And no, it’s not Ray Lewis. It’s our old hate object, Andrew Gilligan:

“The reason I fell out with Ken Livingstone wasn’t his cronyism, waste, or arrogance. The reason I, and I think many other Londoners, parted company with Ken was that he got rid of the Routemaster.”

He hasn’t at all referred to Routemasters as a “wedge issue” with which to batter Ken. No, it’s genuine now, apparently. And always was, oh yes…

Something has happened to the Torygraph. It should be a comforting bastion of reactionary idiocy; a pompous rag to lampoon mercilessly. And yet - note the author of this.

Not a Thatcherite.

I trust it’s a momentary lapse. Else, the world will be set out of kilter and the seas shall rise and Labour will win a 4th term…

BoJo no longer needs to worry if Ray Lewis lied yesterday - as he did. He’s not a JP, and he overhyped his CV during recruitment. The result; his resignation, and embarrassment for Boris, and the wider Cameron Project which trusted him.

A couple of predictions, though: should the enquiry exonerate Lewis, he’ll be back. The Tories have invested far too much in his ideas, and his methods, to let such a prime exponent go to waste. And if it finds him guilty and it goes to the police? BoJo can now come out and say that this can’t be his fault, as Lewis admits he lied on his CV - so he couldn’t have known. That’s the tone set by his new statement:

When pressed with a string of unsubstantiated allegations my instinct was to fight and fight hard for Ray. I still hope that he can clear his name. I cannot deny however that my confidence in Ray was shaken by the discovery today that he is not a fully fledged Justice of the Peace and I cannot deny that to be misled on this issue made it harder for me to give Ray the backing necessary to continue in his role as Deputy Mayor.

Dissect that sentence by sentence. You should get;

1. He’s on my side, it’s not my fault I defended him.
2. I still hope he can clear his name, because I want to employ him - and will do if he does.
3. But if he doesn’t, well, I’m shocked, just shocked. Meaning it’s not my fault and please don’t report this too badly.

Notice the, “it’s not my fault,” theme. Or, rather, the damage limitation theme; Boris talked Lewis up to the point that this now becomes embarrassing, so is talking him down just as fast in the hope it all stops. A tactic to expect in the future with other heavily-hyped but unfeasible projects?

After all, there’s the statue of Keith Park, and a no-strike deal with the RMT, and neo-routemasters before 2012…

I’m not one for crowing, and regular readers will know that I have been ready to defend Boris Johnson at times.  But today, it is clear that Johnson’s political nous is vacant.

He talked up Lewis - a “deputy mayor”, no less, despite the agreed definition of the title.  He leaped to his defence at the first sight of trouble.  Now the headlines read “Deputy Mayor resigns” and “Right-Hand man lied”.  Johnson’s judgement was flawed.

For the first time, Johnson can justly be criticised by his many opponants for active stupidity.  Ignorance has been the order of the day so far: now Johnson has bound himself strongly to a marked man.  Lewis’ resignation ruins his own reputation beyond repair, but also leaves Johnson somewhat tarnished.

On this issue, Johnson deserves all the criticism he gets.

- - -
Should it be significant, although I strongly hope it will not, it is worth noting Alan Sugar’s position.  If he does dare to stand in 2012, he cannot use Lewis against Johnson - he hired his apprentice knowing that he had lied on his CV!  The difference, of course, is that Lee McQueen had not been punished by the Church and questioned by police on several occasions for separate incidents.  And he lied about a degree, not, ironically, about being a Magistrate.