on the election of lutfur rahman as mayor of tower hamlets (that more is possible)

good morning! good morning!

oh dear it's looking a bit grey out there (after yesterday's beautiful 22C and sunny).

horsemouth is pleased this morning by the election of lutfur rahman as mayor of tower hamlets. this is not because he thinks lutfur is a paragon of virtue but because he likes lutfur's previous program of not implementing all of the government's austerity measures (something labour councillors have never, in all horsemouth's time in london,  found the courage to do).

the next george lansbury is not coming out of the labour party that much is pretty certain. except that lutfur did come out of the labour party but he couldn't stay on their ticket and so had to set up independently. 

anecdotally, from people horsemouth used to know working in the voluntary and second sectors, lutfur ran a strong version of the pork barrel, you want funding? be on my ticket and get the vote in. but criminal charges were not brought  and this was never proved in a court of law because it didn't need to be proved to get the result of the democratic election in tower hamlets annulled (such are the powers the state has to control local authorities). 

because of this half measure lutfur, initially banned for five years, was free to run again.  

the allegations of voter intimidation and electoral fraud were likewise not proved and the scrutiny under which the recent elections were conducted make the result seem more secure. 

the real question is will the government find a means abrogate the result yet again. will they tell the people of tower hamlets that they can't have what they voted for for a second time. 

of course rahman's second time in office may not be as radical as his first (he may 'halven-down') and even that wasn't particularly radical. his administration did the trick of claiming all new housing built in the borough as if it were going to the poor and impoverished when in fact it was all squarely aimed at incoming people of a much higher income bracket than the locals. mind you, everyone does that trick.

horsemouth suspects that the political strength of the bangladeshi community in tower hamlets will soon wane - as it is dispersed out of the borough by gentrification (sorry horsemouth will wash his mouth out with soap and water, development), as the segment that is organised in cultural associations etc. get older, as the young are sucked into the maelstrom of modern society, as they become as atomised and disempowered as their black and white neighbours. 

but what does he know. 

the great victory of the establishment in the last 14 years since the financial crisis is channel disaffection with neo-liberal policies and austerity and political powerlessness back into racism and the mainstream political parties. here those energies can be nullified and the austerity and powerlessness continued. and in that lies the seeds of the destruction of the current  political process - people are being forced into an austerity that they cannot swallow by an incompetent ruling class and, to quote bob marley (sorry - horsemouth is a species of hippy) 'a hungry mob is an angry mob'.  

brexit has been done (allegedly) and tory posh boys dancing round singing the praises of levelling up (and then saying they can't afford it) does not convince anybody. 

once again the early stages of lockdown and the furlough reveal that government is capable of governing and actually doing things (who knew). that more is possible. 

horsemouth grew up in the valleys of south wales (he went to lansbury park junior school near the lansbury park estate) in the time of labour's hegemony in south wales and a strong welsh rugby team. he has seen the socialist paradise. but people still wanted something different, something more.

more is possible. 

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ok grey morning clearing. horsemouth probably needs some bread but first museli.