TL; DR:
There is no difference between Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire Party and Tower Hamlets Labour Party. They can be treated as one political group which Mole has christened ‘Aspire-Labour’. Well-established techniques of electoral corruption are being used to rig the local selection process resulting in the electorate not knowing which political party they are voting for in the May 2022 elections. Not that it will make any difference.
How Intense Is Your Digging?
Due to his intense digging schedule, Moley has neglected his usual sparkling coverage of the nonsense that passes for local politics in our dear borough.
While the digging schedule is still intense (even after the story we published yesterday) Mole has smoothed his whiskers, donned his writing jacket and has gathered various snippets of information that has come his way through the Mole Telegraph.
So without further ado here is our so-called coverage of the so-called selection process of the so-called Labour candidates for the so-called local elections in May 2020.
Moley will have a short break here until you have stopped laughing.
Done? Good.
Bottom line is that the May 2022 local elections have already been run but we don’t know the result.
Awake Aspire-Labour!
Tower Hamlets Labour Party, or ‘Aspire-Labour’ as it shall now be known for reasons Mole will explain, is choosing candidates to stand in May, partly to replace the significant number of genuine Labour Party councillors who have had enough of the treachery and tribal politics that are a trademark of Aspire-Labour and Tower Hamlets politics in general.
The reason we will now be referring to Aspire-Labour is because that is what it is, but this is not written on its tin or anywhere else.
Especially not on the ballot papers.
The reality is that, despite what you may have been led to believe, Lutfur Rahman’s political group (most recently called Aspire) and the local Labour Party are one and the same thing.
Aspire-Labour.
When Lutfur Rahman ‘split’ from the local Labour Party in 2010 neither he nor his colleagues split that far.
This has meant that for many years voters in Tower Hamlets have been deceived into believing that there is a difference between the policies and outlook of a Rahman candidate and a Labour candidate and that is because they belong to different political parties.
They do not.
The Electoral Commission may have been conned (not difficult to do) into registering Rahman’s last group as a political party but those who take a more forensic approach to political analysis know what the real deal is.
This deliberate deception is best illustrated by the nonsense of the Aspire-Labour candidate selection process that continues to deceive the electorate and subvert democracy.
The fact that the authorities know full well what is happening in our borough but fail to do anything and the Metropolitan Police Service is scared of doing its duty to investigate crime gives tacit approval to this.
Mole has been told by different sources at different times about the reality of Aspire-Labour candidate selection.
This is what Mole knows. And our local politicians know too.
Difference between us is that Moley tells it as it is.
Vote Labour, Get Aspire
St Peters’, Bethnal Green, Weavers, Blackwall, Island Gardens, Lansbury, St Dunstans’, Whitechapel and Spitalfields are just some of the Tower Hamlets electoral wards where those loyal to Lutfur Rahman who are Labour Party members have rigged the ballot process (sound familiar?) to ensure that are Rahmanite candidate is selected as the Labour Party candidate.
That means that at the election voters will examine their ballot paper and put their mark next to the icon of their party.
This flick of a pencil is the foundation of the democratic process.
Their pencil mark (aka a vote) will then be counted towards the total votes for their candidate and, if they have chosen a Aspire, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Independent, Green, UKIP or Women’s Equality Party candidate they will have given their support to a Aspire, Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Independent, Green, UKIP or Women’s Equality Party candidate.
If a voter puts their mark next to the Tower Hamlets Labour candidate this is not the case.
They (you) might be voting for a genuine Labour candidate or they (you) might be voting for an Aspire candidate.
This is the definition of political and moral corruption.
The days when political parties here in the stinkiest of rotten boroughs had to rig elections by hijacking postal votes or physically tampering with ballot papers on the count floor are long gone.
As the government considers inflicting compulsory voter ID on every voter in the UK the people guilty of generating this requirement because of their activities in a single local authority have moved on, so making voter IDs redundant before they can even be issued.
Aspire-Labour uses different strategies in different wards to achieve their goals.
Strategy 1 – Pick A Winner
This is the simplest strategy. Aspire-Labour will choose a competent candidate on the basis of their dedication to the cause of Lutfur Rahman (whatever that might be) and, when elected as a Labour councillor that person, will flip over to Rahman’s political group (whatever that will be called, maybe Aspire) and so show his or her true political colours.
In one ward Aspire-Labour is fielding a candidate described by one genuine Labour Party member as “a fool [who] no logical person would pick”.
Unless that selection was designed to deceive.
Strategy 2 – Pick A Loser
This is a more subtle approach where Aspire-Labour chooses a genuine Labour candidate who is guaranteed to lose.
In one ward a very capable and openly gay man is chosen. Although by far the best pick as a councillor he will be judged purely on his sexuality.
