Lutfur Rahman is Britain's first directly elected Asian mayor.He’s not, of course, Chinese. Or Thai. This is the BBC’s version of ‘Asian’…
On 22 May, he seeks re-election. He says he aspires to the highest standards of transparency and probity and that he welcomes scrutiny. Two weeks ago, on Panorama, we scrutinised the way he's run this most diverse of boroughs.Heh! Extra large box of popcorn all round.
Though I’m finding myself unable to root for either side in this.
Instead of welcoming this, the mayor employed a major City law firm and a PR company at huge public expense to try to get the programme stopped.While the BBC fought back with their lawyers at their viewer’s expense. That’s somehow different, I take it?
I often think how I would feel were I a Muslim in post-9/11 Britain. I suspect that I, too, would feel a sense of victimhood, for Muslims have been under a relentless spotlight.Hmm, sympathy for the BBC is dimming somewhat…
But that should never stop the BBC from raising valid questions about the way a council is run and public money spent. The idea that any BBC programme would be motivated to do this by racism or Islamophobia is unthinkable, as anyone who has worked for the BBC knows.Oh, perish the thought! I’m sure you should, like Caesar’s wife, be considered beyond reproach in that!
OK, I’ve made up my mind. Can they both lose..?
5 comments:
The thought of a 7.62 crosses my mind....
or rather, that of lutfurs.
Closely followed by its brethren in the mag.
Bunny
The thought to me is that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law and then if found guilty (which is pretty much odds on) sentenced to the full extent of the law. His coterie is also prosecuted in the same way, with the following question on completion of the sentence, are you a British citizen and as a resident did you act in a manner that was conducive to the good order of the UK. Answer no, well in that case you can go back to the Islamic hell hole you originally come from.
Failing that Mr Rightwinggit's idea works for me.
The sad thing is that Tower Hamlets will likely get a boring, right-on Labour apparatchik as its mayor after May.
Lutfur's a bigoted sectarian but Panaorama accused him of doing something that every Labour council since the flood has doen - directing grants towards 'friendly' organisations.
And the 'Trojan Horse' schools. If this carries on, where are we going to be in 5 yrs time?
"Failing that Mr Rightwinggit's idea works for me."
Sounds expensive, so can't we try this first?
"The sad thing is that Tower Hamlets will likely get a boring, right-on Labour apparatchik as its mayor after May."
Frightening and depressing a thought as that may be, I'm still convinced it's a better option!
" If this carries on, where are we going to be in 5 yrs time?"
As long as that? Three, at the most...
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