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.

***********************

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."

Simon Danczuk & the Bangladeshi diaspora!

Biradari's Politics in Rochdale & Beyond

SIMON Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale, is a Vice Chair of a House of Commons Committee described as the 'All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh'.  So he should know what he is talking about when in a debate on the Queen’s Speech he is reported today as declaring:
'Our countries are strongly connected, we have a large diaspora here already and they have a population over 160 million in Bangladesh.   If a war does break out there, a civil war breaks out, then there will be a lot of asylum seekers looking to come to this country and we should bear that in mind.'  He should have a good grasp of this because it seems to be that it is from the Bangladeshi diaspora that he gets so many of his votes in the central Rochdale areas of Milkstone Road and Deeplish. 
Appointed Danczuk's Parliamentary Agent in 2007 the Labour Councillor Allen Brett, went so far at the last local elections in Rochdale to transfer to the Bangladeshi vote-rich area of 'Milkstone Road and Deeplish' so as to gain a seat on the Rochdale Council.  He may well have lost his seat on the Council if he'd stood against the Liberal Democrat,  Irene Davidson in Milnrow and Newhey.  Councillor Brett and the Rochdale Council leader, Richard Farnell, must now fear that they will be in danger if Simon Danczuk should be expelled from the Labour Party.  For these two councillors have stuck like 'shit to a blanket' to the damaged Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, while he has gradually fallen from grace. 
In 1987, David Clayton wrote on the Lib/ Dem Blog 'Talking Politics':
'I was the victim of a violent assault at his [Allen Brett's] hands in 1987.  Councillor Brett was safely convicted but has refused to apologise ever since.'
In the same article David Clayton continues:
'The next year I stood and beat Councillor Brett in Milnrow and Newhey - Councillor Davidson did the same the following year.  So off he went and did the famous 'Chicken-Run' to Balderstone and Kirkholt.  In 1992, Councillor Brett unsuccessfully stood for Parliament - managing the biggest swing against any Labour Candidate in the country.'
During this year's local election campaign on the Rochdale Online website Mr. Clayton declared:
'Labour are in chaos - not least because of the antics of Simon Danczuk MP.  Whilst he's being getting up to all sorts - he's been fully supported by some of the same old faces - Councillors Richard Farnell, Allen Brett and Neil Emmott.  It's no wonder our Borough is seen as a "basket case", one of the "most deprived" in Britain and the "most declining".  Is this what we want or what we deserve?' 
rochdalelibdems.org.uk/en/page/david-clayton-Kingsway
Recently I had occasion to walk through the area known as Milkstone Road and Deeplish, and was struck by the ill-kempt , down-at-the-heel appearance of the area which had once been an architecturally desirable place to live.  This is the area that Councillor Brett seized his opportunity in the last election to retain his place on the Rochdale Council.  
The Rochdale Bangladeshi community may also suffer a fall from grace if they continue to be used as a conduit for Simon Danczuk to promote the politics of the Indian sub-continent through their constituents in the ward of Milkstone Road and Deeplish.  The former Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front [JKLF] followers, at least one whom is currently on Rochdale Council,  may also suffer if they too continue to stick with the politics of 'Deadleg Danczuk'. 
The problem in Rochdale, as in Bradford, is the kind of 'biradaris politics' of the villages of the Indian sub-continent transferred to the textile towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire from the 1960s onwards when men from the sub-continent came to our towns.  A report recently likened this phenomena to 'the Etonian or Bullingham clubs for the rich white men who support and promote each other into positions of power'.  
Simon Danczuk has been trading with this kind of crude 'clan politics' for some time, and Councillor Allen Brett for Milkstone Road and Deeplish is the latest local beneficiary.  Since the early 1970s when I worked as a weigh-man with the doffers at Arrow Mill in Rochdale alongside Kashmiris and Punjabis, I have been vaguely aware of this kind of clan control which has now infested politics in our former mill towns and some now go so far to regard as corrupt.  It now seems to be deeply entrenched in the politics of Rochdale Labour Party. 
Some Asians are now voicing their objections to biradaris politics and one person told a Guardian 'The Northerner' journalist Ed Jacobs reported from a young person in Bradford in 2013: 
'There is no place for it [biradari's politics] here any more.  I want to elect someone who will make society a better place for me and my kids and not someone who asks for my vote simply because he is related to me or of the same colour.' 
It doesn't matter to me whether Simon Danczuk is living in villa where my eldest son was born on the Costa Blanca or up Kingsway with Karen, by his conduct he represents what is the worst in politics, be it on the western slopes of the Pennines, the Spanish Costas or Azad Kashmir. 


rochdalelibdems.org.uk/en/.../talking-politics-by-councillor-david-clayton