I was told the Labour party selection process for next May’s Tower Hamlets council elections is currently something of a “bloodbath”.
The London region held interviews for all those who applied last weekend after which a long list was drawn up. Those who failed to make it have the right to make an appeal next weekend. After that, the party will start the tricky process of picking the 45 candidates to stand in the 20 newly drawn wards.
Labour recognise they have a problem.
I’ve been sent an internal party report that shows that of the 108 applications received, a heavily disproportionate number were from Bengali men. Only 23 women applied.
Here’s the commentary on that fact from the report (which is called ‘Equalities, Employment Status and Trade Union Analysis of the Applications received for the Tower Hamlets Panel of Local Government Candidates 2014’):
The breakdown can best be described as disappointing but not unexpected. While the membership of the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets is substantially male, the number of women applicants does not even reflect the proportion of women members, let alone the population of the borough as a whole.
The report then concludes that for LGBT and disability representation, the applications are in line with averages.
Around 60 per cent are in full time employment, some 25 per cent are part-time workers, while about seven per cent are unemployed.
Just over 50 per cent are members of trade unions, with Unite, the GMB and Unison dominating, while, according to the report:
The group with the lowest propensity to be a member of a trade union are Bangladeshi men.
On age, the majority of applicants were aged between 30 and 49, while about 20 people aged between 18 and 29 also applied.
But then we have the most interesting section of all–ethnicity.
The report first states the latest census data for the borough, that ‘whites’ comprise 53 per cent of the population; 43 per cent are classified ‘White British’. Bangladeshis are 30 per cent, Chinese 3 per cent, ‘Other Asian’ are 5 per cent, and Blacks are 7 per cent (within that Somalis are 2-3 per cent).
Here’s the breakdown of applicants:
And here’s the report’s commentary:
It can therefore be seen from the above chart that the applications received from members of the Bangladeshi community far outstrips that of the population as a whole or indeed the percentage of the local Labour party membership.
Taking into account the disproportionate numbers of applicants from the Bangladeshi community the relative numbers of applications from other communities are reasonably representative of the ethnic make-up of Tower Hamlets.
It should, of course, be stressed that far from the numbers of Bangladeshi applications being unwelcome, the best way to achieve a range of applications would be to increase the number of applications from people of other ethnicities. Indeed the desire on the part of the Bangladeshi community to serve the community should be applauded.
It should be noted that there are no applications from other south Asian backgrounds despite there being established Pakistani, Indian and Sri Lankan communities–of which are reflected in the membership of the Labour party.
Finally, no applications were received from the Chinese community–unsurprisingly given the lack of Chinese members of the local party.
What is the significance of all this?
Well, the lack of female applicants, particularly Bengali women, has to be a real concern. The likes of Shiria Khatun have been excellent standard bearers and I know she has been working hard to encourage others to follow her lead. But while Labour has just two Bengali women (Zenith Rahman being the other), Lutfur’s much smaller group has three.
Labour’s rules mean one third of the candidates must be women, so of the 23 who applied, only eight will be disappointed. As three of the current women councillors are standing down (Carli Harper-Penman, Lesley Pavitt and Ann Jackson, as I understand it), we could well see a wave of fresh female faces in the chamber next year).
When it comes to the question of Bengali males, surely this has to be seen as a Labour success story. Their active engagement in Tower Hamlets politics has been rewarded with position and power. Those in the white and other communities have plenty to learn: those who complain about under-representation should get involved in the process.
But numbers only tell part of the story. In the past eight years I’ve covered Tower Hamlets politics, the calibre of the majority of Labour’s Bengali male councillors has been lamentable. Many have struggled to communicate in English (some of those have now been rewarded by Lutfur)–and frankly that should bar them from being a candidate.
They should be picking people who truly engage with the theme of the party’s candidate for mayor, John Biggs…One East End. When Lutfur picks his candidates for his Tower Hamlets First party, his bias towards the Bengali community will be, or should be, a source of embarrassment.
