A reader of this blog was so amused by the thought of Helal Abbas (a man who doesn’t really do passion very well) displaying “aggressive facial expressions” during this morning’s encounter with Lutfur Rahman’s supporters that he has suggested a competition.
So, I’m offering a meal – with me! – at either the Lutfur-backing Clifton restaurant in Brick Lane or its rival, Preem, which is owned by Azmal Hussain, the former chair of Tower Hamlets Respect and now big-time Abbas supporter, for the person who sends me, via the email address in my contact section, a photo of their best “aggressive facial expression”.
The meal will be served on October 31, 10 days into the new mayoralty and, of course, Hallowe’en – so make it really scary.
Here’s the suggester’s entry.
UPDATE at 10.15pm
And Emdad Rahman has believes he has it game, set and match with the following picture, which he says is him when he’s really angry:
Trial by Jeory 
Funny how Ted trivialises the violence and agression displayed by the Abbas camp. Classic media diversion tactic. The question to ask is Ted a journalist or a propagandist for Abbas? Will Ted pick up on the story of Abbas’s inappropriate political interference in the Tower Hamlets Partnership by cancelling all meetings?
“Andrew” – if it was truly an emergency in which someone felt they were in danger of being harmed, I would have expected that person to leave the scene and not call me, before the police arrived, and say, “I’ve got a story for you”.
I’ll look into your allegation about Partnership meetings, but can you enlighten me as to why there would be any interference and why Abbas would gain through their postponement?
“Andrew” – here’s the official line from Tower Hamlets council on why partnership meetings have been postponed….
I’m still trying to work out why this would be a political manoeuvre.
The incident outside Stepney Green tube could still do with some journalistic research. Just a couple of questions…who is Tower Hamlets Labour Party Communications Officer? Is it Dan McCurry from yesterday’s incident? Or is he “self proclaimed” as a Labour Councillor [fellow tweeter, too] now says – in response to the recent removal of Dan McCurry from Facebook [CONTENT REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS] As he was a protagonist in yesterday’s incident, your response to this as a journalist would be appreciated.
Dan McCurry stood to be an officer of Tower Hamlets Labour Party at the AGM earlier in the year. He was beaten in a contested election by Jenny Boswell Jones, thanks to the organised votes from Alibor and other friends of Lutfur who organised in alliance with the hard left in the Labour Party. For some time there have been two factions operating in the Labour party, the Lutfur faction and the hard left. Everyone else votes according to their own views at any given time. Jenny Boswell Jones was the hard left candidate. Since then, both Alibor and Jenny have left the Labour Party to support Lutfur in this election. Dan then declared on facebook that he now considered himself the Communications Officer, as had Jenny not been there he would have been elected by default all those months ago.
Therefore he is not in fact an officer of Tower Hamlets Labour Party.
Incidentally the gender quota in Labour Party elections means Dan would never have been elected anyway.
There is currently a vacancy for this position on the executive following the expulsion of Jenny Boswell Jones from the Labour Party.
And a vacancy for Secretary as Stephen Beckett (a bloke) has also been expelled – so the gender quota is irrelevant m’lady.
Lady Bracknell, thank you for your explanation of Mr McCurry’s “self proclaimed” job as the TH Labour Party Communications Officer. You report that he used Facebook to proclaim himself TH Labour Party Communications Officer. Thank you for that further insight into the Facebook element of this story. The reason for the removal of Mr McCurry from Facebook may prove to be the cause of the incident outside Stepney Green tube station. As the police are looking into the incident, it could be helpful for Ted (or yourself?) to furnish them with what has happened with Dan McCurry, Facebook and the TH Mayoral Campaign. [A ‘Lena’ on the previous post seems to have seen what went on on Mr McCurry’s Facebook page – before it and he were removed.]
Guardian – Dave Hill interview with Lutfur Rahman
Tower Hamlets: interview with independent mayoral candidate Lutfur Rahman
During the short walk from his campaign office in Greatorex Street to its junction with Whitechapel Road, five people stopped to shake his hand. Some of them shook mine too, despite their having no I idea who I am. Turning the corner we bumped into a man I recognised as Shiraj Haque, owner of the Clifton Restaurant and sometimes known, among other things, as one the of Brick Lane “curry kings”.
Haque shook candidate Rahman’s hand. He shook mine. The pair conversed in what I’m assuming was the Syleti variation on Bengli, if that definition serves. They smiled and joked. Rahman spotted a man who works for the Bangla TV station Channel S, and I shook his hand too. His wife smiled.
