I was in a restaurant when I had a missed call with this bombshell news last night; Andrew Gilligan reported it here first. Tower Hamlets council chief executive Kevan Collins has resigned.

Here’s the statement from the council’s website:

Chief Executive to leave Tower Hamlets

Tower Hamlets Council has today announced that Kevan Collins, its Chief Executive since 2009, and its Director of Children’s Services since 2005, is moving on from his post with the council.   Kevan has accepted a national role as Chief Executive of the newly created Education Endowment Foundation.

Kevan Collins said: “I’m honoured that the Education Endowment Foundation has asked me to become its first Chief Executive and I am looking forward to working with schools, local authorities and other providers to improve the education outcomes for children from disadvantaged communities.

“My career started as a teacher in Tower Hamlets and the opportunity to support a national drive to improve education outcomes for children who face disadvantage is one that I can’t resist. I leave Tower Hamlets Council with feelings of enduring affection and gratitude.”

Mayor Lutfur Rahman commented: “Kevan has given outstanding service to Tower Hamlets and whilst he will be missed we are proud that an important national body will benefit from the experience Kevan has gained in our borough.

“Kevan’s passion is education and, as a former national director for primary education and a current visiting fellow at the Institute for Education, he is returning to his roots.  We thank him for his legacy of achievement for the people of Tower Hamlets but I note that he will still keep a close eye on the borough as he remains a resident!”

An interim successor to Dr. Collins will be announced next week and made from one of the existing members of the Corporate Management Team.

Notes to Editors:

1. Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation. The Education Endowment Foundation has been established with a £125 million endowment from the government and with income from the endowment and fundraising it will spend over £200 million over 15 years. Its mission is to improve the educational attainment of children on free school meals in poorly performing schools.
2. Kevan has been appointed as the first Chief Executive for the Foundation. 
3. Kevan has been with LBTH since 2005, firstly as DCS and then since 2009 as CE.
4. Education in Tower Hamlets has improved dramatically over the past decade, with results in both the SATs tests (Key Stage 2) and GCSE examinations (Key Stage 4) increasing year on year. Last year, secondary schools across the borough achieved their best ever GCSE results and three of those schools were ranked by the Department for Education in the top 50 most improved schools in the country.

Until 2002, he was chief executive of Ujima Housing Association, which collapsed six years later in 2008. From 2002 until 2008, he was the boss of Gateway to London, a regeneration project in the Thames Gateway corridor. This link here from the Chartered Institute of Housing  details some of his background:

Sometimes a picture just says it all.

This bin-bag is marked, “Waste enforcement investigation in progress” and has been slapped with an £80 fine.

It is outside an end-of-terrace house in Deal Street, Spitalfields.

Guess who owns it…

Yes, Mayor Lutfur Rahman, the man responsible for wasting taxpayers’ cash on iPhones, Mercs and very plush offices.

He rents it out (see his register of interests via this link), but according to neighbours, he doesn’t seem to have been the most active of landlords – because his current tenants appear to have been leaving the area like a tip.

This is what one neighbour told me:

“The property has a small garden at the front next to the pavement. Neighbours keep their front gardens tidy and use Tower Hamlets Council bins and bags for refuse and waste food collection.

“The Mayor’s tenant has persisted in throwing unsealed bags of refuse and food into the front garden which is then not collected by the council. The rubbish invariably gets blown into neighbouring gardens and attracts vermin and flies.

“They also dump waste on the pavement outside, which usually spills across the road and is a menace to pedestrians. There’s a school opposite. The question is why won’t the Mayor be a good neighbour and a responsible landlord by ensuring his tenant follows the council’s domestic waste disposal rules?

“The front garden is a disgrace with old shoes, litter and unsightly weeds. Perhaps we should report this eyesore to the council’s new Find It, Fix It scheme which is designed to combat grime in the borough.”

Here’s another picture of the house to give it a wider context:

And here’s another one for even wider context:

When is he going to get his house in order?

UPDATE – July 21, 5.45pm

Amusingly, Lutfur wrote the following letter in today’s East London Advertiser:

I am saddened, in response to the letter from Garry Wykes, by the attitude of some people towards dropping litter (“Younger generation often guilty of littering our street”, Advertiser, July 14).

