Was cites a Reading Labour leaflet, as follows, fisking mine, in red:
delivered in April 2008 in two versions, Urdu and English, but strangely enough only to Muslim voters or apparently Muslim, sometimes embarrassing mistakes are made, as when in one case a Jewish person received one of these leaflets, which called for the destruction of the state of Israel . In it they value the support of the Muslin community and that Labour and they have acheived "much together", including:
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Labour provided premises for the Pakistani Community Centre
Labour enlarging Park Hall for the Pakistan community
"Your Labour MP and councillors hold special advice sessions at the PCC."
Labour "helped with planning permission for every mosque in Reading"
Labour got sites for the Abu Bakr and Jamme Masjid mosques.
Labour acquired the land for the Green Road mosque.
Labour paid the salary for a year for a Muslim Development Worker in west Reading. known Taleban supporter and former heroin addict Manzoor Hussain
Labour paid for elderly luncheon clubs and youth clubs for the Muslim Community
Labour funded courses at the WEA Asian Women's Learning Centre
Martin Salter is also organising a visit to Kashmir and Pakistan taking former councillor and PCC commitee spellcheck John, spellcheck member Christine Borgars who denies ever going to Pakistan, so vehemently that she posts her comment on Was' blog twice, and oddly denies having a "UK passport" - does she have another one? [who according to the PCC website "remains active in Reading Labour Party including managing their campaign database."]
All the above is true so far as I know and, as Was says below, it was not the Labour Party but the council which paid for all these things, many, including some who are still councillors, thought the two were the same.
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Was says:
Of course, it wasn't Labour who paid for these things, it was the council. As this was an election leaflet for Katesgrove, the recipients didn't have a Labour MP who could hold advice surgeries in East Reading at the PCC. Ah, don't start me on this. Salter always insisted on holding surgeries at the PCC, despite the fact that it was in Reading East as was the vast majority of Reading's Pakistani-origin population. When the newly-elected Tory MP for Reading East protested about this in 2005 he was told (overheard on a train and reported to me soon afterwards) "This is not negotiable. I'm going to carry on working in Park and with the Stanis as I've always done". Alongside the clear inference of bribing the Muslim electorate with council cash not an inference, an acknowledgement, there is what appears to be a clear case of Labour admitting to predetermining planning decisions did Was know about the pre-meets for planning committee, involving officers and Labour councillors, at which the decisions were pre-determined on anything thought to be politically sensitive or important? Do these still happen? Ask Alison Bell.
Was says: I'm indebted to the members of the Muslim community who saw through their motives, gave me (and translated) these leaflets and voted them out of Katesgrove. :)
At last the corruption at the heart of the Reading Labour Group is being seen through. Too late for many. And we know what happens to those who blow the whistle.
19 comments:
Well done to you and to Was for exposing this.
Reading Labour party are a disgrace and should not be
trusted again to represent
our town.
they could be so trusted - if they can show that the corrupt little clique responsible for all this will never again be allowed to get near power, and preferably that the police have been involved
Posting twice was an accident, nothing more.
Some of my friends and acquaintances hold passports from other nations leading to a tendency on my part to precede "passport" with the name of the nation issuing it. My statement remains true if "UK" is deleted.
The Muslim Development worker referred to was not Manzoor Hussain.
Is RBC paying for a Muslim Development Worker in West Reading any worse than them paying for three full-time Union officials to have offices in the Civic Centre?
Christine - thanks for reading, keep it coming
Gus - yes. Council funds should not go to anything supporting a particular faith,and certainly not to Koran classes. Workers have the right to representation.
I'd be most interested to know if this stuff is still going on. And if meat served in Reading school canteens is halal.
For the Reading Labour party power is all that matters.
If you can name me a truly principled individual among
their council group let me
know.
The old party that stood up
for ordinary people is long
dead.
As for the relationship with
Unison and their reps being
looked after.
Well when did you ever hear
about any local disputes between
them and the Labour run council?
I rest my case.
I don't know all the members of the current Labour Group - certainly Lovelock is a corrupt bully and a liar, Ennis is a whore, Tickner is a racist and a closet Tory, Hartley is a parasite, well, you get the picture.
Correction:
It wasn't the council who paid to shower this largesse on the most obnoxious group of all the godbotherers - it was the council tax payers of Reading.
Remember this next time the Labour wonks indulge in "coalition cuts" shroud waving.
