[Watch the video of the racist row in the council chamber here].
Eric Pickles should be congratulated for insisting council meetings should be filmed. Remember that Tower Hamlets council tried to block this idea: they knew there was dirty linen to hide.
I hope he watches the web cast of last week’s full council meeting which was picked up in this edition’s of Private Eye.
Alibor Choudhury, the man in charge of the borough’s £1.2billion budget thought he had a good gag when he wanted to accuse Labour’s Bow West councillor Ann Jackson of being a racist and a fascist. Heck, she was wearing a black cardigan, so, er, wow, like Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts she must be part of John Biggs’s “black cardigan brigade”.
How tasteful.
The problem was she was wearing a black cardigan because she was in mourning for her ex-husband, whose funeral she had attended the day before.
All this is recorded in glorious Tower Hamlets Technicolor by those Pickles webcams.
As was a quite twisted rant by a rather hysterical Anwar Khan, who I once praised on this blog but who has since lived up (or down, rather) to the descriptions others gave me of him: a slightly disingenuous hissy-fitter, with an anger management problem. According to his register of interests, he works for Lloyds Bank. Good luck to them. Since his deselection from Labour he’s been accusing Labour of institutional racism. They don’t want incredibly talented Bengalis like incredibly talented he to speak out, you see.
No, they want thickos like his own sister-in-law to stand in his place instead, he believes.
Today, he quit Labour and announced he would stand as an independent in Bow West against his own sister-in-law – and in doing so won praise from the man he now himself praises, Mayor Lutfur Rahman. This is the same Lutfur about whom Anwar was until late last year scathing at every opportunity.
You can read all about that meeting and, more importantly, watch the videos of the race row on the Express website, where I and my Tower Hamlets dwelling colleague Owen Bennett wrote this piece today.
Trial by Jeory 
Comparing someone to a black shirt is unacceptable whether or not they are in mourning and using this to insult a fellow councillor and ex mayor suggests that Alibor has lost touch with reality and thinks anyone who doesnt support Lutfur is de facto a facist;
the next step is that all white people are facists. If Alibor and his comrades carry on peddling these opinions they will destroy the community cohesion that they claim to support.
Unbelievable that a bunch of allegedly responsible and allegedly mature adults can behave so badly.
Some are certainly unstable, unsuitable and unfit to represent the public.
Curious Cat
To call them childish would be an insult to children. What a sad, bitter and rather high pitched display from Anwar Khan. Its just as well these people are the lowest of the low on the electoral ladder. They did not deserve to get this far.
If real people, people with real jobs who have actually achieved something with their lives were interested in standing for the council none of the current 51 would get a look in.
Is it possible to feel greater shame in Tower Hamlets than today. The politics of race to win votes – so deeply sad. The politics of racism belittles the people who died for equality. I am sure that this will play out well in local media, however outside of local community politics Tower Hamlets descends into deeper disgrace … The shame
Snowman,
It may be little conciliation to add TH is not unique. Other local authorities in England which have been dominated by strident Labour are similar.
Its power for aggrandisement and money instead of respecting, if not loving, the local public whilst never forgetting the role of councillors is to make genuine improvements for everyone’s benefit.
Local government is often a cesspit and a pitiful advertisement for the British version of alleged democracy.
Curious Cat.
The irony is that the more toys Anwar throws out the pram, the more appropriate it seems for Labour to choose not to reselect him.
Surely Labour can’t re-select him after this latest disgraceful outburst ?????
To have chosen not to reselect him, I meant, validating their previous decision. That he just comes across as being an uncomradely cross patch.
Your Grace,
May one enquire why Labour have not removed him from their political group on the council?
Curious Cat.
CC – I understand the whhel are in motion.
Looks to me as if Labour did itself a very big favour in deselecting Anwar Khan. His behaviour reminded me of a spoilt 10 year old having a hissy fit. Who on earth would want him as a Councillor?
I am quite appalled that any Councillor should behave as those filmed uttering verbal abuse in these videos.
Perhaps the Council could institute a performance-related penalty system related to the payment of allowances to Councillors with a view to eliminating verbal abuse, hissy fits and slander.
Ted – do you think you could find out whether Alibor Choudhury sent Ann Jackson and the Speaker a written apology for his outrageous remarks.
Also – it might be worthwhile finding out why Anwar Khan hasn’t submitted any timesheet records since 2011. see http://sps2ksrv.towerhamlets.gov.uk/meetyourcouncillor/Timesheets.aspx?MemberID=104
Or are timesheets for public consumption now an optional extra despite all the money councillors claim? I thought you had to submit a timesheet to get paid an allowance………
Budget of £1.2billion and it is put in the hands of children. Pitiful behaviour. Sad day for Tower Hamlets.
The important things is not just for this to go viral world wide but for it to do so in the Bangladeshi media.
His support isn’t as rock solid as it was and a substantial number of Bangladeshis are now severely embarrassed as the reputation of their community continues to plummet.