Then Haque insisted we retrace a few steps to a newly-opened sweets shop. Rahman consented, with apologies to me, and Haque ushered us through the door to greetings from the young men serving behind the display cases followed by yet more handshakes, this time with a group of older men (one of them very old indeed) gathered round a table at the back of the shop.
Most stood to greet Rahman, and there was further banter and more smiling. I made out the word “Guardian” once or twice. I had that feeling of having wandered accidentally on to a film set. Later, on the bus home, I amused myself by mentally scripting what might have happened next. Perhaps some newshound could have burst from a cupboard and photographed me in this company, thereby condemning me forever as being “linked” to someone who is alleged to have been “brainwashed” by Islamic fundamentalists?
That, of course, is one of the allegations made by Rahman’s rival, the Labour mayoral candidate Helal Abbas, who is his fellow Councillor for Spitalfields and Banglatown, his successor as Council leader and his former friend. The allegation is but one of many presented by Abbas in a statement to Labour’s National Executive committee following Rahman’s selection as mayoral candidate by Tower Hamlets party members. It contributed to Rahman’s removal and replacement by Abbas. Rahman’s decision to run as an independent has resulted in his expulsion from Labour.
In the sweets shop the excitement intensified. Rahman was asked to be a party to the opening ceremony. He agreed and suddenly he was standing prominently in a crowd outside the door. Someone unrolled a reel of green ribbon and a large video camera appeared. The crowd, exclusively male, craned and beamed. Then it dispersed as rapidly as it had formed.
“How about Starbucks?” said Rahman, setting off with me again. But before we reached that destination, which was just along the road, there was another impromptu meet and greet. Behold, Ajmal Masroor, imam, TV presenter, occasional Guardian contributor and a Liberal Democrat politician. He was runner up to Labour’s Rushanari Ali in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in May and to John Griffiths in the contest to become Lib Dem candidate for Tower Hamlets mayor. “I conceded gracefully,” he said, then told me he’d written a book about relationships. “I’m a qualified Relate counsellor. The book will be published in a couple of weeks.”
Maroor expressed disapproval of Labour’s NEC choosing Abbas as Rahman’s replacement instead of the area’s London Assembly representative John Biggs, who’d finished second in the members’ ballot. Abbas was third. “Why did they do that?” asked Masroor. “I suppose because they think a white candidate cannot win here,” I replied. Masroor said I should ask Rahman about how he’ll bring the whole Tower Hamlets community together. The pair exchanged looks and smiles whose meanings I was unsure of. That film set feeling returned.
And then we were in Starbucks, amid a clamour of conversation and clanking crockery. I first asked Rahman about the cameo of local celebrity in which he had just starred. A member of the Labour campaign team had told me that the Bangla vote, so crucial in politics here, tends to arrive a consensus and make its electoral choice accordingly. If what I had just seen was any indication, then that consensus could be gathering in Rahman’s favour. What did he think it all meant?
“Dave, I’ve been in this borough since a young age,” he replied. “This borough’s very important to me. I want to make it a better place. For two years I was its leader [from 2008-2010]. For nine years I’ve been a Councillor. For me it’s been about delivering for the people of Tower Hamlets, whoever you are, to each and every member of our community, whether you are white or black.”
A significant opening comment, given Labour’s headline “unity” pitch. What you saw today is a reflection of that – of what I and my team did whilst I was leader and while I’ve been a Councillor. And I’m grateful to them for giving me such a reception. A lot of them, I don’t even know who they are. But I’m grateful that they’ve recognised my face and feel that I am accessible and approachable.”
We moved on to core policy areas. Labour boroughs have joined Conservative ones in making a virtue of freezing the Council Tax, including Tower Hamlets. What would Rahman do about it if elected Mayor? “There needs to be balance, in difficult times,” he replied. “We need to deliver high class, top services. At the same time we have to be careful. It cannot be at the expense of hard-working people in Tower Hamlets. We need to keep Council Tax as low as possible.” Was that a “yes” to freezing it or not quite? “At this stage it’s difficult to say. But if I do get elected, I will explore all options – with the community.”
On housing, he cites the Robin Hood Gardens and Ocean Estates as examples of his success in advancing regeneration schemes when Council leader. Both remain works in progress – see here and here – though his campaign leaflet carries an endorsement from the Ocean’s residents procurement group saying he sorted out the “disarray” in the Council’s plans.
