With the fluid movements between the various parties over the years, Tower Hamlets politics has always been a bit of an incestuous affair, but the Labour’s new slate of 45 candidates for the May 2014 council elections has taken it to a new level.
We seem to have couples, mums and sons and brothers at war everywhere. It’s like Dallas and Dynasty combined. John Biggs, the Labour puppet-master, has become JR.
The candidates were announced last night. As mentioned before, Judith Gardner has stepped down; Bill Turner has moved to Barking and Dagenham where he’s secured a candidacy for that council; Kosru Uddin and Ahmed Omer are departing; Mizan Chowdhury has been axed, as has Anwar Khan, who is in dispute with the council over an alleged fracas with a parking attendant…something he denies.
So there are many fresh and young faces, which in part reflects a determination to bring in a new generation. Robbie Scott will be interesting to watch: I don’t think he’ll shy away from confrontation.
And I’m told Amina Ali, a BBC journalist selected in Bow East, might well be a star of the future. If she’s elected of course.
Standing with her in Bow East are Cllr Marc Francis and his wife Rachel Blake.
Anwar Khan’s place in Bow West is taken by his sister-in-law, Asma Begum, who is married to Anwar’s brother, Tarik Khan, who is a lovely placid chap.
Raju Rahman, who has been selected in the new ward of Island Gardens, is also said to be a bright rising star; he’s the son of Cllr Zenith Rahman, who is married to ex-Councillor Helal Rahman.
Cllr Carlo Gibbs and Cllr Amy Whitelock Gibbs were married earlier this year.
Cllr Rachael Saunders is married to Tower Hamlets Labour chair Chris Weavers, while Cllr David Edgar is married to Lib Dem Cllr Stephanie Eaton.
It’s not just Labour, of course. Among Lutfur’s camp, Cllr Aminur Khan is married to Cllr Rabina Khan, while Cllr Rania Khan is the daughter of Cllr Lutfa Begum.
The latter two were in Respect, as was ex-Cllr Mamun Rashid, who has been selected for Labour to stand in Shadwell, where he has a big following. (Rashid and Lutfur, by the way, have past links…I was once handed a tape recording transcript of Lutfur, when he was fighting to become the Labour parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow in 2007, calling on Allah to bless Mamun and another Respect colleague for helping him fight the eventual victor, Rushanara Ali. I must dig it out).
If you want to see all the pictures of Labour’s candidates see here, here and here.
I’ll try to find time to do some substantial analysis of the slate; if anyone has any inside info, do please email me.
In the meantime, here’s a list (Y/N signifies sitting councillor or not).
| Amy Whitelock Gibbs | Bethnal Green | Y | Married to Carlo Gibbs |
| Abdirashid Gulaid | Bethnal Green | N | |
| Sirajul Islam | Bethnal Green | Y | |
| David Chesterton | Blackwall & Cubitt Town |
N | |
| Iqbal Hossain | Blackwall & Cubitt Town |
N | |
| Candida Ronald | Blackwall & Cubitt Town |
N | |
| Rachel Blake | Bow East | N | Married to Marc Francis |
| Marc Francis | Bow East | Y | Married to Rachel Blake |
| Amina Ali | Bow East |
N | |
| Asma Begum | Bow West |
N | Brother-in-law of Cllr Anwar Khan/Married to Tarik Khan |
| Joshua Peck | Bow West |
Y | |
| Zenith Rahman | Bromley North | Y | Mother of Raju Rahman |
| Khales Uddin Ahmed | Bromley North |
Y | |
| Danny Hassell | Bromley South | N | |
| Helal Uddin | Bromley South | Y | |
| Shahaveer Hussain | Canary Wharf | N | |
| Debbie Simone | Canary Wharf | N | |
| Raju Rahman | Island Gardens | N | Son of Zenith Rahman |
| Andy Cregan | Island Gardens | N | |
| Rajib Ahmed | Lansbury | Y | |
| Shiria Khatun | Lansbury | Y | |
| Dave Smith | Lansbury | N | |
| Catherine Overton | Limehouse | N | |
| Rachael Saunders | Mile End | Y | Married to TH Labour chair Chris Weavers |