We live in a great borough and it is simply unacceptable to have Tower Hamlets blighted by litter. That is why tackling littering and protecting  the public realm is a key priority of mine. The council is addressing this by providing 358 additional litter bins, stepping up enforcement activity

through the fixed penalty notices for litter as well as clearing problem areas with organised litter picking through our volunteering coordinator.

We have recently launched the ‘Find it–Fix it’ scheme which will sort out problems, whether on council or private land. We are also looking to work with schools to develop antilittering messages so that the younger generation can be taught not to litter.

All of this work is in vain if we do not all take responsibility for keeping the East End litter free.

The eyes of the world will be on us next summer with the 2012 Olympics. I want visitors to remember Tower Hamlets as a place to visit—not the litter on its streets.

Lutfur Rahman

Mayor of Tower Hamlets

Indeed.

What is it about Mayor Lutfur Rahman and his penchant for empire building? He pleads poverty and lashes out at Westminster for forcing him into cuts and job losses, yet then seems happy to spend our money on his new office (£115,000 and counting), his Mercedes rental car (£72 a day) an a new army of advisers led by Ken Livingstone’s former crony, Murziline Parchment.

The following advertisement has just been posted on a tendering website for four new mayoral advisers to help his mind on these issues:

Lot 1 – regeneration and deveopment;

Lot 2 – health and well being;

Lot 3 – public consultation and engagement

Lot 4 – communications and media

He’s set aside a budget of £40,000 for the eight month projects. Doesn’t he trust the people who already work in the above service areas? Tory group leader Peter Golds said: “We get another vanity project from this mayor every week, it seems. It’s absolutely shocking.”

I spoke to the council’s procurement department. These posts will report directly to the mayor.

Here’s the ad in full:

Main Contract Detail

Buyer:

Tower Hamlets

Title:

CR3956 Advisor to the Mayor

Category/Categories:

 hide categories

79411100 – Business development consultancy services
79413000 – Marketing management consultancy services
79416200 – Public relations consultancy services

Additional Categorisation(s):

None

Summary:

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is seeking quotations from individuals and companies to provide advice to the Mayor in one or more of the following areas:

Lot 1 – regeneration and development;

Lot 2 – health and well being;

Lot 3 – public consultation and engagement

Lot 4 – communications and media

The anticipated contract start date is 15^th August 2011 for an initial period of 8 months.

The Council is looking for one provider per lot. The current budget for all the 4 lots is between £35,000 and £40,000 for the 8 month period.

Interested parties will be required to register on the London Tenders Portal, using the link below, which is free of charge, and must allow sufficient time to register (at least 1 working day). The Council accepts no liability whatsoever for expressions of interest that are not received due to internet connectivity issues, transmission delays or errors.

https://www.londontenders.org/procontract/supplier.nsf/frm_home?openForm

Deadline for completion and return of quotation is Tuesday 9^th August 2011 12:00 Hours.

Tower Hamlets is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

The Council does not undertake to invite all applicants or bind itself to accept the lowest or any Tender.  The Council will not be liable for any costs incurred in tendering for this contract.

If you require any further information please contact: Murziline Parchment at murziline.parchment@towerhamlets.gov.uk

 

Contact:

Mrs Gohar Lecordier

Email Address:

gohar.lecordier@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Telephone:

020 7364 4795

Fax:

20 7364 4973

Address:

4th Floor Mulberry Place, Town Hall
5 Clove Crescent
London
Greater London
E14 2BG
United Kingdom

Key Dates

Estimated contract start date:

15/08/2011

Estimated contract end date:

13/04/2012

Expression of interest start date:

19/07/2011 13:00

Expression of interest end date:

09/08/2011 09:00

Other Information

Contract Period:

8 (months)

Anticipated Extension Period:

0 (months)

Number of Anticipated Extensions:

0

A Friday afternoon teaser for everyone:

Question: where do you think the photograph of this new sign was taken (click on the photo for a better look)?

(Scroll down if you want the answer).

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Answer: It’s on the start of the Greenway walking path. Right by Wick Lane. Near to the Olympic Stadium. In Fish Island. Which is in Bow.

So why is the sign pointing tourists away from Bow and sending them to Stratford? And telling them that Bow is 1.75miles away when it is in Bow? Others further along the Greenway also send walkers and cyclists on a wild goose chase. Crikey, what’s wrong with Bow?