Reading Labour is still predetermining planning applications. It is an acknowledged fact.
And I thought the TGWU was the sweetheart Union at RBC whose Contract Services emploeees went out delivering the leaflets for Martin Salter.
Certainly it was the TGWU who Salter was all over in Reading Labour Party, who often did his bidding and who were given lots of leeway, position and power by the ruling members of the Labour group.
people here talking about the useless UNISON are missing the point. Follow the money. Who paid to RDLP?
Anonymous 22:54, if you have any evidence you need to provide it to the Police. It is against the law for a Councillor to consider an application before a planning committee with their view pre-determined. Councillors have been sent down for it in the past.
"did Was know about the pre-meets for planning committee, involving officers and Labour councillors, at which the decisions were pre-determined on anything thought to be politically sensitive or important? Do these still happen? Ask Alison Bell." Now makes you wonder...not just about planning.
A few of the school canteens serve only halal meat, most serve only non-halal meat. All are open about which they serve and parents are informed. The previous arrangement (which I got set up, in response to specific demand) where about 4 schools specifically served halal meat once or twice a week (and non-halal the rest of the week) lapsed 4 years ago on change of caterer. The rest served only non-halal. There is always a vegetarian option.
RBC inherited the funding of "mother tongue" classes from Berkshire County Council. It was BCC which had long ago decided to fund classical Arabic classes run by mosques and with only one set book.
seems a bit defensive, Christine. As you know, and I said at the time within the Labour Group and received heavy criticism for doing so, I was against halal meat in Reading schools for animal welfare reasons, and I thought discussion of the issue could have provided an opportunity for Reading to become a flagship council for cruelty-free products and services, but it was not to be. I never mentioned mother tongue teaching, but since you have, and since you say, correctly, that it was supported originally by Berkshire County Council, perhaps you could shed some light on why RBC chose to continue the policy, and why it did not, for instance, choose to fund Hebrew classes to be conducted by the synagogue. My thanks to you for posting honestly, mostly factually, and in your own name.
I remember expressing surprise when I was on SACRE (Standing Advisory Committee on Religious Education) that BCC and RBC funded classical Arabic classes. My suggestion that we expand the funding to include Aramaic and formal logic was seen as frivolous, except by the Buddhist representative, who thought it was funny. Bloody Buddhists.
Buddhists never seem to stop laughing - just look at the old Dalai, giggle a minute
I was given the Urdu leaflets to deliver to Hindus, Sikhs, Bangladeshis and Somalis, as well as Pakistanis who speak and read English, so I did not need to deliver them.
Most of the local Taleban supporters are involved with the Lib Dems, including the Earley Town Council leader, although the former Woodley Town councillor left them to join the Tories.
You can all stop worrying about Council funding of "mother tongue" classes. The Con-LD coalition running RBC is scrapping it from April 2011. Along with quite a lot of other quite small amounts of funding that made a big difference. The papers for 17 January RBC Cabinet are now on-line and make this quite clear.
Talking of Mosques...
I run the Green Road Mosque Watch blog at http://green-road-mosque.blogspot.com
I had an email earlier today from a resident who said that despite being a neighbour of the proposed Green Road Mosque, he had only learnt about the renewed planning application through word of mouth and had not received any notification that the planning application - which expired in 2009 - had been quietly revived and the public only has until Feb 2nd 2011 to submit comments on the new plan at
http://planning.reading.gov.uk/publicaccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=LDVYAGMS03O00
I've had a moment to glance at the application this evening and some things concern me. Namely:
"Site notice posted" and "Agent Details" are marked as "No Details".
"Environmental Assessment Required?" is marked NO.
Some of the documents have been loaded onto the system upside down, making them difficult to read quickly.
Some of the PDFs have been made difficult to convert to text, although on the blog I've managed to convert one of them.
I am very concerned that this appears to have been flown in "under the radar" and have written a blog post about it.
http://green-road-mosque.blogspot.com/2011/01/under-radar-planning-application-for.html
I want to ensure that this application gets the same full scrutiny in all aspects from traffic, design and area impact, through to equality laws regarding aspects such as segregation of men and women.
I am particularly keen to find out if Reading Borough Council has borne any of the costs of this application over and above any normal application, and whether the terms of the donation of £2 million of playing fields for the mosque to be built on have been kept.
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