Bojo on the wrong end of a lie

It was the lie about being a magistrate that finally did for Ray Lewis, Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor. We are given to understand that Boris was none too pleased about being lied to and felt let down.

In a curious parallel, Boris was himself sacked from the Shadow Cabinet for lying to his leader about an extra-marital affair. Michael Howard didn't care about the affair but wasn't going to have in his team someone who lied to his face.

In my Oxford Entrance Exam I had to write a summary of a passage by Herbert Spencer which included the observation that people who lie are often also extremely credulous. It's the only thing I remember from that exam, probably because that observation has often been borne out by my subsequent experience.

Thus it was that Boris, who one suspects has told quite a few porkies in his pursuit of both power and nookie, never doubted for a moment that Ray Lewis was indeed a magistrate.
Crikey! Both the paradox and the symmetry are strangely pleasing.