Here’s what the Olympic Delivery Authority told me: “The Greenway is not our responsibility.”

Tower Hamlets Council’s planning department told me they gave planning permission for the signs to be erected, but what was written on them was someone else’s fault.

Here’s what Tower Hamlets Council’s press office told me: “The  signs have been developed and supplied by the ODA’s Greenway Project. The Greenway Project is a scheme to improve the link to Victoria Park. We had  identified that there are some issues with the signs and are working with the  ODA to rectify this. The ODA are responsible for the signs. We are out checking the signs.”

And these people are organising next year’s Games….

P.S. What is it about people who hang carrier bags of dog dirt on railings?

What a happy family snap this is. It was taken at the Baishakhi Mela in Weavers Fields in May. A beaming Mayor Lutfur Rahman stands shoulder to shoulder with his greatest supporters.

To Lutfur’s right, I can see two Tower Hamlets council cabinet members councillors, Lutfa Begum and Rania Khan.

And three to the left of him is Kabir Ahmed, the newest of the Labour rebels and now the mayor’s “executive assistant”.

But of course, there’s also Labour’s London mayor-wannabe Ken Livingstone pouting in delight and centre-stage.

Well, after all, just before this was taken, he was actually on the stage at the event addressing the huge crowd and a large television audience on Channel S.

Look, here it is. (I suspect you might see these pictures again later today…)

And with him in both cases was our favourite millionaire housing association tenant, Shiraj Haque, who, of course, organised the whole event despite having had that honour stripped from him by the council over financial concerns in the pre-Lutfur leadership days.

I’ve always predicted that, together Deputy Mayor Ohid Ahmed, Shiraj will prove to be Lutfur’s undoing. He’s a larger than life character who charms most who pass his way, but he’s someone with two major hobbies: listening to his own voice too much; and controlling local politicians like puppet muppets.

His latest wheeze to glorify the name of the Mayor is a nationwide cricket tournament called the Mayor’s Cup T20 Cricket.

He sent the following email to selected media yesterday, announcing that the competition will be launched at a press conference at his Clifton Restaurant at the bottom of Brick Lane today.

Dear Friends and Colleagues

We are pleased to inform you that the most awaited ‘Mayor Cup T20 Cricket’ finally has been put into order.  Everyone throughout the country is looking forward to participate at the prestigious event, and is only one step away from the first prize of £6k.

Now, how hard the players hit on the ball and how hard the players can take the wicket, is what we are all waiting for……

So you are cordially invited to attend the grand press launch of the ‘Mayor Cup T20 Cricket’, taking place Tomorrow, Tuesday, 12^th of July.

Venue: Clifton Restaurant, 1 Whitechapel, London E1 6TY

Time:  7pm – (Please do not forget to book this event on your diary)

Our events will be graced by the honourable Mayor; Lutfur Rahman and the most exciting other participants of the event will be the Captain of Bangladesh National Team; Mr Shakib Al Hasan – Number 2 all rounder in the WORLD! And the leading National Team Player; Tamim Iqbal. 

Come and be a part of the most anticipated event of the Year!

Let’s have closer look at this tournament. Here’s a YouTube clip of what’s planned. It’s run by Clifton Group and a group called the Bangladeshi Students Union UK (I’m told that Shiraj has good relations with the student community and that he persuaded many to canvass during Lutfur’s election campaign).

The event is also being sponsored by those favourite Lutfur “media partners”, Channel S and London Bangla, the publishers of the Abbas wife-beating smears. Watch the advert here:

And on this link here, you can see how much it costs to enter. It’s £499 per team (yes, a full quid less than £500) and the prize for winning is £6,000, which means at least 12 teams need to enter to have any chance of getting any money back.

But who will benefit from any surplus? There’s no mention of any charity in the advert, nor Tower Hamlets Council, so it’s quite possible that this is a profit-making venture.

Could it be that Shiraj has simply named the tournament the Mayor’s Cup to sex up its appeal, to attract sponsors and in return give Lutfur the glory of presenting the trophy in front of a large TV audience at the end?

Earlier this year, the council organised the Mayor’s Cup football tournament, which was the brainchild of Oliur Rahman who took his inspiration from Abdal Ullah’s ‘Safer Neighbourhoods Team’ Cup. Shiraj, with the help of Ohid Ahmed, tried to muscle in on that show as well.

