It is almost, but not quite, possible to feel sorry for Tower Hamlets Labour after their kicking at the weekend as now their own party is on their case.
Today, Wednesday, was the day put aside for the Tower Hamlets Labour Annual General Meeting but this was abruptly cancelled by the London Regional Party after the elections.
One bright spark suggested this might be a great time to look into the reason for their electoral GBH while another with rather more common sense suggested that would be akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Either way it seems that ex-Mayor John Biggs is still coming to the terms with the whole ‘just John Biggs’ thing.
Tower Hamlets Labour is now leaderless and the rival candidates are not shy in coming forward for the upcoming competition, if TH Labour is entrusted with such a momentous task. Which is not very likely.
To the surprise of nobody Cllr Abdal Ullah thinks that he would be just the person to be the next TH Labour Leader because he really, really, really wants to be Mayor.
Nobody else thinks this.
Cllr Asma Begum thinks she would be a great leader too.
And so does John Biggs.
To such an extent that he has been voicing his support for her to anyone who will listen while shunning Ullah.
Cllr Ullah may soon be finding that just being dressed like you are in charge is not enough. Quite a few have been wondering if he has a country estate tucked away somewhere with his distinctly country attire.
Biggs is not doing himself any favours by joining in the discussion over his successor but it seems he has little intention of just shutting up and going away.
Far away.
Mole has been told that after the election results came through he immediately left the Labour councillors WhatsApp group without a word of explanation.
At least his leadership style is consistent.
Talking of leaders – how is the new boy doing? The scale of Labour’s defeat can be easily understood with a quick glance at the Tower Hamlets councillors page.
It is mainly ‘No picture available’ where Labour councillors used to smile out at us all, some with those youthful grins which confirmed that yes, they really did think they were in the Students Union bar playing at politics.
Sad, innit? Not at all, but Mole said to throw that in to make it look as if he gives a damn.
Which he doesn’t.
The next big question (after the colour of the Mayor’s new car which Mole assumes he is getting?) is what the first big issue the new administration will face?
Something very Tower Hamlets we think.
With so many failing to show their photo I wonder how many women were elected to the Council? What’s the number of women elected to represent each political party at Mulberry Place?
A quick count gives me seven female Labour councillors, one Green. https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1
Much time and effort has been put into reading the runes of the local election results. Although the Tories did very badly the results for Labour are mixed at best. One stat in particular should concern the Labour Party, they gained a net total of only 22 councillors in the whole of England. Maybe Keir should have a word with Lutfur Rahman, standing on a platform to the left of Labour, his party took more seats in one London borough.
This is worth a watch:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJ3_LLKDh0
Yes it is, councillors who stick to their political beliefs like Gabriela Salva Macallan are what we need.