This is cross-post from Kevin d’Arcy’s blog. Kevin is a governor at Morpeth school and an award-winning journalist who has worked for the BBC and The Economist; he is also a former adviser to the World Bank and various European institutions. He’s also the independent mayor we should have had.
Without communication with the public, no government is validPerhaps I should not have been surprised. The council newspaper, East End Life, declared on its front page in giant letters ‘London loves Vicky Park’. Also that it was voted the people’s favourite. What it did not say is that, out of 215,300 people in Tower Hamlets just 279 of them named the park as the best. Which compares with the overall British winner of The Old Station, in Tintern, where a population of 750 managed a vote of 2,421. I have to admit that Vicky Park is far superior to Tintern’s Old Station, despite it now looking like a building site, but both elections raise serious doubts about the nature of democracy. It reminds me somewhat of our mayor’s own election by one in seven voters.The trouble is that all this a secret. The public is not being told. Clearly not byEast End Life, but neither by the previously independent East London Advertiser. Ted Jeory, now of the Sunday Express, who was previously deputy editor of theAdvertiser, says on his blog ‘trial by jeory’ what a pity this has happened.
Councillors still have regular meetings to decide how best to spend our money, but not a word about their work is reported to the public. Two newspapers every week elect to keep their silence.Occasionally the truth leaks out. Either in the pages of Private Eye, or more recently in the Evening Standard, where the latest embarrassing spat was reported between the mayor and leader of the council about the use of the official car. The semi-elected mayor, having been prevented by councillors from taking over the vehicle, decided to hire a car of his own, then also blocked the use of the vehicle to the man who still represents the council, so needs to wear ceremonial gear.
This kind of nonsense is the only account we have of how our borough is run. Central government directives on the use of publicity, paid for out of the public purse, are totally ignored.
Endless pictures of the semi-elected mayor, smiling broadly at old people and children, is no compensation for practical facts about who is doing what and how.
As somebody use to say all the time: there ought to be a law against it.
Trial by Jeory 
“Central government directives on the use of publicity, paid for out of the public purse, are totally ignored.”
And this, I think, sums it up for me. While we have the current state of politics in Tower Hamlets, with ‘elected’ ‘mayors’ and ‘councillors’ who have no care for the local area or the local people, but see the area as their fiefdom (paid for by others, natch) – what is central government doing about it? Has the whole sorry carry-on not attracted the attention of someone who can do something about it?
Publicity budgets being publicly abused? Council meetings being held in foreign languages? Taxpayers money being p155ed up the wall, by willy-waving nobodies who gain position by illegal activities and care nothing for those who pay for their large cars and larger offices?
The disgrace is not just those pigs who are in the trough so deeply their curly tails are barely visible; it’s the bigger government institutions who stand by and watch it happen.
Tim.
Council meetings being held in foreign languages?
Is this true?
According to this, yes:
https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/mayors-at-war-in-tower-hamlets/
Tim
Let’s not be silly here. Of course council meetings and all meetings are held in English.
You would agree, though, wouldn’t you, Shahed, that there are sometimes exchanges between councillors across the floor of the chamber that are not held in English? These exchanges are also part of the meeting, regardless of their nature.
I’m sure you would also agree that not only are such exchanges discourteous and unprofessional but also undemocratic and divisive.
This comment is complete rubbish. Yes, democracy is imperfect here. But he fails to mention that anyone can attend committee meetings, sub-committee meetings, cabinet meetings, full council meetings etc. The decisions and background paperwork are available on paper, by visiting council offices and libraries and on the website http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk
And local residents can vote – for a mayor, against a mayor, for an alternative mayor. Same with councillors. And also they can join political parties and play a bigger role in local politics. And they can stand for election – as a mayor, as a councillor or as an MP.
In fact, why doesn’t he?
Now, now, David….you of all people know how important it is to have a functioning and healthy press, particularly in local politics and particularly in Tower Hamlets. That’s why Lutfur has spent so much time bringing the Bengali-dominated media on-side.
More on this in another post later on, though.
Well maybe Mr d’Arcy had better get his own house in order first before telling others what to do. It would be great if I could ride past Morpeth School gates at 3pm without being insulted and laughed at by Morpeth School boys for being a Muslim woman on a bike.
I do agree.. And that press should also try to be reasonably enlightening. Kevin d’Arcy’s blog fails to mention that ANYONE can attend committee meetings, sub-committee meetings, cabinet meetings, full council meetings etc. The decisions and background paperwork are available on paper, by visiting council offices and libraries and on the website http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk
They can attend surgeries, demand meetings and file FoI requests.
He never mentions the above, or that local residents can vote – for a mayor, against a mayor, for an alternative mayor. Same with councillors. And also they can join political parties and play a bigger role in local politics, including selecting candidates.
Kevin’s blog is as misleading as he accuses others of secrecy, IMHO.
But we all know that the reports are inaccessible in that they are heavy going, even to those familiar with them. Further, they rarely tell the whole story. That’s why it’s vital that local newspapers staff council meetings and report the proceedings and nuances. That’s their job. At the ELA, Mike Brooke attends the meetings but the decision-makers who have been running the office recently take the extremely odd view that “people aren’t interested in local politics”.
Funny that, because if it wasn’t for people interested in local politics they’d have an embarrassingly empty letters page every week.
This new laissez-faire attitude and the ELA’s move to Ilford are probably not unconnected. If the ELA needs a clue as to how much interest there actually is in local politics in Tower Hamlets, it would be well advised to read all the Bengali newspapers: their pages are packed with such issues…
@Tim is referring to Ted’s account:
Tim, that’s hardly ‘council meetings being held in foreign languages’.
The public gallery last week saw someone – a friend of the Chair’s according to Fokrul’s tweet to Ted – stand up and shout a particularly insulting insult in Bangla or Sylheti (to Councillor Alibor Choudury) and then claim his back had been touched by the man sitting behind him. Thence eviction.
The languages – and the serious disorder – are more of a public gallery problem. The councillors weren’t holding the meeting in foreign languages or hurling abuse in foreign languages, were they? It got dirty enough in English with Councillor Bill Turner saying another Councillor was from the “sewers”. (Right, Ted?)
It got dirty enough in English with Councillor Bill Turner saying another Councillor was from the “sewers”
I see our councillors are boasting of coming up in the world then
Shahnara, the world doesnt revolve you and your bike. Mr D’arcy is dooing a fantastic job at Morpeth, and if you have been insulted by a couple of hormonial teenagers, than I am sure he is not to blame
There’s only one person who calls me ‘Shahnara’, has terrible spelling and a pathological dislike for discussing weaknesses in the Bangladeshi community.
Neither Mr d or hormones are to blame, just narrow mindedness.
Certainly my world revolves around my bike, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Heads up: try to get people’s names right if you profess to know them and Morpeth is in MEGT, not BG.