I wasn’t there, but Lutfur’s first cabinet did in the end manage to go ahead. He did finally persuade enough people to join him to make the meeting quorate.
Unfortunately for him, the four who have taken up posts are all from his ‘group of eight’ ex-Labour councillors.
So Alibor Choudhary takes the finance portfolio, new councillor Rabina Khan is in charge of housing, Oli Rahman is responsible for children and education, and his fellow Respect defector, Rania Khan, will run regeneration.
Tory Opposition leader Peter Golds, who was there, said: “His cabinet is beyond parody. You couldn’t find a more ineffectual bunch of four if you tried. Who’s going to have any respect for people who have belonged to four political groupings in the past four years?”
He refers, of course, to Oli Rahman and Rania Khan: they left Respect for SWP/Left List/Independent, then Labour, then Independent.
A cabinet of all the non-talents. Alibor with the finance portfolio lol… what a complete farce this is.
I’m more interested in what qualifications (in the sense of knowledge and experience) – if any – they bring to the new posts they hold.
What’s their background?
Look at the members interests, none of them are qualified.
http://sps2ksrv.towerhamlets.gov.uk/meetYourCouncillor/
Alibor is from Stepney ward, knows how to get Bengali votes for Bengali-frowner Judith, Rabina is an author from Shadwell, she speaks better English than most Lab councillors, Rannia and Ollior are old enough to spell their portfolio names though not quite define them. They also know how to switch parties faster than trains in Victoria if u want to get out of TH quick! Of course, Alibour has the prize £1bn which he can spend on buying 31 Lab councillors with the exception of…?!
still mispelling the names dna
Most of the remaining Labour councillors speak perfectly good English – what on earth are you on about?
Rania previously held the lead cabinet member for Regeneration so again this field should be ok for her to deal with. I am sure they are waiting for a reason, more Lab Cllrs will join them and the one Lib dem perhaps?
ha ha ha ha
Rabina is self published and something of a failed author, do the Amazon test. She speaks better English than most Labour Cllrs I’m not sure that is true, she defiantly speaks better English than the Deputy Mayor though. Oliur is a glorified administration clerk.
Oliur, you might say his mother’s milk is barely out of him, so he’s well suited.
I caught Alibor practicing his adding up the other, so that’s explained.
Rabina will be able to figure her job out quick enough and no one’s going to question the allocations integrity with her in charge.
Rania is out of harms way.
What happened to Ohid?
Maybe the influence of the Ted Jeory post-election blog is apparent after all.
Lutfur’s choice is all about being whiter than white. He wants the Labour Party back and he knows the way to do it is to prove himself well-behaved.
He’s making Ken’s job easy.
See Lutfur Rahman will not be readmitted to Labour
“The message has been passed to Ken very clearly from Ed Miliband that Lutfur will not be allowed back in to the party,” a senior Labour source said. “He has been told to shut up.”
Dan and Cllr Shoheed Alee have suddenly become pro-Luthur. Wonder why? Must be Alibour’s billions!
Please, I beg you, please please please spell people’s names correctly. It’s starting to hurt my eyes.
Could be voice recognition software tbf.
Fair enough…
4 Cabinet = £250m each cllr x 4 = £1bn = Luthur = Alibour. £0.2bn Meat Market Fund (MMF ie LIVE cllrs), to buy off Lab cllrs inc money hungry Abbus! Total £1.2bn or £0.8bn?? You decide. THP Participatory budgeting programme, LAP 1-7!
It is said that the Deputy mayor is secretly taking English lessons from ESOL courses in Tower Hamlets College…
Tower Hamlets Labour party (Councillors and ordinary members)don’t want to see Helal Abbas and Josh Peck (leader and deputy leader) or their poodles (the likes of Anwar Khan) runing the Labour party. These people should be removed by the Labour Party immediately otherwise TH Labour party will be destroyed!!! With Abbas and Josh at the helm, TH Labour party will lose the Spitalfields and Banglatown by-election miserably! Remove Abbas and Josh NOW before its too late!!
