Saturday 29 May 2010

Hands off our community paper!

One of the popular offerings from the Council to the residents of Tower Hamlets is its free weekly paper, East End Life. Nominated for several awards, it keeps us in touch with what our Council is doing, titbits of local news, what properties are available for those on the waiting list, planning applications, and much more. It helps to create our sense of community. This is one of the good ways in which our local taxes are spent.

But it has never been popular with the local paid-for paper, the East London Advertiser. Don't get me wrong, the ELA is a good read, it can tackle issues beyond the scope of the council's paper, and it can criticise the council and hold it to account. It's improved greatly since unpopular reporter Ted Jeory moved on to the downmarket right-wing Express. Jeory hated the East End Life and was a frequent critic.

So it hardly comes as a surprise that his chum, the controversial Andrew Gilligan, is bullying Tower Hamlets Council yet again, this time attacking our community paper.

Hands off, Gilligan! You may think you have the new leadership of Tower Hamlets in your grubby pocket, but this paper belongs to the community, not to a right wing bully boy like you!

Monday 24 May 2010

Gilligan's delusions

I'll say at the outset I'm not a fan of Andrew Gilligan. The Evening Standard has improved noticeably since he left to join the Telegraph. It's the way he twists and distorts to fit his agenda, employing all the tabloid dark arts that give journalism a bad name. His writings during the London mayoral elections were a disgrace. He has moved on now, and in recent months a section of the local Muslim community has been in his sights.

My attention was caught the other day by his piece in Comment is free, boldly titled 'IFE loses its grip on Tower Hamlets'. I had to read this piece again and again, unable to believe the spin of his post-election analysis. There's so much I could say; I expect to return to this in future posts.
'A dramatic electoral defeat for the Islamic Forum Europe shows how moderate Muslims have rejected its divisive agenda'
 Leave aside for now who or what IFE is, their agenda, and so on. Recall that Gilligan started his 'campaign' with a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, with the claim that the IFE had 'inflitrated' the Labour Party in Tower Hamlets. He implied they were involved in electoral fraud, that they were turning Tower Hamlets into an 'Islamic Republic' through their control of the local Labour Party.

The elections have passed, and contrary to the national trend Labour gained an MP and several councillors in Tower Hamlets. Almost all the previous Labour councillors are still there - and instead of proclaiming this as proof of IFE entryism, he presents it as a massive defeat!

This just the tip of the iceberg of Gilligan's delusions.

He doesn't have any real understanding of the politics of Tower Hamlets, not if he really believes it's being directed from the East London Mosque.

But does he really believe that? Hard to say. I'm reading through his recent Telegraph articles and blog postings - there's plenty there for me to write about in future.

Sunday 23 May 2010

Mela Mania

The first hot weekend of the year, coinciding today with the Mela. Or should I say 'a' Mela, there seems to be lots of them. This one celebrated the Bengali New Year. I don't know how many new years there are every year in the world, but the Bengali one keeps getting bigger.

And more expensive, I suppose. This one is heavily supported by Tower Hamlets Council. I'm not sure this is the best way to spend our Council Tax. So many people are making money out of the Mela, it shouldn't need a big cash injection from taxpayers' pockets.

Lots of Brick Lane politics behind this, no doubt.