Lutfur Rahman and the BNP bloc vote

http://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/an-nec-members-account/

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6812

http://www.lutfurformayor.com/about

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/sep/21/lutfur-rahman-removed-as-labour-tower-hamlets-mayoral-candidate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2010/sep/22/lutfur-rahman-tower-hamlets-mayoral-campaign-marred-ineptitude-nastiness



http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2010/oct/11/tower-hamlets-independent-mayoral-candidate-lutfur-rahman-interviewed

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100056657/lutfur-rahman-eleven-are-expelled-from-the-labour-party/

Labour Making a Big Mistake Over Lutfur Rahman
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6754

The Labour Party really hate Lutfur Rahman, don't they?  Here are a few anti-Rahman quotes:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2010/oct/05/tower-hamlets-mayoral-election-campaign-london-citizens-labour-candidate-helal-abbas

Rushanara Ali, the newly-elected MP for Bethnal Green and Bow congratulated the membership for "not tolerating intolerance" whether from "the far right or the far left - the Respect Party. You said goodbye to George Galloway [in May]. You said, we don't want division here, we don't want this community turned against each other - black against white against Asian; men against women; father against daughter; son against mother. That's what George Galloway's legacy has been." But she added: "Unfortunately, the Respect Party is not dead yet. It's rearing its ugly head again in a new way. It's calling itself 'independent'." This got a loud cheer. "It's not the same as Ken Livingstone becoming an independent," she continued. "Don't flatter them." She urged her audience to impress upon voters that the choice of who took care of a billion pound budget was between Labour, "a mainstream political party" that wants to unite the borough's different communities, and a divisive group of people who, among other things, want to "hijack Islam for selfish motives." She warned against intimidation and provocation and paid tribute to older Labour politicians who'd fought against the far right in her youth.

But then one hates and fears the person one has wronged.  Lutfur Rahman was to have been the Labour Tower Hamlets mayoral candidate until a rival Labour mayoral candidate, Helal Abbas, complained about him, causing Lutfur to be removed as a candidate without an investigation. 

This has provoked him into standing as an Independent against the Labour Party which will doubtless result in his expulsion.  Suzanne Moore, the Guardian and Mail columnist who was also a member of the Labour Party, was expelled from the party after she stood against Diane Abbott.

So this is party democracy in Labour, which is not much better than the kind of party "democracy" we get in the BNP. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/oct/01/tower-hamlets-mayoral-candidate-lutfur-rahman-antisemitism-respect-party


Lutfur Rahman does have a way with words, necessary to a politician and a lawyer of course, but also courage and determination from the array of his enemies:

"It has become fashionable among the right-wing to characterise Tower Hamlets as a 3rd World entity. If by that they mean a place where the rule of law is subordinate to the whims of unaccountable officials; where such basic principles such as "innocent until proven guilty" and the integrity of the democratic process are overruled by fiat, then they are entirely correct. But it is not me, or the borough's Bangladeshi community that are responsible for this sorry state of affairs, it is the Labour Party, who have for years treated Tower Hamlets like the last outpost of the British Raj."

Jeffrey Marshall and I have met Lutfur.  It was two or three years ago at a Safer Neighbourhoods meeting.  It was a Sunday and I remember Lutfur wearing jeans, for some reason.  Jeffrey complained about the intimidating gangs of youths hanging around street corners.  Lutfur even came over and chatted to us because we, being non-Asian, stuck out all like sore thumbs.

A few months later the gangs of intimidating youth had been dispersed with the dispersal notices that Lutfur must have had something to do with.

So, Lutfur's strong on law and order and gets things done.

Another reason why BNP supporters should vote for Lutfur is to show solidarity with someone who has been badly-treated by his party.

Details of how and why can be gleaned by reading http://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/an-nec-members-account/

Some of you may have heard of the BNP's recent troubles.  The reason why the BNP have failed to enter a candidate for the Tower Hamlets mayoral elections was because it had escaped the notice of the Acting London Organiser (one Nick Griffin living in mid-Wales who relieved the previous London Organiser Chris Roberts of his post because he was suspected of being a supporter of Eddy Butler the leadership challenger that never was because he could never in a month of  Sunday secure enough nominations under the current rules) that there was a deadline to be met if one wanted to be a candidate for the mayoral elections on 21 October. 

