Ends

Notes to the editor

1. The full Press Complaints Commission verdict is here:

Commission’s decision in the case of

Miah v The Daily Telegraph

The complainant, a Tower Hamlets councillor and former parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green & Bow, said that the newspaper had significantly misled readers and breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code by publishing the claim that he was a “senior activist in” the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) without making clear that that he had denied having such a relationship with the group. The complainant said that the publication of the claim unaccompanied by his denial would suggest to readers that he had accepted it and that he had previously dishonestly represented his political allegiances.

The complainant considered that the newspaper’s argument was “guilt by association”. He made clear that he did not deny that he had friends and family members in the IFE and had professional links to the IFE, but argued that this did not corroborate the specific claim made by the newspaper. In the complainant’s view, the distinction drawn by the newspaper between senior activism in and membership of a group was spurious and illogical.

The newspaper maintained that there was an important distinction to be made between membership of the group and “senior activism in” the group. The newspaper provided evidence in respect of the complainant’s links to the IFE, including his regular participation in a radio show described in IFE literature as a “project of the IFE” and co-presented by IFE activists; the description of him by a fellow member of the Respect party as a “young member of IFE” in 2007; support he had received from prominent members of the IFE during his election campaign; and his associations with three groups it said have strong ties to the IFE: the Young Muslim Organisation UK, Elite Youth, and the Brick Lane Youth Development Association (Blyda).

Nonetheless, at a late stage in the correspondence it offered to publish the following denial from the complainant at the foot of the blog post: Abjol Miah denies that he is an IFE activist. This was not accepted by the complainant as sufficient resolution of his complaint; he required a public admission by the newspaper that it had erred in failing to publish his denial at the time of the original article and that it had not put to him specific evidence to corroborate the claim prior to publication.

In reaching a view on this matter, the primary concern for the Commission was whether readers would have been significantly misled on two points: the newspaper’s claim that the complainant was a senior activist in the IFE, and its omission of the information that the complainant denied this claim.

The Commission made clear that the newspaper was entitled to put forward its view on the significance of the complainant’s links to the group. It had been able to provide a substantial amount of on-the-record corroborating evidence in correspondence to support the suggestion that the complainant had a number of personal and professional links to the group.  The Commission understood the complainant’s concern that the distinction proposed by the newspaper between being a “senior activist in” a group and a “member” of a group was somewhat artificial. Nonetheless, it had to have regard for the fact that the claim advanced by the newspaper was less definitive than a claim of membership. Against this background, and the points put forward by the newspaper, the Commission did not consider that the complainant had been able to establish that the article had been significantly misleading or inaccurate on this point such that it warranted correction or clarification under the Editors’ Code.

The Commission noted, however, that the evidence provided by the newspaper did not provide complete corroboration of the precise claim it had made. The newspaper had made the claim based on a particular interpretation of the material, which it was open to the complainant to dispute. Although it appeared that the precise claim that had been published had not been put to the complainant for comment, he had strongly denied a number of allegations relating to his connections with the organisation. There did not appear to be any suggestion that the newspaper was unaware of his general view on the matter. Under the circumstances, the Commission considered that by excluding this view the newspaper may have given readers the misleading and inaccurate impression that he accepted this description of his relationship with the organisation. The Commission concluded that there was a breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code which merited prompt and explicit remedial action on the part of the newspaper.

The Commission was disappointed at the time it had taken the newspaper to offer this remedy, which had not assisted in the resolution of the complaint. Nonetheless, on balance the Commission considered that the statement offered by the newspaper would clarify the position to readers and acted as a sufficient response to the concerns raised by the complainant. The Commission trusted that this offer would remain open to the complainant.

In the next few weeks, all the major parties of Tower Hamlets will select and announce their candidate for the Borough’s first directly elected mayor.

For those of us in Respect, it’s a proud moment. We obviously didn’t perform as well as we’d have liked in the May elections, but we were overjoyed that the referendum to change the way the council worked and introduce an accountable mayor won the backing of more than 60% of voters. We had played a central and active role in the campaign to secure a ‘yes vote’. Whilst the three other parties made excuses for why they could not support the proposal, we showed we had our ear to the ground and understood the widespread desire amongst Tower Hamlets residents for a change at the very top. A new way of doing things.

That is one of the principles on which Respect will ask for your vote in October. Labour’s selection process has been a humilating farce, revealing the disunity and incompetence at the heart of that party. How can Labour’s candidate be trusted to get the best out the mayoralty for local families? Every move they make will in fact have to be done with the approval of Labour Head Office – and the sad truth is that by Autumn that will most likely mean warmonger David Miliband.

This brings us to what Respect believes the Mayor of Tower Hamlets should do. The Tory and Lib Dem government have now made it clear that they consider places such as Tower Hamlets prime targets in their attempts to devastate living conditions for millions of people. The cuts in public spending that they are introducing will be felt very sharply here. Local government jobs are under serious threat and the housing budget has evaporated. Not only is London the guinea-pig for destroying NHS funding, it has emerged this week that we are also on the frontline of David Cameron’s Big Society plans. Be in no doubt that the Big Society is in fact the Big Con: taking huge chunks out of the welfare state and demanding that already overworked charities and voluntary organisations pick up the pieces.

