BHANGEELAAR! NO to bureaucratic, diversionary and wasteful 'legal action' stunt over 2012 marathon route is ‘vindicated’!
0300 [0245]
[0200] [0130] Hrs GMT
London
Thursday
25 November 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
Tower Hamlets Council in another marathon Route Change Mess up and fakery!
The details follow this updater commentary.
The first thing to say is that the controlling clique in Tower Hamlets Council is behaving to form: abysmally dishonestly and in opposition to its democratic and universally legally defined constitutional obligations and ethical duties.
The democratic obligations include the requirement that the Council should behave and be seen to behave in accordance with the objective universally valid expectations of the community without jeopardising the important claim of the Council as the relevant ‘elected entity’ to constitutionality and legitimacy.
According to the latest ‘news report’ [timed at 2115 Hrs GMT 245 November 2010] that we examine in context below, the controlling clique in Tower Hamlets Council has made another deal.
This time the “Tower Hamlets Council” deal is with LOCOG, the 2012 Games Hosting outfit that is fronted by Sebastian Coe.
As part of the deal, Tower Hamlets Council bureaucracy will do precisely the same thing that it has done over the past decade or more with the invading agencies of Big Business and their tentacles.
This pattern is traceable to all the major Big Biz planning bids concerning the erection of high rise structures and buildings in Tower Hamlets. The corrupting clique in control of the Council poses at first. Its postures go something like this:
It claims to say ‘no’ [always a small ‘no’, never a big or truthful NO] to a planning application by a Big Biz takeover merchant or outfit. Then it allows a few weeks or even months of public silence. That is the time it engages in deal-making. The silence is broken by a mysterious decision approving the Big Biz planning bid!
Tower Hamlets Council has behaved, again, in typically bureaucratic way, thus exposing its previously staged claim and “determination to bring the 2012 Games Marathon route to the East End” as another sham one. This is evident in a news report published online by the London Daily Telegraph, “confirmed” online at around 2115 Hrs GMT Wednesday 24 November 2010. That report followed our LATEST diagnostic commentary [see sequence of publication stated in the DAILY TELEGRAPH online news paragraph below] arguing against the fake ‘legal action’ by the Tower Hamlets Council.
Our diagnostic update was published on the web site of the LONDONIST at 2030 Hrs GMT Wednesday 24 November 2010.
As reported in the news item online by the DAILY TELEGRAPH, the Tower Hamlets Council bureaucracy was now claiming, for the first time on record as far as evident on the basis of objectively accessible and published ‘news items’ on the stunt, that a “QC” had advised them that there was a “strong legal case”.
Here is the full paragraph from the Daily Telegraph: “The council, which had already lost the walk and basketball events at the 2012 Olympics, was furious at the marathon route change and was seeking a judicial review on the grounds that, although LOCOG is a private company, it had public functions. It said it had received advice from a leading QC that it had a strong legal case.”
That “strong legal case” was evidently not strong enough, according to the same report by the same by-lined author on the Daily Telegraph. It is now another “deal” between the Tower Hamlets Council and the Seb Coe LOCOG.
On 09 November 2010, we had posted on the web site of the London EVENING STANDARD the following diagnostic comment that has been fully vindicated by the “announcement” as reported by the Daily Telegraph
BHANGEELAAR! had told the London EVENING STANDARD [09 November 2010]
“Your report contains no reference to any contract between Tower Hamlets Council and LOCOG about holding any 2012 Games events in the Borough. Should the Council have attended to this a bit sooner? Or is the judicial review application a stunt that the Council’s ‘top lawyer’ hopes will produce a result by default? The default being the embarrassment factor playing against the LOCOG over ‘diversity’ and ‘ethnicity’ issues rather than on any tangible contractual basis? You also don’t say what evidence of what legal liability on LOCOG you actually saw in the legal papers that state to have seen! The contents of your report do not show any convincing legal ground for Tower Hamlets claim. Which raises the question: what is the reason for this judicial review as opposed to organising the people in Tower Hamlets to make a democratic demand on LOCOG? That way, the costs would be a fraction of what the Council bureaucrats must be paying to external lawyers whether on the record or not. 1348 Hrs Tuesday 09 November 2010 Bhangeelaar! The Campaign against an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets - Bhangeelaar! The Campaign against an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets, London, 09/11/2010 13:52 “
That comment substantially stated the same facts that we updated on and published on the Londonist web site on 24 November 2010.
