A Scottish-Canadian Blethering On About Books

This is the second account of Rob Ford and his shenanigans that I have read (I'm sure there are several more out there), and of course it reinforces my visceral sense that this is a man I would never want to have over for dinner - or, indeed, bump into in the street. I probably wouldn't be that keen to provide dinner for the author, Mark Towhey, either, though he is a far more rational creature than Ford, and certainly one purpose of this book (if not the main purpose) is to create sympathy for himself. However, he has that same bumptious neocon attitude to life as the people he surrounded himself with, and it makes me shudder a little that someone so genuinely intelligent should have spent so much time and effort protecting that which should never have been protected - namely Ford's mayorship. The most interesting part of the book by far is the inside account of the measures he and the rest of the Mayor's Office team took to contain the damage of Ford's addictions (though not, alas, his ruinous policies, which they forwarded). His account of these proceedings while in the full spotlight of the media is also interesting. He also gives a rather unvarnished picture of the Ford family in general, with his profound dislike of Doug Ford coming through on every page.

Twohey was fired, and insists on that rather as a point of pride. But, had he been the man of principle he believes himself to be, he would have resigned long before, and let the Fords crumble as they deserved.