However, that was an official council event. This cricket gig appears to a private venture to which Lutfur has lent his official title. Can this be right? Talk about payback.

More questions to be asked here.

UPDATE – 1.30pm, July 12.

The Evening Standard’s Peter Dominiczak reports that Ofcom is now investigating Channel S over its coverage of the Mela and Shiraj’s campaigning for Ken Livingstone from the stage. When will Lutfur cut this man loose? (By the way, Ken was on the radio this morning complaining that other politicians are too close to certain businessmen. Ken does irony as well, it seems.)

The following email was sent to me this morning. It’s from councillor Shahed Ali, the former deputy leader of the Respect group and the soon-to-be ex-Labour member for Whitechapel. He was one of the four Labour councillors who have effectively expelled themselves from the party to join Lutfur Rahman’s cabinet. He now pockets an extra £13,000 a year from our wallets for talking about “environment” matters.

I like Shahed and I do think he has a real contribution to make to Tower Hamlets, but I have to say there’s more than a touch of incoherence and hypocrisy about today’s letter. On October 14, 2010, just a week before Lutfur’s election as mayor, he wrote another letter, this time to the East London Advertiser. It was an attack on both Respect chair Carole Swords (who was supporting Labour) and Lutfur himself. You can read it at the bottom of the image here:

I’m also copying an extract here:

How can an independent candidate with a proven track record of breaking party rules possibly be in a stronger position to lobby for the people of the East End? Lutfur Rahman has been a Respect collaborator disguised within Labour.

Wow. Pretty strong stuff. No wonder Lutfur didn’t take up Shahed’s initial offer to “work with him” late last year.

In today’s letter, he tries to justify his decision to “advise Lutfur”. He also says he’s “not breaking party rules” – unlike Lutfur, of course… . Curiously, he also cites as a justification his own decision several Labour councillors around the country advising Independent mayors. Are there any examples of Labour councillors working with Independents who have been expelled from Labour? I don’t know, can someone please let me know.

He also defends those useless, invisible, overpaid Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers (THEOs), weirdly by claiming that because they are employed by the council (earning £35,000 a year each), they are somehow more effective than full blown police officers. That’s worrying.

And I just love his defence of East End Life, saying that it is brilliant at “decimating information”. Too right, it is. (I think he meant ‘disseminate’.)

Anyway, here’s Shahed’s rather long, but intriguing letter today.

Dear Comrades,

I am sorry to learn you are disappointed at my decision to provide advice to Mayor Rahman as a member of the council.  Having primarily been elected to a four-year term, my first and foremost priority must be with the electorate of my ward and of course the borough as a whole.  I believe that we will be in a better position to influence decisions that will practically make the lives of our residents better by being fully-serving pro-active councillors who strive to deliver demanding aspirations, rather than just pander to opposing the Mayor merely for the sake of opposition.

I believe this would not be a first.  Labour councillors advise in the cabinets of Independent Mayors across the country and there is nothing sinister in their passion to do anything other than to deliver for their constituents.  Likewise, the case in our borough should not be any different, although I would have grave reservations about serving along with the Tories?  This leads me into the fact that I am not happy with the way in which the Labour group in Tower Hamlets is now seen as being extremely ‘pally’ and cooperative with its group leader Peter Golds and the local conservative party.

I was not happy with the outcome of our group AGM.  As a second-term councillor and former serving cabinet member, this experience would have enabled me to carry out positive pieces of scrutiny work.  However, the leader advised us all at group that a decision was made not to give SRA [Special Responsibility Allowances] positions to those of us that had chosen to disagree with the whip.  I believe no such rule exists within the Labour party.  Positions should in my opinion be judged upon ability, experience, and track record of commitment to council business.  I believe this was not the case instead; positions were awarded in return for votes.  For example, a group member was consistently absent from the majority of group and council meetings throughout the year.  Many others who had also disagreed with the whip including our former leader, were also awarded with SRA positions?  In the context of not agreeing with the whip, it is unfair not to apply this directive consistently.

