Remember Shiraj Haque? You know, the millionaire Brick Lane “curry king” and Lutfur-backer who professes to be socially progressive, yet whose commitment to the welfare of Tower Hamlets’s neediest residents is limited to his own living arrangements: he rents a large family home from a housing association. Everyone said he was the power behind Lutfur’s throne; well, either he’s been believing his own propaganda a little too much, or he actually is.
For I understand that he’s been summoning some of Tower Hamlets’ most senior councillors for private audiences at his Clifton restaurant in Brick Lane. At those hearings, I’m told that he’s been trying to dish out cabinet jobs on behalf of Lutfur. Lib Dem councillor Stephanie Eaton has been offered one and her husband, Labour councillor David Edgar, has also been asked (via a third party) if he would be interested. He’s also planning to sound out Tory group leader Peter Golds.
The word “deluded” was used by one whose names he mentioned.
It could well be that he’s just playing games by seeing what words of his leak out to the likes of me, but here’s another taster of his apparent views….that Lutfur’s main ambition is to become an MP and that he will target Rushanara Ali either as an independent, or from within Labour if he’s allowed back into the fold, or even by standing for another party.
Lutfur as a Tory MP….?
Trial by Jeory 
I find you get free drinks if you negotiate with the bloke outside before you go in.
I guess we had the Granita pact at a national level (and we know how that one ended!) Now we have the Brick Lane negotiations locally.
Judoker isn’t in favour of “power sharing with extremists” as he says himself. So that is Labour’s view of Lutfur (and the other Councillors). They are “extremists”?
Is that what you lot put in your Abbas dossier? That Lutfur Rahman is an extremist? All we outsiders (that’s us residents of Tower Hamlets who vote for your party/or not) know is that you Labour people knocked out a last-minute complaint about Lutfur Rahman that alleged he had been “brainwashed by fundamentalists.” We also know that Abbas, still your Leader, is the signatory and that Bill Turner, a Labour Councillor, was also making these allegations. This all comes from Ted’s blog – so thanks to him for giving us this.
As Labour still is slinging about comments like “extremists” and jokes like “don’t tweet ‘cell’ after hanging round Tower Hamlets” (tee-hee, how you Labour lovelies must laugh among yourselves) you obviously uphold the allegations of Helal Abbas in that dossier and those of Bill Turner.
If our Mayor and the other councillors who may be in his Cabinet are “extremists” as Judoker says and if similar allegations of the now Mayor having being “brainwashed by fundamentalists” are in this dossier, then the dossier needs to be investigated.
The people of Tower Hamlets should demand that the dossier concerning our now Mayor be investigated. The NEC must investigate.
Ted – you have a copy of it – put it on your blog. Then we residents can at least see what it is that the Labour lot are alleging? Or would publishing the dossier open you up to prosecution, if it was found to be untrue?
There’s a lot I could say. The main point is that is that lutfur stood and was elected on an independent platform. Who am I to argue against the will of local voters? Readmitting him to the labour party would be a slap in the face to all those that voted for an independent mayor.
I suppose I want to say one more point. I don’t believe lutfur is extremist. Some of the people who back him are not extremists. But there are some who are politically hard left and others who are fundamentalist in their religious outlook. I don’t believe a progressive democratic socialist party should be sharing power with such people.
There are also several leaps of deductive reasoning in your argument, attempting to box me into positions I don’t believe in. Nice try. Finally, I don’t speak for or represent labour party.
Lutfur will never, repeat never be allowed into the Tory party
Ted – is the idea of Lutfur’s parliamentary ambitions from an on the record talk with Shiraj Haque?
Not from a talk with me, no
Who would anyone want to be an MP when you can be a mayor?
Thanks Local Voter for putting the outsider’s view.
Could the warring insiders answer this one:
If Lutfur Rahman is going to, as he says, pursue Labour policy, what is it about his policy that Labour council members will have a problem with, exactly? Will they oppose everything just for the sake of it – in the same way that they always rejected on principle any useful policy that came from the opposition?
Good point but what’s the obessssion with having him on the labour party? He stood on and was elected on an independent platform. If he is successful, why would he want to be readmitted? The labour party might take the view – as maybe ken did – that an independent mayor enacting labour policy is better than a Tory mayor. And if he is not successful, why would labour want him back? He stood as an independent mayor, let him govern as an independent mayor.