He’ll have the odd Trotskyite/SWP oddball, I’m sure, but it will be easily characterised as Tower Hamlets Bengalis First (actually, many believe that’s a vote-winner for him).
So it’s for this reason why I’m a little surprised that two of the most articulate of Labour’s Bengali councillors have failed to make the long list. I hear that Mizan Chaudhury and Anwar Khan have received rejection letters.
Mizan did make a bit of a fool of himself during his stint as Speaker, and he is a bit of a hothead, but at least he’s passionate about politics. He’d be a loss.
And Anwar, I’d have thought, is exactly the kind of councillor Labour needs: a highly educated banking accountant who is a role model of success to younger Bengalis.
I’m told both have appealed. Good luck to them.
Trial by Jeory 
Is it cynical to wonder how many of those Bangladeshi men would, if appointed, cross the floor to the Rahman Party very, very quickly?
No.
It’s a worry for Labour.
At least Mizan has been loyal to Labour. By not selecting him, have Labour scored a victory for Lutfer and his band?
Mizanur is a very nice guy. Perhaps he is too nice for local politics. My abiding memories of Cllr. Mizanur Choudhary are his rather ineffective spell chairing council meetings as “Speaker”. When he chaired full council meetings he did little to control the disorderly outbursts by Lutfur’s gang and even less to control homophobic heckling from the visitors gallery. I think because he allowed this behaviour it has become entrenched.
On a positive he did maintain the profile of the ceremonial mayorlty at a time when the very existance and purpose of that office was fundamentally threatened by the quatermass that is the executive mayoralty. He styled himself as the “First Citizen of Tower Hamlets” and as frequently as several times a day would post various flattering pictures of himself looking handsome posing in his official chain and robes on Facebook. The positives he brought to the office of Speaker were also rather undermined by his very public spat with the executive mayor which risked bringing his ceremonial office into disrepute and even provoked the Deputy Lord Lieutenant to contemplate intervention. He was right to assert the importance of the ceremonial figurehead of the council but ended up appearing rather hollow when it transpired he was spending vast amounts of public money on taxis in his quest to show Lutfur up.
Nevertheless, I do think Miz has more to give, he is loyal and I would be very surprised if he joined Lutfur’s camp. As for Anwar Khan, he will certainly throw all his toys out of his pram and its almost certain he will try to run on a Tower Hamlets First ticket. I think some of the problem comes from party grandees like Denise Jones sitting on seats when they really ought to have been given the heave ho decades ago.
Labour (basically middle class white men with a career in mind) have always stuck the knives in the back of any Bangla who popped his head to high above the parapet – quite unjustly. Isn’t that how the Lutfer ‘problem’ started in the first place? Labour made its bed, now it has to sleep in it. Unfortunately the borough suffers.
Anwar is one of the most disgusting individuals I have ever encountered in politics. He accused Labour’s Mayoral candidate of being a racist during his selection; he is still doing it now despite having a meeting with John this week, which he leaked to the Independents. He is also the chief culprit for the Jalal Ahmed smear email.
He has even stooped so low as to call Carlo and Amy racists for not inviting any Bengalis to their wedding and is currently publicly accusing Carlo of conspiring against him by writing a ‘dodgy whips report’.
He wrote to a range of politicians this week threatening to call an immediate press conference and trigger a by election and was crazy enough to include Rushanara Ali and John Biggs in the email. And then there’s the outstanding public complaint against him. You might want to do a little digging around that Ted. Labour is well shot of him.
Let’s see if he’ll come on here and deny any of those accusations.
@Cllr Peck
You’re one of the few people I have anytime for in group, please stop defending this pompous little shithouse.
There are two seats up for grabs in Bow West, Labour should put a woman in one of them. Clare Harrison would make a fantastic candidate there.
Only one seat in Bow W unless Josh too is on the move.
Boundary review!
