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Lutfur Rahman: yet another low UPDATED

January 31, 2016 Lutfur Rahman, Tower Hamlets

Mark Baynes at Love Wapping has a powerful story on the latest development in the Lutfur Rahman affair, which begins as follows: ‘Lutfur Rahman, ex-Mayor of Tower Hamlets, has been damned once again by the law of the land. A strongly worded press statement released today by Richard Slade & Company, solicitor for the electoral petitioners, details why the latest court judgement against Rahman has found him to be “a mortgage fraudster and tax evader” and Mrs. Rahman (aka Mrs Ayesha Farid) has been called an “unreliable witness who adjusts her evidence under pressure.”’ For the rest, see http://lovewapping.org/2016/01/lutfur-rahman-mortgage-fraudster-and-tax-evader/ while the fu... »

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Tackling worklessness: Newham v. LBWF

January 20, 2016 National Construction College Cathall Rd., Worknet

I was interested to read a story last week in the Guardian which suggested that Newham’s growing affluence was partly the result of its council’s ‘reimagined jobs scheme’, Workplace (‘What’s behind the huge fall in deprivation in east London? And no, it’s not gentrification’, 14 January 2016). In past years, apparently, Newham council simply ‘advised residents on their CVs, pointed them to job postings, and sent them on their way’, a system that resulted in a mere 2 per cent then finding work. Now, because more than a dozen Workplace managers are embedded with major local employers, they are better able to ease residents into vacancies, and then up-skill them through appropriate training, in... »

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Private Eye’s 2015 Rotten Borough’s Awards: LBWF triumphs again

January 13, 2016 ISIS, Prevent, Private Eye, Town Hall asbestos

Private Eye‘s annual Rotten Borough Awards are always a highpoint for local council watchers, and this year LBWF triumphs again, with no less than two citations, which read as follows: ‘COMBATING EXTREMISM: Until an undercover Channel 4 reporter discovered the truth, for two years Labour Waltham Forest council hired out a room for “ladies tea afternoons” to a group of burqa-clad women…who turned out to be an Isis supporters’ group’; and ‘WORKPLACE SAFETY: The London borough of Waltham Forest was fined £66,000 with £16,000 costs for failing to protect staff and public from asbestos on its premises. The council had known about the deadly dust in ... »

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LBWF’s Preventing Extremism Strategic Summary for 2015-16

January 13, 2016 Prevent

Despite LBWF insisting that its Prevent programme should in general remain secret, it has recently divulged to me a nine-page ‘Preventing Extremism Strategic Summary’ for 2015-16, and this makes for interesting (if, as will be seen, ultimately dispiriting) reading. The document begins with some scattered remarks about the challenge to be faced. The current evidence, it states, ‘indicates that the most significant threat relates to Islamist extremism which looks to further the Al-Qaida…narrative’. However, it also warns that ‘The profile of radicalized individuals in Britain that go on to commit acts of violence has changed’, and there appear to be ‘an increasing number of lone actors that ha... »

Cllr. Johar Khan makes Private Eye

December 18, 2015 Cllr. Johar Khan, E11 BID Co., the Labour Party in Waltham Forest

From Private Eye, no. 1408, 19 December 2015 – 7 January 2016:     »

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