Judoker misses the point: the question was not about what party he’s in but what will his actions be, will they differ from Labour’s and what will the Labour opposition object to?
NB Apparently the Rich Mix money will now be given to the Bancroft Library.
Guess we’ll see.
Ohid as DM is a smart move: best of the bunch.
What! No updates for three days? I do hope the baddies haven’t got to Ted and bumped him off!! What’s your view of the events at the full council meeting on 27/10… I didn’t go, was worried it might start a riot!
Have been away from TH for a few days….will update over the weekend
This blog is fast becoming Trial By Judoker.
Forgive my ignorance Judoker and loathe as any of us outsiders/mere residents are to comment – at the risk of being stomped on by you insiders – but I have to ask why you answered on your “extremists” tweet to Peter Kenyon and not on “don’t tweet ‘cell’ after hanging round Tower Hamlets” to Marcus Roberts (while he is in America.)
Marcus Roberts was Rushanara Ali’s Campaign Manager, then Ed Milliband’s Campaign Field Director (Ted says). You must have thought he would enjoy your in-joke about a “cell” in Tower Hamlets. But you (and he?) “do not speak for or represent labour party”‘ when you do this? Terrorists and extremists in Tower Hamlets, arf, arf. Marcus Roberts’ Twitter profile picture shows someone who is not likely to be called a terrorist or an extremist when he campaigns in our streets for the Labour party. No doubt you feel safe too in creating such hatred and division by ‘campaigning’ in this way.
Marcus Roberts tweeted, after defeat for your campaign, that this paragraph from Andrew Gilligan’s “Labour: London Borough becomes ‘Islamic Republic'” is “our silver lining”:
“Finally, something else which Tower Hamlets is not. Some of my commenters are fond of saying that the borough is an example of “Third World” politics in the UK. There are indeed similarities – but actually the claim is an insult to the Third World. Bangladesh has got to grips with Islamism; the IFE’s Bangladeshi parent, Jamaat-e-Islami, gets about two per cent of the vote in elections there. No Islamist sympathiser in Bangladesh has unfettered control over a £1 billion budget. Bangladesh, in short, has less of a problem with Islamic radicals than Tower Hamlets.”
[Andrew Gilligan’s final paragraph on Bangladesh’s lessons for Tower Hamlets is essential – thats’s our silver lining:http://bit.ly/aoXv54”1:17 AM Oct 24th via Twitter for iPhone]]
What a “silver lining” ! How scandalous and shameful for the Labour party – or should I say local Labour party – ‘campaigning’ in this way. (The notorious Facebook and Twitter campaigns of another local Labour party campaigner still lingering.)
And now your efforts/campaigns have brought us to the attention of “a New York blogger who believes America is being infiltrated by Muslim extremists” as Dave Hill has just reported. That word “extremists” again! Poison started in Tower Hamlets for political ends and with sneering disregard for the people who live here, now goes global.
Silver lining?
Your ignorance is forgiven.
Local Voter/Outsider writes that “Bangladesh has got to grips with Islamism”. Is that why the Ahmadiyyahs live in fear? –
http://www.thepersecution.org/world/bangladesh/10/10/ds20.html
ANDREW GILLIGAN wrote that. Not Local Voter/Outsider.
Andrew Gilligan’s lie: the definitive proof
Andrew Gilligan presents himself as a respectable, serious, investigative journalist who wins awards. But tonight, Between the Lines can reveal that Gilligan gave false information to a local Tory leader, which produced the negative comments used in Channel Four’s Dispatches programme, and the subsequent Telegraph articles and blogs. Not content with sexing up his case against IFE, Gillian also used a lie to connect Lutfur Ali with IFE through the “Centre for Muslim Affairs”.
http://blog.islamicforumeurope.com/2010/10/29/andrew-gilligans-lie-the-definitive-proof/
The fact remains that Lutfur Ali was appointed to a very senior post in Tower Hamlets against the advice of the personnel experts, who clearly stated that he was a marginal candidate. His CV included false information. Lutfur Ali was working for and receiving remuneration from another organisation whilst he was supposed to be employed full time at Tower Hamlets. He did not last long in his post at Tower Hamlets. It is also known that Lutfur Ali was a supporter of Lutfur Rahman for mayor campaign. Those who appointed Lutfur Ali need to explain why they supported him. This fiasco cost Tower Hamlets a lot of money which must be reflected in the level of services or the rate of Council Tax.
