‘These elections will have the strongest processes in place in London to prevent fraud and some of the most robust in the country.‘
This is part of the intro blurb to the long awaited by nobody ever ‘Candidates for Mayor of Tower Hamlets’ booklets published by the council for your electoral reading pleasure which should be coming through your door any day now. (Can’t find the official online version as yet so here is a link to our copy.)
No mention of why we have these strong processes in place to prevent fraud – because Tower Hamlets is synonymous with voter fraud and political corruption of course!
So let’s not mention that. Ever.
Instead have a look at the entries each would be Mayor has in the Big Book of Maybe Mayors. The order was drawn by lot apparently.
Andrew Wood Independent
‘Vote for a radical change in Tower Hamlets’ is Andrew Wood’s line as to why residents should vote for him.
All we can say to that is ‘Yes please!’
However the reality is that, despite the impeccable personal qualities Andrew Wood has as a councillor, his chances of becoming Mayor are slightly above zero.
OK, at zero.
But all credit to Andrew for taking a different approach to his campaign (see www.woodformayor.com as to why) and as an independent candidate he has no party bosses to keep happy.
His two-page leaflet is OK but a lot of space could have been saved by ditching the bit about his background and qualifications and leaving him more room to talk about his approach to the office of Directly Elected Executive Mayor and how to cure the borough of its ills.
Leaflet score: 6/10
Political messaging: 7/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/10
Rabina Khan Liberal Democrat
As with Andrew Wood the emphasis of Rabina Khan’s campaign is ‘Change Tower Hamlets For Good’ and once again we say ‘Yes please!’
Councillor Rabina has stood for Mayor twice before and came very close to winning and this time round she has the resources of the Liberal Democrats behind her. This is a big deal.
None other than Sir Ed Davey came along to her launch event in Watney Market. Seems a decent guy.
If the Lib Dems deliver on their promised support during the rest of the campaign she could cause both Rahman and Biggs a lot of trouble.
Which is exactly what she wants.
Her leaflet is professionally designed and laid out, although it is difficult to read the white type on the orange and green backgrounds.
As a result it is easy to miss her commitment to hold a public enquiry into the case of Shamima Begum and the other Bethnal Green Academy girls.
The Lib Dems have also made good use of photography.
Leaflet score: 8/10
Political messaging: 8/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/10
Lutfur Rahman – Aspire Party
“I promise that if you will give me your trust for a third time, I shall once more be a People’s Mayor — running a council that is fit for purpose, with the community at its heart.”
Come on Lutfur, now you are just taking the piss.
Do you think anyone in this borough believes this nonsense? Yet again you are trying the strategy of telling lies that are so big people some believe them.
You were not a People’s Mayor. You were Lutfur Rahman’s Mayor, in it for what you and your mates could get out of it.
You were found guilty of corruption, kicked out of office and banned from standing for five years. Quite a few people think you should have been banned for life but the law did not allow it. However your actions were so grave that it looks like the law will be changed and a lifetime ban made possible. Lutfur’s Law maybe?
And who did you betray the most? The Bangladeshi community. That’s about as low as you can get.
Another awkward fact for you.
Your administration was found to be not fit for purpose by the government commissioners who were ordered in to sort things out.
So please do not lie to the people of the borough and pretend otherwise thanks.
Lutfur’s leaflet is just a rehash of one of this ordinary leaflets with slightly different wording on the first page.
The only thing which makes this document worth looking at is the utterly surreal endorsement of Lutfur not by Ken Livingstone but by none other than the Reverend Jessie Jackson or ‘US Civil Rights Icon’ as he is described here.
“I recall Lutfur’s support for the impoverished communities when he was the Mayor” says Reverend Jackson.
If further proof was needed that Lutfur lives on another planet then here it is.
Odd thing is that when the Reverend Jackson visited the London Enterprise Academy recently Lutfur was nowhere to be seen.