That the news outlet had not shown any evidence of any legal ground for the Tower Hamlets Council’s bureaucracy to make the claim that they were being reported to be making. That the ‘legal action’ was a stunt and that they were diverting away from democratic representation of the people of Tower Hamlets in that conduct.
The latest news item on the Daily Telegraph web suite [as at 0240 Hrs GMT Thursday 25 November 2010] shows that we, the BHANGEELAAR! Campaign against an elected executive mayor in Tower Hamlets, had got the analysis right and that we had accurately predicted the outcome of the Council’s bureaucratic legal action stunt over the marathon route change.
At 0115 Hrs GMT Thursday 25 November 2010 we accessed the news updater service on Google that showed that the following item had come online ‘hours ago’. If that is right then the Daily Telegraph item [below] came online [or was ‘crawled’ by the Google search system at 2115 Hrs GMT on Wednesday 24 November 2010. However the actual online post on the Daily Telegraph web site shows the time as “8:37PM GMT 24 Nov 2010” [that is 2037 GMT, which is SEVEN minutes after our posting of our comment on the Londionist’s web site].
In the period that has followed between the "first published" "news" that Tower Hamlets Council bureaucracy was claiming to be applying for a "judicial review" of the LOCOG decision leaving Tower Hamlets out of the 2012 Games Marathon route, ONLY the BHANGEELAAR! Campaign has argued that that was a diversionary, undemocratic and wasteful move by the Council's bureaucracy.
[To be continued]
The following is taken from an external web site, the DAILY TELEGRAPH, London, purely as a reference:
London 2012 Olympics: Threat of legal battle over marathon recedes
The threat of a legal battle between Tower Hamlets Council and the London Olympic organising committee (LOCOG) over the route of the 2012 marathon looks to have receded.
Finishing line: The marathon at the 2012 London Olympic Games is likely end along The Mall Photo: REUTERS
By Simon Hart 8:37PM GMT 24 Nov 2010
A “positive meeting” on Wednesday between Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Raham and the LOCOG chief executive, Paul Deighton, seems to have ensured the marathon will now follow a circuit through central London, ending in The Mall.
The council had already started legal proceedings to seek a judicial review into LOCOG’s decision to alter the route of the marathon, which was originally due to pass through Tower Hamlets en route to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.
LOCOG has refused to back down over the route change, insisting the decision was “fair and legal” and that it was taken for operational reasons, including security. But, to avoid a damaging legal wrangle, it is understood to have offered the council a series of other “celebratory events” in the run-up to the Games to compensate it for the loss of the marathon.
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After the talks, the council said it was now awaiting a formal proposal from LOCOG about the ways it will be involved in the Games.
A council spokesman said: “It was a really positive meeting. We’re always keen to talk to LOCOG and we look forward to have a formal response on any proposals they are looking to bring us.”
The council, which had already lost the walk and basketball events at the 2012 Olympics, was furious at the marathon route change and was seeking a judicial review on the grounds that, although LOCOG is a private company, it had public functions. It said it had received advice from a leading QC that it had a strong legal case.
LOCOG was equally confident that a judicial review was not applicable but was anxious to avoid a high-profile falling-out with one of its key host boroughs.
A LOCOG spokeswoman said: “We recognise the disappointment in Tower Hamlets and will continue our efforts to talk to Tower Hamlets Council and develop a proposal which makes sure the borough benefits from London 2012.
“Although moving the finish of the marathon was a very tough decision for us to take, we believe it was the right decision, and the process we undertook was comprehensive, fair and legal.
“As a private company, we do not believe judicial review is the right response to this decision and our aim is to work constructively with the council to do everything we can to make sure the borough makes the most of London 2012.”[Van Commenee quotes are just for newspapers so please don’t put this online until late tonight. You already have an online version]
UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee, who has been a constant critic of the strength of women’s field athletes at his disposal, has welcomed the decision of world-class long jumper Shara Proctor to switch her allegiance from Anguilla to Britain.
The 22 year-old finished sixth at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin with a lifetime best of 6.71 metres, and Van Commenee said: “She’s a high-calibre athlete. We are not strong in women’s field events at the moment. The fact that Shara has decided to represent Britain from now on will make the team stronger.”
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
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