Fair enough
True though, no matter who wrote it.
This blog exemplifies why only 25% of the electorate turned out to vote in the Mayoral election.
Local people hold local politicians in contempt.
Where is the talk about the cuts? Where is the talk about defending our communities from what is going to happen? Where is the talk of creating alternatives to the worn out policies of Labour and the attacks of the new government?
You are all navel gazing and fighting irrelevant, personal, divisive battles. We need politicians who will stand up for local people. That is why I voted Green.
Ted Jeory, Helal Abbas and Andrew Gilligan. The three musketeers…..
http://atowerhamlet.blogspot.com/2010/06/revealed-truth-behind-gilligans.html
Democracy?’ @ 24 has only confused this matter even further so can I try to put a few things in perspective. The far left/Islamist lobby have presented the whole situation as a conspiracy by New Labour/the media/the Israeli lobby to “demonize Islam” and prevent the real choice of all of the people of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman from being elected Mayor.
If these people are to be believed then powerful reactionary forces have been working behind, and sometimes not so behind, the scenes rather in the way that the notorious Tzarist forgery “The Protocols of The Elders of Zion” alleges that the Jews do.
Let’s go through the evidence. Andrew Gilligan made a Channel 4 Dispatches programme called ” The Islamic Republic of Britain 2 in which very detailed allegations were made about the activities of the Islamic Forum Europe.
The programme was immediately denounced as a “smear” campaign, lies, innuendos and facts taken out of context. As far as I have been able to see from following this matter closely is that so far, and it has been seven months since the programme was shown, none of the allegations in it have been refuted.
Quite clearly there were grounds for legal action by any number of individuals on several points. To date, as far as I understand, not only has nobody even issued letters before action but the Press Complaints Commssion has thrown out every one, except a very minor matter, of the complaints made about the programme.
Unless at this late stage someone is prepared to say of an allegation in the programme ” this is untrue because ” then we have to take it that the evidence presented in the documentary is true, and that there was and is clear evidence of penetration of or undue influence by IFE on sections of Tower Hamlets Labour Party.
We must also take it that the reasons for this activity by IFE was twofold. To promote a radical Islamist agenda amongst the Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets and also to gain access to large amounts of public money for both private gain and religious propaganda.
The conspiracy theorists have constantly used the fact that because a diverse range of people are all making the same or similar allegations they must have all come together at some point to work out the plan. This is of course very similar to the anti semitic conspiracy of a meeting of Rabbis once every hundred years to review their plans for enslaving mankind.
We are asked to believe that a range of interests, individuals and political parties have come together secretly to plot the destruction of Lutfur Rahman but for reasons that are never set out.
Channel 4, Gilligan, Ted Jeory, local MPs Jim Fitzpatrick and Roshanara Ali as well as the local Conservative Party and the NEC of the Labour Party have, for reasons we have never, as yet, been told, are united in a mission to demonise not only hime but all Muslims both in Tower Hamlets and everywhere in the world. Set out in those terms the whole thing seems completely bonkers which is exactly what it is.
The reasons that such a diverse range of sources are making the same allegations is because they are true. It is also interesting that none of those named has so far produced any evidence to refute the very specific allegations simply dubbing them smears and lies etc etc. Rahman himself has refused to be drawn on any of the allegations and his weasley performance on the Channel 4 documentary was virtual proof positive of his complicity.
The whole pro Lutfur campaign reminds me of the scene in Citizen Kane where the newspaper proprietor played by Orson Welles is told by a reporter that a trades unionist will not be inteviewed. ” Call him an Anarchist, get him to deny it” he roars. Proof is asked for Lutfur being a member of IFE.
It cannot be produced because nobody has alleged that he is. He is certainly very close and has benefited from the networks of patronage that they have established. IFE have campaigned for years for him and accused his opponents particularly Helal Abbas Uddin of a range of disgusting and totally unfounded acts.
Money from IFE controlled groups has poured into the pro Lutfur camp and mosques and madrashas under their control have urged support for him and denounced his opponents as unislamic. Like many opportunistic politicians around the world and throughout history Lutfur Rahman is not particularly religious. He is however prepared to enter into alliances with religious reactionaries in order to achieve his ends. The evidence that he has done so is overwhelming.
