Boris' new recruits
Fraser Nelson 12:46pm
The latest hire for Boris is Patience Wheatcroft, former Sunday Telegraph editor. She will lead a “forensic audit panel” into exactly what Mayor Ken got up to. The rest of the board are good people: Stephen Greenhalgh, leader of low-taxing Hammersmith Council, who will have a fair idea of where bodies are buried, and ditto Edward Lister, Leader of Wandsworth Council.
It may sound daft having a journalist lead this, but Wheatcroft’s appointment makes more sense than first meets the eye. I used to work for her when she was Business Editor at The Times and she specialised in taking company accounts to pieces. She had a rare gift for finding the story buried in the footnotes.
When Boris was sworn in, he made a crack about “shredding machines quietly puffing and panting away” in City Hall. But as his detractors will rapidly come to realise in the coming few months, this was no joke.
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Comments
Perry
May 8th, 2008 12:55pmVery glad PW is in + other people to sniff out the ordure.
Anatomical, nay, even forensic, dissection is much to be desired.
[And may I recommend similar steps when / if Noo-Lie-Bore is ever deposed?]
Faceless Bureaucrat
May 8th, 2008 1:47pmGreat News - PW is a class act!!
Max Kaye
May 8th, 2008 2:16pmPatience Wheatcroft is quality. Boris is making good staffing decisions - always the sign of a good general.
THX1138
May 8th, 2008 2:45pmAn the next mayor will be looking for Boris's skeletons & so we go on. Why don't politicians get on with the job instead of blaming the previous incumbents for all the problem's in the world. Just get on with it. Who cares ?
osborne
May 8th, 2008 3:45pmTHX1138 - Increasingly large numbers of people care. Why? Because it's not their money that the politicians waste or, perhaps, misappropriate. It's OUR tax pounds which WE earn and pay over to them to use on trust for 'the public benefit'.
Perry
May 8th, 2008 4:07pm[OT]
Naturally, there would be no link between the latest decision of the ‘Home Secretary’ (sic) to clamp down on yobs, and Boris’ proposals for London?
Pure coincidence . . . . .
Or does the man exert influence over the river, yea, even into the portals of power?
Jessica
May 8th, 2008 5:40pmGO BOJO GO. Bojo is the best thing to happen to London in at least a decade.
THX1138
May 8th, 2008 5:56pmJessica- How do you know? I don't want to be a party popper but isn't it a bit early to tell?
Andrew Paterson
May 8th, 2008 8:43pmFraser, perhaps you could mention someone digging into TFL's somewhat insane traffic-light / filling in bus stop laybys policy? Ever increasing numbers of traffic lights, seemingly phased to stop traffic for as long as possible are one of the transport blights of London.
ACT
May 9th, 2008 9:31amSo let's get this straight: the new era of cleanliness, honesty and political integrity kicks off with an audit committee entirely composed of partisan hacks, rather than anyone actually professional, let alone independent? Not one of the three people you name is a forensic accountant. And Patience, for one, will be completely out of water when it comes to dealing with public sector finances, as compared to reading corporate press releases. A very shoddy start. Indeed, a gimmick at best, a disaster in the making at worst - as anyone traduced by this patently rigged and inexpert committee will, however 'guilty' they in fact are', have easy recourse to the law.
TGF UKIP
May 9th, 2008 10:15pmACT - dead right. Tory hacks and pols will have no public credibility. KPMG or the real deal PW would.
Nicholas
May 10th, 2008 9:57amOT but what terrible looking offices in that place. Looks like they are sitting inside a Thames river launch. Dingy too. Ghastly.
red richard
May 13th, 2008 7:53amCome on. This is just a headline grabbing distraction from a lack of substance.
The reality is that the election result was:-
Eton/Bullingdon wealth & priviledge one V people nil and we have two years to ensure it does not become three : nil.
Yes this is class, but wake up class is about the distribution of wealth, income and power.