This climate calls for clear and determined political leadership in our Borough. The Town Hall should become a centre of opposition to the government’s cuts, and the newly elected Mayor should do everything in her or his power to defend local residents from the Coalition government’s damaging policies. At the same time, where priorities can be shifted to improve the situation this should be done. A pro-active strategy that sought to attract trade with India, China and Bangladesh would generate wealth and opportunities that could shield us from the worst of the ‘Age of Austerity’ and generate investment that would help us grow, not cut, our way into recovery. Scrapping Labour vanity projects like Council free-sheet East End Lives would mean more money where it was really needed – frontline public services. The Mayor would be a high-profile focus point, demanding better housing and services for Tower Hamlets residents and exposing the damage of David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s policies.

And of course, as last month’s visit to Tower Hamlets by the English Defence League makes clear, we need a Mayor that will take an uncompromising stand against anti-Muslim racism, and all discrimination and bigotry. In the tough years ahead of us, there will be some who want to scapegoat Muslims and others and blame those communities for society’s problems. A Respect Mayor will not concede a single inch to racism. Instead, we will all stand united in defence of our Borough and fight together to win a better deal for everyone.

Over the next few months we will be putting forward Respect’s policies for a fairer, better Tower Hamlets.

Abjol Miah, Councillor Harun Miah and Sabby Dhalu, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, led discussion about the threat from the English Defence League, the council leadership’s disastrous attempts to undermine the march and the role of the media in stimulating ignorance, prejudice and bigotry against the Muslim community. The importance of the march today was emphasised by all.

There was analysis of the election results which had been disappointing for Respect. However there were positives. In Tower Hamlets 17,000 voters had voted for Respect, a solid core from which to build. the Con/Dem coalition government was bringing in devastating cuts. Illusions in the progressive nature of the Lib Dems in particular would be dispelled. And here in Tower Hamlets it will be Labour’s 41 councillors who will be implementing the cutbacks, the redundancies and the pay cuts.

George Galloway pledged to do everything possible to ensure that Councillor Harun Miah was joined by more Respect councillors as soon as the opportunity arose.

Salma Yaqoob, the Respect Party leader, demonstrated why the cuts were not only unnecessary but counter-productive even in their own terms and were driven by an ideological agenda to cut welfare and make working people pay for the bankers’ crisis.

There was also brief discussion of the Viva Palestina initiative and its huge success in drawing attention to the plight of the besieged Palestinian people of Gaza.. Notice was given of the Viva Palestina Summer School in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon from 25th July to 31st July and the Viva Palestina convoy being organised to leave London after Ramadan in late September.

Finally the meeting voted to support the selection of a mayoral candidate. This will take place at a meeting in Tower Hamlets on 19th July.

“We are particularly pleased that the organisers have decided to go ahead with the march in the face of attempts by the council leadership to get them to call it off. The threat from the racist English Defence League has not gone away and we still need to say loudly and clearly that they will never be welcome in Tower Hamlets.

“We are also very pleased that intelligence from a variety of sources, including Unite Against Fascism, indicate very strongly that the EDL will not be coming to Tower Hamlets over the weekend. Instead they now seem to be concentrating on Wembley on 26th June. It seems their foray into Tower Hamlets on Tuesday was a chastening experience for them.

“Nonetheless, we still want to see the EDL banned from coming to Tower Hamlets. Their only purpose is to incite racial hatred and encourage violence against innocent people and particularly against members of the Muslim community.

“Rumours may circulate on Sunday that members of the EDL are in this pub or that. But all such rumours should be treated with extreme caution. There will be people in the EDL trying to lure younger Muslims into confrontation with other Tower Hamlets residents and with the police. We strongly urge everyone to remain disciplined and to stay on the march. We need to make this the biggest statement possible that we celebrate both our diversity and our unity against racism and fascism.”

“After extensive discussion in Istanbul,” said Galloway, “I can announce that a land convoy will leave Britain shortly after the end of Ramadan in September and travel through Europe, down through Turkey and Syria into Jordan. We will ask the Egyptian government then to ensure passage from the port of Aqaba to Rafah and into Gaza.

“At exactly the same time a flotilla of boats will be leaving to tour the countries of the Mediterranean before heading for Gaza.

“These combined sea and land convoys will be co-ordinated by Viva Palestina with other organisations in Britain and with our friends throughout the Middle East and in Turkey.”

The attack came on Monday morning, 31st May, after one of the six ships in the convoy was hit by Israeli navy forces before being stormed by commandos descending from helicopters. The boat attacked was the Mavi Mar Mara. British citizens were on board this vessel which belongs to the Turkish-based charity the IHH, including Viva Palestina’s Kevin Ovenden and chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Sarah Colborne.

The interception reportedly took place in international waters, more than 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza.

