Since our chat a fortnight ago, Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People has formally stepped down amidst mounting speculation of impropriety prior to, but connected to his employment at City Hall.
It would be unwise to cast aspersions at this stage – further to enquiry (- a doubtful prospect at this moment) – but I think it’s fair to say that Mr. Lewis’ denouement was unfortunate if not fated by a mix of lurid politicking and recession-anxiety. In these times of doom and gloom everyone wants hope and a hero to trust. Knowing this, allegations (from whatever side or motive) against Ray Lewis were always going to hit hard.
In Ray’s own words he was ‘not a politician’ and was ‘just there to do a job’: an honourable but very precarious position to take, perhaps laden with a morsel of self-preservation. Unfortunately, it was all over before he had a chance to realise that the wiliest of wily political merchants hiding in the wings never let an honourable job description and pleasant demeanour get in the way of a good ol’ fashion ‘go back to the colonies’ public school shoeing.
Besides, if recent months are anything to go by (choose anything from the Evening Standard’s six-month back catalogue), City Hall should’ve been the last place to go to for a politics-free hiatus; there is probably more politicking per square centimetre on that small patch of grass than a Parliament Square summer all-dayer. This is hard-hat stuff – gritty; and bouncing down Tooley Street on your backside towards London Bridge is about as ceremonious as the exit gets nowadays.
The alternative is to leave by the front door on your own terms – swim for your life across the busy Thames past Thames Clippers and boisterous summer boats and hope the City takes you in, (or back in - in the case of many City Hall generals).
But the ebb and flow between City Hall and the City isn’t about opportunistic personnel-swapping; it’s supposed to be about keeping London moving forward, onwards, upwards; and I believe Ray’s demise could be attributed as much to our social-economic circumstance as to any individual/ party gripe with the Johnson crime buster. Who pushed Ray becomes less significant if you consider why nobody bothered to catch him either.
So: the relationship between City Hall and our financial district is organic. The City (with it’s international umbilical chord) provides support and funding to London’s various ‘aspirations’ (the odd bridge, the odd super-fast rail line, the odd dome, sponsorship for the odd Olympic game); and City Hall provides the right socio-economic playing field and 'growth model' to create opportunities for large and small Londoners like us, everywhere. When this insatiable organism called Aspiration isn’t fed properly, London rapports become contorted; people get grumpy, selfish; heads roll; and people demand more ASBOs. Ray should’ve been into politics, or at least packed light – because when this train comes straight at your level-crossing, you have to be able to nimbly step on and off the platform quickly - or be hit. And excess baggage will cost you. Two weeks prior, i'd interviewed Ray at City Hall and this was my prognosis then:
…It seems obvious and overwhelming that Lewis is at the sharp end of a very big public wedge hammering for reassurance, deliverance and Obama-esque ‘change’ rhetoric in-between. And it feels justified: we are at a point of global socio-economic uncertainty, a time the public needs and expects more from its public servants (as Gordon Brown recently found out), precisely because it feels so vulnerable and suddenly mortal.
…Today’s social/ economic/ mood dynamic is profound. So profound and complex, it can lead to seemingly disparate events in America conspiring against the price of your bread and impacting on your personal welfare: You tut as you read your Asda receipt and get mugged of your change as you put your purse away. This is when the irrational becomes rational, rational becomes irrational, fear sets in where certainty once stood and a messianic figure is prayed for, to restore a sense of balance and order to the village.
…This is a big job by anybody’s measure, even a man of the Deputy's stout frame and boot camp bullishness. There are more ways to get this wrong than right: this job comes with a lot of rope! …The city expects and has his number on speed dial![Meet Ray: Boris' Rainmaker: 26.06.08]
Lewis’ unravelling and departure was swift and sanitary; the stuff of a Formula 1 pit-stop, the terror that such early scandal vis-à-vis past histrionics at City Hall could tar the whole administration as ‘hypocrites’. Because in today’s political-economic climate being whiter than white (absolutely no pun intended here) is upheld with mercenary vigour by tabloid hacks, stirred by backroom political operators, made contagious by sanctimonious water-cooler chit-chatters; sanctioned by an irritability borne of a global credit crunch, general shortage of cash, falling property profits, increasing oil prices, trudging wages, lowered tolerances, increased visible disorder, bad quality M&S sandwiches… (most of which we can do very little about). But as we head for possible recession and the sceptre of boom-and-bust lurches – people need hope (or to 'bust' some heads together - whichever comes first – metaphorically speaking of course). A decade of heady times left us greedy and set-up for disappointment in the downturn.
The ‘wind of change’ that greeted Mayor Johnson’s ascension thus blew forward the ordained Rev. Lewis who rode in on a cloud, our holy man: waving to well-wishers and gathered media below, cradling children - didn’t realise one of the City Hall windows had been left open but nonetheless managing to traverse the diameter of the eighth floor office through an adjacent open window opposite, tripped on the frame and fell out. A momentary gasp, a collective shuffle of feet...... then people trundled back to their offices muttering ‘I knew he couldn’t fly’.
(Nobody was going to save Ray: The feeling was that Ray should’ve saved them. This is the political climate we live in today). Monday, 7 July 2008
The Credit Crunch Ate Ray...