I also stood for the executive position of ‘Media and Communications officer’, competing against the then and current who was seeking re-election.  I was absolutely gobsmacked to read the annual report which in my opinion was completely fabricated.  I would have expected colleagues to rightly recognise and acknowledge this to be the case?  In my opinion, this member was practically invincible to the role that could have otherwise been carried out as the group Media and Communications officer, as was demonstrated by my pro-active actions.  I believe thy chose to intentionally steer away so as to not upset pro-Lutfur for Mayor Supporters, and the leadership quiet happily allowed this to continue.  Positions should be awarded upon merit and not otherwise.

During the budget process, the Labour group amendment sought to get rid of a number of council employees (THEO’s), instead to fund police officers.  I could not agree with such bizarre actions quiet simply because it should be the fundamental right of our employees to expect our council to safeguard and protect its workforce.  Our employees, many being local residents, should rightly expect such support from us but instead, the leadership was attempting to destroy their livelihoods so that we could fund the Metropolitan Police force?  That is the job of London Mayor Boris Johnson and the current conservative government, not Tower Hamlets Council.  Furthermore as a former council employee myself and GMB shop steward, I could not possibly agree with such actions and therefore could not support this amendment.  The Mayor’s budget had already agreed all other of our group amendments excluding the proposal to scrap East End Life (EEL) as a weekly publication.  Speaking of such, I personally feel that in a diverse borough such as ours which is a high performing council, and is geographically located to attract a huge number of planning applications and related statutory notices, the decimation of council information to ensure our residents are effectively communicated with is imperative, especially in times of such drastic government cuts.  We have some of the highest number of overcrowded households and a demanding waiting list for housing.  The choice based lettings pages are crucial and need to be decimated effectively.  The Mayor accepted our group savings proposal of 200K so I did not feel it appropriate to challenge the frequency of its publication when I know that residents find East End Life to be an integral communication tool.  Getting this information to our residents is more important to me than the fear of Mayor Rahman using EEL as an alleged propaganda tool.  Due to us being a host borough for the 2012 Olympics, we will need EEL more than ever to decimate information.  For example, only this week GLA member John Biggs expressed concerns about the Olympic Route Network (ORN) running from Tower Hill to the Olympic park.  This will cause huge disruptions to the daily lives of our residents and affect a range of council services such as waste collection vehicles, school runs, meals on wheels deliveries etc.  We need to ensure we minimise the misery this will bring to our residents by keeping them informed at all times through medium such as EEL.

It is no secret just how hard I worked to elect a Labour Mayor.  My commitment was 110 per cent without a shred of doubt, regardless of the fact that our mayoral candidate was not my first choice for the job.  I was against, and continue to be against a Mayoral system of governance because I believe in collective leadership.  It is sad that it was our former Labour government that is responsible for such.  In addition to door-to-door campaigning, I regularly wrote letters to the East London Advertiser which was regularly published and posted online, and I made regular contributions, almost religiously, to the various blogs and social network sites that were following the Labour party Mayoral selection and subsequent Election in detail.  I made several appearances in live television debates which clearly did not do me any favours with the strong surge of pro-Lutfur for Mayor Supporters.  This included a two-hour live televised program where all mayoral candidates were present with the exception of our Labour party candidate with me representing.  I had to deal with and respond accordingly to angry phone-in callers who were extremely offended by the sensitive comments made within the ‘dossier’ submitted by our eventual mayoral candidate.  I believe I was pro-active in my actions and if I may so say, extremely brave to challenge a mass television audience with the knowledge that the vast majority of our residents became disaffected with the Labour party due to the shambles of a mayoral selection process in Tower Hamlets.

Having joined the Labour party in 1988, I have been an active campaigner in my local ward where I was born and brought up, and continue to live.  In those early days, I spent hours stuffing envelopes and hand delivering ward meeting notices to a membership of over 400 members every month.  We did not have the luxury of email, mobile phones, nor could we afford stamps to make this task easy.  But I chose to contribute my time and energy because I believed in the cause and wanted to get the then Lib-Dem controlled council out.  Since 1995, I also happened to work for Tower Hamlets council leading up to when I first stood for office as a councillor in 2006.  Sadly, I was not selected as a Labour party candidate.  I believed I was much more deserving than the chosen candidates due to the time and energy I had contributed over fifteen years.  The membership also plummeted due to anger over the Iraq war.  The assault on civil liberties also lost us grassroots support, allowing fringe parties such as Respect to thrive, of which I also became a beneficiary by winning my seat on the council with a clear majority of 350+ votes to my nearest contender.  Yes I felt happy to win but I was equally sad not to have won as a Labour party candidate to which I felt my DNA was woven into its very fabric.  I wholeheartedly appreciate the fact that I was accepted to be re-admitted to the Labour party two years later, and I believe I have served my council with passion and commitment.