Anon83 aka Alibor Choudhury, you’re not a lovely person yourself. We all know the dirty games you’ve played, including the dodgy leaflet that was produced about Abbas being a wife beater. You were fortunate to be a Labour candidate at the last election and without doing much got voted in as a councillor. It will be a very different story this time round and I would be very surprised, with your charming charisma (not), if you get elected. At least Anwar is not a thug or a former drug dealer. Also we now know that you are standing in Stepney and not in Shadwell, clearly you’ve done very little work there and most residents in Shadwell don’t even know you (beside the mosques)! But we do, you are just a thug with very little to offer to the people of this borough. If the Mayor wins in May 2014, I doubt he would even have a handful of his councillors winning. The Mayor’s team and his councillor are a bunch of buffoons, voters won’t be fooled by them. Some of the people that hang around with the Mayor on a daily basis (Noman – a nutcase Advisor with curly hair, Robbani – Mayor’s useless side kick, Aktar – nobody including the Mayor knows why he hangs around with them, Aminur – taxi driver looking to promote his Mrs Khan, Jubair – A superstar journalist who can’t speak English and is paid by the council to work for Channel S and Shazid – a political advisor with no political experience and a mole planted by the IFE) says it all about his ambitions and capability to make this borough wonderful, it’s so unreal that we have allowed this to happen but it’s good plot for a comedy movie.
I missed out few more very important characters in the Mayor’s team, the chiefs that will get Lutfur re-elected, here they are:
Mauim Miah – best discribed as a cartoon charatcer and a little clown who lives in Newham, a former Chef who pretends to be from Isles of Dogs, involved in a community organisation to siffon off money from Tower Hamlets, doesn’t have a job but the Mayor keeps him for entertain and to hear his vile jokes.
Mahee Jalil – a criminal who is awaiting jail sentence for fraud and the owner of Channel S, Mayor’s propaganda machine. He is an informal advisor to the Mayor, a ugly grotesque character who is always looking to get paybacks.
Hira – the open secret guru & thinker of Lutfur, an IFE man assigned the task to keep Lutfur on the straight, Lutfur won’t pee without his permission. He thinks of himself as a learnered man, he always talks of good but usually has an evil intention & an ulterior motive. A real villain character from the movies.
Rubina – a deluded misfit who thinks she is smarter then the fools in her group, which could be true. Wife of Aminur Khan, that should tell you how smart she is, hoping her close relationship with Lutfur will get her the nomination to stand as an MP candidate against Rushanara.
Oliur – a stranger, a lost character with no real purpose of being in the council. Always moaning but never for a cause.
Asad – most probably the most unloyal political servent Tower Hamlets has ever seen. Thick, useless and has nothing to show for his 25 years in politics beside the free financial allowance he has got from the tax payers. A complete waste of space but you could get fooled by his apprarance.
Ohid – a whinger full of crap and unrealistic ambitions, has a love hate relationship with the Mayor. Nobody knows where this relationship is heading.
Lutfur the Mayor: dont judge a book by its cover, usually well-manared, is well-spoken, will display false emotions and will pretend to be very humble BUT is a devisive character with no sincerity. A hypocritic and a betrayer, when he was the leader of the Labour Party, he worked against the party and colluded with Respect to topple the Labour group. Promises the world and delivers pretty much nothing – full of bullshit! It’s usually all about him and will do pretty much anything to get re-elected.
There are a few more waste of space in his team but can’t be bothered to waste my time writing about them. All I can say is; God help Tower Hamlets!
Great reflection on the Bangladeshi community, others should take stop moaning and learn from them. It would be interesting to know what percentage of each community actually vote. The Bangladeshi community may only be 30% of the population but could actually be 80% of those who vote. Hence the disproportionate number of councillors and Lutfur himself.
A few years back when Galloway’s respect fielded lots of candidates after his election success, most of their Bengali candidates got elected and very few of their non Bengali candidates got in. Had they fielded all Bengalis, they could have got a lot more seats.
If Labour go for fielding candidates that reflects the various communities in TH, they’ll do the politically correct thing, but electorally it’ll be a desaster. Hope they have a plain talking political strategist who understands the unique make up of the electorates in TH not jut the census facts. A tick box candidate selection process will not work for Labour!
Before you ask me Ted, is it right Bengalis only vote Bengali candidates? I can only answer for myself and I don’t. But I wouldn’t question those who do either.
