Friday, July 04, 2008

Four Questions on Ray Lewis

I haven't seen much media since the Ray Lewis allegations were made (I am in Cardiff) but four questions arise for me...

1. Has he already been tried by the media and been found guilty?
2. When far less serious allegations were made against James McGrath, Boris let him fall on his sword, yet in this case he has (rightly in my view) stood four square behind Ray Lewis. Is there an inconsistency?
3. Even if there is some substance to the allegation of financial impropriety (which I sincerely hope there is not) should that wipe out the superb work Ray Lewis has done at the Eastside Young Leaders Academy?
4. Has Ray Lewis done the right thing by coming out ans fighting his cause in a robust fashion?

Discuss.

56 comments:

Rachel Joyce said...

I don't know about all of these points but I agree with you on (3). His work with young people has been innovative and highly successful. We need his input and advice on how to turn the youth crime issues in London around. He has a lot to offer and I hope that he can continue to do so.

Andrew Ian Dodge said...

Last one first...he is right to come out all guns blazing against an obvious campaign by the left against him.

He has already been tried and hung by the media not for any of the allegations but because he is a black man working for a Tory mayor. Just listen to the hostility from the left wing hacks at the press conference. They could not conceal their utter bile for the man.

fairdealphil said...

1. Has he already been tried by the media and been found guilty?

Not the media, the Church of England.

Anonymous said...

He was suspended as a priest by the Anglican church for a 'serious misdemeanour' so it is likely that there is something in it.

Anonymous said...

Also:

Was the previous mayor right or wrong to stand by Lee Jasper in the face of media allegations which had not yet been investigated or proved?

How does your answer to this question compare with your answer to the question of whether Boris Johnson is right or wrong to stand by Ray Lewis in the face of media allegations which have not yet been investigated or proved?

Chris Paul said...

Just what would he be saying at this stage if Lewis or similar had been a Labour appointment? Back off and give the man a break? Doesn't quite ring true.

Unsworth said...

I understood that Boris had instituted an inquiry. Given that, he can hardly pre-empt the outcome. But I'm not too sure that he's standing four-square behind Lewis - otherwise why the inquiry? True it's a means of clearing Lewis, but his card will have been marked.

As Boris chose to appoint Lewis, without a public selection process, he'll find it very difficult to justify his choice, particularly if there is the slightest whiff of impropriety - of whatever sort. So no matter what Lewis's illustrious history may be, the only honourable thing for him to do would be to resign - unless he's entirely exonerated by the inquiry.

Lewis may have chosen to come out fighting, but essentially he's in the hands of others. That is the realpolitik. And coming out fighting can often exacerbate situations which might otherwise simply have subsided - as Livingstone learned to his cost.

AloneMan said...

"I haven't seen much media since the Ray Lewis allegations were made (I am in Cardiff)" - don't they have newspapers in Cardiff ? :-)

Anonymous said...

Two more questions:

For the BBC: when far more serious allegations, with far more evidence, came out about Lee Jaspers, why were these considered not to be newsworthy?

For Ken Livingstone: are these allegations racism too?

Anonymous said...

1. No

2. No. McGrath went because he said something which was open to misinterpretation. If Lewis is guilty of the things he is accused of, Johnson's judgement will be called into question. He has to hope he can keep him, hence the inquiry.

3. Iain, have you been smoking something? He's a deputy mayor of London, in a Tory administration run by a Mayor who made great play on his anti-corruption ticket. He has to be cleaner than clean.

4. He's got no choice. if there is substance to the allegations, he's finished as a public figure, and Boris starts looking like a right chump. As plenty of us have always thought he was, to be honest.

Imagine - if Ray Lewis was a Ken appointee, what would you be saying?

Anonymous said...

[1] Yes
[2] Yes
[3] Yes
[4] Yes

Anonymous said...

""When far less serious allegations were made against James McGrath, Boris let him fall on his sword, yet in this case he has (rightly in my view) stood four square behind Ray Lewis. Is there an inconsistency?""

'is it cuz ize black?'

(not for one moment suggesting Boris might be slightly infected by Progressive PeeCeeitis... well not much)

Anonymous said...

Do you not think Boris's appointments should be subject to the same level of media scrutiny as Ken's were?

If it's okay to investigate allegations against Lee Jasper (and it was), then surely the same applies to Ray Lewis.

As those of you on the Right are so fond of saying, if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to be afraid of.

Anonymous said...

