Corruption in Local Government? by Les May

ASKED recently on the BBC News Channel programme ‘Dateline London’ what she thought too little attention was paid to, Bronwen Maddox, director of the Institute for Government, replied ‘Corruption in Local Government’.

I have previously described the difficulties I have had in getting answers from my local council to Freedom of Information (FOI) questions regarding the ‘declarable interests’ of Councillor Faisal Rana. My conclusion was that Rochdale Borough Council is ‘Institutionally Corrupt’.

It is surely extraordinary that only after the intervention of my local MP, Chris Clarkson, have I been able to get a response to questions I first submitted in April.

Corruption isn’t only about money in brown envelopes and influencing planning decisions it’s also about a commitment to openness by council officers in the dealings with the public.

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Violence or Intimidation! Oh Really? by Les May

IN March 2015 a committee of the House of Commons produced a document summarising our national constitution and some options for reform. A key paragraph reads; ‘The United Kingdom constitution is composed of the laws and rules that create the institutions of the state, regulate the relationships between those institutions, or regulate the relationship between the state and the individual. These laws and rules are not codified in a single written document’. Nationally we do not have a written constitution, but local councils do. Amongst other things these regulate the relationship between the council and the individual.

As I have explained previously it took three requests to the Chief Executive of Rochdale Council to get an answer to the question of why the entry in the Register of Interest for Faisal Rana was not available on the council website. The answer I did get was; ‘In relation to the register of interest for Cllr Faisal Rana. The entries not shown on the website are due to the items being considered as sensitive by the previous Monitoring Officer of the Council. Any requests for such information should be submitted via the freedom of information process.’

So what does the written constitution of Rochdale Borough Council have to say on this matter of items being ‘sensitive’? On page 13 it says:

15. Register of interests: Subject to paragraph 16 any disclosable pecuniary interests or personal interests notified to the Monitoring Officer will be included in the register of interests. A copy of the register will be available for public inspection and will be published on the authority’s website.

16. Sensitive interests: This paragraph applies where you consider that disclosure of the details of a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest could lead to you, or a person connected with you, being subject to violence or intimidation, and the Monitoring Officer agrees. In these circumstances, if the interest is entered on the register, copies of the register that are made available for inspection and any published version of the register will exclude details of the interest, but may state that you have a disclosable pecuniary interest, the details of which are withheld under Section 32(2) of the Localism Act 2011.

Unless Faisal Rana told the previous Monitoring Officer David Wilcock that he would be subject to ‘violence or intimidation’ and the present Monitoring Officer has confirmed this with Faisal Rana, then both officers have acted outside the terms of the Rochdale Council constitution by improperly allowing this councillor’s disclosable interests to be classed as ‘sensitive’. In both cases Rochdale Council should hold a written note of any meeting between the councillor and the Monitoring Officer(s) at which this claim was made and accepted as true.

It is more than six weeks since I submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request asking if the present monitoring officer has concluded that the disclosable information which should appear in the register of member’s interests for Councillor Faisal Rana is ‘sensitive’, why this information is considered to be ‘sensitive’ and on what date the decision was made. I assume that this is because the present Monitoring Officer, ex Labour councillor Asif Ibrahim, does not wish this question to be answered.

Two Monitoring Officers have acted in a way which they are not permitted to do by the Rochdale Borough Council constitution and have done so without censure from the Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow. If he will not put his house in order perhaps it is time that the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government was asked to intervene.

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Institutional Corruption Revisited by Les May

THE willingness of Rochdale Council officers to turn a blind eye to Faisal Rana’s apparent failure to file a list of his beneficial interests within the required period after his election in 2018; the evasiveness of officers when I questioned this in the autumn of that year; the reported willingness of the then Monitoring Officer to allow the information to be classified as ‘sensitive’, meaning it would not be available on the council website; the apparent readiness of the present holder of the post to allow this to continue; the unwillingness to comply with a Freedom of Information (FoI) request and the fact that all these things have been allowed to happen without anyone being called to account, are all signs that Rochdale Council is Institutionally Corrupt.

But in all of this there is one great mystery and that’s why anyone would go to all this trouble to keep information about the full range of business interests of Faisal Rana away from all but the most persistent of enquirers. Why indeed?

It is difficult to see that the officers concerned had or have anything to gain from their acquiescence. Nor can it be said that Faisal Rana has gained anything from it other than a reputation in some circles for being considered, what for want of a better phrase I will call, ‘a bit dodgy’. Some people might have swallowed the story that he voted twice in the belief that election law allowed him to do so, but now...?

The only plausible explanation I can come up with relies upon the truth of those stories of ‘Two Votes’ reported ambition to become Rochdale’s next Labour MP.

Consider this; during a General Election campaign Labour is attacking their opponents record on housing and some inquisitive journalist takes a look at a Labour candidate’s business interests and discovers that s/he is a ‘rentier’ with a long list of residential properties in their portfolio. Can’t you just hear the cries of ‘hypocrite’ or worse? Would the national Labour Party really want to take the risk by allowing such a person to appear on its list of potential candidates? But if no one knows… ?