There is just a hint that Lutfur is anti-feminist and anti-Zionist, which would be OK with the typical BNP supporter, I imagine.  (He has clearly outraged Rushanara Ali who  made unspecified allegations against him  to Harriet Harman, the Supreme Matriarch of Britain.  It could be that he suggested that Rushanara Ali - another female candidate of the Oona King mode - is but a creature of the Labour Party and can no longer be said to properly represent the Bangladeshi community.  Perhaps the Bangladeshi community prefer a middle aged lawyer in preference to a slip of a girl who has "gone native" and will probably slavishly support whatever line her party wants her to take.)

Lutfur was also against the invasion of "Afraq" which is another important BNP policy.

Also, Ken Livingstone (whose political antennae is as faultless as mine) supports Lutfur and Keith Vaz - a lawyer - is on record saying that Lutfur's sacking was against the rules of natural justice.

Lutfur won by a majority of almost 200 votes from a total of 881 casted votes and the Local and Regional parties and both expressed confidence that the election had been fair and democratic.

Lutfur Rahman - 433 votes

John Biggs - 251 votes

Helal Abbas - 157 votes

Shome mishtake, shurely?

http://www.labourbriefing.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80:breaking-news-press-release-21st-september-2010&catid=3:newsflash

It would be an excellent story of mature co-operation if the BNP bloc vote helps to keep the Labour candidate out.  Helal Abbas has been a bankrupt under his other name of Abbas Uddin.  Helal Abbas was also a member of Hope Not Hate - an organisation specifically set up to thwart the BNP.

http://londonmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/10/lutfur-rahman-is-democrat-while-helal.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100057592/lutfur-rahman-the-racists-choice/
and

http://hurryupharry.org/2010/10/07/lutfur-rahman-and-his-racist-supporters/ suggests that there is a very nasty and concerted campaign by Andrew Gilligan, Labour and Zionists to smear Lutfur as a racist and an anti-Semite.  I think people of all races who are branded as "racists" by the liberal establishment should stick up for each other. 

The way ahead is therefore clear.  BNP supporters in Tower Hamlets should vote Lutfur Rahman on the grounds of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".  It will be very satisfying to deliver a good hard kick to Labour while proclaiming to the nation that the BNP bloc vote is something to be courted if your majority is anything less than solid.

My evening at the Orwell Prize and Electoral Reform

To Church House http://www.churchhouseconf.co.uk/ for the Orwell Prize award. I did not even make the longlist but it was very kind of Gavin Freeguard to invite me.

It was held in the Assembly Room http://www.churchhouseconf.co.uk/rooms/assembly_hall - resplendently round.

The Director of the Orwell Prize - the very charming and enthusiastic Jean Seaton spotted me and dragged me by the arm to meet Richard Blair - Orwell's son - who was surrounded by a gaggle of young and pretty Oriental girlies. Jean introduced me as Madam Miaow, an egregious leftist blogger http://madammiaow.blogspot.com/ who actually made it to the shortlist, who has a very depraved-looking male companion whom I know has denounced me on Suzanne Moore's walls.

I did eventually correct this case of mistaken identity, and proceeded to discuss self-censorship in China with one of the brighter and prettier Chinese girls with whom Richard was surrounded. It turned out she was studying journalism and she said self-censorship was the order of the day. I said there was much self-censorship here too but did not have a chance to launch into a lecture about the evils of single mummery which even the Mail now does not quite dare to condemn - probably because they make up half its readership?

We did however discuss the duties of being a literary executor and the fact that the EU harmonised copyright laws upwards to 70 years, which gave him an extra 20 years of value from the Orwell Estate. Richard also mentioned that he was adopted and told the story of how his father was shot in the throat when I started talking about putting one's head above the parapet ....

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/soldiers/george-orwell-shot.html

I then spoke to Peter Kellner the psephologist who founded YouGov. (I took him to task for not automatically sending out cheques for £50 when those polled have answered enough questions to earn this.) John Tusa joined us later but I cannot remember what was said between us. Saw Jonathan Dimbleby nearby but did not speak to him.

Oona King was there looking improbably young and pretty in jeans and a denim jacket. She was one of the blog judges who did not put me on the longlist, but I smiled at her anyway. She either blanked me or did not notice me. In any case she is not accepting any of my Facebook friendship requests on Facebook and neither is Rushanara Ali (now MP for Bethnal Green & Bow), though she has seen fit to accept Jeffrey Marshall's.

