"Mayor of London Ken Livingstone 'squandered millions of pounds' "

I did think of just putting this story forward under my regular "No shit, Sherlock" category but I think this story is too important for that. Londoners will not be surprised to learn findings of Boris Johnson's forensic audit panel. The panel are reported to have found that:

1. "Ken Livingstone squandered tens of millions of taxpayers money on pet projects that he set up on a whim while mayor of London"

2. "the London Development Agency, responsible for jobs and business in the Capital, was used as the mayor's personal "cheque book".

Projects were set up on the whim of Mr Livingstone and his advisors, with cash pouring in to favoured groups and communities rather than those which had the most need."

3. "Patience Wheatcroft, the former editor of The Sunday Telegraph who led the audit, said: "Our investigations have left us in no doubt that money was misspent on a massive scale."

4. Patience Wheatcroft, the former editor of The Sunday Telegraph who led the audit, said: "What the mayor wanted, the mayor could get, and that was the overall thinking of the LDA."

5. "Mrs Wheatcroft said that the panel had uncovered waste, disorganisation and mismanagement rather than fraud or corruption."

6. "Two former members of LDA staff, Yvonne Thompson and Tony Winterbottom, who stood down from their posts after attracting criticism, continued to be paid for months and even years after their resignation to act a "consultant" and "ambassador," although neither appeared to carry out any tangible work.

The LDA became infamous after its head, Lee Jasper, was forced to quit earlier this year amid a welter of allegations about his private life and financial dealings. Police are investigating a number of projects which received funds from the LDA."

I will predict that Ken Livingstone, Lee Jasper and the rest of Ken's "team" will not be charged with anything and so will have "got away with it".

I further predict that unless, as I have previously advised, Boris Johnson gets rid of all of Ken Livingstone's appointees from his office, City Hall and the LDA that he will never be free of the left-wingers embedded in much of the UK's local authorities.