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Rochdale Council: Corrupt Institution? by Les May

THERE are good reasons why it is a rule that all Councillors should file with the local body upon which they serve a list of their beneficial interests in a borough and that this should be publicly available as the Register of Members Interests. One of these is to ensure that council members do not vote on anything in which they have a pecuniary interest. Anyone trying to apply this simple test to Rochdale’s own Councillor Faisal ‘Two Votes’ Rana since his election in 2018 has faced an uphill struggle.

In April of this year I noticed that the entry for ‘Two Votes’ had been replaced with the words 'Not shown on website'.

So I wrote to Rochdale Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow as follows:

Dear Sir,

I refer to the Register of interests for Councillor Faisal Rana.

https://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/mgDeclarationSubmission.aspx?UID=6271&HID=2563&FID=0&HPID=14660973

I note that Section 7 Securities: contains the words 'Not shown on website'.

Could you please clarify whether this conforms to what is commonly known as 'Best Practice' which is usually taken to mean a standard way of complying with legal or ethical requirements? I assume that in the interests of open government RMBC would normally wish to be seen as implementing 'Best Practice'.

If there is a reason for 'Best Practice' not being followed in this case could you please inform me of the reason?

N.B. the material at the above link was changed on 28 June 2021 as detailed below.

I did not get a reply so two further reminders were sent. The third of these elicited the following response:

In relation to the register of interest for Cllr Faisal Rana. The entries not shown on the website are due to the items being considered as sensitive by the previous Monitoring Officer of the Council. Any requests for such information should be submitted via the freedom of information process.

So on 23 May I wrote to Rochdale Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow as follows:

My understanding is that any request for information should be treated as a request for information governed by the FOI Act even if that term is not expressly used by the requestor. I request the following information which if necessary you should treat as Freedom of Information requests;

What information is held by RMBC in the register of members interests for Councillor Faisal Rana and on what date was each of these individual interests registered?

On what date did the previous monitoring officer conclude that the information in the register of members interests for Councillor Faisal Rana was ‘sensitive’ and should be withheld from the public unless a Freedom of Information request was made?

Has the present monitoring officer concluded that the information in the register members interests for Councillor Faisal Rana is ‘sensitive’ and should be withheld from the public unless a Freedom of Information request is made?

If the present monitoring officer has concluded that the information in the register of members interests for Councillor Faisal Rana is ‘sensitive’, why is this information considered to be ‘sensitive’ and on what date was the decision made?

I still require an answer to the second and third parts of my original query which relate to what is commonly called ‘best practice’.

Five weeks later I still had not received an answer to these questions so on Sunday 27 May I sent the following to Rochdale Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow and on 30 May followed this with a printed copy sent by Royal Mail:

Dear Mr Rumbelow,

I wrote to you on 21 April 2021 with regard to the entry in the Register of Interests for Councillor Faisal Rana. I did not receive a response from you and sent a reminder on 5 May 2021. This reminder did not elicit a response and on 20 May I sent a second reminder.

I received a partial response to this from a Michael Garraway but the original question about ‘Best Practice’ and the reason why it is not being followed in this case remains unanswered. Mr Garraway informed me that if I required any information about this councillor’s declarable interests I should submit this through the ‘Freedom of Information’ process.

On 23 May I submitted four further questions regarding this councillor’s declarable interests, and why and when the decision(s) had been taken not to allow these to appear on the Rochdale Council website.

To date I have not received a response to these and the previous two questions. When I raised similar queries about the register of interests relating to the same councillor in the autumn of 2018 I met similar delays and evasiveness on the part of the officer(s) I dealt with.

You will be aware that in a recent report into the failings of the Metropolitan Police the term ‘Institutional Corruption’ was used and the report of the investigating panel referred to the fact that the investigation had been impeded by the organisation.

In their working definition the panel included the following actions or inactions as indicators of Institutional Corruption; failing to identify corruption; failing to confront corruption; failing to manage investigations and ensure proper oversight; failing to make a voluntarily commitment to candour; failing to be open and transparent.

I made reference to the question of whether some officers of Rochdale Council have become corrupted and no longer act in a non-political manner in my communication of 20 May. Within RMBC there has been a failure to ensure proper oversight with the result that officers who fail to carry out their duties and to act within the legal framework set out by the UK government with regard to the provision of information to the public, are not censured. There is no commitment to candour, and there is a failure to be open and transparent.

I am forced to conclude that RMBC is institutionally corrupt. If you object to this conclusion then you may prefer the statement by the panel that ‘failings do not all automatically fall within the definition of corruption. Some may result from professional incompetence or poor management.’

Irrespective of which parts of the last paragraph are applicable, as you are the Chief Executive the responsibility for this lies entirely with yourself.

You will note that I have sent a courtesy copy of this communication to my MP, Mr Chris Clarkson. I will follow it up with a separate e-mail requesting that it be held on file. I have done this to ensure that he is fully aware of the situation should it be necessary at some future date to request him to take up these matters with the office of the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government.

This did produce a response in the form of a change in the web entry which now carries a submission of Rana’s interests within Rochdale timed at 6.16pm on Monday 28 June, i.e. the same day that the above letter would have been received and read. This may of course just be a remarkable coincidence!

