1058 Hrs GMT
London
Monday
06 September 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
BHANGEELAAR! Campaign against a directly elected mayor in Tower Hamlets is telling the 'East London Advertiser' to tell the full facts
The following online item has been taken from the web site of the 'East London Advertiser'. Underneath it is the Bhangeelaar! Campaign’s comment, which has been appearing on the ELA web site this morning [Monday 06 September 2010]
[To be continued]
"Ousted council leader Rahman wins Labour nomination for mayor
Monday, 6 September, 2010
9:07 AM
LABOUR party members in London’s East End have chosen controversial former council leader Lutfur Rahman as their candidate for the first-ever elected mayor of Tower Hamlets.
LABOUR party members in London’s East End have chosen controversial former council leader Lutfur Rahman as their candidate for the first-ever elected mayor of Tower Hamlets.
Nearly 900 party faithful voted on Saturday in a contest from a shortlist of seven which included the man who ousted him from the council leadership in May.
He won decisively with a clear margin of more than 150 votes over his closest rival, London Assembly budget chairman John Biggs, another former council leader who was tipped as favourite by Labour’s London regional HQ when the original shortlist of three was first drawn up in June, and pushing current council leader Helal Abbas into third place.
“All I ask is to serve my community,” Rahman told jubilant supporters outside local party HQ in Bethnal Green after the result.
“I want the opportunity to work hard to make Tower Hamlets a better place for all of us.”
Saturday’s result vindicates Cllr Rahman, the man at the centre of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary claiming allegations of Islamic domination in Tower Hamlets.
He took the regional party to the High Court last month when his name was left off the shortlist twice and has now swept away all opposition within the party to be its official candidate for the election for mayor on October 21.
The result was declared by London Labour Party director Ken Clark, following the high turnout of 70 per cent of members eligible to vote.
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Monday, September 6, 2010
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You refer to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme in a somewhat confusing way and you leave out all mention of the real involvement in the promotion of the ‘elected mayor for Tower Hamlets’ agenda by a number of ethnicity-linked ‘outlets’ including a number of print titles. Your ‘Features Editor’ [of the by-line] Mike Brooke was present on 31 August 2010 at two separately timed ‘meet the press’ events held in support of two of the seven ‘Labour Party members [seeking to be the Party’s candidate for election as mayor] at the ‘Micro Business Centre’ in Greatorex Street near Brick Lane. All identifiable ‘members of the press’ present were from ‘ethnicity-linked’ ‘outlets’ except Mike Brooke. Not a single question was put by the known ‘representatives of the ethnicity-linked outlets’ to either ‘candidate to be the candidate’ about democracy, Council accountability. The question was only put to one of the two, Michael Keith by the Bhangeelaar! Campaign against a directly elected mayor in Tower Hamlets. Keith was also asked to explain the contradiction in his stance, which was factually related by the Bhangeelaar! Questioner, to his [Michael Keith] appearance as part of the ‘NO to a directly elected mayor’ Campaign demonstration outside the Brady Centre on 6 February 2010, the date that the same Mike Brooke later cited [09 February 2010] as the point marking the start of the ‘battle’ ‘for’ a directly elected mayor. In your latest reports, you have continued to leave out the role of the No campaign. Don’t you think that you are showing consistent bias against the democratic say to the community which will be caused the real sufferings and losses and lack of say if there is an elected and an Executive mayor ion Tower Hamlets? In the NO campaign’s question as put to Michael Keith on 31 August 2001, clear reference was made to the autocratic behaviour of Lewisham’s mayor in the context of Steve Bullock’s pro-active role in imposing CONDEM cuts to services in that borough. Mike Brooke witnessed that question and the absence of an answer to that by Michael Keith. Why haven’t you referred to that question which addressed the core of the crisis that will be visited on Tower Hamlets as far as resources and democratic accountability are concerned? Mike Brooke also witnessed Ken Livingstone and a number of others speaking at the ‘YES’ campaign gathering held inside the Brady Centre on 6 February 2010 who referred to Lewisham as a positive example in their pursuit to have an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets. When the evidence shows that Lewisham’s directly elected mayor has been imposing fierce cuts and is being openly insulting to dignified campaigners against cuts in Lewisham, shouldn’t this be made known to your readers and ‘visitors’ [to your web site]?
You refer to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme in a somewhat confusing way and you leave out all mention of the real involvement in the promotion of the ‘elected mayor for Tower Hamlets’ agenda by a number of ethnicity-linked ‘outlets’ including a number of print titles. Your ‘Features Editor’ [of the by-line] Mike Brooke was present on 31 August 2010 at two separately timed ‘meet the press’ events held in support of two of the seven ‘Labour Party members [seeking to be the Party’s candidate for election as mayor] at the ‘Micro Business Centre’ in Greatorex Street near Brick Lane. All identifiable ‘members of the press’ present were from ‘ethnicity-linked’ ‘outlets’ except Mike Brooke. Not a single question was put by the known ‘representatives of the ethnicity-linked outlets’ to either ‘candidate to be the candidate’ about democracy, Council accountability. The question was only put to one of the two, Michael Keith by the Bhangeelaar! Campaign against a directly elected mayor in Tower Hamlets. Keith was also asked to explain the contradiction in his stance, which was factually related by the Bhangeelaar! Questioner, to his [Michael Keith] appearance as part of the ‘NO to a directly elected mayor’ Campaign demonstration outside the Brady Centre on 6 February 2010, the date that the same Mike Brooke later cited [09 February 2010] as the point marking the start of the ‘battle’ ‘for’ a directly elected mayor. In your latest reports, you have continued to leave out the role of the No campaign. Don’t you think that you are showing consistent bias against the democratic say to the community which will be caused the real sufferings and losses and lack of say if there is an elected and an Executive mayor ion Tower Hamlets? In the NO campaign’s question as put to Michael Keith on 31 August 2001, clear reference was made to the autocratic behaviour of Lewisham’s mayor in the context of Steve Bullock’s pro-active role in imposing CONDEM cuts to services in that borough. Mike Brooke witnessed that question and the absence of an answer to that by Michael Keith. Why haven’t you referred to that question which addressed the core of the crisis that will be visited on Tower Hamlets as far as resources and democratic accountability are concerned? Mike Brooke also witnessed Ken Livingstone and a number of others speaking at the ‘YES’ campaign gathering held inside the Brady Centre on 6 February 2010 who referred to Lewisham as a positive example in their pursuit to have an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets. When the evidence shows that Lewisham’s directly elected mayor has been imposing fierce cuts and is being openly insulting to dignified campaigners against cuts in Lewisham, shouldn’t this be made known to your readers and ‘visitors’ [to your web site]?
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