So now we know why Mayor Lutfur Rahman of Tower Hamlets repeatedly refused to answer questions from councillors at the last full council meeting. It wasn’t just because forcing him to speak would infringe his human rights (as John Williams, the council’s head of democratic services, asserted), but it was because he has assembled such a crack-team of latter day Einsteins that they can do the talking for him.
Well, anyway, these are the views of one of those modest intellectual leviathans, the finger-wagging Cllr Rabina Khan and ex-SWP stalwart Cllr Rania Khan.
Here is Rabina’s formal reply to one of the unanswered questions posed to Lutfur. As with all jokes, the punch-line is at the end…
8.3 Question from Councillor Motin Uz-Zaman:
Housing Benefit changes will have a profound impact on our residents and it will lead to some having to leave the borough because the housing allowance will not cover their full rent. Can the Mayor inform the Council the number of meetings he has had with the Minister responsible for these changes to highlight the impact on residents of Tower Hamlets?
Summary of supplementary question from Councillor Motin Uz-Zaman
As no answer has been given, I shall assume there was no meeting. I do not feel it is appropriate for the Mayor to sit there smiling and not answer the questions. If he does not want to answer he can take a break and leave the Council Chamber. The Prime Minister and Mayor of London answer questions personally, why is the Mayor refusing to do so?
Response by Councillor Rabina Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing
Thank you for your question.
The Mayor and I are extremely concerned by the changes to housing benefit. Almost a year ago as Cabinet Member for Housing I presented a motion to this Council which laid a marker down on this administration’s views on the Coalition’s appalling measures.
We are already seeing the impact of these changes on families in the borough. Some families are already reluctant to move to larger homes due to the housing allowance cap and are choosing to stay in overcrowded circumstances.
These changes will impact across all the services in the council as well as our partner organisations. This is why I have asked our central research team to coordinate a high level and innovative group to collate the impact this is having across all Council and partner services.
I have also had several meetings with organisations such as Shelter, TELCO and Z2K to discuss a coordinated response. I have also ensured that the Tenant’s Federation are fully aware of the changes and have held workshops with them.
Next month we are holding a congress with key Partners, including RSLs, the Police, Schools, the Third Sector and to look at the impact of this in a holistic way and plan ways we can combat the changes and mitigate the impact to our residents. This process is to build a coalition of concerned individuals and institutions, who care deeply about the residents of this borough. We will collect a solid evidence base of the impact across the borough.
We know that millionaire ministers are responsible for pushing through these reforms. They have no idea how most people in this country live. In fact Lord Freud, the minister responsible for benefit change, isn’t even elected.
We will have far more of an impact working together. We will demonstrate that individuals and organisations from across this borough oppose these vicious cuts. And we do so, not simply on a whim, but because they are damaging our community and our residents.
It is not the case that the Mayor is unwilling to provide answers to the questions asked at Full Council.
At Full Council meetings, the Mayor’s approach has always been to deliver a verbal statement updating members on the progress his administration is making, and then allow his cabinet members to answer questions specific to their portfolios.
We are a strong cabinet, who invest long hours, remarkable intellect and hard work dealing with issues in minute detail on a day to day basis. We are well placed and will continue to answer questions specific to our portfolios.
Just for good measure, Rania repeats the boast later on:
8.8 Question from Councillor Maium Miah:
Can the Mayor inform the Council on whether the Rich Mix Centre has repaid its £850,000 short-term loan, as agreed by Michael Keith when he was Council Leader?
Summary of supplementary question from Councillor Maium Miah
Will the Mayor answer my question?
Response by Councillor Rania Khan, Cabinet Member for Culture
Thank you for your question.
The Legal Department is currently working on this matter, however no repayment has been made as of yet.
At Full Council meetings, the Mayor’s approach has always been to deliver a verbal statement updating members on the progress of his administration, and then allow cabinet members to answer questions specific to our portfolios.
We are a strong cabinet, who invest long hours, remarkable intellect and hard work dealing with issues in minute detail on a day to day basis. We are well placed and will continue to answer questions specific to our portfolios.
I must have been missing something all these years.
Here is the list of cabinet members:
Trial by Jeory 
Well, all of them bar Oli served in previous Labour cabinets, surely?
What’s changed?
Rofique-only in Lutfur’s cabinet, he asked for and was refused jobs in other Labour cabinets. Denise lost the leadership because she refused to give him a cabinet role and he voted for Lutfur instead. He was then in Lutfur’s cabinet.