Newsflash: Cllr Abdul has also jumped ship to join the Lutfur camp because of Helal Abbas and Josh Peck (and the poodle Anwar)!!
Also rumour has it Cllr Abdal and Cllr Shiria are lobbying to cross over if Lutfur provides them with cabinet positions! Watch this space…..!
get rid of Helal Abbas and Josh Peck!!!
I wanna be a Billionaire, so frickin bad!
Seriously though, Alibor and finance?!? Why didn’t lutfur take that portfolio himself, or is this something in name only coz he had to do it… Can someone clarify please?
The inevitable has happened… Fools are running the show. At the same time, people are losing jobs, people are nearly liviing in the streets and kids are getting killed.
… And Tower Hamlets has this bunch running the show. I thought I would never say this, but I hope Kevan Collins and his Senior Team have a cunning plan that would do ‘Yes Minister’ proud!?!
Why read so much into his appointments? One of the advantages of a mayor is that there isn’t the constant jockeying for positioning at the AGM. Granted by his actions he has ended up with a pretty lame bunch to choose from. He’s then sat down and made the best of a bad bunch. No use get personal about them. There’s clarity about who makes the decisions…bit worrying that older people doesn’t seem to have a portfolio holder? Now the battle for transparency: it’s beholden to make sure scrutiny works properly. And fingers crossed that the officers feel sufficiently confident to stand up to the mayor. Maybe because he’s weak in the council they will?
That’s where I think it could get really rather interesting.
I’m not sure transparency is going to be an issue in reality given existing legislation and what’s on its way. There’s going to be lots of scope to examine decisions taken from all sorts of angles. I imagine the FOI requests are probably going to have an exponential trajectory.
If I was Lutfur’s position and was unable to draw on a Cabinet which had much/any strength in depth, I’d be extraordinarily nice to the CEO and fervently hope I get some good advice and lots of help and support from the Chief Officers.
Of course if Lutfur and his acolytes choose to behave like complete divas then the senior bods always have the scope to make life pretty difficult simply by playing it by the book. Shades of “Yes Minster!”. Officers have always had the scope to make a councillor’s life easy or difficult and have lots of scope to keep the Cabinet occupied full-time with masses of work! While of course making sure that the scrutiny and standards processes are in excellent working order as well. Plus the cuts in resources means there’s no scope for paying off anybody who won’t toe the Lutfur line.
Like I said, should be really interesting….
Heard rumour there’s been another defection to Lutfuh’s camp. Does any1 know it is, Denise Jones?!
Well done on spelling one name correctly! But a new variant on Lutfer/Luther!
Yes it’s Asad. We hope that Rofique and Shafique go too – inshallah!
-13
It’s Asad. That’s why no one gives a shit. Both the longest serving, and the least effective, remaining Labour Councillor (although with Rofique Ahmed).
Sources within the Labour Party are expressing the earnest hope that Rofique also leaves the party. Sadly for him, Lutfur doesn’t want him. One of the better decisions he’ll make.
I guess Rofique is a liability now for both camps. Best solution is to offer him a tonne of bedel nuts / supari with paan or green leaves and show him Heathrow Terminal 3, to bring peace to HM TH!
Josh is that you complaining about Cllr Ahmed or one of your slaves? Josh you are stukk in the past dude…..colonialism has ended and slavery has been abolished!!
3 re-rats
Really repulsive comments on here: Fighting4EdMiliband/Dan spewing out more hate, here amongst friends.
Next we’ll get retreads of pre-election IFE/East London Mosque “brainwashed by fundamentalists” allegations and then post-election comments of the ‘I don’t want to power share with extremists’ kind and Gilligan says Islamic radicals now have control of Tower Hamlets, but that’s “our silver lining”; Judoker, Marcus Roberts etc still on the campaign trail.
What company you are all keeping in this club. Nasty, vicious, bigoted – and to what end? Why don’t you publish your NEC dossier so that we can all have a look at what it is that you believe about your former colleagues, now opponents? Otherwise your continuing accusations just are bigoted.
Bigoted is a strong a strong word.
The last time I used it was to describe the council’s One Reason CD, which included a sermon by Bilal Philips.
