Events | 2010.03.19
Bertha Joseph resignation: interesting timing
I tend to favour cock-up explanations for curious events over the conspiracy kind. I never leap to conclusions about leaked email correspondence and take many of the more marketable claims of "investigative journalism" with a pinch of salt. For that reason I\'m reluctant to assume the existence of some dastardly plot behind the timing of Bertha Joseph\'s departure from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. It was, though, quite deliciously intriguing.
The line put out by City Hall at 17:48 yesterday evening said that Joseph had written to the Mayor offering her resignation "in the last hour." An ill-tempered LFEPA meeting had ended earlier in the afternoon after a majority approved its 2010/11 budget, an outcome guaranteed in advance thanks to Joseph\'s presence. The Authority\'s chair, Joseph\'s fellow Tory Brian Coleman, had by all accounts been at his most enchanting, refusing to allow BBC or ITN to film the proceedings and so outraging the two Lib Dem members that they walked out. Lucky old Adam Bienkov was there .
The context for all this was, of course, Joseph\'s six-month suspension from Brent Council for using charitable donations to furnish her wardrobe . This delinquency occurred when she was Brent\'s Labour mayor, and - as Boris demonstrated at MQT on Wednesday - the Tory defence of Joseph, who still denies doing wrong, is that she\'s the victim of a campaign of vengeance for changing sides. For its part, Labour thinks that Boris\'s leisurely response to Joseph\'s disgrace has been motivated by a wish to keep her in position at LFEPA - he appointed her Coleman\'s deputy after she\'d become a Conservative - long enough to make sure the budget went through.
Does the timing of Joseph\'s resignation bear out Labour suspicions? It\'s interesting that City Hall\'s line emphasised that Joseph had written a letter offering to resign "in the last hour". What, if anything, does this imply? Was Joseph\'s decision very sudden? Had the searchlights of publicity trained on the LFEPA meeting brought home to her just how fraught her situation had become, finally tipping her into the course of action Boris had rather hinted that he required ? It\'s not impossible. There\'s a non-Tory view within City Hall that puts just such an interpretation on yesterday\'s events.
But, of course, there\'s an alternative reading too. One version of this has it that Joseph had agreed some time ago to resign - perhaps rather than be fired - and that the fourteen days Boris formally granted her to persuade him he shouldn\'t sack her was indeed (as John Biggs suggested at MQT) a ruse to enable her to remain in post at LFEPA just long enough to see its budget passed without Coleman having to use his casting vote as chair. If this is indeed the case then the timing of Joseph\'s delivery of her letter of resignation to Boris, a detail on which City Hall\'s line appears to have laid careful stress, is neither here nor there.
Bertha Joseph, by the way, intends to defend her Brent Council seat in May. Perhaps some of her Tories colleagues think her a liability, but if so they\'re keeping quiet. I hate to indulge in conspiracy theories, but perhaps she has some influential friends.
Update, 10:31 A statement from Lib Dem LFEPA member Caroline Pidgeon AM:
Given that Cllr Joseph has been found guilty of serious wrongdoing and suspended from Brent Council, it shows the poor judgment of the Mayor not to have sacked her straight away. The cynicism to wait until after the authority meeting reflects badly on the Mayor and the Conservatives in London.
Update, 10:39 More on this story, including deeper background detail, from Helene Mulholland .
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblo[...]eman-bertha-joseph-resignation
