If These Accusations Turn Out To Be True, Are There Lessons To Be Learned?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2710261/Tower-Hamlets-Muslim-mayor-Lutfur-Rahman-accused-promising-houses-votes.html

[Gromit]

// Four voters have submitted a damaging dossier of evidence to the High Court //

Why is the Mail not telling us who has compiled the dossier?

I somehow doubt anything will stick. We have been down this route before with the Tower Hamlets Mayor, you have pioted about him many times, but strangely not in May when his new Party won lots of Councillors.

I think I will wait to hear the evidence and verdict before learning any lessons. It might turn out that the lesson to be learned is not to belueve a Mail story.

[mushroom25]

gromit, the four petitioners are named in the article.

[Gromit]

// Petitioner Andy Erlam, who stood as a councillor on an anti-corruption ticket, said he was "delighted" with the outcome and urged residents of Tower Hamlets to come forward if they noticed "irregularities" at the election. //

Andy Erlam stood for Council in the local elections in Tower Hamlets. He came last out of 14 candidates.

http://moderngov.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=72

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

Is this more palatable for you Gromit?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/29/tower-hamlets-mayor-lutfur-rahman-election-challenge

[mushroom25]

the Grauniad strikes again:-

//• This article was amended on 29 July 2014. It originally stated that Rahman's Tower Hamlets First party swept to power in the council elections. The party finished second to Labour. This has been corrected.//

[Gromit]

Mail: // The petition against Mr Rahman was submitted by residents Andrew Erlam, Debbie Simone, Azmal Hussain and Angela Moffat. //

Residents? They are local lefties, which may be why the Mail is coy about revealing their true allegiances.

Debbie Simone - Labour. Failed to get elected.
http://moderngov.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?ID=90

Azmal Hussain - former Chairman of Tower Hamlet Respect (George Galloways Party) and now Labour Party activist.

Andy Erlam - Member of the Labour Party for 40 years but now on the hard left.
http://redflagac.org/founders-bio.php

No Conservatives, or LibDems are contesting the result. Good to see you supporting this Motley Crew of of the hard left AOG.

[Gromit]

AOG,
If you would like to make a donation to the Petitioners, you can do so here.

http://www.gofundme.com/Democracy4TowerHamlets

So far they are £9,860 short of their target £10K.

[New Judge]

I'm sure there are some elements of truth to the allegations.

The scenes outside the office where the count was taking place in Tower Hamlets were among the most outrageous I have ever seen in a UK election. Every polling station in Tower Hamlets had at least one police officer present throughout the day (something the rest of the UK has not seen for about thirty years or more). Why was that, one wonders?

[Gromit]

An interesting old article in the Telegraph goes into detail on some of the allegations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10900132/First-fake-voters-now-police-look-into-bogus-councillors-in-Tower-Hamlets.html

It also makes clear the dossier is of Labour origin.

// Labour has also sent a 15-page dossier of alleged irregularities to the Electoral Commission and a formal legal petition to overturn the election result was lodged last week.
Although not yet officially endorsed by Labour, the petition is being handled by the party’s official solicitor, Gerald Shamash. //

[sandyRoe]

How would you say, Tammany Hall, in Bengali?

[Gromit]

// Every polling station in Tower Hamlets had at least one police officer present throughout the day //

And there were no arrests and no prosecutions. The Police Officers' notebooks and evidence will form part of the defence against the claims, I assume.

[sp1814]

I don't know what lessons AOG means.

[sandyRoe]

That the franchise is too precious to be given out to one and all?

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// I don't know what lessons AOG means. ///

*** But he was expelled from the Labour party after allegations surfaced about his close links with an Islamic extremist group called the Islamic Forum of Europe. ***

[sp1814]

AOG

Again - what lessons?

[askyourgran]

Why am I not surprised. The man was expelled from the Labour Party, so it must have been enough if they found him to be dodgy. This is something that will be going all all over the country, elected Mp's who promised the earth to their counntrymen to get them into positions of power.

[retrocop]

Sp
I think "the lessons to be learned" that AOG refers to is quite bluntly do not place a bent,corrupt Asian/Muslim ,who should be barred from British polotics,in a position of power whereby he abuses that power in a mainly Asian/Muslim ward and corruptly hands out housing and benefits to people of his own kind.
If I am wrong and that is not what AOG was implying,WELL,I said it anyway.

[New Judge]

"And there were no arrests and no prosecutions."

Quite so. And since it is the primary function of the police to prevent crime it seems they succeeded in their mission. But the question that needs to be addressed is why it was deemed necessary to post an officer at every polling station in that hapless constituency when to see one anywhere else in the country is quite a rarity. The police do not disburse such a large chunk of their resources without good reason.

[Gromit]

// do not place a bent, corrupt Asian/Muslim, in a position of power //

He wasn't placed in power, he was elected by the local community.


// he hands out... benefits to people of his own kind. //

Central Government assesses and pays out benefits, not the local Mayor. Housing is allocated by the Council which the Mayor and his Party do not run.