The interesting thing about this new entry is that it does not contain the long list of mainly residential properties which were previously declared by Rana and published on 25 March 2021, but not made available on the web. I intend to publish this full list at a later date if it does not miraculously appear on the web from an ‘official’ source before then.

Now of course it is entirely possible that in the last three months these properties have been sold or brought under the umbrella of one of the businesses or partnerships owned or operated by Councillor Rana. The question which then arises is whether officers of the council have deliberately not replied to my FOI requests in order to give him time to do so.

The further questions of who has gained from this evasiveness by council officers and who authorised it will be dealt with in the next few days.

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A Matter Of Judgement. by Les May

I DON'T ‘do’ Twitter, Facebook or any other form of ‘social media’, but last evening I had an e-mail from someone who suggested that as I live in Rochdale I should take a look at a recent post by someone called Jay Beecher. It turned out to be a picture of Councillor Faisal Rana and Andy Burnham apparently campaigning together, which inevitably throws into question Burnham’s judgement as it includes a link to the original Rana vote fraud story in the Daily Mail.

Many of the ‘tweets’ which follow are frankly nasty in tone and I know that the person who sent me the link would not want to be associated with their racial element. But this should not be allowed to distract from the fact that in 2018 Faisal Rana did fraudulently vote twice in the council elections of that year.

If the re-emergence of the story causes any embarrassment to Rochdale Labour party and the Council Leader then they have only themselves to blame. Anyone with any sense of decency would have recognised that Faisal Rana should have been asked to resign and the seat re-contested. Not to do so simply brings the Labour party into disrepute.

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Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham: 'No failure!'

OVER a week ago, on the 22nd, April Jennifer Williams quoted Andy Burnham as saying 'I don't consider it a failure' as he desperately scrambles to keep his job as Greater Manchester Mayor and Police Commisioner in the Mayoral elections this comming Thursday.

In the Manchester Evening News Ms. Williams writes: 'If there is one subject generating political heat during the 2021 mayoral campaign, it is policing.'

She continues:

'Since 2017 GMP, for which the mayor has political oversight, has been on a rollercoaster. Against the backdrop of huge cuts to officer numbers and the level of crime you might expect in the second largest force in the country, the Manchester Arena atrocity occurred days after the mayor took office, with all the trauma that entailed. But GMP has also faced, and continues to face, serious questions over its leadership’s competence and culture over an extended period.'

Over the years in which Burnham has had oversight for the Greater Manchester Police the force has had a flood of failings for which he denies responsiblity. 'Not me Gov!' has been his general war cry.

In the last four years, there have been worries over the development of a computer system iOPS and its impact on officers and victims; whistleblowers have have warned of cultural failures; the damaging verdict of the public inquiry into Anthony Grainger’s shooting, which found evidence from senior officers was 'seriously misleading' and 'lacked candour'; failures to submit evidence to the early stages of the Manchester Arena inquiry in 2019; and a string of critical inspectorate reports in 2018, 2019 and twice in 2020, most of them highlighting failures to protect vulnerable people.

As we puruse this series of blunders by the GMP, we now learn of a publicity photo currently circulating in which Mr. Burnham poses promoting a notorious self-confessed election fraud in Rochdale, Councillor Faisal Rana, who has since his exposure as a multiple vote swindler has cheerfully climbed the greasy pole of Labour Party politics. Some pundits are now suggesting that this election fraud is in-line to replace the aging Tony Lloyd when he steps down as Rochdale MP. If so, it seems that Andy Pandy will be available to help out.

Meanwhile, Andy has managed to delay any disclosure of a special 'root and branch' report which is said to be 'shocking' and has it is claimed 'uncovered years of woeful failures at Greater Manchester Police'. Fortunately for Andy, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Mayor's office are at present refusing to release the report, claiming it wouldn't bebe 'appropriate' until the new chief has had chance to work out his response to it. As the new chief, Mr Watson, wont be taking on his job till the end of May it means that Andy Burnham won't have to explain what going on before this week's election.

Very convenient!

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Rochdale's Reputation for Cover-ups

ON Wed 18 Mar 2015 a former editor of Rochdale's Alternative Paper (RAP), John Walker, wrote a piece in The Guardian entitled 'Our Cyril Smith story came out in 1979. What followed was a 36-year cover-up':

'Finally the hunt is on to nail those responsible for aborting police inquiries into the child sex abuse allegations against the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith and other – as yet unnamed – establishment figures from the 1970s and 1980s. But his abuses have been covered up and ignored for over 35 years. Why should the victims feel that anything much has changed in recent days'...

'I write as co-editor of the Rochdale Alternative Paper, which in May 1979 published a 2,000 word article, quoting in graphic detail from the testimonies of boys Smith had sexually abused a decade and a half earlier. The article was cleared legally by three prominent lawyers, on a pro-bono basis. They went through every word with a view to potential libel pitfalls. On legal advice we sought Smith’s comments prior to publication. We received none directly: only a bungled “gagging” writ, which failed to prevent publication...