George Galloway speaks out in outrage from Houston, Texas at 05.18am, go to www.vivapalestina.org

‘Progressive Politics after the General Election’, a frank, honest and open assessment of the way forward Respect believes can be built for a progressive society, can be found here.

New Labour may have won the battle in East London this time, but they have lost the war. Even in opposition, Labour will be unwilling to defend the most vulnerable and impoverished in society. That role will fall to Respect and others like us, in the labour movement and in our broader communities. Despite the results we remain the most successful left-of-Labour party in generations. United, our work goes on. I have been heartened by the determination of our supporters to plot a course ahead.

In the East End of London, we owe George Galloway far more than he knows. He showed us in 2005 that as a community, together, we could stand on our own two feet and no longer had to rely on deceitful, corrupt and warmongering parties that took us for granted. Try as they might our opponents cannot ever erase that contribution.

I said throughout my campaign that I have always been a community activist for everyone in Tower Hamlets, and if elected I would be an MP and a community activist. I will soon be back on the streets of the East End as a community activist again. My first and foremost consideration has always been and will continue to be the people who live here.

The bitter frustration I felt on Thursday has not lasted. If we believe we are correct to stand up to inequality, racism, cuts and war, in a Britain where the banks are bailed out and the people are hung out to dry, and say ‘there is an alternative to this, it does not have to be this way’, then nothing should frustrate us.

Let us be patient with ourselves and impatient with injustice, and let’s renew our efforts for peace, justice and equality.

Galloway raised the fact Jim Fitzpatrick has sent out freepost postal voting forms urging voters to return the form not to Electoral Services but to him at Labour Party HQ. “If this isn’t illegal,” said Galloway, “it ought to be. Voters have to ask what possible reason could Jim Fitzpatrick have for receiving these forms rather than having them sent directly to Electoral Services at Tower Hamlets Town Hall.”

But Galloway also raised even more serious allegations against candidates who are using friends and family to obtain blank ballot papers which they will then have filled in to their advantage. “We know which candidates are corrupting the electoral process and we intend to provide the police with all the information we have. Those candidates need to know that if they are caught and convicted, they will go to jail for a long time. In Blackburn, a Labour councillor was sentenced to three years recently.”

It is thought undercover officers are at work trying to root out the voting fraud which has undermined confidence in elections in Tower Hamlets in recent years.

Ends

For further information contact Rob Hoveman on 07507 600561

Notes to editors:

The letter to the police, the Electoral Commission and the Returning Officer is reproduced below

To Dr Kevan Collins, Returning Officer London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Borough Commander Paul Rickett, Ms Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral Commission and Mr Peter Wardle, Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission Dear Dr Collins, Commander Rickett, Ms Watson and Mr Wardle,

Once again it seems there is the very strong likelihood that the elections in tower Hamlets on 6th May will be besmirched by significant voting fraud and corruption courtesy of the postal voting on demand system. I have confirmed reports of candidates, including sitting councillors, signing up voters, particularly elderly voters, on the basis that those voters will then provide their unfilled ballot papers to friends and family acting on behalf of those candidates. These ballot papers will then be filled in by persons others than the voter themselves to the benefit of those candidates and other candidates they support.

Although this is definitely going to happen and I believe on a significant enough scale to affect the outcome of at least some of the elections to be held in Tower Hamlets, this is an almost undetectable crime if witnesses will not come forward. Because securing these ballot papers involves friends and family, witnesses will usually not come forward unfortunately. And as Isabella Freeman points out in her response to my letter to the Tower Hamlets Returning Officer, if voters give their ballot papers to others, there is nothing that can be done about it, even though these others would then be committing a serious criminal offence in procuring and filling in these ballot papers.

This is the fundamental flaw in the postal voting on demand system which the major parties, presumably because they are beneficiaries of this system, and the Electoral Commission continue to refuse to take seriously. For all the tightening up in the system there has been. postal votes on demand undermines fundamentally the secrecy of the ballot that was secured after long struggle in 1872. There is absolutely no solid evidence that turnout is higher because of postal voting on demand and in my view any slightly high turnout is outweighed by the undermining of the integrity of the election.

I am also extremely concerned to find that at least one of the candidates in the constituency I am contesting, the incumbent government minister Jim Fitzpatrick, has been sending letters to voters urging them to take out a postal vote by filling in the council’s postal voting form which is then to be returned to him at Tower Hamlets Labour headquarters through a freepost address handily attached to the back of the form by Mr Fitzpatrick. If this is not illegal, it ought to be. It certainly breaches those guidelines produced by the Electoral Commission which require candidates and parties not to engage in any activity which might bring suspicion of corrupting the voting process. The question every voter should ask is why should this postal voting form be sent to Jim Fitzpatrick rather than directly to Electoral Services at Tower Hamlets Town Hall where it belongs.

I urge all of you to do all in your powers, limited as they sadly seem to be, to try to ensure that the elections in Tower Hamlets are not once again undermined and potentially stolen from the people by a system which remains fundamentally flawed.

I look forward to your responses.

Yours sincerely,

George Galloway