Thursday 17 June 2010

Revealed - truth behind Gilligan's Dispatches!

Many who have closely followed the politics of Tower Hamlets over long years were not a little surprised by the Channel 4 programme broadcast in March as part of the Dispatches series, misleadingly titled Britain's Islamic Republic. It was not the allegations of entryism and vote rigging that took us aback; for these the programme offered no evidence whatsoever, so it came across as part of a well-crafted smear.

No, the surprise was that Channel 4 could air what was clearly a vehicle for one faction of the notoriously divided local Labour party just two months before the elections. Accusations from Jim Fitzpatrick, a mention of Helal Abbas, and several local Bangladeshis joining in who all have close ties to Abbas, to the Bangladesh ruling party and to each other - all smacked of a well-planned assault on leader Lutfur Rahman using Gilligan's tried and tested tactic of damning by association with religious Muslims.

Where did Gilligan get the inside line from? Well, he couldn't resist including a short segment from none other than Ted Jeory, dishing the dirt as only he can without any mention of his close links to key Labour activists in Tower Hamlets. Now Jeory, whose unpopularity in these parts remains undimmed, has let the slip the real intention in the first post of his blog. I'll reproduce the key paragraphs here, just in case he tries to spirit them away:
The election was a triumph for former council leader Helal Abbas, who has spent the past two years plotting the downfall of his old friend and now sworn enemy, Lutfur Rahman. In this quest, he allied with his his former nemesis Michael Keith and his band of supporters such as Denise Jones and, more silently, Josh Peck. Together, they accused Rahman of being too much under the influence of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), allegations partly designed to scare Ken Clark, the director of the London Labour party, into keeping the Tower Hamlets Labour branches in special measures.
This meant Abbas and co effectively controlled the selection process for candidates. And so it has come to pass that his supporters are now a majority in the new group.
Well, you have to hand it to Abbas: with Fitzpatrick's continued intervention, despite his wedding walkout fiasco, and the support of Jeory and Gilligan on national TV, he certainly scored a resounding personal victory, even if it did mean spinning a few porkies on the way.

The special measures refered to clearly haven't sorted out the Labour party in Tower Hamlets. It's time these people were swept away along with the baggage of Bangladeshi politics they bring with them.

And shouldn't someone be investigating Channel 4's involvement?

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