'Rochdale council made Smith a freeman of the borough, named a room in the town hall after him and, in a ceremony attended by the current MP Simon Danczuk, put up a blue plaque in his honour – now taken down, apparently to prevent vandalism. More rubbing the noses of many victims in their misery, on their home patch.'

The conclusion John Walker came to in 2015 was:

'Smith had got away with it. He increased his parliamentary majority and, emboldened by his escape from justice, possibly continued his abuse of pubescent boys for two decades. Action in 1979 could have stopped him in his tracks, and prevented abuse and misery for future victims. Files on Smith’s child abuse were passed around police forces and the security services in the 1970s and 1980s – with no prosecutions. More covering up and inaction, instead of an end to his abuse.'

On that occasion following the emergence of the first Jimmy Savile revelations in 2012, Northern Voices and Paul Waugn then of the Politics Home site (now of the Huff Post) interviewed several of Smith's victims ultimately resulting in Channel 4’s Dispatches programme running an episode on Smith. Which Walker says 'did justice to the subject, but was allotted a ludicrous graveyard airing slot'.

Editorial Observation:

In recent times the case of the self-confessed electoral fraud Cllr. Faisal Rana and his surprising rise to power on Rochdale Council, has followed a pattern parelling the cover-ups involving Cyril Smith. A former CID officer told me that a report on Smith had been sent to the then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) but had come back as 'Not in the Public Interest'. Similarly complaints have been ongoing about Cllr. Faisal Rana and it seems that the Rochdale police may have toned-down their report to the CPP and have failed to emphasis that it may have involved postal vote fraud which would require a prison sentence.

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LABOUR Cllr JAILED for 17 months After Committing Fraud To Win His Seat

By jaybeecher Posted on January 20, 2021

CHAUDHARY Mohammed Iqbal, 51, told election officials that he lived in Ilford so that he could trick them into thinking he met the legal requirements to run for a seat in the constituency. In doing so, he committed electoral fraud.

Mr Chaudhary then broke the law yet again after his questionable election win in 2018, by continuing to hold that seat of office based on his lies, and to collect thousands of pounds in expenses payments.

When police began to investigate, Iqbal encouraged his tenant Kristina Stankeviciute to lie on his behalf and tell officers that he lived in a converted living room at the Ilford property.

Miss Stankeviciute has since left the country and a European warrant for her arrest was issued in December last year.

Iqbal had given multiple false addresses in his attempts to run for local office and successfully sat as a Labour councillor for more than two years, claiming more than £18,000 in expenses and allowances.

The former councillor pleaded guilty to three counts of making false statements in candidate nomination papers and one count of perverting the course of justice.

Iqbal, who has since moved to Preston, appeared at Southwark Crown Court earlier this month and was sentenced to a total of 17 months in prison.

He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £10,422.54, compensation to Redbridge Council of £10,000 for the by-election costs and compensation to Redbridge Council of £18,368 for the allowances paid to him and will not be allowed to run for office for at least five years.

EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE:

A Fashion for Fraud: How many more cases?

This case seems to have some similarities to the Rochdale case in which Faisal Rana was cautioned in 2018 for voting twice in the local elections. Some feel that the now Rochdale Labour Councillor Rana was let off lightly by the authorities. His party and the Rochdale council allowed him to remain in office despite the scandal.

At the time, in 2018, Councillor Rana told Sky News:

‘I have accepted a police caution for an electoral offence, which relates to me casting separate votes for two different wards in two different Constituencies (Spotland and Falinge, and Norden Ward) in the local elections earlier this year.

‘I legally registered my votes by providing my genuine national insurance number, date of birth and addresses and when I received these through the post I thought it would have been OK and that is why they issued me two ballots for two constituencies. ‘I did not realise this was an offence and misinterpreted the rule that says it is possible to vote in two different electoral areas. ‘As soon as this was brought to my attention I went for a voluntary interview at local police station and co-operated with police fully in this regard.’

The trouble is that Faisal Rana obtained postal votes which involved him in a seemingly illegal application, and this may yet still come back to bite him. Indeed compared to CHAUDHARY Mohammed Iqbal who has now moved to Preston; Cllr. Faisal Rana has had a charmed life rising to the top in the Labour Party despite admitting to election fraud. But then againn Rochdale's authorities overlooked the the ashortcomings of Cyril Smith for decades.

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Hokey Cokey on Corbyn Friend's Facebook Page

Curious Corbynite Dance as Site Censor's Stefan Cholewka

  I put my right hand in, 

I put my right hand out,

In out, in out. 

 

shake it all about.

THE Hokey Cokey* is a famous traditional campfire song which has recently been adopted as method of punishment by the Rochdale Friends of Jeremy Corbyn Facebook page to confuse readers as to its method of administration of the site.  It follows critical allusions about the self-confessed fraud, the now Rochdale councillor Faisal Rana, who breached electoral law when he obtained and used postal votes illegally.  It was widely reported at the time that he had accepted a police caution, but the Rochdale Labour Party continued to back him, as do other useful idiots.  