Although Jeffrey and I are not an item, I do feel rather left out in the cold, as if my spouse had been invited to the neighbour's barbecue but not me.

It is a bit of a blow sometimes to realise that one is perhaps less popular than a BNP activist, and then to realise that one has in fact become a BNP activist and that such comparisons are now redundant.

The Prizes were then announced.

Low groans could be heard amidst the applause but I hoped I made up for it by whooping and cheering as loudly as I could when Peter Hitchens was announced as winner of the Journalism Prize. I managed to locate him in order to congratulate him only to see him bent forward and Tweeting, I initially supposed, but it turned out that he was only sending a text to the missus back home that he had won.

There I also saw Francis Wheen, my Facebook friend, whom I had also met many years ago at the Academy Club when it was in a Beak Street basement, in the good old days when Auberon Waugh ran it as Editor of the Literary Review.  We even travelled back on the same train after attending his funeral. 

Francis identified me as "the BNP person", which was quite gratifying, I suppose. Apparently, his status updates were going mad when I announced my membership of the party and the fact that I was Election Agent to Jeffrey Marshall, the BNP candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow.

John E Strafford the Angry Old Conservative who campaigns for Conservative Democracy at http://www.btinternet.com/~johnstrafford/ was also there. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to speak to him. It would have been good to propose a campaign on party democracy, which is tragically absent from the Conservative Party. (This may even explain why so many of its leaders after the Iron Lady have been so rubbish. The leader I have in mind for this one-party state is Lord Mandelson - the man I hope will one day be my lord and master. Lady Mandelson has such a ring to it, does it not, Dear Reader? I have consulted the stars and they say "You might as well give it a go if you're so set on him. You'll only ignore us anyway if we tell you you're not really his type.")

On the subject of Conservative Democracy, John says:

"The Conservative Party does not have One Person, One Vote. The constitution can only be changed by an electoral college whch consists of MPs in one part and members of the National Convention (mainly constituency chairmen) in the other. It is wholly undemocratic."

The new BNP constitution is now even more undemocratic than the previous one, but much much longer at http://www.bnp.org.uk/?q=constitution-british-national-party

Indeed, if the present Chairman were to be in the peculiar position of wishing to challenge himself for the leadership, I can imagine that he would be hard put to jump through all the hoops that the constitution requires any challenger to do.

As for changing the constitution itself, anyone who wishes to do this would have to submit this proposal to the Chairman who would at his discretion allow it to be put forward, or not.

In other words, it is sewn up and stitched up to favour the incumbent.

I am pretty sure the constitution of the Chinese Communist Party was a lot more democratic than this, even in Mao's time. The trouble for them was that no one enforced the rules (which were apparently quite fair) when dissidents were being beaten, exiled or imprisoned.

It is quite telling that the Chinese are very proud of their constitution and have it displayed online, in English, for the world to see, while the Conservative Party locks theirs away the way Mr Rochester locked up his mad wife. (I had to ask CCHQ six times before they would send the Tory Party constitution to me.)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/25/content_6944738.htm

Mutinous murmurs from BNP activists are being heard everywhere online, it seems. There is even a conspiracy theory that the Chairman wants the party small and unsuccessful because that would make the membership easier to control. While middle class support and talent is being sought, there are certain elements in the party in senior positions who do not want competition from talented newcomers, it has been suggested.

http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/bnp/76710-challenge-bnp-leadership-virtually-impossible.html

My hope is that the finest legal minds in the country will examine the fairness of the rules of both the Conservative Party and BNP constitution. When the model constitution for a party is finally ready we can then proceed to an official one-party state, which is to my mind the most rational form of government. We can see that it has done the Chinese no harm at all, apart from a few moaners and whingers, for whom there can be no pleasing.

Electoral reform is nothing if individual party constitutions make members the mere instruments and creatures of the party leader.

It would in fact serve the present incumbents and those they govern better than the mess we have now if there was only one political party to join and that differences are always resolved intra-party rather than inter-party.

I would be happy to explain further if people would just ask me intelligent questions instead of running away at the mention of a one-party state.

I should also mention the lovely Italian meal I had with the Mail's dark and mysterious Moscow correspondent at Il Posto near Victoria Station. http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/restaurants/il-posto-info-8473.html The seafood risotto was absolutely delicious and is just as good now if not better. I am so glad I got the waiter to doggy bag it!