There are two stories here. The first is that Unite the Union’s strategy of taking trade unions into the community was launched yesterday in a particularly tangible way with the opening of the first Unite Community Centre. The second is that it represents a collaborative enterprise between Len McCluskey and Lutfur Rahman, independent Mayor of [...]
Posts under ‘Local Government’
Len McCluskey & Lutfur Rahman uniting the community of East End battleground
May 14th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.
In Tower Hamlets, now the accuser is accused
Apr 5th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Just 2½ years ago, Lutfur Rahman was selected as Labour’s candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets with 433 votes compared with 251 for local London assembly member, John Biggs, and 157 for council leader, Helal Abbas. Shortly afterwards, Rahman was accused by Abbas of fraudulently recruiting members, including at fake addresses, paying their subscriptions, and [...]
Lutfur Rahman: former party official threatens to “load the revolver”
Mar 29th, 2013 by Keith Wright.Hatred runs deep in Tower Hamlets Labour – as we’ve reported before. The East London borough’s party branch still remains deeply divided after Lutfur Rahman, selected to fight for the directly-elected mayoralty by Labour, was dropped by the party national executive committee, after one of his rivals made allegations of extremism against him – claims [...]
Floodgates for Boris Johnson? No, Mair is the exception
Mar 25th, 2013 by Conrad Landin.If you’re on Twitter, Facebook or any outlet of the internet, you’ll no doubt have heard all about the occasion yesterday when Boris Johnson was given a standard BBC grilling. I put it like that because Eddie Mair’s interview was not unusual – it was simply unusual for Johnson. It was still not near the [...]
Bedroom tax: Labour should follow SNP lead
Mar 25th, 2013 by David Osler.Britain is about to witness the first co-ordinated attempt by multiple local authorities to obstruct a Westminster edict in almost three decades. Good news, but don’t dust off those ‘defiance not compliance’ badges just yet. Sassenachs who haven’t been keeping up may need to be told that eight Scottish National Party councils are to follow [...]
The strange behaviour of Tower Hamlets Labour Group
Mar 13th, 2013 by Rainsborough.Last week Tower Hamlets Labour group, myopic in their perpetual factionalism, joined forces with local Tories to vote down the annual budget proposed by the former Labour council leader and now independent mayor Lutfur Rahman, who of course was removed as Labour candidate by the National Executive Committee in the run up to the 2010 mayoral [...]
Tower Hamlets Labour, which side are you on?
Mar 7th, 2013 by Rainsborough.Two weeks ago, the Campaign for Labour Democracy’s AGM passed a motion calling for Lutfur Rahman, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, to be readmitted to the party and for a full investigation into events since the disastrous 2010 selection process that led to this former Labour council leader standing as an independent and winning against [...]
Cathy Come Home: then and now
Feb 11th, 2013 by Lucy Reese.Although I’m a child of the 70s, I’ve always had a fascination with the 60s. A strange time of change and experimentation that seems so different from the world we live in. I love the music, fashion and art of the 60s and am inspired by the radical ideas that emerged from this turbulent decade. [...]
Why are the most powerful Labour politicians also the least accountable?
Jan 18th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Directly elected Mayors in England are, without doubt, the most powerful English politicians around, with the exception of the Prime Minister. They have unparalleled executive powers, sufficient powers of patronage to ensure they are untroubled by dissenters in their own parties, and the comfort of knowing that it requires a two-thirds majority to overturn their [...]
Lucy Reese on Newsnight: “big companies gagging to get their hands on education budgets”
Dec 14th, 2012 by Newsdesk.Regular Left Futures contributor Lucy Reese defended local authority-run education on Newsnight last night – and warned that Michael Gove’s free schools policy was paving the way for large corporations to “get their hands on education budgets”. She appeared on the programme after a film was aired assessing the progress of free schools at the [...]