| David Edgar | Mile End |
Y | Married to Stepanie Eaton |
| Motin Uz-Zaman | Mile End | Y | |
| Kahar Chowdhury | Poplar | N | |
| Mohammed Mamun Rashid | Shadwell | N | Was ‘married’ to George Galloway |
| Farhana Zaman | Shadwell | N | |
| Helal Uddin Abbas | Spitalfields & Banglatown |
Y | |
| Tarik Khan | Spitalfields & Banglatown |
N | Brother of Cllr Anwar Khan/Married to Asma Begum |
| Mohammed Ayas Miah | St. Dunstan’s | N | |
| Abdal Ullah | St. Dunstan’s |
Y | |
| Denise Jones | St. Katharine’s & Wapping |
Y | |
| Robbie Scott | St. Katharine’s & Wapping |
N | |
| Clare Harrisson | St. Peter’s | N | |
| Sanu Miah | St. Peter’s | N | |
| Carlo Gibbs | St. Peter’s |
Y | Married to Amy Whitelock |
| Victoria Obaze | Stepney Green | N | |
| Sabina Akhtar | Stepney Green |
N | |
| Abdul Mukit | Weavers | Y | |
| John Pierce | Weavers | Y | |
| Faruque Ahmed | Whitechapel | N | |
| Jamalur Rahman | Whitechapel | N | |
| Robert Robinson | Whitechapel | N |
Trial by Jeory 
They call it corruption in third world countries when things like this happen. On first sight I thought, what a breath of fresh air! I wondered what Labour’s game was. Thanks for the transparency.
I can’t help but feel sorry for those deselected guys.
=> Muslamic Islam
Rubbish. Its just a typical Labour Party family affair 🙂
Look at Labour’s parliamentary leadership – I’m surprised Ed Miliband hasn’t given his wife a Shadow Cabinet job. Fancy having Mr & Mrs Balls, Mrs Harman and husband Jack etc.
Agreed. Labour don’t care what the voters want. Their election bosses are motivated by a desire to win elections at any cost. They really don’t care about the good service given by dedicated Old Times who happen to know their areas very well, and lots of people living in those areas and – very importantly – the problems and the causes of the problems in their areas.
Kick out the dedicated Old Times because their faces no longer fit in today’s Nu Labor. Years of dedication rewarded by a kick on one’s backside 😦
Curious Cat
Who are the dedicated old timers being kicked out?
Ha ha ha ha ha. They ‘don’t care what the voters want’ … but want to ‘win elections at any cost’.
Calm down dear.
Ah well it’s quite sweet though. It seems to take up quite a bit of time being a councillor so at least they’ll get to spend some time together. Though maybe attending scrutiny committee isn’t everyone’s idea of date night.
A lot of very dedicated and intelligent people on the list. Looks like a good team.
No wonder Tower Hamlets has the highest levels of overcrowding?
Just a quick one for amendments to your list as follows;
FARHANA ZAMAN; was married to George Galloway as a Respect candidate in Whitechapel along with Waiseul Islam and Shahed Ali in the 2006 elections, she lost!
KAHAR CHOWDHURY; was married to George Galloway as a Respect candidate in the Isle of Dogs in the 2006 elections, he lost.
JAMALUR RAHMAN; was a staunch supporter and campaigner for Mayor Lutfur Rahman, I’ll email you a lovely picture.
Will be interesting to watch Cllr. Harun Miah vs Ex-Cllr. Mamunur Rashid in Shadwell where they both served together, as Respect councillors.
More to come…meaning defections to Lutfur of course!
For those of us, like me, who don’t run FLASH, a summary of your ? would be useful.
The above is a Youtube video of Sly & the Family Stone’s version of “It’s a Family Affair”. Just me being silly I suppose, but it immediately came to mind. For more worrying aspects of the end results of all this incestous nonsense: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/10512609/Australian-authorities-expose-nations-worst-case-of-intergenerational-incest.html
Its far too cool for THLP…. I mean, Danny Hassell must be the weakest candidate ever to face election in the history of politics.