The timing of this and other things is just right. Seven weeks to go or so and Rahman and camp are on the back foot.
It would also be of interest to ask his apologists and those who have taken the shilling what they think of Rahman now and would they like to disassociate themselves from him?
Jon Lansman is a Tower Hamlets resident, edits the Michael Meacher blog Left Futures which is apparently forward thinking for the democratic left, was a co drafter of the longest suicide note in history aka Labour’s 1983 election manifesto and believes, or used to, that Lutfur was stitched up by a dodgy dossier. Jon, where do you stand on all of this now?
Mark Seddon. Archetypal lefty gadfly and scribbler for hire. Now writer of speeches for the Secretary General of the UN and left wing pundit at large. Any chance of the residents of Tower Hamlets getting their money back?
Ken Livingstone. As you are still denying Lee Jasper and crew stole £3.5 million quid from Londoners I assume that you are still an ardent Lutfurite and will be campaigning for him again on the streets of Tower Hamlets. Or do you admit that you were wrong in both cases and ask both men to return the cash?
The list of apologists in 2010 is long but let’s start with these three. I will be emailing them later this weekend to refer them to the shambles that is Tower Hamlets and ask them to explain themselves to you all.
What do you mean you’re not holding your breath?
@Themadmullahofbricklane
I went to a mosque yesterday to introduce myself as a candidate for the Conservative Party. I was made very welcome and it was very clear that Lutfur is not universally adored by the community, they dislike they way he is trying to divide the community between his supporters and everybody else. That does not mean they will vote Tory but it was clear they were not going to vote automatically for Lutfur. One of the issues for the Muslim part of our community are actually the divisions within the Muslim community.
=> Mad, definitely Mad, Mullah 🙂
You remember with clarity everything which went wrong with Labour.
If you really passionately care about LBTH, then why haven’t you set up a group to contest the local elections and bring normal, sensible, honest and community committed people in ? Scared of upsetting Labour ?
Unquestioningly loving Labour caused the current TH disaster. Its time for some Independent Free Thinkers, who don’t need Labour to control their lives. Labour is the cause of the mess but no one has got the guts to stand-up and fight for a better TH. Instead the best can do is to moan and then ask Labour, the same defective Labour, to rescue them from the consequences of past Labour rule. Son-of-Labour is Labour’s best achievement in TH and he is supported by some national Labour figures.
Retrospective regrets won’t improve the future, but vigorous action now just might. Fight for the better future you seem to claim you want.
Curious Cat.
Keep taking the pills CC.
Thanks Mad. By the way the correct spelling is pils.
No, you are right they are most definitely not going to vote tory.
Your learning
Everybody should condemn the great majority of councillors for their disgusting behaviour at council meetings, This behaviour is in public and can be viewed online. If they do this in public, what are they like in private? Please don’t say its this party or that party,or Bengali or non-Bengali, just remember these people are in charge of a huge area. stretching from the Tower of London to Canary Wharf. I wonder if they have seen the video (production wise, pathetic), and are proud of their behaviour. I would love it if every resident of TH could see the video! The Chair did an heroic job trying to control the baying mob. That’s what she was dealing with, A MOB! Bloggers on this site may slag of this councillor and that one, or this party and that party, but they are ALL to blame!
How big (in KB or MB) would the extracts be? And how many extracts to give the public a good example of what is going on ? Just wondering if something could be hosted on a web site for public consumption. Or load-up to You-Tube ?
CC.
CC. Keep off whatever it is you are on.
The people who are throwing the race card are always the Bengali councillors. Khan like others before him claims Labour is “racist” against Bengalis but if that was so then why is it that 57% of the councillors are Bengali when they only have 32% of the population? Labour selected all the Bengali councillors.. apparently it thought the likes of Anwar Khan, Ribena Khan, Rania Khan, Alibor Choudhury and let us not forget Lutfur Rahman were the right sort of upstanding local people who should be elected representatives. Somehow it thought they were “the best”.
Labour should be ashamed of what has happened. It is a national disgrace. Their London party has selected these hooligans and one by one they defect to this junta that governs our borough. It is shameful. If I was a Labour councillor I would RESIGN and leave politics because THIS disaster is entirely the fault of the London Labour Party. This council needs to be put in some new form of serious special measures. They are unfit to hold public office, particularly Alibor and Anwar but others too.
It is disgusting. If anything Labour in Tower Hamlets has (until recently – out of desperation) been racist AGAINST white people and in favour of the Bengali voters by selecting more Bengali candidates than their population merits… but yet the same councillors once de-selected (like Anwar) for being a noxious little turd (sorry but it is true) exhibit this sort of behaviour. Didn’t Anwar see any irony when he was calling people “hypocrites”. His duplicity and utter desperation to win Lutfur’s favour is appalling and whoever employs him should see him as bringing their company into disrepute.
What a charade.
[…] biased from the outset and that its primary aim was to unseat the Mayor. And surprise, surprise (given what we know about the tactics of Lutfur’s people in this regard), they’re again playing the race […]