Recently Stefan Cholewka, Secretary of Rochdale Trade Union Council, in a personal capacity posted some links critical of Cllr. Rana's historic conduct on the Jeremy Corbyn Facebook page.  Owing to this act Sam O'Brien, a local trade union activist, then threaten to withdraw from membership of the Facebook page if Stefan's comments remained up.  

One of the Facebook administrators then obediently removed Stefan's comments, but also seemingly someone blocked Stefan from both access and posting on the site.  Then suddenly, earlier this week, he was readmitted and began posting items.  Yet within 24-hours of his readmission to the Facebook page he reported that he was out again.

'In out, in out. 

 

shake it all about.'

 

This seems to be the politics of the famous Hokey Cokey music hall dance and suggests to us that the fall of the Red Wall in the North of England may not be temporary event, as it points to a continuing degeneration in the psychology of those elements like Sam O'Brien, who seemed to think that they have the 'key to the universe'.  It is the mentality of what the French call the idée fixe, which among some elements of the Anglo-Saxon left seems to be evolving into monomania.

If they do not get a grip sites like Rochdale's Friends of Jeremy Corbyn Facebook page will become impoverished: mere megaphones bleating like of sheep. 

* The Hokey Cokey (United Kingdom and the Caribbean) or Hokey Pokey (United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and Israel)^[1] is a famous, popular campfire song and participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well known in English-speaking countries. It originates in a British folk dance, with variants attested as early as 1826. The song and accompanying dance peaked in popularity as a music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in the UK. The song became a chart hit twice in the 1980s. The first UK hit was by The Snowmen, which peaked at UK No. 18 in 1981.

Cllr. ‘Two Votes’ Rana Plays The Race Card Again!

by Les May

A FEW days after the original piece appeared on Northern Voices I received an e-mail which read:  'Enjoyed reading the article :   "Two Votes Rana Plays the Race Card’, which nicely highlights what I would call the ‘acceptable face of racism’ ie no one would ever get away with calling for more whites or ethnic majority councillors / MPs or blaming ethnic minority councillors / MPs for bad decisions affecting ‘whites’.'

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2020/07/two-votes-rana-plays-race-card.html

As I think that words like ‘racism’, ‘fascism’, ‘nazi’ are overused to the point of being debased and losing contact with their original meaning, I had mentally filed Faisal Rana’s original complaint under ‘whingeing’ not ‘racism’. Nonetheless I find it difficult to disagree with the e-mail writer. If one of the ‘non-BAME’ Labour councillors had written in this spirit s/he would have found themselves suspended from the party and subject to a disciplinary inquiry.

After a writer on NV pointed out that there is a balance amongst our councillors ‘Two Votes’ has amended his blog part of which now reads; ‘But overcoming all the barriers to fair representation in my authority has not come about by accident. It has taken a lot of hard work and it has been left almost entirely to BAME themselves.’

This is more nonsense which again lays him open to a charge of racism if anyone wants to make it. The Labour party has people of all skin colours/race/ethnicity, call it what you will, amongst its members and supporters, so don’t disparage their efforts. One of the reasons my ward has an ‘Asian’ councillor is that I, and people like me, voted for him.

It’s not the BNP, EDL or some other unsavoury group who are trying to inject a racial theme into Rochdale politics, it’s Faisal Rana, and it appears to me that he is doing it to advance his political career. We may all come to regret it if he succeeds.

Curious History of 'Ethnic' Politics in Rochdale

Editorial comment:  
Below are the contents of a post on the personal Blog
of the very notorious Rochdale Councillor Faisal Rana.
He is notorious because he managed to get a police
caution for voting twice at the local elections in 2018.
 As the Labour member for Spotland and Falinge he
insisted he ‘didn’t realise’ that casting votes in two
wards in the same council borough was an offence. 

In a tweet on July 22 Cllr Rana says:  

'Too few Black Asian Minority Ethnic [BAME]
councillors leads to bad decisions.'  

Yet some would say Rochdale has tended to be 

over-represented by Muslim councillors, and it is worth 

examining if this has been in historic terms healthy for

democracy and the moral status of the town.  

I say this because since the early 1970s I have had a close 

personal and political relationship with the Kashmir community 
in this town, and even accompanied a party of supporters of 
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front supporters when in 1992 
they went to the House of Commons to appeal to get the support 
of Paddy  Ashdown, the then Lib Dem leader, in their conflict on

the Indian sub-continent between the Jammu and Kashmir 
Liberation Front (JKLF), and the India government.  
Worries have been voiced in Rochdale about the problems 
of the Indian sub-continent becoming too much of an issue 
in the town's politics.

Cllr Faisal Rana@FaisalRana48·Jul 22
Cllr Rana tweets: 'Too few BAME councillors leads to bad decisions.'