I don’t know Clare Harrison very well but she’s got really stuck into TH politics since she’s got here. I think it’s a real testimony to her character that she’s endured all of the snide comments about her educational background and accent and stuck it out this long. Clare will be a real asset to the Labour Party if elected. The big mistake in my opinion is not to put her in Bow East or West.
Robert Robinson is a good apple and it would have been nice to see him somewhere less turbulent. I’m glad Rachael Blake is on here she’s an absolute demon with voter ID and will be an amazing councillor.
The one criticism I’d make is the lack of women. That was always going to be a problem and it’s a problem all around the country, I don’t think slates of local men looks very good. Amina Ali is definitely one to watch. Lastly Debbie Simone. I rolled my eyes at first as she’s a bit of a newbie but she’s probably done more over the past few months that many Labour party members have done in the past 4 years, lovely lady and a fantastic candidate.
Looking forward to seeing the Mayors team.
How many of these candidates:-
*** know much about local government ?
*** posses sufficient brain cells to understand English and Mathematics ?
*** genuinely care about improving the council’s services to the residents ?
*** are genuinely committed to working for their local community and are wiling to put the hours in and to represent all residents equally and fairly free of all discrimination and bias ?
If someone tells me , I shall have difficulty believing it.
Perhaps all local government election candidates should have to pass a ‘qualifying examination’ before becoming official candidates ? After all they are responsible for the well-being of many hundreds of millions of pounds of the public’s money.
Curious Cat.
Always on something of a sticky wicket when you pull people up on their english and get it wrong yourself:
“possesS sufficient brain cells to understand English and Mathematics ?”
=> John Jee
Yes I agree with you.
In mitigation I was relying upon the spell checker (English/UK) in Firefox version 17.0.10. It is not perfect and it does occasionally miss some mistakes.
More seriously an extra or misplaced or even omitted letter is grossly insignificant when some ‘elected’ councillors can’t produce a concise understandable sentence in the language of this country.
Listen or watch the news, try Al Jazeera English (Freeview 83) – its international coverage quality is superior to the BBC’s – and listen in amazement to people of all wealths, and none, speaking a foreign language (English for example) better than some elected councillors. Just because some are poor and have very little their misfortune does not diminish their conspicuous and admirable abilities.
Labour started the Town Hall rot which is abusing any notion of transparent and accountable local government. Instead of YES men (and women) lets have articulate and committed election candidates instead. How else would the LBTH mess have survived without Labour’s creative policies ?
Curious Cat.
If those deselected feel strongly enough about it they could always stir the pot by becoming independent or (might I suggest) UKIP candidates.
=> News Spaniard
This country’s best future, with or without Scotland, Northern Ireland or dual language-signposts-Wales, is inside the EU.
How about starting a TH Residents Party ? Most of the contributors here would probably join.
Curious Cat
Actually not a bad slate of people who have ability and will be able to run things. I think it is a pity that someone like Raju Rahman who is particularly capable has been given Island Gardens which I believe is Tory. He would have been better of in somewhere more Bangladeshi and winnable. He represents a new university educated articulate generation of Bangladeshis fed up with the old corruption.
At a national level the incestuousness is of course disgusting but at a local one there is a much smaller pool to draw on and all in all the selection isn’t too bad. The main problem is that Biggs’ campaign is pretty much off the radar even though he has been gifted a whole load of assets by Rahman he seems to be going through the motions.
Actually he isn’t John Jee. Unless you are agreeing with Ted that a perfect or at least sufficient command of the English language is a necessary prerequisite for public office.
What a loss to our borough Bill Turner is.
Not.
Oh dear! looks like we’ll need in house ESOL classes in the Town Hall if this lot get through. Probably they should divert funding from the community Bengali classes, investing in understanding what councillors are saying benefits all. Though I do believe politicians have a way of avoiding question and diverting attention even if they are articulate so we don’t understand them anyway, LOL.
