Galloway, Respect, Lutfur Rahman & the Mayoral Seat

Could George Galloway and the Respect Party now be pushing for support for ousted Labour council leader Lutfur Rahman in his bid for Tower Hamlets Mayoral Seat?

Even though Lutfur Rahman has been dropped as a candidate by his own party, there are rumblings that there may be other routesavailable for him, to this coveted seat.

As I revealed in my post about the Anti-Fascism Rally, Lutfur spoke at the end of the Rally in Altab Ali park, standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr Galloway, about the need for new leadership in the Borough. Claiming that there was an “abuse of power” (as he sees it) by the current council leadership (Cllr Helal Abbas) in pressurising the Troxy to cancel the Islamic Conference. He mentioned nothing of the Hate preached by those invited to that conference to speak. The same preachers that had encouraged the EDL to want to stage a protest there.

He went into a long worn out speech that culminated in him calling on the borough to vote for strong leadership in the upcoming Mayoral elections in October 2010.
Stepping away from the microphone, he passed this to Galloway, who immediately went into a highly animated impassioned speech, regarding the abuses of muslim’s, arguing that we would face this ememy (fascism) of religion and race together, before himself stating;

“Lets elect a mayor, like Lutfur Rahman, who will stand up for the people of this Borough, who will stand with the people, and who will not be undermining them and dividing them” – George Galloway 20 June 2010 Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel

This is the same Lutfur Rahman who refused to deny his involvement with the alleged radical islamist organisation, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) in Andrew Gilligans Dispatches Documentary.

The same Lutfur Rahman who did nothing after calls from Galloway to push for the cancelling of the waste management contractors ‘Veolia’ who are building a tramline in occupied Palestinian terrortories, which is deemed a breach of human rights under the Fourth Geneva convention. Stating in his reply to Galloways email calling for abolishment of these unprecedented £25 milion pounds a year, 11 year Veolia contracts that

“I do not consider it appropriate at this stage to reconsider Veolia’s contracts with the Council as I have not seen any evidence of breaches to these contracts.”
– Letter from Lutfur Rahman to George Galloway 14 May 2009

Read his letter to Galloway, he asked an organisation which stands accused by some of abusing human rights, if it was abusing human rights?…..can you really believe the gall of this weazely litter creature?, what the hell did he think they were going to say? He could have called for the disolution of the contracts on moral grounds, or pushed for them arguing the case under the Councils “Corporate Social Responsibility” charter, but no. In a borough whos history is littered with stories of people who risked everything, not least of which is the story of George Lansbury and the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921 he does nothing except ask some questions and then lays back in his gilded office, sure that he’s put the world to rights, not caring at all about Veolia’s ‘dirty little business’.

Galloway the man who has fought so furiuosly for the rights of the Palestinian people, the man whos colleague Ken Ovenden, was literally kidnapped and thankfully released during the Gaza Aid Flotilla convoy, now stands by Lutfur Rahman, the man who had a chance to make a real stand in this country, make some lasting change to the lives of palestinian people, but decided he couldn’t be bothered, or that he was too scared to rock the boat, probably in case Veolia attempted to take out an injunction against him.

This is the man Galloway now seems to want to support in his bid for leadership in the upcoming Mayoral elections. Lutfur Rahman, the man who has championed the over development of this borough, the man who developed a failed strategy in buying back ex-council homes, instead of investing in building them, the man who stood in power while this council gives away millions of pounds of tax-payer, council owned land, the man who engaged in the slow privatisation of one of the boroughs secondary schools (St Pauls Way), the man who has stood watch over Tesco trying to take over every corner shop in the borough, which has put a huge strain on local family run businesses, the man who stood watch, while the slow privatisation of our Housing service was kicked off, the man who didn’t raise his voice publically in the press regarding his indignation at his percieved “abuse of power” by the current council, its leader Cllr Helal Abbas, and the rest of the Labour Cronies, when it came to events at the Troxy.

This is the type of man that Galloway should be campaigning against, he stands for everything that Galloway has himself has stood against, and yet this is the man, Galloway on 20th June 2010 in Altab Ali Park called for you to support as Mayor, the man who Galloway now feels will not undermine the people of this borough….

Speechless

---

Posted in Uncategorized