In a piece yesterday about the forthcoming flight to the United Arab Emirates of Richard Bowker, the man who's just resigned as chief executive of the struggling National Express transport group, the Sindie mentioned in passing that Bowker was "coveted by Boris Johnson as his deputy mayor."
Not a lot of people knew that Bowker was in Boris's frame - I'm not aware that it's been reported before - or that, so I'm told, he might well have accepted the role offered at City Hall but for the objections of shareholders, who thought he ought to give his full attention to his commitment to the East Coast Line. Tim Parker got the job instead, and we all know what happened there.
But what might have happened had Bowker taken up the post with Johnson, and still been in it last December when David Ross had to step down as Boris's Olympics costs monitor on the Locog board for using shares in Carphone Warehouse to back personal loans without telling the company's directors?
Ross was Bowker's chairman - and friend at National Express at the time and had to step down from that position too. That's no reflection on Bowker, but the Ross's was one of the tidier departures from Johnson's administration. Had Bowker been part of it too, Ross's farewell might have been a little messier for Boris - his political foes would have seen to that. And with National Express now in a proper mess, those recurring questions of judgement about the Mayor's appointees could have become more awkward still.