Ray Lewis was so adamant at the press conference yesterday that nothing was true that either it is all a plot to smear him or, however minor any true allegations might be, he may have to resign for lying. It does seem highly unlikely that a bishop would be inventing smears against him.

What an amazing coincidence that the three media organisations chasing this are the BBC, the Guardian and Channel 4 News. All no doubt appalled at the sight of a black man presuming to think for himself and seeking to punish him for being uppity.

Ben Gray said...

1. Nobody quite knows what the "charges" are yet and are therefore treading lightly for fear of a lawsuit.

2. Having been the subject of numerous attempts to be branded a racist by his detractors, McGrath should have been more careful with what he said in the interview. Rather than giving a flippant remark, he should have given a serious answer. What he said left Boris open to attack at a vulnerable point. He was fired for stupidity rather than racism.

3. As far as I'm aware nobody knows quite what the allegations are, so it's too early to tell (See 1).

4. If he's innocent or things aren't what they seem then yes.

Ben Gray said...

PS on point 2: given the party's response to Nigel Hastilow and Patrick Mercer, McGrath should have known better.

Anonymous said...

Ray Lewis has admitted hes no saint,(aint too many of them these days!) whatever that means, but give the guy a chance.

Anonymous said...

Being in a major elected public office is really new ground in the last decade for the Tories.
Boris clearly had his team selected months before the vote, but how can this 'issue' have been missed?

If Ray is guilty of however trivial an issue, Boris is going to look very incompetant, exactly where the Labourite, 'we know better than you' robots want him.

I heard Ray on Five dead yesterday evening and have to say he sounded as unconvincing as the NeoLabour wretches have over the years.
So very disappointing.

Anonymous said...

Ian I live out in the sticks and thus do not get the London News.

I had seen Lee Jasper's name mentioned on a few blogs along with that of Andrew Gilligan who writes for a London newspaper but did not take much notice as this was something to do with London politics. In the early days Jasper was not reported on the BBC national news, it must have been several months before I caught up with what was happening.

Ray Lewis is already a national name thanks to the BBC's reporting of him.

Anonymous said...

I would thought the first question Boris, or appropriate team member, should have asked Ray Lewis when he was being considered for the job was: "Is there anything in your past which might cause some embarassment?"

Surely this is now the standard question for every potential holder of public office.

That it wasn't asked suggests sloppy management by Team Boris.

Or was it case that the Tories were so keen to claim a black individual as one of their own that they were prepared to not carry out this basic check.

Reading through his CV, and with the benefit of hindsight, it stands out a mile the discontinuity of him seeking a two-year posting in the Windward Islands (much too far away for the a personnel personnel officer to check).

Anonymous said...

No, no, no, yes.

Anonymous said...

I watched the interview on CH4 TV news last night. Having known nothing of the matter in hand before the interview, what I did notice was the way Lewis first said he knew nothing about this (or that) and then later on admitted that he did. This happened more than once during the interview.

Boris is right to investigate, and if the bloke is clear, then keep him on. 'No' to trial by media, but that is not an excuse for any dodgy dealers to get away with it just by being brazen.

Anonymous said...

Whatever the rights and wrongs on this one thing is for sure though. Boris must take some flak on this PR debacle. It seems that this is all a big surprise to him.

Is it really the case that just prior to appointing Lewis, Boris did not ask the simple question:

"Ray is there anything in your past, however small or unproven, that could be viewed negatively if made public?"

And if Boris did ask this type of question and Ray did not disclose these details then the action that Boris needs to take is obvious.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what process in the church found him guilty of anything and suspended him. Was he allowed to defend himself at the time?

the orange party said...

Another question.

Who leaked the allegations to the Guardian?

Unknown said...

With the church briefing off the record about alleged sexual offences in the '90s serious questions need to be asked - if there's any evidence surely they should have made it public when he was a youth worker? My reading of it is that he's made some dodgy investments a long time ago, and in no way should this be used to stop the good work he does.

Anonymous said...

"... if there is some substance to the allegation of financial impropriety ... should that wipe out the superb work Ray Lewis has done at the Eastside Young Leaders Academy?"

Yes.

Richard Edwards said...

He is entitled to the benefit of the doubt until concrete proof of wrong doing is produced. Otherwise we risk condemning a man on the basis of hearsay, lies and innuendo. With McGrath there was no debate. He said the allegedly 'offensive' remarks. It may equally be that Lewis transgressed in the past. It may be serious. We don't know. We need proper evidence. The stuff about the Church of England is small beer, as you would expect from that antediluvian shower. Personally I hope he is vindicated.