IFE is closely associated with Jaamat i Islam a fundamentalist Bangladeshi group which was involved in the killing of thousands of pro independence activists during the countries liberation war in 1971. Some of its leaders are still wanted for war crimes. It is ironic that the influence of JiI in Bangladesh is very small and it suffered a huge defeat in the last general elections over there as the junior partner in a coalition with the Bangladesh National Party.
Let’s have a few comments on this and I will come to his business backers later today or tomorrow.
One has to ask who the conspiracy wingnuts really are! They can certainly dish it but can’t take it. One rule for them another rule for others. A more productive outcome from Labours debacle and shambolic Tower Hamlets mayoral contest will be for the NEC to independemtly investigate Abbas’s dodgy dossier and the role that individuals such as Rushanara Ali, Jim Fitzpatrick, Harriet Harman and et al have played in all of this.
…yes… I totally agree with you cockneyrebel. Very well said!
Cockney rebel put forward the ‘evidences’ that you believe to be irrefutable, I will respond in detail.
Bodrul Islam,
First of all ” evidence ” is both singular and plural and you are still back to where all of the Lutfur apologists are. The Channel 4 programme produced evidence in various forms that Lutfur Rahman was backed, for their own different reasons, by Islamic extremists and a group of businessmen who wish to take advantage of the powers that the Mayor has.
What you have to do is to look at the evidence that caused the NEC to remove Lutfur as candidate. I understand that the dossier presented to the NEC contained evidence that at least more than a hundred members of the Labour Party who voted for Lutfur didn’t live at the addresses they claimed they were living.
You could always pop around to 333 Hanbury St a flat owned by one of Lutfur’s sisters and where she, her husband and another person are registered as living and as members of the Labour party to find that another women lives there, rents the flat from an agency, has been there for eighteen months and does not know the three people registered.
I understand that there are somewhere in the region of one hundred of these. This is called blatant fraud. It wasn’t even done in very sophisticated way. Start with that bit of evidence which is very close to Mr Rahman himself.
Then perhaps you could deal with the documentary and refute, with evidence, every one of Gilligan’s allegations many of which, if untrue, are libellous.
You are using the classic holocaust deniers tactic of asking for evidence of the killing of six million Jews. The Press Complaints Commission has thrown out a whole series of complaints, are they a part of the conspiracy as well?
And finally. Why does a range of people and organisations, all of whom I have listed above, all have the same opinion of Lutfur Rahman? The answer is simple, he is backed by IFE and businessmen on the make and has rigged the electoral rolls and the membership of the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets. Is there anything about that you do not understand?
Cockneyrebel, Labour had the same membership list since Nov 2009, so why did they allow the election to go ahead if they knew there were dodgy members on it?
You may recall only members who were registered before Nov 2009 were eligible to vote. Even if there were 100 or so members that you claim are dodgy, how could you claim they all voted for Lutfur Rahman?
What really has been exposed is Ken Clarke’s bullying and handling of the shambolic selection process. If anybody that needs to get the boot it should be Ken Clarke and Peter May, they have been disgraceful and undermined the local members.
End of the day, the best man won, he was the bravest and a fighter who stood up against injustice and cronyism.
Labour – so the comments made about 333 Hanbury Street don’t deservce a response? Is it okay that Lutfur’s sister was registered to vote at an address that she doesn’t live at. Is that a problem or not?
Interesting, I don’t know much about an individual’s situation to make any specific comments about them. However if Lutfur’s sister is not living at that address then she may have her reasons, did anybody ask her. We all forget that the list and the process was managed by Labour and not Lutfur. If there were any discrepancy then it should have been investigated before a judgement was passed. The dodgy dossier against Lutfur Rahman was signed and sent to the NEC only 4 days before the nomination closed, it was all calculative and preplanned to oust him out. To cut a long story short, Lutfur won with a 12,000 majority, that must mean something. Wake up and get real, Labour cronyism is not working in Tower Hamlets anymore.
All Councillors have an obligation to work in the best interest of the community, are they really doing that at the moment or is it now a personal agenda for Labour to become an obstacle for Lutfur Rahman so he does not succeed as a mayor? It is sick how petty Labour councillors are behaving.
In the last full council meeting, Cllr Josh and Cllr Abbas’s key item on the agenda was to reduce the salary of the mayor, how important was that? Sore losers!
“Interesting” – Yes it is a problem – it is illegal to register to vote at an address at which you do not live.