Bengalis only vote for Bengali candidates because when the Lib Dems were in power they made sure the policy decisions were as anti-Bengali as possible. This is insurance for them. You have to look at the history before you judge a group. when your family have to live in sub-standard housing because you are a newcomer, well you kind of don’t want to risk sliding back to racist times. The Bengalis never felt secure leaving their fate into the hands of others historically Churchill’s policy starved many millions of Bengalis, then under Pakistani rule, etc. Bengalis are politicised because they suffered. They are on the defensive. But sometimes they can be too defensive. I don’t judge, I like to see people’s perspective. I completely understand their sometimes neurotic need to have control over the decision making process. I also know until they feel secure in a community this won’t change. anyway that’s my take.
“Before you ask me Ted, is it right Bengalis only vote Bengali candidates? I can only answer for myself and I don’t. But I wouldn’t question those who do either.”
Oh good. I hope you’ll extend that courtesy to white voters who will only vote for white candidates. But what do the Chinese voters in Limehouse do who can’t see an ethnically Han name on their voting slip? Or the Somalis who can’t see anyone of their ethnic origin there? Or me, when I look and can’t see anyone else of the same ethnic origin as I am? Voting for people by race is precisely what has got us into the situation we are currently in as it is racism, pure and simple. Saying you won’t question it disgusts me.
My personal view as to why there are so many Bangaldeshi applicants for candidate? It’s related to the words “expenses”, “taxis”, “not turning for council meetings” and “allowances”. I.E. being a councillor in LBTH is a ticket to being paid money for doing very little other than swan around in taxis which are paid for by the taxpayer. Cynical? Moi?
Tim.
Anon83,
What’s the dodgy whips report about, by carlo.
1st time I’ve heard of emails calling for press conference. Can you evidence this.
Who is Clare Harrisson, does she have any community links, or just another labour career politician.
Sounds like Ted, labour in fighting will help Lutfur win again, obviously labour councillors want to spill the beans on here
That last paragraph is racist. You can’t construe it any other way.
I thought you had a comments policy, Ted?
Seems to have slipped through the net.
Denial is probably one of the best known defense mechanisms, used often to describe situations in which people seem unable to face reality or admit an obvious truth (i.e. “He’s in denial.”). Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that something has occurred or is currently occurring. Drug addicts or alcoholics often deny that they have a problem, while victims of traumatic events may deny that the event ever occurred.
Denial functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope with. While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a substantial investment of energy. Because of this, other defenses are also used to keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness.
Give it some thought, Oldford.
Tim, the white man, the Chinese, the Somali and for that matter the Bengali can vote for whoever they want and for whatever reason feel right. Not only would I not question their choice, but would defend their right to do so.
Perhaps that’s the difference between you and me. I believe in democracy and people’s right to choose but I’m not too sure if you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t presume to tell people on how they should vote.
Regarding your observations on why these candidates are standing, it says more about yourself then anything else.
Hardly surprising women don’t want to be Councillors when they have to put up with sexist abuse from the public gallery
This posting really ought to be called “Labour’s excess of Bengali men” – because that is the real problem.
Tim was quite right (as usual) in his analysis. The Bengali patriarchy equate getting selected as a Labour candidate as an almost Wonka Bar gold ticket guaranteeing riches and glory for them and their chums. Isn’t it funny how “socialists” operate nowadays…
The way I see it is that there is a sort of double dilemma going on here. Labour really needs to field candidates who better reflect the real ethnic make up of the borough but they also need to have a good pool of talent to choose from. Sadly they don’t have this and they know it. They could go a long way towards better reflecting the local population by using the census and aiming to have at least 30% of their candidates being ‘white British’ and no more than 30% being of Bengali heritage. As regards to getting a better pool of candidates that is a far more fundamental problem.
