Peter Golds, the leader of the Tory group on Tower Hamlets council, has asked me to post the following statement on this blog in response to anonymous criticisms by various commenters.
This is the first time I have ever posted on this blog.
I post on other blogs but always under my own name. For those in public life to abuse others anonymously on blogs can have serious consequences – as can be seen by the current implosion of the career of Johann Hari.
As for Ash [comment number 5 here], you may study contributions but your woeful contributions suggest that you fail to understand any of them. As your jokes have been read, Cllr Maium Miah indicated who you actually are. Listening to the name he gave, it certainly falls into place, but then he might not be telling the truth.
I have never met Labour group leader Cllr Josh Peck outside of the town hall/civic environment.
Despite allegations of meetings, I have exchanged just two words with Rushanara Ali: “Good evening,” in November 2008 at the borough fireworks event.
So Ash, your “understandings” are mere trash.
Steve [comment number 3 here] seems more plausible, at least until you read him. Steve claims to be a loyal helper and worker. So loyal that he does not even know the surname of Shirley Houghton or first name of Phil Briscoe, or as we all knew last year, that they had moved in the summer and were celebrating the birth of their first child.
As for the Spitalfields by-election, I was helping Matt Smith as recently as last Thursday afternoon, as I now know, at the time of the “press conference” following up issues that we had discovered in that very by-election campaign.
Then Steve says I should be “trying to broker a deal with the Mayor”.
Well, Steve, as a loyal and hard working Conservative supporter, plugged into meetings and events, surely you were around when Tim and I reported back that we had been approached by Shiraj Haque, asked to visit his Clifton restaurant (where we accepted a glass of tapwater) and were offered a cabinet and adviser post in the Lutfur administration.
You will remember how this was greeted, you will recollect Cllr Miah, who was also present at the Clifton but having lunch, warning us to say no, and everyone else agreeing this. You will also remember that we all laughed at what Eric Pickles would have said had we accepted.
Perhaps you just were not around; perhaps you are not even Steve.
It is very sad that there is little comprehension by commenters on this blog that politics is confrontational, that elected people will have different views and opinions to other elected officials.
Is Ash or the rest saying that the Labour group in Westminster or Wandsworth should shut up shop and support the local Conservative administrations?
I hope not, for that is not what politics, either local regional or national, is about.
It is ridiculous to expect the entire borough should await every missive from Mayor Rahman because of his mandate of 23,500 votes. Yes, he has been elected, but he is accountable and contributors should understand that some support him, many do not and others will question his actions.
That is called democracy.
Trial by Jeory 