Leaflet score: 3/10
Political messaging: 4/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/-50
Hugo Pierre TUSC Against Cuts
‘The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is standing because Labour now act just like the Tories’ says Hugo Pierre.
Well said Hugo!
No idea if his leaflet is professionally designed but it stands out from the rest of the candidates with a layout that is as punchy as his message. Nice work Hugo.
Extra bonus point for having a QR scannable box on the right hand side.
As with Rabina Khan’s leaflet some of the text is not that easy to read against the black background. While black can be a good design choice it does restrict text colours to white or yellow a lot of the time. Text could be larger.
Also he could have made more of one of his key promises, to bring in rent controls and revamp the planning system so it works for residents as opposed to just the huge developers wanting to make a couple of quid out of our borough.
Leaflet score: 8/10
Political messaging: 7/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/10
Elliott Weaver Conservative
OK calm down, Elliott Weaver does have his photo taken wearing a hoodie.
Conservative candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets wearing a hoodie. That in itself will probably mean a doubling of the Conservative vote in the borough.
Elliott wears a hoodie cos he works in software development where everyone and the office dog wears one.
Nothing revolutionary in his election promises, just the basic stuff that the current administration finds impossible to organise like keeping the streets clean.
He also pledges to stop the road closures caused by the Liveable Streets nonsense.
The leaflet is properly laid out and everything is easy to read – 10 points for that. If only we had a legibility category but we don’t so sorry about that.
Maybe you could give the Reverend Jackson a call?
Leaflet score: 8/10
Political messaging: 7/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/0
John Biggs Labour
“We have come a long way together over the last seven years but there is still more work to do” is one of the lines in Mayor Biggs manifesto leaflet.
Long way? Too right mate.
But together? Nooooooooooooooo way. Oh no no no. We were never anywhere near you.
As with Rahman’s leaflet the current Mayor’s offering is just his standard blah in a slightly different package and is unremarkable.
Well, almost.
Mayor Biggs, like his predecessor, seems to think that if you tell big enough lies people will believe them. And some will. And a lot will not.
So let’s just draw attention to Mayor Biggs pledge to build ‘Homes to be proud of’ which will be the result of Tower Hamlets Labour Party continuing its ‘record breaking delivery of truly affordable family-sized homes’.
Bollocks. That’s a lie.
As you may have read in our story here it seems that Mayor Biggs is about as accomplished at house building as Boris Johnson is at brushing his hair.
Seems the Mayor who got elected last time around on the promise of building 2,000 homes has built 225.
And quite a few people are not even sure he has built that many.
So you have to ask yourself if this guy got elected on a promise of building 2,000 homes but he has not but still pretends that he has – how should a voter react?
While researching our review of the Aspire candidate we found that while Lutfur Rahman did not get his photo taken, the Mayor’s right hand man Wapping councillor Abdal Ullah did manage to get a pic taken!
As a result Moley thinks it is only fair to award minus ten Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor points to Mayor Biggs.
Leaflet score: 6/10
Political messaging: 5/10
Jesse Jackson Hallelujah Factor 0/-10
Pamela Anne Holmes – Communist Party?
One Mayoral candidate who is not in the booklet is one Pamela Anne Holmes. The only thing Moley knows about Pamela Anne Holmes is that she is an Independent.
However we have been told that in reality she is a Communist Party candidate.
Honestly. It’s amazing the Communist Party is still around.
So as we know nothing about Pamela apart from her alleged membership of the Communist Party here is a nice photo of a big Russian tank.
OK, so it’s not all of the tank. Just the turret after the Ukrainian army guys and girls blew it up. But you get the idea.
So if you are Pamela Anne Holmes and you would like to tell the electorate what political party you represent please get in touch! hello@eastendenquirer.org
Well said as always and I like the reference to disgraced Jessed Jackson. He was thoroughly exposed in the book “Shakedown” by Kenneth R Timmerman. Nice company Abdul.