I decided to give up my ten-year full-time employment in social services to become a councillor because I genuinely believe that under the correct leadership, we can deliver so much to our residents.  I had to resign from my job to qualify as a candidate so I could have ended up with the loss of both my employment and aspiration to serve as a councillor in Tower Hamlets.  I want people to be inspired by our policies, motivated by our local and national leaders and for our younger generations to become positively involved with politics.  Ousting this destructive government of cuts that has affected our residents more than in other parts of the country has to be our priority but equally, I believe I have a duty to play my role in softening the burden placed upon our residents by being in a position to deliver council services at best in the current climate.  These challenges are not helped by the latest actions of our CLP chair Graham Taylor.  In his other role as Chair of Governors at Bethnal Green Technology College (BGTC), he has played a pro-active role in moving BGTC to becoming an Academy when the Labour group position is clearly against.  I am disappointed that our leadership has done nothing to make Graham either reconsider his position, or to distance the party away from Graham’s position.  This I believe will bring grave consequences for the local Labour party in forthcoming elections.  I am personally heart-broken that our council’s multi-million pound asset that has just also had over twenty million pounds of BSF investment is on its way out of local authority control.  To add further insult to injury, the governing body consists of parent governors not even living in our borough, yet making decisions about our borough assets.

It is obvious that having won two parliamentary seats and increasing our majority to forty one Labour councillors in May 2010, we can only blame ourselves for losing the mayoral election only a mere five months later.  At the time of writing, five councillors in total have already pledged to advise Mayor Rahman, and others will follow suit if the NEC believes it should just simply brush under the carpet the reasons why we are in this situation here at Tower Hamlets.  I do not want to see the day when we lose the majority of Labour councillors in 2014 but unless the local party can be pulled back to the proper left, the presence of the Labour party majority here will be jeopardised.

I am a Labour party councillor, and contrary to various accusations, I have not left to defect to another political party.  I feel it is in the interests of all councillors to cooperate for our residents if given the opportunity.  This will enable us to deliver more for our residents, and would also enable us to scrutinise Mayor Rahman’s work closely.  Of course it would be ideal to have a Labour Mayor in charge of our borough, and nothing would please me more, but in the present moment, we have to make the best of an unfortunate situation foremost in the best interests of our residents.  We must also remember that we have the GLA elections in the horizon, and winning back a Labour Mayor for London must be our utmost priority.  That is where we should be dedicating our energy.

My reading of Clause 13.X.1 of the Labour party’s rules gives me the understanding that it was designed to provide guidance to Labour groups that operate with a council leader and cabinet model.  Tower Hamlets council now operates with a Directly Elected Mayor model and therefore, I do not find this clause relevant in this case.  My offer to provide advice to Mayor Rahman does not determine the political control, or management of this local authority.  In fact, as an example, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the council provides advice to which the Mayor can either choose to accept of decline.  I see no major difference in any councillor providing such advice, to which the Mayor can equally choose to accept or decline.  Mayor Rahman does not belong to any other political party, and I have not joined any other political party and do not wish to do so.

Other councils have serving Labour councillors advising Independent elected Mayors in their respective councils so why the distinction with Tower Hamlets?  I trust that the Labour party operates consistently with all its members, and as such, it will not be necessary to bring formal disciplinary action to all its councillors offering advice to Independent Mayors at the various councils they choose to operate within around the country.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Shahed Ali (Labour).

Whitechapel ward.

Question: what motivates councillors in Tower Hamlets? Is it:

a) striving for the greater good of the area?

b) striving to deliver results for their political party?

c) striving for the greater good of their next re-election?

d) striving for a personal income?

I ask this just a couple of days after former Lib Dem councillor and ceremonial mayor Barry Blandford died at the weekend. He’d been struggling for years with a serious illness and tonight a friend and former colleague of his described him as a “man of honour” who stayed loyal to his principles and who worked hard for all sections of the community. He was a governor of Limehouse’s Stephen Hawking School for kids with learning difficulties and during his time as mayor, I’m told, he raised thousands of pounds for the victims of floods in Bangladesh and made a special visit there to distribute money.