Since our chat a fortnight ago, Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People has formally stepped down amidst mounting speculation of impropriety prior to, but connected to his employment at City Hall.
It would be unwise to cast aspersions at this stage – further to enquiry (- a doubtful prospect at this moment) – but I think it’s fair to say that Mr. Lewis’ denouement was unfortunate if not fated by a mix of lurid politicking and recession-anxiety. In these times of doom and gloom everyone wants hope and a hero to trust. Knowing this, allegations (from whatever side or motive) against Ray Lewis were always going to hit hard.
In Ray’s own words he was ‘not a politician’ and was ‘just there to do a job’: an honourable but very precarious position to take, perhaps laden with a morsel of self-preservation. Unfortunately, it was all over before he had a chance to realise that the wiliest of wily political merchants hiding in the wings never let an honourable job description and pleasant demeanour get in the way of a good ol’ fashion ‘go back to the colonies’ public school shoeing.
Besides, if recent months are anything to go by (choose anything from the Evening Standard’s six-month back catalogue), City Hall should’ve been the last place to go to for a politics-free hiatus; there is probably more politicking per square centimetre on that small patch of grass than a Parliament Square summer all-dayer. This is hard-hat stuff – gritty; and bouncing down Tooley Street on your backside towards London Bridge is about as ceremonious as the exit gets nowadays.
The alternative is to leave by the front door on your own terms – swim for your life across the busy Thames past Thames Clippers and boisterous summer boats and hope the City takes you in, (or back in - in the case of many City Hall generals).
But the ebb and flow between City Hall and the City isn’t about opportunistic personnel-swapping; it’s supposed to be about keeping London moving forward, onwards, upwards; and I believe Ray’s demise could be attributed as much to our social-economic circumstance as to any individual/ party gripe with the Johnson crime buster. Who pushed Ray becomes less significant if you consider why nobody bothered to catch him either.
So: the relationship between City Hall and our financial district is organic. The City (with it’s international umbilical chord) provides support and funding to London’s various ‘aspirations’ (the odd bridge, the odd super-fast rail line, the odd dome, sponsorship for the odd Olympic game); and City Hall provides the right socio-economic playing field and 'growth model' to create opportunities for large and small Londoners like us, everywhere. When this insatiable organism called Aspiration isn’t fed properly, London rapports become contorted; people get grumpy, selfish; heads roll; and people demand more ASBOs. Ray should’ve been into politics, or at least packed light – because when this train comes straight at your level-crossing, you have to be able to nimbly step on and off the platform quickly - or be hit. And excess baggage will cost you. Two weeks prior, i'd interviewed Ray at City Hall and this was my prognosis then:
…It seems obvious and overwhelming that Lewis is at the sharp end of a very big public wedge hammering for reassurance, deliverance and Obama-esque ‘change’ rhetoric in-between. And it feels justified: we are at a point of global socio-economic uncertainty, a time the public needs and expects more from its public servants (as Gordon Brown recently found out), precisely because it feels so vulnerable and suddenly mortal.
…Today’s social/ economic/ mood dynamic is profound. So profound and complex, it can lead to seemingly disparate events in America conspiring against the price of your bread and impacting on your personal welfare: You tut as you read your Asda receipt and get mugged of your change as you put your purse away. This is when the irrational becomes rational, rational becomes irrational, fear sets in where certainty once stood and a messianic figure is prayed for, to restore a sense of balance and order to the village.
…This is a big job by anybody’s measure, even a man of the Deputy's stout frame and boot camp bullishness. There are more ways to get this wrong than right: this job comes with a lot of rope! …The city expects and has his number on speed dial![Meet Ray: Boris' Rainmaker: 26.06.08]
Lewis’ unravelling and departure was swift and sanitary; the stuff of a Formula 1 pit-stop, the terror that such early scandal vis-à-vis past histrionics at City Hall could tar the whole administration as ‘hypocrites’. Because in today’s political-economic climate being whiter than white (absolutely no pun intended here) is upheld with mercenary vigour by tabloid hacks, stirred by backroom political operators, made contagious by sanctimonious water-cooler chit-chatters; sanctioned by an irritability borne of a global credit crunch, general shortage of cash, falling property profits, increasing oil prices, trudging wages, lowered tolerances, increased visible disorder, bad quality M&S sandwiches… (most of which we can do very little about). But as we head for possible recession and the sceptre of boom-and-bust lurches – people need hope (or to 'bust' some heads together - whichever comes first – metaphorically speaking of course). A decade of heady times left us greedy and set-up for disappointment in the downturn.
The ‘wind of change’ that greeted Mayor Johnson’s ascension thus blew forward the ordained Rev. Lewis who rode in on a cloud, our holy man: waving to well-wishers and gathered media below, cradling children - didn’t realise one of the City Hall windows had been left open but nonetheless managing to traverse the diameter of the eighth floor office through an adjacent open window opposite, tripped on the frame and fell out. A momentary gasp, a collective shuffle of feet...... then people trundled back to their offices muttering ‘I knew he couldn’t fly’.
(Nobody was going to save Ray: The feeling was that Ray should’ve saved them. This is the political climate we live in today). 
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