Tower Hamlets:
how a dictatorship flourished in the East End
By Nick Cohen
The neurotic fear of accusations of race and religious bias in Britain helped Lutfur Rahman control the London borough
In
London’s East End, where so many battles against real fascism were
fought in the 20th century, “anti-racism” has become little more than a
swindle. Far from being just or noble, it was a pretext to bribe
journalists, pay off accomplices and frighten poor immigrants into
supporting a crooked demagogue, who despised his “own” people so much he
would not even grant them the right to participate in an honest
election.
The formal reasons judge
Richard Mawrey gave for disqualifying Lutfur Rahman from office last
week are bad enough. The now ex-mayor of Tower Hamlets used fake “ghost”
voters to win elections and public funds to buy votes. He offered
grants to groups “that hadn’t even applied for them”. He took money that
was meant to be going to the Alzheimer’s Society and poor wards that
needed all the help they could get. He ran a “ruthless and dishonest”
campaign to convince the electorate that John Biggs, his Labour rival
for mayor, was a racist. When the election court asked Rahman if he
believed for a moment that Biggs was an actual racist, he dodged the
question. No matter. The truth of the charge didn’t worry him. His only
concern was getting the lie out, and seeing it taken up by the local
Bengali TV stations, five of which received public money from the mayor.
Not
content with that, he rigged the vote by using “undue spiritual
influence”, an accusation unheard of in a British court since the 19th
century. Rahman persuaded clerics to go far beyond saying they thought
he was the best candidate. Islam is under threat, they said in so many
words. It was the duty of all Muslims to vote for Rahman. If Bangladeshi
voters did not, they would be siding with their Islamophobic enemies,
perhaps even defying god’s will.
We
are used to thinking of racism as Nigel Farage or the Tory tabloids
egging on their readers to see the Aids-afflicted foreigner as the
enemy. Indeed, it often appears that this is the only way we can think about it. The mirror image is just as foul and its foulness reached a nadir in London. The worst of Rahman’s corruption was not the purloined money, but the way he corrupted leftwing values.
Anyone
who criticised the mayor was a racist. When councillors said the mayor
must answer questions, his supporters accused them of “racism”. When an
opponent appeared at a meeting in a black cardigan – the poor woman was
in mourning for her dead husband, incidentally – Rahman’s fixer roared
that where once the East End had been terrorised by Blackshirts, it was
now terrorised by Blackcardigans.
When
Labour ran a candidate against him it was racist. When the BBC
investigated him it was racist. And not just casually racist either. The
judge noticed how Rahman always upped the ante by saying that all who
tried to hold him to account were aiding the English Defence League. The
EDL is, in truth, an ugly but small organisation that is close to
collapse. For Rahman it was a gift. He could use it to paint his
opponents as the willing accomplices of neo-fascists on the one hand,
while corralling Bangladeshis frightened of racist attacks into line on
the other.
“Truly, in Tower Hamlets,” the dry judge said , “if the EDL did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.”
The
neurotic fear of accusations of race and religious bias helped Rahman
build a municipal dictatorship. The system of elected mayors is always
open to abuse, because there are so few controls on them. Rahman pushed
it to the limits. He controlled grants and officials could not prevent
him handing public money to his supporters. He controlled the officials,
too, and used supposedly impartial public servants to “carry out
electoral activities on his behalf”.
Tower
Hamlets First, his political party, was nothing more than a cult of the
personality. If you wanted a safe seat on the council, you had to show a
lapdog loyalty to Rahman. Speaking of dogs, the judge noticed that when
there was not even the slightest justification for an accusation of
racism, Rahman and his cronies would accuse their opponents of
“dog-whistle politics” instead. By these means, anything and everything
an opponent said could be turned into coded racism, even when the racism
was only in the mind of the accuser.
Come
on, admit it – it’s not just in the East End you see these tricks
played. The postmodern universities and identity-obsessed scour speech
for the smallest hint of bigotry, real or imagined. They seize on it –
and with a whoop of triumph – cry that the mask has slipped to expose
the true face of prejudice. Surely you have noticed, too, that in the
paranoia that follows, careerists and charlatans flourish.
Do
not forget either that Rahman at all times enjoyed the mulish support
of Ken Livingstone and elements of what now passes for the British left.
The BBC, theDaily Telegraph, Private Eye and Ted Jeory,
a fantastic Tower Hamlets reporter, who exposed on his blog the
corruption stories that local papers wouldn’t print, fought back. But
with honourable exceptions, London’s leftwing press ignored the stink in
its own backyard and dismissed the accusations against Rahman as evidence of a “deep substrate of” – you guessed it – “racism”.
You
might think that at least the Labour party stood firm. But it left it
to four Tower Hamlet residents to take on the huge financial risk of
fighting Rahman. The judge wondered whether “like so many others who
have come up against Mr Rahman, the party was not prepared to risk the
accusations of racism and Islamophobia that would have been bound to
follow any petition”.
One
day, leftists and the Labour party will pay a price for their neglect
and double standards. As it is, the price is being paid by others.
Despite bordering on the opulent City, the East End of London is one of
the poorest places in Britain. Many of its residents have no education;
large numbers of Bangladeshis cannot speak English. They are wide open
for hucksters to target. Too many stood back while they were shaken
down, while money intended for them was diverted and their right to vote
subverted.
In
the onlookers’ indifference we can find, at last, an authentic white
racism amid all the phoniness: the racism that believes the immigrant
poor deserve no better.
Nick Cohen won the 2015 European Press Prize commentator award
