…VOTE FOR ME!
Come on, Mr Mayor, I know you’re a fan.
Put your Merc class X here.
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Spread the word, ring in the millionaires, print new newspapers…and let the smears begin…
Ted, I would have thought you’ve got enough friends in the right wing press and at the newspaper that you work for to ‘spread the word, ring in the millionaires, print newspapers’ to be able to do the job for you.
Oh no, wouldn’t dream of letting them know about this subversive blog.
Ted
Long time no comment, hope you find this comment/question to your liking and decide to publish it unlike last time because it didn’t agree.
This seems the right one to ask because it’s quite ‘out there’.
My question is an honest one without any sarcasm as it would highlight something important in your reporting.
Last month, did the ELA call the mayors office to directly question Lutfurs camp if he had contravened a highway law by parking his chauffeured car on a disabled bay.
After the Mayors office investigated this claim using CCTV, apparently it was concluded that it was in fact Labours ceremonial mayor Mizanur who had his driven car parked on a disabled bay.
My first question is if this is true as you still have close ties to ELA I’m thinking you wod have had a hand in investigating this so you could write a blog on.
Secondly if it turned out to be Mizanur, why didn’t you or ELA lambast him on the paper of blog for parking in a disabled bay?
Was because it turned out not to be Lutfur and so no point in bringing up a councillor breaking parking laws due to him not being Lutfur???
I’ve no idea about it and I think you assume too close a link between this site/me and the current ELA. I think you should ask them why they never ran the story.
Frankly, this issue doesn’t do anything for me, regardless of the driver.
I think the hiring of a Mercedes at £72 a day is a far greater concern, don’t you?
The point of hiring a car at £72 per day while he owns a range rover as I previously stated is something I agree with you.
But I bet if it was his driven car that was the one in question, you would have got the story from ELA and posted a blog, that is my point.
As it’s Mizanur there is nothing in it for you,
It’s about bringing everyone in the council into question no matter who they, if they have done wrong, they should be held to account.
Wouldn’t you agree with that?
I’d only have posted if the parking offence was particularly egregious.
Ditto for all other councillors, but given that the Mayor is the boss, he’s always going to be subject to more scrutiny…at least from this blog anyway.
You highlight an important issue Sheraz, it seems that a story which somehow undermines Lutfur is only worth reporting. The London Evening Standard considered it important enough to mention along with a picture of the vehicle breaching traffic laws, see here:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23977000-email-proves-westminster-uses-charges-to-raise-funds.do
I know that disabled people and most decent people would be offended by such an ‘egregious’ matter.
Am not sure how you can argue that newspapers are only reporting on Lutfur issues when you actually highlight a non-Lutfur one in the Standard…
And surely you’re not accusing the ELA of taking an anti-Lutfur stance are you?
As for the disabled bay contravention, yes, it’s embarrassing and a silly and stupid mistake, but hardly the worst crime in the world is it? Did any blue badge holders complain?
I wasn’t referring to newspapers Ted, I was suggesting that you have a selective approach to reporting stories, particularly your obsessiveness with negative Lutfur linked stories, an example of which is the bingate affair, how Lutfur’s tenants do or don’t dispose of their rubbish. You may not consider it a serious crime, but many disabled people and disability advocacy rights groups would react with fury and rightly so. The depth of discrimination and abuse that disabled people face in our society is torrid and it is our attitude towards the misuse of disabled bay parking that is appalling http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3485239.stm. We should roundly condem such behaviour.
This is a serious matter not only because it is a parking offence (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/MotoringAndTransport/Bluebadgescheme/DG_171251), but because it involves an elected official whose account of the incident it seems contrasts with the photographic evidence and witness testimonials.
Of course I have a selective approach to stories: I try to cover those that haven’t been done elsewhere and which involve abuse of power or major issues in Tower Hamlets.
I didn’t say that parking in disabled bays is not serious; what I would have sought to find out was how long that car was there for, what time of day it was, did anyone complain and why the chauffeur felt he could leave it there. I do think that parking regulations are sometimes far too draconian and inflexible: if that bay outside the Brady Centre had been needed by a blue badge holder, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find the owner of the chairman’s car would it?
Mizanur’s account does seem curious, I agree, but it may well be that he was trying to protect the chauffeur who, from the couple of occasions I’ve met him, seems to be a decent hard-working bloke. Are you saying a relatively low paid member of staff should be punished and risk having his job stripped from him for this offence, just to satisfy some political agenda? That wouldn’t be very brotherly, would it, Adrian?
I think you’re working yourself up into a tabloid type frenzy on this to be honest.
I admire the honesty, but was not the Mayor under the same level scrutiny months prior to him taking up the post as ‘Tha Boss’?
He’s got you there Ted.
Got me on what? This blog started in June 2010. Have a look at the early pre-election process posts.
Would you like to explain what you mean? At the moment you simply come across as thick.
I hope everyone understands that I was suggesting that Shahanara Begum was thick not Ted. Like others on here she semms to very often have no logic to what she posts.