I also ask it on the day that four Labour councillors, no doubt after months of tortuous soul-searching – during which they told themselves daily, ‘We have to sacrifice our political careers for the greater good of the community; no, we really must’ – decided to break Labour’s party whip and work for the camp of Lutfur Rahman and millionaire housing association tenant Shiraj Haque.

I tweeted this morning that five would be joining the Mayor and I suspect that underestimates the eventual number.

So far, the ones to declare their hands are: ex-Michael Keith loyalist Shafiqul Haque (a former extremely ineffectual mayor and planning committee chair); Abdul Asad (who boasts every time I talk to him he’s the borough’s longest serving councillor), Rofique Ahmed (a seemingly nice enough chap, but not one to let a spot of toothache get in the way of picking up an attendance pay-cheque); and Shahed Ali, the most talented of the four and a former deputy leader of George Galloway’s Respect party (his current register of interests still lists him as a Respect member (mind you, it was last updated in 2007, but let’s not let a bit of transparency get in the way of way of work)).

Labour sources also suspect that Weavers councillor Kabir Ahmed could be on his way, while there could too be a surprise in store for Peter Golds’ Tory group. I was told by someone I trust today (and who was there) that on board Lutfur’s minibus to campaign for Jon Ashworth in Leicester South in May was Tory councillor Maium Miah: yes, that’s right, a Tory out campaigning for Labour – how generous. Apparently, Keith Vaz even boasted of an impending Tory defection to Labour during his speech, but that extract failed to make the final edit of the YouTube clip I posted last week. I was told tonight that Maium used to be a member of the Labour party, but signed up to the Tories when he realised he had a better chance of winning a council seat.

Aren’t we blessed in Tower Hamlets to have politicians of such backbone? It’s not yet clear whether the four defectors have been given cabinet jobs, but it’s a safe bet they have. That’ll be an extra £13,000 a year, which will be quite handy to those among the four who don’t have jobs.

There are also other self-serving issues at play here. Both Asad and Shahed are councillors in Whitechapel, the home of the East London Mosque and where the third member is Lutfur loyalist Aminur Khan. Shahed, for a fact, was known to be worried about his chances of being re-elected in 2014 unless he could demonstrate he could work with Lutfur. Shahed is a relatively talented politician – and someone who has political principles – and he’s an asset to Tower Hamlets politics. It would be a shame if he feels that he’s been bullied into switching sides.

If Rofique and Shafiqul are handed cabinet jobs, I can see the eyes of officers rolling towards the top of Canary Wharf now. Neither, like deputy mayor Ohid Ahmed, are the easiest to understand.

On the broader context, Lutfur is now establishing a larger if fairly untalented group behind him. He’s sounding a warning shot to those opposed to his re-entry into Labour that he is aiming to win the council outright in 2014. As things stand, Labour still has the most councillors, but it no longer has enough to veto the Mayor’s annual budget. Labour must now work with the Tories for that, something many suspect is already happening between Josh Peck and Peter Golds.

On a national level, both Tower Hamlets MPs, Rushanara Ali and Jim Fitzpatrick also have concerns. They see the latest muscle-flexing as not by Lutfur, but by the Islamic Forum of Europe. The MPs are worried that they’re in the IFE sights.

The Water Lily Centre in Mile End Road has a long (and literally divided) history in Tower Hamlets. Completed in 1927, it was the Wickhams department store until the late 1960s. Architecturally, it was famous for the little house that splits the site (the developers had to build around the house after a family refused to move out).

Last year, after decades of neglect, the site re-opened as the Water Lily Centre. It is owned by Water Lily Properties Ltd, which is owned by a group of 14 businessmen who chose the national flower of Bangladesh, representing peace and love, for their company name.

Sadly, the centre is now becoming a magnet for hate.

Last November, Anjem Choudary tried to stage an event there, but his luck ran out when his cover was blown. I wrote about it here. At the time, the Water Lily told me extremists weren’t welcome.

However, Tower Hamlets seems to be the borough of choice for extremists, with the Water Lily emerging as one of their favourite venues. On May 13, Hizb ut-Tahrir booked an event there. You can see how the Water Lily logo has been covered up in the top left of this photo.