But with little hope of government funding, how would he meet the needs of the families on the Council’s waiting lists, many of them in overcrowded conditions? Rahman expressed optimism about the loan-raising powers of housing associations and the potential of 106 agreements. He rejected Conservative candidate Neil King’s belief that in the present climate the borough should abandon targets for affordable homes in favour of building as many homes of whatever kind as possible. “As a politician, it is my duty, my responsibility, to look out for each and every member of my community. I say rubbish to what the Tory has said.” He continued: “We do need one and two bedroom homes. We have a lot of single people in the borough, we have to try to accommodate them and keep them in the borough if we can. At the same time we do need larger-sized family homes.” He pledged to explore all options.
What about schools? “I’m a beneficiary of the state comprehensive education system. My kids go to state schools. I do not want to see academies in the borough. We don’t have any now and I will resist any move by this government to have that kind of a system.”
What would be his attitude to more faith schools in the borough, within the state sector? Tower Hamlets already has quite a number, notably Catholic ones “As long as schools are signing up to the [national] curriculum I will not oppose them,” he replied. Including Islamic schools? “As long as we know they are signed up to its proper child protection policies and the broad curriculum I would not object.”
I then asked Rahman to imagine I am a Tower Hamlets voter trying to choose between him and Abbas. I might have seen a Channel 4 Dispatches programme earlier this year that strove – rather sweatily, I thought – to convince us that Labour Party and the borough was being infiltrated by secretive Muslim extremists in the form of the Islamic Forum of Europe, the group that Abbas said in his statement that he believed had “brainwashed” Rahman. Were I that undecided voter, I would want to hear from Rahman what his relationship, if any, with the IFE is. “I am not a member and I have never been a member of the Islamic Forum of Europe or of any Islamic organisation,” Rahman replied. “My whole upbringing has been based on social democracy, and if I was a member of any organisation I would declare it as a Councillor.”
But, I pressed, people aren’t saying you are a member of the IFE but that you are in league with them and that they support you in secretive ways. I suggested there are two ways of looking at the the IFE issue. One is that the organisation makes no secret of being involved in political activity and has got some peoples’ backs up because it’s done so very effectively. The other is to characterise its members, as local MP Jim Fitzpatrick has done, as infiltrators or entryists trying to subvert Labour Party, and this fellow Lutfur Rahman as the IFE’s little soldier on the inside.
Rahman laughed. “I find that ridiculous! Can I say this to you? I am not in league with anyone. I am in league with the people of Tower Hamlets. I’m not an entryist, no-one pulls my strings. I listen to my constituents, I listen to my Councillors. I find ridiculous and ludicrous any suggestion that I’m in league with some organisation to deliver their agenda.”
Says he would work with all religious groups as mayor, mentioning his expression of concern for the Gurdwara Sikh Sangat temple in Bow when it was burned down last March. Developing his argument that he’s worked with and for “the whole community” he cites his part in saving of the local Bancroft Library and the re-opening of Poplar Baths. He’s recently being accused of actually wanting the library to be closed, yet the Save Bancroft Library website thanks him for his “October 2008 decision to ‘retain Bancroft for the Local History Library and Archives’.”
But what about Tory group leader Peter Golds’s request that the police investigate him for alleged undeclared donations? Some people seem to take it as read that he’s being bankrolled by a certain local businessman. Rahman dismissed Golds’s complaint as “rubbish.” He said: “Don’t forget, I’m a businessman myself. I’m a solicitor. I earn my own living through my sweat and blood. I pay my expenses. I pay my bills. No one else pays my bills. That’s never been the case. What you saw today was a local business being opened, a sweets shop. I didn’t even know about it, that they wanted me to go and open it. It was impromptu. I’m not beholden to any businessmen. I’ve had no approaches from anyone. I’ve declared what I need to declare. I have no secrets in my life. No, I pay my own expenses, thank you.”
I asked for some specifics. He’d fought the Labour Party through the courts in order to be included in the ballot to select the mayoral candidate. Who had paid his fees? “I paid my own expenses,” he replied. “I paid all my legal fees.”
What about the campaign launch event he held after winning that ballot, which was held at the smart Troxy venue? “The campaign launch? I paid for the expenses,” he replied.
What about his campaign literature? “My leaflets were produced with my own money,” he said.
He then went on to the statement given by Helal Abbas to Labour’s NEC. “If Councillor Abbas had any concerns, why did he not put them before the election?” he asked. “They never gave me a chance to respond to those allegations.” I wondered why he thought the NEC and many in local Labour circles seemed to eager to remove him? He put this down to “some bad apples. They want to get rid of me and they won.” He insisted: “I am the members’s choice. And the Labour Party, with the greatest of respect, is split down the middle about it. Labour values of fairness and justice have always been in my heart, and I’m very sad the way they have treated me.”