I hear that Farhana and Mamun Rashid ex Respect don’t have the required 1 year membership. Someone has misplaced the rule book again. THLP need to invest in a good secretary me thinks.
Anyway good luck to all candidates of all colour and affiliations. It will be exciting to see who gets through on election day. Hope the rest don’t take it to heart too much, politics is a vicious game.
Every more exciting will be to see what, if any, improvements the new intake make for the benefit of the long-suffering public.
* Bigger and more limos for all councillors?
* Councillors’ pay rise 😕 inflation plus 12% ?
* New council chief exec on £300,000 plus perks a year ?
* Council Tax reduced by 10% ?
* Public apologies when the council and its councillors and Mayor get things wrong ?
* The Mayor gets a cheap moped for round the borough transport ?
Please don’t hold your breath because I shall be surprised if any genuine improvements happen in TH.
Anyone seen any Labour Master Plans describing all the wonderful benefits ascribed to voting Labour – apart from ousting the Mayor and his gang ?
Pity it is too early for election predictions.
Curious Cat.
Is there to be a similar analysis of the Newham Labour candidates? I think there are two husband and wife groupings and one mother and daughter, but I could be mistaken.
After making enquiries it would seem that the Labour selection is far more astute than would at first appear particularly in terms of the selection of Amina Ali. At the last count there were about thirty eight thousand Somalis in Tower Hamlets almost entirely divorced from local politics with the sole exception of the late and unlamented Cllr whatever his name was.
Despite the wishful thinking of the far left that Respect was a cross community, mass mobilisation uprising of the oppressed it was in fact an entirely Bangladeshi membership organisation which morphed almost completely into the base of support that put Rahman into power.
There are a number of factors that could sink the Lutfur/IFE project which are now beginning to appear. The Somali factor is one. A mobilised Somali vote will be extremely powerful and is impervious to the Shyleti political manipulating of Rahman and co.
The fact that Mamun Rashid has been selected by Labour is a sign that Lutfur’s patronage isn’t sought by all and could be a more direct sign of writings on walls. If indeed he has a big following in Shadwell then whatever Lutfur had on offer wasn’t enough.
Once again the old white working class has been ignored and some recognition of their existence and history could have brought a few thousand votes. The lack of that shows the isolation from and contempt for them of the New New Labour breed of politician, most of whom never seem to have had a proper job. Still, anything’s better than Lutfur Rahman.
With so much corruption here, the current residents must get quite sentimental for the life they had elsewhere where it was even more rampant. Don’t you long for the good old days when a bribe was common practise… and if you didn’t pay, a good beating was what you’d get and deservedly so…Oh hang on the UK is catching up, better get those beers down you before the thugs from the religion of peace arrive.
Newspaniard.
You become more incomprehensible with each post. Could you please explain the above one?
Madmullah, you do complain so much about not understanding English for someone who likes to put others down for their lack of English skills. Strange.
=> News Spaniard wrote:-
Old days ? What makes you think TH has abandoned the ?
Curious Cat.
I don’t understand where you’re getting your figures on the Somali community from. According to the link it’s a maximum of 7200 and that ignores Nigerians, Ghanians etc so it’s not particularly big at all? Am I missing something ? We have more Chinese …
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/idoc.ashx?docid=a2cee9aa-89ad-48d9-8cd2-00deef8128a4&version=1
Even if you include ‘Black other’ it’s still nowhere near your thirty eight thousand number.
Off topic but not much. All media has been carrying the story of the execution/murde of North Korean Jang Song thaek on the orders of the Korean Dear Leader Kim Jong un. So what’s that got to do with Tower Hamlets I hear you ask.
One the Junta at the top of the page is Len MacClusky, Dear Leader of the Unite union, and a deal doer with another of the trio, Tower Hamlets own Dear Leader Lutfur Rahman.
Right hand man of the Unite leader is one Andrew Murray, not the tennis player, and a long term extreme leftist who thinks that the Russian mass murderer Stalin is simply misunderstood and victim of a terrible smear campaign to besmirch his reputation as well a long time supporter of the North Korean terror state.