Anonymous said...

According to the Evening Standard, the Bishop of Chelmsford,who shopped Lewis to Channel 4 News, is a leftie with who is not unknown to Ken Livingstone.

Anonymous said...

It does seem highly unlikely that a bishop would be inventing smears against him.

yes, because all of them are visions of probity.


In fairness, at least the CofE has never actually issued instruction to its bishops to cover up sexual abuse, but the idea that 'a bishop said it so it must be true' is laughable.

fairdealphil said...

Breaking news:

New claims that the Rev. Lewis is NOT and has never been a magistrate, as he claimed as recently as, er, yesterday...

Oh Dear.

Anonymous said...

Zedro said...
"What an amazing coincidence that the three media organisations chasing this are the BBC, the Guardian and Channel 4 News."

So you don't read the Times, Telegraph, Mail, etc. or watch ITV, Sky, Channel 5?

Nich Starling said...

He's the same guy who on Radio Five last weeks made some comment that appeared to me to be slating all teachers. I was not impressed with him on that basis.

Anonymous said...

Ray Lewis is, allegedly, about to resign.

Ben

Anonymous said...

This is the problem with point 2 - as soon as you capitulate to the media agenda, they come back for more.

It is like the Russian mother, stuck in a Siberian winter, and the wolf comes after her. She throws her first baby to the wolf. Then she throws the second baby, hoping to appease so that at least she and the rest of the brood will be saved. To no avail, so she throws the third and fourth.

Then the fifth. And finally the sixth. Sadly none of these do the trick, and the wolf, whose palate has been tickled by these little canapes, proceeds to satiate his appetite by hoovering up the big russian mamma...

This is a lesson Tony Blair failed to learn when he promised he would not fight a fourth term. One would have hoped Boris Johnson might have learnt that one can never appease the media - they just keep coming back for more and more and more as soon as they have smelt weakness, and get the taste for blood.

Let us hope for his sake that the dominoes don't start to topple.

Anonymous said...

HE HAS RESIGNED !!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yet again Dale show's impeccable judgment. Back Lewis to the hilt Boris. Until, um, he resigns and is smoked out as a liar.
Hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Do you read the Telegraph?

Anonymous said...

So, now Ray Lewis has resigned on the flimsy grounds of not wanting this "hanging over Boris' head."

So much for "fighting his cause in a robust fashion."

Does this mean the inquiry gets cancelled?

Anonymous said...

With the resignation and further detail emerging about this mans past, the question arises, are we dealing with a bullshit merchant and has Boris Johnson exhibited another severe error of judgment?

Anonymous said...

Blimey, bit slow there mate.

Round 1 white guy makes rude remark about blacks

Round 2 white media make rude remarks about black guy

Boris' actions were utterly predictable - and I think they were right, he has a mega problem with the ethnics in London being white tory toff

Anonymous said...

Leave it to the Evening Standard
they tell Londoners what to think
not political parties

Anonymous said...

ooooohhhhhh

liar liar pants on fire....


Ray Lewis used a City Hall press conference to claim he was a justice of the peace as he sought to defend himself against sleaze accusations.

Today, however, the Ministry of Justice insisted he had not been appointed as a magistrate.

Anonymous said...

BBC News have got this all wrong.

In principle the appointment of Ray Lewis was an imaginative initiative which might have saved lives.

Certainly, no lives will be saved by his resignation.

If he has been corrupt or mis-behaved then he his rightly history, but even if guilty, it is no embarrassment to Boris.

Most people will say his apointment was a good idea, better than some politically correct Tsar or time-served do-gooder.

Rather a series of Ray Lewises than safe but ineffective gesture politics.

Well done Boris - try again and Well Done Ray Lewis for taking the hit - I think many will be thinking it sad that you weren't given a chance to show what you could do.

Hope the Guardian will supply alternative ideas in a week when it seems there may have been 2 more teenagers killed by black youngsters.

Anonymous said...

john miller said...

"Blimey, bit slow there mate.

Round 1 white guy makes rude remark about blacks

Round 2 white media make rude remarks about black guy

Boris' actions were utterly predictable - and I think they were right, he has a mega problem with the ethnics in London being white tory toff"

Round 3 more general cognitive dissonance as the political and politically corrected algebras of the situation are worked out

Anonymous said...

It looks pretty obvious now that the facts speak for themselves: Lewis lied about being a magistrate and kept very quiet about being disbarred from the clergy. There are other accusations that may or not prove to be founded. All in all, he has been shown to be an utter shyster.