Cllr Rana continues as follows:
'BAME councillors are hugely under-represented on councils'

A REPORT just out that BAME councillors are hugely under-represented on councils across the UK was depressing, if not predictable.
'Sky News reported that only seven percent of all UK councillors are from a minority ethnic background, which is half the percentage BAME people make up of the country's overall population (14 per cent). The report, by Professor Maria Sobolewska and Dr Neema Begum from the University of Manchester, highlighted for the first time the scale of under-representation in councils.
'They said under-representation on councils - where decisions are made on where money is spent - "creates a potential for perpetuating and reinforcing racial inequality and disadvantage."
'To those like me working in local government, it does not come as a surprise. All too often, an ingrained if unspoken prejudice exists in many Labour Party branches that BAME candidates cannot win in predominantly white seats. The selection process and selection meetings are poorly run and often loaded against minority ethnic minority candidates. How many branches, even today, meet on licenced premises discouraging many mumslim [sic] members from taking part? Even when a BAME member is selected as a candidate, it is likely to be in a seat that the party has little or no chance in winning.'

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ROCHDALE'S HISTORY OF ETHNIC POLITICS

by Brian Bamford

RACIAL participation in the politics of Rochdale stems from the 1970s, when the then Rochdale MP Cyril Smith established a close relationship with the Muslim community.  This was later well documented in the book 'Cyril Smith: Smile for the Camera' by the now disgraced former Rochdale MP, Simon Danzcuk.*  For more than 20 years 1972 during the period Smith was in office as the local MP, the Asian community there continually supported the Liberals and the Liberal Democrats.  Only later after Liz Lynne, who succeeded Smith as the Rochdale MP, lost the seat to Labour in 1997 did the Muslims in the town begin to transfer their affections to the Labour Party.  After the now disgraced MP Simon Danzcuk, became the Rochdale MP in 2010 the links between the the local Asians and the party accelerated, and the Labour Councillor Faisal Rana has now been able to boast in a post on his Blog entitled:  'How Labour In Rochdale Is Becoming A More Inclusive Party.'
 

Councillor Rana writes:  'To those like me working in local government, it does not come as a surprise. All too often, an ingrained if unspoken prejudice exists in many Labour Party branches that BAME candidates cannot win in predominantly white seats. The selection process and selection meetings are poorly run and often loaded against minority ethnic minority candidates. How many branches, even today, meet on licenced premises discouraging many mumslim [sic] members from taking part? Even when a BAME member is selected as a candidate, it is likely to be in a seat that the party has little or no chance in winning.'

At present according to Carl Faulkner 'Rochdale Council has 12 ‘Asian’ councillors – that equates to 20% and is way over the Rochdale Asian population %.'

After he was elected Councillor Rana was cautioned for electoral fraud by the police for voting twice in the local elections.  Yet, he still retained his seat and has since been promoted.  When I spoke to another Rochdale Muslim councillor about the shame that Rana was bringing upon the Labour Party by his conduct I was told that he (Rana) has too much influence over the leader of the Rochdale Labour Party Alan Brett.

Despite what Cllr Rana and the community of scholars might say  'Ethnic identity politics' doesn't have a very noble tradition in Rochdale.

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*  In his book about Cyril Smith, Smile for the Camera, co-written with a fellow Labour activist, Matthew Baker, Simon Danczuk details Smith's close relationship with the Muslim community in Rochdale, including the encouragement of electoral fraud amongst them, apparently. According to Danczuk, Cyril Smith "transformed politics in the Asian community and became a powerful voice," as they switched from Labour to Liberal en bloc, and Smith prevented people being deported as illegal immigrants and supported the building of the first mosque in the Lancashire town. Danczuk continues: "It was in this community that Cyril unquestionably had the biggest influence."

‘Two Votes Rana’ Plays The Race Card

by Les May

THE extract from Rochdale Cllr. Faisal Rana’s blog published recently in the article at the link below must surely be one of the most brazen attempts to ‘play the race card’ that we have seen in Rochdale.  In a few lines he effectively accuses the Labour Party of playing host to people who are prejudiced towards non-white candidates and organising selection meetings which are designed to discriminate against and so exclude non-white candidates.   With friends like that the Labour Party does not need enemies.  At this point I should say that I live in a ward which has re-elected a councillor from the group which Faisal Rana claims to champion and I am entirely happy with the situation.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2020/07/rochdale-cllr-faisal-ranas-ethnic.html

As for his claim that ‘The selection process and selection meetings are poorly run… ‘ we can assume he has some knowledge of this. In February 2019 Northern Voices published a piece drawing attention to the strange goings on at a selection meeting held in the ward he represents.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2019/02/rochdale-fair-dos-in-selection-process.html

Of course, just as with his Tweet 'Too few BAME councillors leads to bad decisions', he provides not a scrap of evidence to substantiate his claims and before repeating them he should do so.  His use of the acronym ‘BAME’ suggests that he is trying to ride on the coat tails of the protests against the murder of George Floyd and is trying to draw some sort of moral equivalence between that and his claims.

Not content with trying to make an issue out of ‘race’ he throws religion into the pot as well, implying that Labour also turns a blind eye to discrimination against Muslims.  Whether someone will make a formal complaint to the Labour Party about Faisal Rana’s insinuations is a matter for the future, but what we can say with certainty is that some people reading his comments will not take kindly to them.   If these are not a claims which brings the Labour party into disrepute, what is?