Murray is on record, have a look at his wiki entry, of support for one of the most oppressive and murderous regimes in the world. He has said his party has already made clear its support for the regime. The party was the CPGB, the unreconstructed Stalinists which took up the defense of the indefensible when the old British CP collapsed with the fall of communism.
He was also prominent in Respect and the failed Stop the War coalition. It seems as if Lutfur will ally himself with anyone from the extreme left to the Islamist right if it suites his purposes. Mind you, his liking for single malts and lifestyle as a serial monogamist draw into question his strict religious principles.
The Georgian national, Ioseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili (Joe Stalin means ‘steel’) killed directly or indirectly more than 26 million people. At least 4 times more that the Nazis did.
Does TH really want to sink any lower by engaging with Stalin’s supporters? The current mess is bad enough.
To clean-up LBTH we badly need a TH Residents Party 🙂 Any volunteers ?
Tower Hamlets Council is like a mob. Just like in the days of the roman empire. Its just a culture and a social life with gangs doing banter, when they don’t have the power to do anything and nor do they have the skills and determination and innovation to make a difference. I look at the above and I am disgusted with the whole situation, that there are soo many capable people in Tower Hamlets who could make a difference to the Borough but these gangs don’t let there be any leeway because they want to control the Borough through there family.
I am a proud member of the Labour party and always have been since I was a child but I do not support the Joke of a party in TH. And nor do I support the Ludfur Rahman party because I feel all he is doing is restricting the Borough to what Borris Johnson could have done just like he has made an impact to many other Boroughs. But never the less this isn’t about Ludfur, what ever I believe of him, he is still empowering new people and young people with skills and the capability to build for the future, but will he really put the power in their hands for the future or just do the same thing as all of this Labour joke in TH, lets not forget he was apart of the pathetic TH Labour party too with the same power hungry mentality.
This system in TH needs to go, I bet if they put out assessments and tests to the council about 80% of these jokers will mess up. How many qualifications do they really have? How much difference have they really made? What difference have they made to Housing? To youth? To Employment?
Its just a numbers game for these people to bring people together and have their flamboyant parties and get-togethers but when it comes to the main purpose to succeed the Borough they all hie behind each other.
Just expect them all to come knocking down your doors when it comes to the votes and once they have them, you wont make a difference to them till the next term of votes.
Well done Tower Hamlets councillors and leaders for turning this Borough into a 3rd world country.
Does the Labour Party need a well wisher like yourself? What are you on about?
=> Mad Mullah of (alcohol-free) Brick Lane,
Which Labour Party ?
Every branch of the LP is different.
The overriding problem with the ‘LP‘ is the organisers want raw political power – long gone are genuine quests to improve the lot of the poor, the down and outs, the workless, the sick and infirmed. Today’s LP is about power and aggrandisement for the controlling few. That system goes all the way up from TH LP to the national LP.
Anyone got a list showing who in the TH LP went out of their way to genuinely serve the public for longer than a news story or a sound bite?
Local government should be about
* running poor performing and the too expensive LBTH council better
* really improving peoples lives without all the usually and often expensive waffle and endless meetings about future meetings followed by bus-loads of expensive consultants and lorry-loads of public cash being spent on ancillary matters instead of actually being spent on improving local people’s lives.
The innate problem is no one in TH LP really understands exactly what needs doing with TH council. They never question the status quo and never think of reforming the gigantic and usually uncaring edifice that controls all our lives.
I would like to see TH LP and all the other political parties too, educating their activists about local government. An informed councillor is miles better than a councillor rejoicing because he or she is now socially superior to everyone else because they are a councillor. At the moment TH politics is just a pitiful game played by the few for the amusement of that few – the public only join that ‘game’ at election time.
Never mind election manifestos, just where has TH LP hidden their vision of how wonderful TH really could be?
Curious Cat
Spot on Mr. Curious
[…] the case of Bow West councillor Anwar Khan. I wrote about him here last month when he was finally dropped as Labour candidate for the May election. I’d […]