Simply put, most of the people actively involved in the Labour Party aren’t very nice people. Anyone who has been actively involved who is not a pathological liar will agree with me here. For the most part, they are backbiting, scheming, arrogant, overbearing, holier-than-thou types who have to ring someone up to ask what their opinion should be about something and live and die for a political party that long ago ceased to have any clear purpose. The party high command dispatches these robotic party apparatchiks around the streets at election times with their rehearsed arguments and readiness to laugh inanely before walking off muttering “bigoted woman- get rid of her” – people just don’t buy it anymore. Most white British people in this borough long ago stopped voting altogether in council elections and I doubt anyone will ever get them to vote in those elections again. Well, Nigel Farage just might.
I think that, in a way, Imran is quite right when he says he cannot blame Bengali people for only voting for Bengali candidates. I say this because many white British people feel much the same way. However I would add that their reticence to support a Bengali candidate is not down to some over-simplistic Alf Garnett style stereotypical bigotry – however much some quarters try to construe this to be the case – but because of unhappy past experience. It is often the case that once elected Bengali councillors tend to focus entirely on their own community and become almost invisible to non-Bengalis until the fun of election time happens again.
Ted touched on something when he mentioned the language barriers but it goes beyond that.
It is the experience of very many non-Bengalis that their local councillors (who are Bengali) simply don’t give a shit about them. Most of these councillors have little or no empathy with white British people and make no efforts to. I don’t think this is because they are “racist” rather they are lazy and have chosen the path of least resistance and go with what they know. Ultimately this is down to the simple truth that they are shit councillors who have been selected by nasty people in Labour because they have the right race and gender and not because of their ability or likability.
At the end of the day Labour is in this to control people and give us what they reckon is good for us. One of Labour’s favoured methods is divide and rule and that is why they choose such poor council candidates. In the last elections they selected several candidates simply because they were women, namely. Shelina Akhtar, Rania Khan, that great author Ribena Khan, and the endlessly amusing Lutfa “I can see dead people” Begum.
Look what happened to them.
Reblogged this on Sundial Centre Shipton Street.
The argument that THLP select barely literate candidates because they will be yes men for Labour is oft heard. Also these councillors are often used to demonstrate the poor standards of the Bangladeshi community. The truth is there are many British educated Bangladeshi graduates who put themselves forward but are not selected because they are not mired in old style Bangladeshi politics. THLP need to remove the Awami League elements much as they have removed the IFE elements and select Bangladeshi candidates who are young and unaffected by Bangladeshi politics. Then residents will be less suspicious of the choice of candidates and the reasons behind those choices. Sometimes people forget the reason behind democracy and becoming a politician; it is to SERVE THE PEOPLE!
Both Labour and independents will have more Bengali candidates than others; if give nthe chance they will have a full slate of Bengali candidates; and the main reason is that not only Bengali’s but all BME’s take the election seriously and actually come out to vote!! Where as the White community don’t. They only come out during the General Election! That itself is problem; that is why we have Lutfur with only 12000 votes out of possible 220000 (residents)
Both Labour and independents will have more Bengali candidates than others; if given the chance they (both) will have a full slate of Bengali candidates; and the main reason is that not only Bengali’s but all BME’s take the election seriously and actually come out to vote!! Where as the White community don’t. They only come out during the General Election! That itself is problem; that is why we have Lutfur with only 12000 votes out of possible 220000 (residents) voters! And that is why there is every chance for Lutfur to win an second term as Mayor as it seems that therer will be more white Mayoral candidate then Bengali’s and all BME votes will fall into one basket without hesitation!
If the main objective is to get rid of the current regime then the only option is for people to hold their noses and vote with their hearts for first preference but give John Biggs their second preference vote in the mayoral contest.
So the white British like to invade countries to teach them democracy and look down their noses at all the undemocratic Eastern countries, and then when the Easterners do get involved in democracy those same white British make a fuss about that too! There is a strong whiff of hypocrisy me thinks! ^^
Get a life hypocrites. No one is interested in your supremacist attitudes. Perhaps you should learn about civic engagement from the Bangladeshis instead of moaning about it. Some people are just never happy. Go suck a lemon.
Who’s fault is it if white people don’t vote? I swear some people are so deluded.
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