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.

Is the man in this video an Undercover Cop?

In the political world, things aren't always what they seem. 

The Conservative MP, Anna Soubry, has recently hit the headlines demanding that the police take action against pro-Brexit  far-right demonstrators who have been stalking her outside Parliament calling her a liar and a Nazi. Why the pro Remain MP should be labelled a Nazi, isn't quite clear, but it is believed that Soubry a former criminal barrister, is Jewish.

Soubry, the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, said she would not be silenced nor intimidated and that it was wrong that MPs should "have to accept this as part of the democratic process." She told the BBC News that the police needed to "do their Job" and would contact them about the matter.

Judging from a video that is being circulated on Youtube, it seems that the police may well be on the job, albeit undercover. The video shows a loud mouthed individual inciting a group of people to verbally abuse Soubry, who seems to be taking it all in her stride in spite of her claiming that she feels intimidated. 

Some people have suggested that the individual on the video is an undercover police officer. In part of the video, he can be seen to slip something into the pocket of a person accompanying Soubry, who is believed to be a personal assistant or security man.