Sadly, given the abject lack of interest by the local mainstream television channels such as the BBC, much of the election campaign for Tower Hamlets mayor is being conducted on the influential satellite TV stations that serve the borough’s large Bangladeshi community.
These channels, such as Bangla TV and Channel S, are regulated by Ofcom and are subject to the Representation of the People Act 1983, which lays down rules about impartiality and balance of air-time during elections.
The question of whether they comply is a matter for Ofcom, but what is equally interesting is the actual content. The below YouTube clip was broadcast by Bangla TV on October 2 and contains a series of well known faces from Tower Hamlets politics and beyond speaking at Helal Abbas’s launch event. The voice-over is in Bangla, as are some of the speeches, but there’s also quite a bit of English.
You’ll see Jim Fitzpatrick in full podium-bashing form, Rushanara Ali, Frank Dobson, and Abbas himself. You’ll also see Lutfur Rahman say a few words (“Those who say I’m a puppet should look at themselves”).
And you’ll also see Lutfur’s main backer, the millionaire social housing tenant Shiraj Haque, give his assessment of Abbas.
“Helal Abbas is completely unfit for many reasons. I can’t trust my responsibility, my finances, £1.3billion of assets of Tower Hamlets in the hands of somebody who can’t even manage his own affairs.”
This is a reference to the bankruptcy of Abbas’s restaurant/ sari shop business in Brick Lane some 20 years ago. Abbas is then seen explaining the matter:
“Unfortunately, like many businesses in this country, they open, they close, they’re successful, they’re unsuccessful. This has no relevance whatsoever to do with me running the council.”
Isn’t it a touch ironic that a man who displays moral bankruptcy by depriving those more needy than him from living in a large family-sized housing association home in Bethnal Green complains about ancient historic financial bankruptcy in others?
By the way, none of the other candidates, Neil King of the Tories, John Griffiths of the Lib Dems and the Greens’ Alan Duffell, make an appearance in the report.
Here’s the video.
Trial by Jeory 
Ted, please tell us when you will investigate the bankruptcy of the Rich Mix Centre or is your journalism selective? How much public money has been going down a bottomless basket and who are the culprits?
I was at the recent TELCO “hustings.” Helal Abbas Uddin was lacklustre, monotone and begging for people to vote him. Lutfur as you quite rightly put it was very passionate. Neil King on the other hand was a really smooth operator and John Griffiths seemed to think the coalition government would listen to him for some reason. The Green party candidate was a nice enough chap, just can’t remember his name….
If the figures which have been bandied round anonymously during the selection campaign are correct then only 42% of the TH population are from Bangladesh.
It’s a shame that the media coverage is not spreading to the 58% of the population who is from other cultures. I may have failed O-level maths but I still think that’s the majority.
And no I am not a BNP member – I just loathe election campaigns that are focussed exclusively on any one group in a community.
Channel S and Bangla TV are there to concentrate on Bangladeshi candidates, and by extension on what Bangladeshi politicans are doing. That’s why they’re called “Bangla TV” for example. The East End Advertiser covers the rest of the 58%, hence the Bengali newspapers around.
You may have failed your O Level maths, I think you proably also failed the 11+. hahaha.
[…] In this post yesterday, I raised the possibility that a number of satellite TV channels serving the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets were breaching the Representation of the People Act with potentially unbalanced reporting of the mayoral election. […]
Another one of the covert racist propaganda by the TH Tories? Nothing new about those nut cases. They are a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that is their tactics of racism. Lets hope they get exposed one day for their racist and xenophobic views!