soviet style nomenklatura of patronage, at taxpayers' expense.

Is it any wonder that when clear, detailed answers to the allegations made by the Evening Standard are not immediately forthcoming, there must be the suspicion that there is some corruption and / or incompetence, which Ken and his cronies are trying to cover up ? Even Labour supporters of Livingstone are calling for such answers, without success.

For someone as litigious and as eager to hand over our taxpayers' money to expensive lawyers as Ken Livingstone, it is very noticeable that he is not daring to attempt to sue the Evening Standard in court over these allegations.

There must be far more transparency and independent public scrutiny of the projects funded by the London Development Agency. If this cannot be achieved, then the LDA should be disbanded and the officials and politicians responsible should be sacked and prosecuted if necessary.

Surely Londoners cannot be so stupid as to re-elect this increasingly out of touch, egotistic and authoritarian Labour politician and incompetent administrator, for another term as Mayor of London ?

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Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
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NO2ID - opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
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