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Labour Lose Tower Hamlets To No Overall Control

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ChillDoubt | 22:34 Tue 27th May 2014 | News
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Just what exactly IS going on at the Islamic Republic of Tower Hamlets?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27585346

Shouting crowds outside Polling Stations and allegations of intimidation? W T Eff is all that about?
Unfortunately, there is no info in the link as to whom the allegations are made against. Can any 'dahn the Smoke' tell us what is going on?
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Chilldoubt

I can report from London that a) it's raining, b) it's been raining all day and c) if you go to La a Perla in Covent Garden, expect the food to be very underwhelming...but the jugs of margaritas more than make up for it.

(Burp)
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I'm guessing you didn't walk throught the IRoTH with that jug of alcohol, sp?
I thought it was near your patch? Did you witness any form of intimidation/crowd gathering within said republic?
piece on radio 4 tue this pm

did add much to what was in the Beeb article already quoted
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Not this La Perla, I'm guessing?

http://www.laperla.com/uk/

Dine near Covent Garden but not in it
China town is good

and then enjoy the opera -

as you rub your ex army butt into the seat - think how the tax payer is qutie rightly paying you £400 to sit in the seat.

DONT go east to TH - terrrible place ( I know, I've been there )
Here where I live there used to be a slogan, Vote early, vote often. I suppose that demonstrated a contempt for the integrity of the process. It seems as though the apparatchiks in Tower Hamlets are trying to import Pakistani practices into their elections and in the process showing similar disdain.
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It is alleged that the problems stem from a party that follows Islam(is the most PC way to describe it):

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-watchdog-to-probe-tower-hamlets-count-delays-as-last-results-finally-announced-9442262.html

“It’s easy to be attacked as Islamophobic for making this point,” said Mr Golds. “But the intimidation at polling stations across this borough was appalling. There were four Bangladeshi men outside my polling station, all from Tower Hamlets First, and as you walked in there 11 people inside the polling station and they would pounce on you with a fake polling card in your face, calling on you to vote for Mr Rahman.”

Tower Hamlets, which sits between the financial centres of the City and Canary Wharf, has been the scene of fractious election disputes since Mr Rahman swept to power in 2010 and formed a cabinet made up entirely of Bangladeshi Muslims.

And some people were wondering why UKIP didn't do as well in London as elsewhere.......

// as you walked in there 11 people inside the polling station and they would pounce on you with a fake polling card in your face, calling on you to vote for Mr Rahman.”//

Surely this is illegal, and should have been stopped immediately and the people concerned arrested?
No surprise. Tower Hamlets has resembled something out of the Third World for a very long time.
they interviewed the returning officer yesterday. He came across as weak and an apologist, using terms such as there wasn't 'widespread'? intimidation and I 'personally' didn't witness 'much'.
I see I should have put 'Bangladeshi' rather than 'Pakistani' in my post at 22:54.
It wasn't widespread? That's OK, then.
//Surely this is illegal, and should have been stopped immediately and the people concerned arrested? //

doubtless this is what the electoral commission will be looking into. I've heard they've engaged the services of one James Brian Edward Hutton, and that he has a big brush and a great big tin of "Snowcem".
This type of voting intimation will only spread as more and more candidates from a culture alien to the British way of life are elected to positions of power.

We can only hope that what has allegedly taken place in Tower Hamlets is now investigated fully and if it is found that anything illegal has taken place the necessary strong action is implemented, even if it means that some are stripped of their power.
There is another council election in a few weeks because a candidate died in the run up to the vote. Labour can get it back (I think).
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One might even be so bold as to play devil's advocate and point out that in certain parts of London, Enoch wasn't too wide of the mark with his prediction.
Strange that when UKiP beat the 3 party system it is hailed as a breakthrough in politics and the people having their say.

When Tower Hamlets First (THF) does the same thing and it is a threat.

Labour still have the most seats on the Council. They can be beaten if THF and the Conservatives join forces to vote against Labour.

Tower Hamlets has seen a reduction in the number of wards, and redrawn boundaries. Those changes often have a consequence on how the political composition of a place. Dis-satifaction with Labour seems to be behind the rise of Tower Hamlets First. I'd have thought that would please many of you.

Of course Enoch Powell is not right. Tower Hamlets is not the first Council to go into no overall control due to independents, and it won't be the last.

As all the 3 main parties try to occupy the middle ground, the public are not left with much choice. When UKiP come along with views like the old Conservatives, people will vote for them. THF is more like the old Labour Party, slightly more left that Miliband's lot, and it seems, people will vote for that too.
Gromit

No comments to make about the abnormal if not illegal way this election has been conducted?
Tower Hamlets is the third world incarnate, Lutfer Rahmen advocated for city status for the borough, thank goodness they didn't get it.

"Surely this [11 people inside a polling station] is illegal, and should have been stopped immediately and the people concerned arrested? "

Quite so, ludwig. Each polling station in TH had a police officer on duty but nothing was done (incidentally I have not seen a police officer at my local polling station for at least 20 years).

I don't think chillidoubt's reference to Enoch Powell was anything to do with a council being in the charge of independent councillors (though I may be wrong). Unlike sp1814 I unfortunately have to travel through Tower Hamlets and Newham from time to time. Although the demographic figures show that those of an Asian descent are in the minority you would never think so. In quite a few parts of those boroughs you are lucky to see a white person at all. As far as I know there has never been widespread suspicions of vote rigging or disorder at polling stations in the UK. Until recently, that is. This report by the Electoral Commission lays out its findings into an earlier accusation of vote rigging in TH:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/154531/Tower-Hamlets-report-2013.pdf

Paragraphs 2.8 to 2.11 give details of alleged postal vote fraud.

This article also explains earlier concerns the Electoral commission had about voting irregularities in other areas of the country.

http://news.sky.com/story/1191986/probe-into-south-asian-vote-rigging-claims

Among the salient points:

"An investigation has been launched into concerns Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities are more prone to vote-rigging. The Electoral Commission said differences in "cultural approaches to democratic participation" were not acceptable excuses for electoral fraud.
And while it emphasised that corruption was not confined to South Asian communities, it admits it is such a concern that further investigation should be carried out."

It is interesting to note that the irregularities seem to stem from "differences in cultural approaches to democratic participation". Certainly when viewing the scenes on the telly showing the streets of Tower Hamlets outside the Town Hall where counting was taking under way I saw no white people at all, no women at all. All the participants were Asian males. Their behaviour was not very agreeeable.

Tower Hamlets and neighbouring Newham are not pleasant places for non-Asian people to live. (In fact, they cannot be that pleasant for Asian people). Driving through them on a Friday afternoon after "Friday Prayers" have chucked out is extremely unpleasant. Give it a try - around 2 to 2:30pm - to see what I mean. The streets are full of young Asian males milling about and the atmosphere is very intimidating. There are not a few isolated individuals, there are hundreds of them. If you happen to drive near to them as they spill into the road you need to hope you don't catch the traffic lights. These people have no intention of integrating with the rest of the population and are instead intent on living their own lifestyles more reminiscent of those in their "homelands". This should not extend to vote rigging or intimidation at polling stations and the authorities need to get a grip on the problem urgently. If it is tolerated it will develop in the same was as the sermons in the road outside Finsbury Park mosque did.

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