I googled him and within a minute I found a YouTube video where he said all gay people, who have come out, should be killed and says that gay people are an attack on the family.
(Watch this video by Bilal Philips 12mins in:
http://gaymuslims.org/2007/01/15/bilal-philips-video/)
Yes the Mayor is clearly trying to unite Tower Hamlets.
P.S. I can’t believe that someone who was once a member of the Labour Party could happily promote this bigot!
The Council doesn’t have any such CD. Some Council employees distributed One Reason CDs. I’m still waiting to see what/if any action is being taken. As a gay man, I really hope disciplinary action is taken against them.
But don’t you dare claim this is somehow sanctioned by the Mayor and/or the Council.
Fresh rumour: Cllr Asad while declaring his departure from Labour whip to support Mayor Lootfur in parliament before two local MPs he has written to all Labour MPs urging them to pressure unwanted TH Lab group leader Cllr Abbus to step down! It is now said that he could step down any day next week following pressure from Ed Miliband. This follows Departure by 3 cllrs from Labour whip who are now subject of self-expulsion if they ever take a Cabinet position due to a motion passed by TH Labour group parliament. Abbus’ resignation will be heralded as a new era for the idiotic narco-brain likes of gold-digger Cllr Abdal Ullah to express interest in standing as leader! Insiders say Cllr Rachel Soundass is now also against Abbass as Cllr Cabirnet Ahmed called Lab group atmosphere ‘Poisonous’. Watch this space!
‘Rich Mix Rachael’ against Abbas?
No way. Abbas saved the Rich Mix for her (and the rest of her mates.)
Fighting foe es miliband. Not sure where you get your rumou. The only poisonous factor in the labour group is lutfurs people, he is spreading his poison again, he is steering things up so labour councillors challenge the leadership, and obviously abdal ullah and marc Francis are preferred leaders of the party from the opposition, as they don’t mind bowing to the IFE and Lutfur. Abbas is the best leader Labour have, really can’t see Anyone else, a lot of the non Bengali councillors, very talented but don’t want lead a troubled group, a lot of the bengali councillors are only concerned for positions and power. So at the moment their is no one better to lead. And yes Abbas is very a good role model for us mate, u seem to believe too much of the hype and listen too much to Donague. The alternative to Abbas is party being ruled by Lutfur from outside
The problems that Islamist attitudes to gays can provoke are highlighted in this recent article from TimeOut about anti-gay leaflets appearing in Tower Hamlets
As if Abbus and Luther are responsible for that…
E. Nash-Arples:
I’ve had lots of gay friends that have had issues in Whitechapel but I fail to see the relevance of that post. You seem to be trying to generalise an opinion you ascribe to ‘Islamists’. Are Islamists and Bengalis / Muslims the same thing? If you do think that’s the case you’re a bit of a twit and at first glance you don’t seem to resemble a twit. If you don’t think that, the point of the post was what?
mint “a bit of a twit” is very modest abuse indeed. Please try to come up with something more robust. The point I was making is that Lutfur and his cabinet cannot possibly combat anti-homosexual words and deeds from fellow muslims. Therefore they cannot possibly do anything to “unite” Tower Hamlets. Compare and contrast (a)the massive Borough led anti-EDL response to the completely non-existent incursion by an entirely legal organisation that was going to protest peacefully (so they said) against “islamic extremists”, and (b) the utter failure of the Borough’s leadership to protect homosexual residents from real assaults, real abuse and real leaflet and sticker campaigns directed by “islamic extremists”. Lutfur and Co. cannot act in these (and other) cases, they are simply paralysed. If they attempt to differentiate between reasonable people and “islamic extremists” who want to abuse homosexuals they will be accused of splitting “the community”.
Spitalfields and BanglaTown in a branch campaign meeting, the secretary officially declared and endorsed the Candidate Abdul Alim,The chair of the meeting also from Spitalfields was very happy with alim
That must now mean a Labour victory in Spitz, let’s all jump up and down and celebrate like we thought Abbass was gonna win! Hip hip hooray…