Sadly that’s not entirely true – you can be registered at more than one place (but can only vote in one of them) and you can still be on the register at an old address (but must vote there).
But this is beside the point since we are talking about the selection process for the Labour candidate for Mayor . So we’re talking about the membership lists for the Labour party, rather than the electoral roll.
I don’t blame you for the confusion, though, because the Labour selection process (which was only open to party members) was obviously mistaken by many members to be the actual election of the Mayor – so much for democracy and the right of the majority of TH residents who are politically neutral to choose what they want. I had to go back through the thread to establish what stage the comments were referring to.
“Cockney Rebel” aka “Terry Fitz” (formerly “BillericayDickie”, “Eastender”)?!
And who is “HtheW”, Cockney Rebel’s fellow traveller? “Hthe W” says she/he would have caused a riot at the Council meeting, so are you Gilligan – no – he says he was there – “Kennite” – Gilligan’s sock puppet?
If we are to take Cockney Rebel and HtheW seriously, perhaps they should declare themselves?
Talking of sockpuppets has ” Kennite” Gilligan been at it again? This time trying to remove reference to his dodgy resume in the Wikipedia entry under Andrew Gilligan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Craig142
Dave Hill’s original article exposing “Kennite”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2008/nov/03/gilligan
[…] the Great Dictator. But his email does raise a couple of interesting points. As I reported in this post, Lutfur’s business backer Shiraj Haque has been trying to persuade opposition councillors to […]
“Labourman” – or wannabe Lutfur crony.
1) Tower Hamlets residents now have an extra £10,000 more than Lutfur wanted them to. It can be invested in local services to rather than going to a man who already has considerable personal wealth.
Is that a good thing or is it not?
2) After the first Labour party shortlist Lutfur brough a motion to the Labout group saying the Mayoral salary should be c £37k. Why did his position on this change when he became the Mayor.
Stop throwing mindless accusations and answer these questions
Cockney your delirious rantings really do not help your cause. Posing legitimate questions with regards to the ‘alleged’ evidence of gilligan and abbas’s dossier and asking for objective scrutiny is not akin to holocaust denial. How you inferred this beggars belief.
Lets get to some of the points you have raised. The assertion that lutfur is backed by sinister Islamic organisations and self-interested businessman is grotesquely wrong. The fact that he secured a 12,000 majority appealing to voters across the spectrum would on its own nullify this point. You seem to be pointing to the IFE as an extreme organisation. A simple question is how are they? Mere rhetoric on its own without substance does not prove anything. Just because right-wing neo-con ideologues affirm this point proves absolutely nothing. All the empirical evidence indicate that IFE are a moderate organisation who operate within the normative paradigm of democracy. I seriously suggest you do a bit of research. Maybe the european muslim research centre at exeter university would help. Empirical verification of one’s argument is very important in a debate.
Let’s get back to the alleged vote-rigging furore. From what I understand this was one of the most rigorous election the labour party has implemented. The administration were confident that the labour party members who voted were legitimate and hence deemed the election free and fair. If you are privy to information which proves voter fraud why does not the nec remove these fraudulent members from the list?
Abbas’s dossier is something the republican tea-party movement in america wouldn’t dare concoct due to its beyond-hysterical nature. You forget to mention that the main gist of the document is the assertion that lutfur and ife are proxy agents of the saudi state which seeks to islamise tower hamlets. If you believe such an assertion why do you do not contact central government along with the ‘evidence’ so that our prime minister and diplomats can tell the saudi state to stop meddling in
“The fact that he secured a 12,000 majority appealing to voters across the spectrum would on its own nullify this point”.
But he didn’t. He got a 12,000 majority on a tiny turnout. Most voters didn’t bother to get out and vote for anyone – the best that can be said about that is that Lutfur was as unappealing as the other candidates and most people couldn’t be bothered.
And he may have made appeals to voters across the spectrum but there is no indication that his campaign lured voters from across the spectrum to support him.
Bodul – you are right about the bizarre point about Holocaust denial which is irrelevant and offensive to a discussion about Tower Hamlets politics.
But please respond to my other questions. Is 333 Hanbury Street a problem? Does Lutfur really want, need to deserve and extra £10,000?
By the way didn’t you attack Mayor Rahman on facebook only days after the election claiming Lutfur was “ignoring Respect supporters”?