Shafiq-yes been in Lab cabinet.
Shahed-briefly in Abbas’s last cabinet
Asad-yes
Lutfur-yes
Ohid-yes
Alibor-only ever in cabinet under Lutfur
Rabina-only ever in cabinet under Lutfur
Rania-only ever in cabinet under Lutfur
Oliur-only ever in cabinet under Lutfur.
So more than half of Lutfur’s cabinet members only ever given cabinet jobs by Lutfur.
As was been asked by many on TBJ’s recent post (here: https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/lutfurs-1000-a-day-man-and-theres-more/#comment-5468), why does the mayor need so many highly-paid ‘consultants’?
The question seems all the more relevant if the cabinet is full of such polymaths as Rania/Rabina claim.
Funnily enough, I have had cause to discuss matters with four of those cabinet members in the last few months, and none of them struck me as being any brighter than a 40W light bulb. And even Dave Hill in the Guardian relates that Rahman ‘fails to radiate competence’. Link here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2010/sep/22/lutfur-rahman-tower-hamlets-mayoral-campaign-marred-ineptitude-nastiness
I’m puzzled by how a cabinet which was cobbled together from turncoat councillors after Rahman won earns the description of “strong”.
I was very much under the impression there isn’t exactly a lot of choice.
To my mind Cllr Kahn undermines her argument by rhetoric. Would she care to provide the evidence for her assertions?
I wonder if at the next Council members from the other parties will be merciless in testing all of the Cabinet members’ “remarkable intellect” and intimate knowledge of the “minute detail of day to day issues”.
Should be fun – if it weren’t so farcical!
When the Mayor was struggling to assemble a cabinet shortly after he was elected , i was talking with his deputy, Ohid Ahmed and asked him what the plan was. His response was priceless.”Lutfur doesn’t need anyone else, he can do it all on his own because he is a very clever man…..” Who’d have thought that there were so many intellectual giants in our borough
Of course he’s very clever – he chose Ohid as his deputy!
typical under the table racism from Ted. nice work!
Oh go on then – do please explain how you worked that one out?
I’ve observed in a number of comments made by people who criticise Ted’s posts that they seem to have an extremely odd perspective on the nature of racism.
There is a real need to separate out:
1) “I don’t like what you say because I don’t agree with it” from
2) “you’re criticising people of a different ethnic background and consequently that makes you a racist in my eyes!”
People who hold elected office need to be accountable for the standards of their behaviour and what they say and do – that’s the nature of the job – and that means that on occasion they are going to get criticised.
Those who get to make decisions tend to get criticised more than other Councillors – because they have a higher profile.
Sometimes people will even make fun of the very odd things they say at times!
That happens – and will always happen – completely irrespective of the colour of their skin or their religion or their gender or any other attribute.
I’d love to hear your definition of “under the table racism”.
[…] members of Lutfur’s cabinet were perfectly well qualified to answer instead because of their “remarkable intellect.” In fact, as we have also described, Lutfur’s cabinet includes a tax avoider who bought […]
I’m posting this link here as it could be taken as an example of Rabina Khan’s intellectualism.
http://networkedblogs.com/ujxB5
Although given some of the subject matter she is discussing it could equally be posted under the blogs about Peter Golds’ experience in the borough.
(I’m interested in the position that she claims for herself and other independents vis-a-vis the Labour Party incidentally).
I think she makes the mistake of thinking Ken winning the mayoral election will be some sort of way back for those former Labour Councillors who declared themselves to be “Independent” to get a seat in Cabinet.
She says “The vast majority of us independents in Tower Hamlets are former Labour councillors, and we like to think our agenda is that of a progressive, real Labour administration. We are happy to support Livingstone and Ed Miliband’s Labour party and hope that, in the event of Ken winning, we can begin to draw a line under the years of division and turmoil that a poor borough such as ours can ill afford.”
It’s always struck me that the Labour Party has never forgiven Ken for going independent when he wanted to be Mayor first time around.
Not quite sure how aligning herself – as somebody who also left the Labour Party to follow her own self-interest – with a man who is more interested in his own agenda than the Labour Party, is going to heal any rift with the Labour Party
Or maybe she wants the new style politics – a coalition?
Thing is – the only coalition I’ve seen in Tower Hamlets of late has been the one between the Labour Party and the Conservatives when voting down the crazy motions being put forward by the Independents at Council