Some in the Bangladeshi community, especially the ‘uncles’, the elders with power and influence, are hardline small c conservatives and there is not the slightest chance whatsoever that they will allow a gay man to be elected for their ward.
Result? The openly Lutfur Rahman candidate will win as Aspire-Labour planned.
This approach is not a new development.
One Labour Party member recalls the time some years ago when he was first hitting the doorsteps for (Aspire) Labour and was puzzled by hearing other Labour canvassers using the phrase
“We are from the Labour Party, but you know how to vote”.
When this was explained to him his belief in the democratic process was slightly tarnished.
To be crystal clear, Labour canvassers were telling voters not to vote for the Labour candidate but Lutfur Rahman’s candidate.
The other phrase historically used by Labour candidates is “one for you, one for me” when counting postal votes. Or as the Twitter hashtag so accurately puts it, #winningtogether
To make matters worse for voters the original Tower Hamlets Labour Party is also rigging their selection process to ensure their ‘right people’ are selected.
To ensure the UK Labour Party in Tower Hamlets shoots itself in both feet their selection process is being managed by the Local Campaign Forum (LCF) with Helal Abbas and Rachael Saunders in charge.
OK, let’s have another break for a good giggle.
Done? Yes? Alright then.
In the true tradition of Tower Hamlets Labour (“If we can screw it up we will.”) the LCF is so incompetent that lots of genuine members have been disenfranchised while others have been paid to turn up to meetings.
Mole has also been told by an eye-witness at the Mile End selection count of specific individuals (who really should know better) walking around the meeting telling people how to vote.
The LCF managers are adamant that there is nothing wrong, natch. Nothing ever is. Or it is the fault of the government.
Or it is a consequence of the ‘Schleswig-Holstein Question’
Oldest trick in the electoral fraud book
At Aspire-Labour meetings across the borough one of the oldest tricks in politics is also being deployed.
The Mile End selection was held in a room with a maximum capacity of 100.
139 people turned up, adding a bit more chaos and confusion into the mix as intended.
Completely erroneous, mischief and just downright naughty allegations as detailed above will further be masked by the electoral fraudster’s bestie, COVID-19. Or Omicron this time round.
Forced by lockdown to undertake all meetings via Zoom (other video conferencing applications are available) those intent on ensuring that the outcome of a democratic vote is just as they want will hold meetings online.
A perfect way to confuse and mask proceedings so that the corruption of the online process is incomprehensible to anyone but those running the show.
So next time you hear some government minister or senior local council officer bragging about how well they run the election process in the borough and the efficiency of their voter fraud prevention measures just laugh in their faces.
Or cry for democracy. At least you can choose about that.
The stupidity and ignorance of the facts makes these ‘civil servants’ as guilty as those in Aspire-Labour and Aspire who spend their days screwing over the electorate (you) for their own selfish reasons.
This Borough Is Stuffed
So where does this leave us all?
- As we have stated before on this site and Love Wapping before it there is no democratic process in Tower Hamlets
- This is a consequence of the manner in which political parties, primarily Tower Hamlets Labour, have corrupted the electoral process
- Lutfur Rahman and his Aspire group continue to feed on this corruption for their own benefit with little or no regard for the needs of the electorate
- There is no genuine distinction between Tower Hamlets Labour and the Lutfur Rahman group
- Voters are being deceived at every election as they have no way of establishing the real political beliefs of the person they vote for
- Tower Hamlets Labour is always quick to condemn Lutfur Rahman and his followers, conveniently ignoring the historical fact that Lutfur emerged (a bit) from Tower Hamlets Labour as did many of his key people such as Alibor Choudhury.
- There is no separation between the political corruption that is tolerated, even accepted, by the authorities and the criminal corruption that drains the borough’s resources. Both are reliant on the other, two heads of the same snake
- The continued inability of the Metropolitan Police Service to detect or prosecute crime related to politicians or the political process brings shame on what was once a proud organisation.
- Consequently the rule of law is as absent from this part of east London as is democracy.
- This problem can never be solved within the borough as there is only ever one party in power – either the Labour Party component of Aspire-Labour or the Aspire component of Aspire-Labour – and neither wants it solved
- UK Labour, a very different entity to Aspire-Labour, seems completely uninterested in Tower Hamlets and seems to have no wish to intervene. This compounds the problem.
- Aspire-Labour will only ever look after its own needs, not those of the electorate. This is an affront to the democratic process and an insult to those who have died to protect democracy from destruction and as such cannot be allowed to stand.
- Tower Hamlets remains poor, and will continue to remain poor, because that is how the Aspire-Labour wants it to be.
Related Internet Links
- Tower Hamlets: Lutfur Rahman removed as Labour mayoral candidate Dave Hill, Guardian, September 2010
- Five Labour councillors expelled from party East London Advertiser July 2012
- Dreadnoughts Without Wheels: The Schleswig-Holstein Question – History Today August 2014