Surprised to see such a low score for Lutfur Rahman’s poster. Can you call yourself a credible ‘eastendenquirer’ name when it is pretty much a one man band, ie one main blogger? Also, It is good you have also pointed out Labour’s wrongdoings and corruption but I haven’t seen much balance in your website reporting, which is a shame and makes believing the blogs more difficult. One thing I noticed is the media have not highlighted Lutfur’s many significant achievements when mayor and that begs the question, why? If a minority of his campaigners (not him direct) have in the past been accused of voter fraud fine, but at least recognise the other side too where he has achieved good output.
Could you provide us with a list of the many significant achievements of Lutfur Rahman please?
Glad you ask Mark, I could list so many here but here are just a few, cheers:
-Schools were on newspaper front pages for being some of the improved in the country under Lutfur
-Built more affordable housing than any other borough
-Introduced living wages (unique at the time)
-Blacklisted contractors that weren’t part of trade unions
-Provided grants for students
-Commissioned the Whitechapel Vision and Town Hall plan with the great Ken Livingstone
-After 25 years of campaigns, it was Lutfur that delivered and commissioned Poplar Baths
-Ocean Estate regeneration
– New and world class Youth Centres like Spotlight delivered
Actually a lot of what he did were not done elsewhere in the country, which should have garnered more media praise. I am not talking about just this website.
Again, I am glad you are at least pointing out current administration Labour flaws but the above cannot be ignored surely?
> If a minority of his campaigners
I object to this. While you’re perhaps well intentioned in wanting a balanced view, you’re seeking to minimise what happened by making statements like that. Aspire isn’t a few rotten apples – it’s the whole barrel.
The Electoral Commission found that fraud had occurred and removed Lutfur from office. The investigation found further that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute several key members of Aspire for a range of offences. The Metropolitan Police and CPS did not prosecute these for political reasons (mostly intervention from the Home Office and Eric Pickles, reading between the lines). Lutfur also neatly avoided the £250k legal costs by declaring himself bankrupt. The party disbanded while Lutfur was banned and now rises again. Nobody else was banned from office. If Aspire was doing such great work, as you claim, why didn’t it keep going?
In a way I actually admire Lutfur for thinking he can get away with it. He truly believes the people of TH are that stupid and ignorant to vote for him again. He genuinely believes this. He’s actually laughing at us. And if you think he’s doing this out of the goodness of his heart, well good luck to you.
Look at it this way: if you were Lutfur, all goodness and light, wrongly accused and full of do-gooding, wouldn’t it still be quite a shameful thing to do to stand again? Wouldn’t honour and integrity give way? Or that one’s reputation had been tarnished and the credibility of the office should prevail for the greater good? You’d at least perhaps have the decency to rename the party and put one of your cronies on the face instead? Apparently not. Because this is not about the greater good. It’s about Lutfur’s ego, getting his hands in the till and “winning”.
1. I am not seeking to minimise anything.
2. I don’t know the full identity or backgrounds of all the Aspire candidates so I can’t really judge.
3. The Electoral Commission did nothing, the verdict was brought at the end of the electoral petition brought by four residents.
4. Alibor Choudhury was also banned from office.
5. Your assumptions about political interference have no basis in fact. Eric Pickles was the minister who order PwC in to LBTH.
6. Where did I say Aspire was doing great work?
7. Bored now. Bye.
Now you are making huge statements talking about an entire party. If you listen to Aspire councillor Kabir Ahmed he is articulate, hard working and won the seat.
What you say about police not prosecuting due to political interference has no facts and based on assumption.
Also, Lutfur decides to stand because he feels he has not done anything wrong. Why should he be ashamed?
Frankly after the excesses of materialism that have created the mental health pandemic we see, I’m going with the Communist and the one who can stop the train of industrialisation. People before Products thank you.
(A born and bred British Indian Londoner).
Andrew Wood it is then. And NEVER Luftur or “biggie” Biggs. Seen what that lot do around here.