I asked him if he’d ever paid the membership fees of other people to become sham or “pocket” party members, who had no interest in the party and simply supported him when required? “No charges have been brought against me,” he said.
OK, but had he ever done it?
“No. For the record, I have never done it. I have never paid anyone’s fee. I have encouraged people to support the Labour Party, because that’s the party that I believe in and have been a member for for such a long time and served it loyally. I said to the party, bring the evidence against me.”
I put to Rahman a complaint that some women had felt uncomfortable during his stewardship of the Council. There are stories of women being excluded from decision-making processes and feeling informally policed by his lieutentants, both in terms of their activities and their appearance. Such a culture would not be consistent with Labour Party values, I suggested.
“What I say to you is this,” Rahman replied. “I grew up in this country. My upbringing has been quite libertarian. My family is quite left wing. I have liberal values instilled in me: values of fairness, values of equality, values of respect. I have never – never – either marginalised or dismissed any member of the Labour Group. I have never marginalised or dismissed or disrespected my female colleagues. I refute it unequivocally.” He added that no complaints were made at the time.
Does he consider himself to the left or the right of Helal Abbas?
“Left.”
He went on to recall with pride that under him Tower Hamlets introduced the London Living Wage for all its employees. With the IFE stories in mind, I asked how he would define the proper relationship between mainstream democratic politics and faith groups? “I believe in social democracy, and that’s the basis on which my whole life has been lived,” he said.
Does he see himself as a secular politician who accommodates and works with faith groups or a faith-driven politician? “It saddens me that some people paint me with that brush,” he said in response to the latter definition. Later, he said, “I’m a proud Muslim, I make no secret of that.” Is he a liberal Muslim or a conservative one? “I don’t know what the difference is. But I don’t want to impose my religion on anyone else. For me it’s a private matter, I try to pray whenever I can, but it’s a private thing between me and my God. And that’s it.”
With time running short. I asked about the speech he made at the end of June’s march through Tower Hamlets against the English Defence League. He was immediately preceded by George Galloway of the Respect Party. Galloway praised Rahman as the right sort of man to become mayor. Respect is now backing Rahman’s independent campaign. This might bother that notional undecided Tower Hamlets voter. What should he or she make of the two standing together in Altab Ali Park that day?
“I have never sat down or even had a cup of coffee with George Galloway,” Rahman said. “I’d only seen him once or twice before, passing by him on the street. I’m sure he’s a good man. I’ve nothing against him personally. But he belongs to one party, I belong[ed] to another one.” Had he expected to be standing next to him? “No, no, no! It was a complete surprise to me. I didn’t expect him to say what he said, I didn’t expect to stand next to him. I wasn’t embarrassed by that, though.”
The Labour campaign takes a different view. They claim that Rahman is effectively Respect’s candidate in disguise. I hope to be interviewing the Labour candidate about that and many other matters soon
Dan McCurry, Bill Turner and Shahed Ali are all political prostitutes. They would do anything for a position. [CONTENT DELETED FOR LEGAL REASONS]
THE SAD THING IS THAT ABBAS WILL LOSE AND THESE GUYS WILL BE KISSING LUTFUR’S ASS IN TWO WEEK’S TIME! REMEMBER MY COMMENT…
When will this infighting stop! The people of this borough are the real losers. The Mayor is supposed to bring an end to this bickering and infighting so please let’s focus on who can lead this borough to prosperity.
Maybe we should get the facial expression of Abbas trying to hit Lillian Collins!:
“ Helal Abbas, who says in his letter that there has never been any complaint about him or investigation, is really Abbas Uddin, who won the Spitalfields by election by 9 votes in ’84 or ’85, I know because I was there, and later had to stand down as a councillor because he was bankrupt. He also had to be forcibly prevented from hitting Lilian Collins at a Shadwell selection in the ‘90s.”.
Source: http://www.christineshawcroft.co.uk/nec
“Ted”, sorry for not replying sooner, but I’m not a keyboard warrior like you, I work for a living. Rather than swallowing hook, line and sinker the reason given by the council how about some investigative journalism? May be the reason LAP meetings were “postponed” between 1 -8 October was so that Abbas Uddin could go out campaigning and avoid uncomfortable questions being asked by disaffected Labour members?