I will put it frankly; he would never have risen to this exalted position had he been white. This is a classic case of White guilt obscuring reality.

I have seen it before and I have seen in first hand. White, middle class people, twisted into bizzarre illogical postions by unbelievable stories from black people and other minorities, who go on to positions far beyond their abilities. It is not as if this has not been going on for years.


This will not get better. It will get worse, because Mz Harperson now wants to allow ethnic minorities to jump the job queue. We are walking, eyes wide open into a nightmare world where people are elevated to positions beyond their competance, because of the colour of their skin. Never mind the statistics or the facts or the litany of other high profile failures of this kind. We will go on believing in some pie in the sky naff ideal that will send more people running into the arms of the BNP.

Politicians have a choice: either tackle political correctness head on, or lose the support of the majority. It has never been the honest working class that have sold out this country, but the credulous twits who manage to get to Oxbridge. Hope, after all, lies with the proles, I think.

Anonymous said...

Nice to see Fairdeal Phil again.
You don't see him for months. Then the Tories get some bad news and he's all over us like a rash.

Tory Dipper said...

Quick Quiz!

Have a quick look here and see if you can spot the deliberate error.

Don't worry if you can't see the answer straight away, it took the Mayor of London two months to solve.

Anonymous said...

Wrinkled weasel talked about skin colour. Why, therefore, are blind people allowed cheaper BBC television licences than sighted people?

And on the subject of 'race', is it true that blind people are exempt from paying their television licence (in UK)?


This is cleverly done by changing the name to BBC Licence fee and adding rules so you have to apply for a blind concession. The blind concession reduces the cost of your TV Licence by 50%. So a colour TV Licence will cost £69.75 and a black and white TV Licence will cost £23.50
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/blind.jsp

Quote:
If you are blind or severely sight impaired, you need a TV Licence to use any TV receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV.

This includes the use of a TV set, digital box, DVD or video recorder, computer or mobile phone.

If you use a digital box with a hi-fi system or another device that can only be used to produce sounds and can't display TV programmes, and you don't install or use any other TV receiving equipment, you don't need a TV Licence.

Anonymous said...

5. Why is the supposedly non-PC BoJo hiring his own race-mongers?

Anonymous said...

It is quite clear from reading the Ray Lewis Time Line in today's Mail, that Boris could not possibly have checked references before making Lewis deputy Mayor of London.

With that sort of history, Lewis would not have got a job as a school dinner lady, let alone deputy mayor of London.

Team Cameron must be fuming but they should also have done background checks on Lewis before letting Dave endorse Lewis.

Let's hope Boris learns from this major mistake. Dave will have to make sure his team keeps an eye on Boris for the foreseeable future.

Anonymous said...

So it's a left-wing smear campaign is it? Read my blog.

Anonymous said...

wrinkled weasel said...

"It has never been the honest working class that have sold out this country, but the credulous twits who manage to get to Oxbridge. Hope, after all, lies with the proles, I think."

You think right. That's the way England has been for centuries.

Anonymous said...

Iain I can't believe you ask these questions with a straight face:

1. Has Lee Jasper already been tried by the media and been found guilty?
2. When allegations were made against James McGrath and Ray Lewis, Iain Dale backed him, yet in this case Iain really went for Lee Jasper. Is there an inconsistency?
3. Even if there is some substance to the allegation of financial impropriety at the LDA (which I sincerely hope there is not) should that wipe out the superb work Lee Jasper has done as an activist in the black community and as someone who really understands London?
4. Did Lee Jasper do the right thing by coming out and fighting his cause in a robust fashion?

Anonymous said...

The selection process for magistrates crawls along at a snail's pace to a point where successful applicants receive a letter advising that they are being 'recommended' to the Lord Chancellor for appointment. Such 'recommendations' are seldom turned down and Ray Lewis will have been aware of this.

However, it is usually at the point of recommendation that an Enhanced CRB check is carried out. If press reports are correct, an Enhanced check would have not have revealed any 'convictions' per se, but may have exposed some other ‘relevant information’, which meant Mr Lewis was unlikely to be appointed.

It is however possible that Mr Lewis had not yet been made aware of this, in which case it was not unreasonable of him to believe he had been accepted into the magistracy.

fake consultant said...

if lewis "misplaced" nearly $50,000, wasn't aware anyone had complained about it...and then ran on the ticket that promises to clean things up...the strength of the response shouldn't be too surprising.