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Tuesday 2 March 2010

Bertha Joseph Sliding into Obscurity

Bertha Joseph still seems to be trying to brazen it out, but I think her position on the London Fire Authority (and with it the Tory majority) is becoming more insecure by the day.

Boris’ initial position of stout denial had weakened by the time of Question Time, if the Guardian report is anything to go by. The coverage in Brent’s local papers has also been interesting. Cllr Bob Blackman, who recruited Joseph to the Tory Group, remains silent. Instead, Cllr John Detre is quoted in the Wembley Observer making a distinctly non-committal defence full of “Ms Joseph sees this as…” and “[Joseph] … believes it to be an attempt to ‘politicise justice’”; nothing much about whether he agrees with her. I sensed a similar distancing among members of the Tory group at the Budget making last night.

It seems to me that Boris has little to thank Bob Blackman for in adding yet another dubious appointment to the roll call of Ian Clement, Wadley and so on. Politically, the question for him is now will he look worse sacking Bertha Joseph after defending her to start with, or letting her hang on the bitter end in May. Will the Tories in Brent allow her to stand under their name and risk being discredited by association?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Right on James, thanks to Bob Blackman the Tories in Brent, GLA and CCHQ are in a mess especially during an eve of an election.Bertha,s saga has raised a lot of question about corruption to the 3rd degree in Brent Tories as a whole. On Budget none of them could stick their hand up and defend their corner when Ann John was quoting Caroline Spellman and your press cutting being circulated to all.They bacame political laughing stock that night,the budget became budgetless too. Shame on them, Bob has lost the plot and is not only causing the demise of Brent Consrvatives but also in Harrow East .

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