Of course his blog and his Tweet aren’t meant to influence the people he is attacking.  They are directed towards the people who some would view as his ‘natural constituency’.  There’s a not altogether subtle hint here that he is ambitious to become an MP and looking to be seen as the ‘BAME’ champion, and that if he fails to be selected for a safe seat it will be because of prejudice. It is not altogether clear to me were the community of interest lies between say, Asian Muslims and African Christians.

What Faisal Rana fails to grasp is that respect for other people’s culture and views is a two way street. His comments about meetings being held on licensed premises looks like a classic case of the tail trying to wag the dog.  The Labour movement has a long history and there may be good reasons why this is the case, and why a lot of people feel entirely comfortable with it.  Being in the presence of alcoholic drink does not mean that one has to indulge in it oneself. Couching his comment in terms of ‘discouraging Muslims’ just ends up looking like a demand for exceptionalism of the type we are familiar with hearing from a certain US president.

I judge people on the basis of their behaviour not their skin colour. If I feel uncomfortable that Councillor Rana is in a position to influence planning decisions and looks to be being groomed to handle the Finance Portfolio it is because he violated the basic principle of our democratic system, ‘one person, one vote’. If he fails to make further progress in the Labour party he should look to that as the cause not institutionalised discrimination. 

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Rochdale Cllr Faisal Rana's Ethnic Politics

Editorial comment:

In a tweet on July 22 Rochdale Cllr Rana says:

'Too few BAME councillors leads to bad decisions.'

Cllr Faisal Rana@FaisalRana48·

Yet some would say Rochdale has tended to be

over-represented by Muslim councillors, and it is worth

examining if this has been in historic terms healthy for

democracy and the moral status of the town.

Worries have been voiced in Rochdale about 
the problems of the Indian sub-continent 
becoming too much of an issue

in the town's politics.

I say this because since the early 1970s 
I have had a close personal and political 
relationship with the Kashmir community

in this town, and even accompanied a 
party of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front 
supporters when in 1992 we went to the 
House of Commons to appeal to get the backing 
of Paddy Ashdown, the then Lib Dem leader, 
in their conflict on the Indian sub-continent 
between the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation 
Front (JKLF), and the Indian government.

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ROCHDALE'S TRAGIC HISTORY OF ETHNIC POLITICS

by Brian Bamford

RACIAL participation in the politics of Rochdale stems from the 1970s, when the then Rochdale MP Cyril Smith established a close relationship with the Muslim community. This was later well documented in the book 'Cyril Smith: Smile for the Camera' by the now disgraced former Rochdale MP, Simon Danzcuk.* For more than 20 years 1972 during the period Smith was in office as the local MP, the Asian community there continually supported the Liberals and the Liberal Democrats. Only later after Liz Lynne, who succeeded Smith as the Rochdale MP, lost the seat to Labour in 1997 did the Muslims in the town begin to transfer their affections to the Labour Party.  After the now disgraced MP Simon Danzcuk, became the Rochdale MP in 2010 the links between the the local Asians and the party accelerated, and the Labour Councillor Faisal Rana has now been able to boast in a post on his Blog entitled: 'How Labour In Rochdale Is Becoming A More Inclusive Party.'

Councillor Rana writes: 'All too often, an ingrained if unspoken prejudice exists in many Labour Party branches that BAME candidates cannot win in predominantly white seats. The selection process and selection meetings are poorly run and often loaded against minority ethnic minority candidates. How many branches, even today, meet on licenced premises discouraging many mumslim [sic] members from taking part? Even when a BAME member is selected as a candidate, it is likely to be in a seat that the party has little or no chance in winning.'

At present according to Carl Faulkner 'Rochdale Council has 12 ‘Asian’ councillors – that equates to about 20% of councillors. The 2011 census showed that the total ‘minority’ population was about 21%. Not all of these are ‘Asian’ of course.

After he was elected Councillor Rana was cautioned for electoral fraud by the police for voting twice in the local elections. Yet, he still retained his seat and has since been promoted. When I spoke to another Rochdale Muslim councillor about the shame that Rana was bringing upon the Labour Party by his conduct I was told that he (Rana) has too much influence over the leader of the Rochdale Labour Party Alan Brett.

Despite what Cllr Rana and the community of scholars might say 'Ethnic identity politics' doesn't have a very noble tradition in Rochdale. 
 

* In his book about Cyril Smith, Smile for the Camera, co-written with a fellow Labour activist, Matthew Baker, Simon Danczuk details Smith's close relationship with the Muslim community in Rochdale, including the encouragement of electoral fraud amongst them, apparently. According to Danczuk, Cyril Smith "transformed politics in the Asian community and became a powerful voice," as they switched from Labour to Liberal en bloc, and Smith prevented people being deported as illegal immigrants and supported the building of the first mosque in the Lancashire town. Danczuk continues: "It was in this community that Cyril unquestionably had the biggest influence."

