Grey’s Law states that “any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”
With that in mind, take a look at this timeline of a recent FOI request to Newham council:
August 2014
Question: Please forward copies of the current portfolios for each Cabinet Member, Mayoral Advisor and Community Lead Member and for any other position generated by the Mayor and which incorporates an allowance that is additional to the basic councillor’s allowance.
September 2014
Response: The full details of the portfolios held by all Members are already publicly available on the individual pages for each Councillor, found on the Newham website.
September 2014
Question: Please forward copies of the portfolios as requested. They ARE NOT available on the authority’s web site.
February 2015
Response: I have now checked whether this information is available on the web and I can confirm that all portfolios have now been published and appear under the names of each portfolio holder.
February 2015
Question: Would you please inform me of the date(s) Newham Council posted Mayoral Advisor Portfolios on the authority’s web site.
March 2015
Answer: 15th January 2015
But perhaps we should be charitable and employ Hanlon’s Razor instead: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
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