There are more pictures to view on HT’s website here.

HT is an Islamist party that campaigns for the return of the Caliphate. It is banned in a number of countries for its links to terrorism. Indeed, when in Opposition, David Cameron called for HT to be banned in Britain, although no action has since been taken.

If you look carefully on HT’s website, you’ll see an advert for another event next month.

Again, the venue is the Water Lily. I spoke to one of its directors yesterday. He told me the booking had been made by an organisation calling itself  ‘Muslim Forum UK’.

He said he was not aware it was in fact HT, but in any case, he would still allow next month’s event to go ahead. He said he and his staff always ask such groups for a list of speakers.

They then check those names with the police to see if they are known terrorists or on a warning list. If the police give the all clear, the Water Lily will let the booking go ahead.

These decisions are taken regardless of the personal views of any particular director, this director said. Business is business, was the thrust of his argument – and who was he, he said, to make a judgement on what might be said at an event on his property?

Well, this particular director is Syed Faruk. He’s a former teacher in Tower Hamlets and he’s also the general secretary of the UK arm of the Awami League, the political party which currently governs Bangladesh.

That is, he’s a senior figure in that party. So what’s that party’s view of HT? Well, it banned HT in Bangladesh in October 2009 over suspected links to terrorism.

In fact, whenever senior Awami League members are themselves hosted at the Water Lily, for example Bangladesh’s Home Minister Sahara Khatun earlier this month, Hizb ut-Tahrir staged their own demonstrations outside.

So, while Mr Faruk’s party bans them in Bangladesh, he’s happy to take their money and help them promote their work here in the UK. What consistency…

Mr Faruk, who is now concerned about the exposure of these links, also confirmed that Tesco is one of his tenants in the Water Lily – there’s a Tesco Express on its ground floor – and that he also takes business bookings from Tower Hamlets council.

Remember how the Troxy in Limehouse decided to cancel bookings to extremist speakers when the council threatened to withdraw its own business? I wonder if the same will happen here. After all, the council has already made plain its view of Hizb ut-Tahrir. In 2008, under Denise Jones’s leadership, it withheld some Preventing Violent Extremism money from the Cordoba Foundation after I and Tory Councillor Tim Archer revealed it was being used to give a platform to Hizb speakers.

Has the Water Lily signed up to the No Place for Hate campaign? Will the council continue to spend our money there?

ps The Water Lily accepted another booking last Thursday for a group called ‘Bangladeshi Muslims in the UK’. More than 500 attended. I understand it was a collection of groups, including Jamaat e Islami figures.

Back in January, you’ll recall I wrote this post here about Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s diary appointments. I’d asked for copies of his diary schedules for October-December  2010.

You’ll also remember that what was most noticeable was the number of meetings he had been having with Takki Sulaiman, the council’s “head of communications” (mainly to discuss the upcoming edition of that week’s East End Life).

Since then, some other enterprising soul has been enquiring under the Freedom of Information Act about his later diary commitments.

You can see Lutfur’s diary for February-March this year here (Takki rarely features by name any more, it seems – clearly, that’d be too embarrassing).

You can also see the diary for his deputy, Cllr Ohid Ahmed. It’s here. On March 10, Ohid hosted a meeting between the council’s director of culture, Stephen Halsey, and a “Siraj Hoque”. I’d be amazed if this was not in fact Shiraj Haque, the loud multimillionaire housing tenant who backed Lutfur’s bid for mayor. Wonder what they would have been discussing? Shurely not, the lucrative Baishakhi Mela…

Well, about 10 days after that meeting, the word went round Brick Lane that Shiraj had been appointed the chair of the “Advisory Board for the Baishakhi Mela”. So I asked the council for its view, particularly because in 2007 it had stripped Shiraj of his beloved role in organising the festival due to accounting concerns.

This was the council’s response on March 23:

“A group of community members actively came to the council to offer their advice with regard to specific aspects of the Mela, such as choice of artists and a new element of the celebration, the Festival of Food and Culture. It has no official status or formal relationship with the council and the council was not involved in determining who formed the advisory group or roles within it. This is just one of the routes for the council to engage the community about this event.”

So, what we can surmise is that Ohid facilitated Shiraj’s meeting with Steve Halsey. I wonder whether the latter felt under any pressure to help…