Just a brief post on tonight’s chaotic, almost inaudible, strangely pointless hustings event at St Matthias Church in Poplar. (I’ll do a fuller one when I find time tomorrow).
I came away feeling that two of the candidates performed very well in the circumstances, one remained quietly dignified under fire, a fourth did OK and a fifth was pretty much out of his depth (and I have to say, that’s not a bad thing – the atmosphere was at times poisonous).
I’d say that, in terms of content, Lib Dem John Griffiths (who landed blows on everyone) just about edged it from the Conservatives’ Neil King, while Labour’s Helal Abbas, when he could be heard above the heckling from Lutfur Rahman’s young supporters, probably came third. The Greens’ Alan Duffell is, I think, beginning to wonder what political cesspit his party’s landed him in.
As I say, more detail tomorrow
Trial by Jeory 
I came to somewhat similar conclusions. The Green – at 25 years old and just 3 years living in the borough – is out of his depth. With housing not being a priority for the Conservative, makes me just wonder. Given the issues between the Independent and Labour candidates, I came away thinking that the candidate that could potentially work across all communities and who done well on the night was the Lib Dem candidate, who might actually make the best Mayor out of the candidates.
Question are does he have the exposure amoungst the people of the borough -if all they have to go on is the flyer covering all candidate profiles?
It’s nice that Lutfur has a new supporter.
If I was him I would try to find an endorsement from someone who can least went to jail a bit before last year but needs must I suppose.
I’m sure relatives of road accident victims in Tower Hamlets will be just delighted.
Come on Ted, that is really unfair reporting. I was there, John did really well and put Abbas in his place for making silly comments about democracy – he laughed and said you came third in the selection, how is that democracy?
To be fair Lutfur did brilliantly and proved he is the strongest candidate for the mayoralty. I think you will find it hard to defend and write something positive for your new friend Abbas on this occasion.
[…] a commenter on this thread last night has pointed out, the former jailbird appeared at a Lutfur campaign meeting last night in […]
I notice you say Abbas came third. Hr makess a habit of that position.
Ted you saw the faces of the audience afterwards. There wasn’t a smile on the face of even one of Abbas’s supporters.
Meanwhile Lutfur’s people were happy.
Says it all
[…] some more detail on last night’s hustings. First off, unless someone drops a real clanger, I don’t think these events will have any […]
I just noticed (while looking at something entirely different – I’m not obsessed, honestly!) that clicking on the ‘yes for mayor’ button on Abjol Miah’s old website takes you to the ‘lutfurformayor’ facebook – so if you were a facebook friend of the former back before the election, it seems you automatically become a facebook friend of the latter now. Nice work!