Another Outing For Mr Nobody

by Les May

LISTENING to the news reports of the response by the different agencies one might have expected to have taken action earlier to shut down the Leicester ‘sweat shops’ I had a strong sense of deja vu; I’ve heard it all before.  I saw it in my own town a few years ago when a ‘marked register’, a precaution against voter fraud, went missing, possibly stolen, from a polling station.  There should have been a police investigation; there wasn’t.  A candidate who should have been informed that this had happened and wasn’t, tried to pursue the matter and found nobody would take responsibility.  He described it as the ‘sloping shoulders syndrome’. I saw it again when a Rochdale Labour councillor, Faisal Rana, who had voted twice in the election failed to declare his interests within the specified time.   Council officers wriggled and squirmed to avoid taking any action.   Once again nobody would take responsibility. It reached scandal proportions with regard to the Grenfell Tower fire.   It was Mr Nobody who was responsible yet again.

In Leicester it not even true to say the existence of the sweat shops and what was happening in the decrepit buildings that housed them was ‘an open secret’; it wasn’t even a secret!  A journalist had written an article for the Financial Times drawing attention to them.  In January 2020 Tory MP Andrew Bridgen had raised serious concerns over the conditions in garment factories.  Nobody took notice.

The agencies which might have been involved, HMRC to check no one was fiddling the furlough scheme, the Health and Safety Executive that social distancing by workers was being enforces, the Fire Service that the decrepit buildings were not a fire risk, the Police to check that no one was being forced to work in unsafe conditions against their will, do to some extent have the excuse that that they were no asked to intervene by the body that has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in Leicester, the local council. It seems Mr Nobody was responsible once again.

What is perhaps most disturbing about this is that responsibility for keeping the rate of transmission of the SarsCov2 virus which causes Covid19 disease is being placed in the hands of local councils.  Will Mr Nobody be responsible if they don’t do the job properly?  Figures released on Friday show that Rochdale where I live has 149 cases which is an infection rate of 68 per 100,000 of the population. (These figures are based on data for the fortnight up to 12 July)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-53448533

If you actually look at the advice being given by RMBC to bring down the rate of infection, limit visitors in your home to two, wear a face mask in public and keep two metres apart from at all times they are not really much different from the vague advice coming from Boris Johnson et al.  Where is the guidance about work?  About travel?   About eating out?  But should I really expect better from a council which feels it is acceptable that a councillor who admitted voting twice in the same election should be appointed to a committee which deals with planning applications?

http://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=6271

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Cyril Smith and Faisal Rana

by Les May

NOT two names you would ever expect to see together, but as I was reminded when I read the somewhat garbled story by Jennifer Williams in the Saturday edition of the Rochdale Observer, there are some remarkable similarities.

Let’s forget the speculation and recap what we actually know. Smith indecently assaulted young men at the Cambridge House hostel in the 1960s.  Had he not been guilty of this he would have sued Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) for the article in the May 1979 edition.  Rana voted twice in the May 2018 local government election. When found out he admitted it. Two guilty men; two sets of blind eyes being turned.

What are the similarities?   For a start neither of these men ever stood in the dock and answered for their crimes, though the reasons for this appear very different. Another similarity is the way that people who could, and should, have taken non-judicial actions against these two guilty men have excused their reasons for not doing so.

David Steel who was told of these accusations against Smith by the RAP editors, David Bartlett and John Walker, has excused his inaction by saying;

‘These allegations all related to a period some years before he was even an MP and before he was even a member of the party, therefore it did not seem to me that I had any position in the matter at all. He accepted that the story was correct. Obviously I disapproved, but as far as I was concerned it was past history.’

How remarkably similar this is to the response I received when I raised the matter of Rana voting twice with the RMBC monitoring officer.  I was told that Rana’s criminal behaviour had taken place before he became a Councillor, hence no action could be taken.  Just as party leader Steel was able to avoid taking any action against Smith, these seems to have been enough to have allowed party leader Alan Brett to avoid taking action against Rana.

In fact the excuse from the monitoring officer was nonsense.  Rana’s crime was committed on polling day 3 May 2018 and his term of office runs from that day until the day before the next poll is held.  I feel justified in using the term ‘excuse’ here because when I later asked for clarification about Rana’s failure to declare his interests within the stipulated time period the officer who dealt with this during an extensive correspondence squirmed and did everything possible to avoid having to admit that Rana had failed to comply with the rules.

So why did neither of these men appear in the dock?  We know that in the case of Smith the police pursued a rigorous investigation, that the file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and that no action was taken against Smith.  No evidence has yet been produced that this was a ‘cover up’ and the most likely explanation is that even though a number of young men has made similar accusations against Smith as the law stood at the time this could not be taken as corroboration that he committed the crimes he was accused of.  This seems absurd to us now and the law has since been changed.

In the case of Rana things are much less clear. We don’t know whether the decision to allow him off the hook with only a caution was taken by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) without referring the matter to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or whether it was a decision made by the CPS.   If the decision was made by GMP alone then it seems to me to be a significant error of judgement on someone’s part.

Voter fraud strikes at the heart of our democracy and whether it be GMP, the CPA, a council officer or a party leader no one should do anything which appears to excuse or condone it.  Smith is dead, Steel is yesterday’s man and Rana is still a councillor. Which do you think we should be most concerned about?

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-rap-said-about-smith-in-1979.html

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