ON 1ST APRIL, Tower Hamlets Council was 60 years old. On 19th February, Eastenders – the popular BBC soap opera set in roughly the same area, had celebated its 40th birthday. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the two apart.
Those assembling in the Council chamber for the Council meeting on 2nd April drank in an atmosphere which had all the joy of a community group waiting for a coach to turn up and take them to London Zoo. Councillors were moving around with a self-confident nonchalance. It was like watching important people in the zoo-bound group wander around while someone ties to do the head count that will establish whether we’re ready to go to the yet.
It’s was a full eight minutes past kick off time when the Man with the Ceremonial Mace finally walked in. Once again, someone had left the Corporate Directors’ table too close to the top bench, and MaceMan had to walk the long way round.
The Speaker doesn’t like to hang about, and by 19.09 hours he had started on his performance – the equivalent of pointing to the emergency exits. He does enjoy reminding everyone of the procedures. What we need now is someone to return the favour and remind the Speaker what the procedures are when he forgets them during the course of the meeting.
Immediately obvious was the sparse attendance on the two Labour benches: there seemed to be only twelve Labour councillors present. Surely there must be more than twelve? The Speaker pressed on with a report of his recent activities, which gave the public plenty of time to try to work out who is missing – without success.
The Speaker concluded his musing by remembering that Tower Hamlets, as a borough, was 60 years old that week. On 1st April 1965 we lost the small boroughs of Bethnal Green, Stepney and Poplar – but we still have their chains and maces, which are on display in the Speaker’s Parlour (a modest, modern office last seen on the second floor of the Town Hall). And someone had brought some books and documents from the Tower Hamlets Local History Library for everyone to admire.
The Speaker invited Cllrs Peter Golds and Abdal Ullah to reflect on these historical matters. Cllr Golds remembered the creation of the London Boroughs, a move he thought had generally been a success. He referred to one of the older documents which was present: Council minutes from 1593. And to the record of Clement Richard Attlee being awarded the Freeman of Stepney – by the time of the last meeting of the borough of Stepney, Major Attlee had become Mayor. Cllr Golds urged us to remember those who had come before us and think about those who were yet to come.
Cllr Ullah stood to echo Cllr Golds: once more he found himself agreeing with Cllr Golds, which was something like two meetings in a row, but Cllr Ullah promised it would not become a habit. Laugh? We nearly did.
Cllr Ullah, who represents a ward in the south west of the borough, reflected on Derek Beackon becoming the first ever BNP Councillor in the far south east of the borough. Cllr Ullah said that had been a dark day but spared us any personal memories. There is a strong chance this is because he didn’t have any.
For some reason the councillor also known as “John Biggs’s driver” then asked the Speaker why he had not attended Altab Ali Park on International Mother Tongue Day; or the switching on of a light in Brick Lane to mark Eid; or the visit to Wapping made by the Queen. Blimey.
This was just the moment when the meeting could have used a councillor standing up and reminding the Speaker that although he can give a brief report of his charity fundraising activities, he does not have a half hour slot on the agenda to use as he wishes. But no one did. Deputy Mayor Cllr Maium Talukdar did nip up to the front bench and had a quick word with the Speaker. Perhaps he wanted to tell the Speaker more about former BNP councillor Derek Beackon: Cllr Talukdar, of course, was actually there when Beackon was elected – and played no small part in ensuring Beacon was swiftly deposed some months later.
The Speaker muttered something about the Executive Mayor having decided who spoke at Altab Ali Park, the invite to meet the Queen had not arrived, and he had not been invited to Brick Lane to see the light. (We are all, of course, trying to see the light, and only some of us find it.) The Speaker said he had emailed the full story to all councillors. The Speaker referred to a precedent about attendance at Altab Ali Park, with invites being in the Mayor’s gift, and he only gifted attendance to Speakers from his own party. The Speaker disagreed with this, as the position of Speaker was not party political. This was rather a silly thing to say, as the Speaker had been elected Speaker precisely because he was a member of the largest party – which he later decided to leave.
Cllr Ohid Ahmed then rose to give us the benefit of his insight. He said some things about injustice: how he had come to get the floor was not clear. As he sat down, a couple of councillors woke up and clapped: which may have been because of what he had said or because he had stopped.
The Speaker then led a short discussion on when there would be a break for prayers.
Apologies were given from Cllr Asma Begum, Cllr Amina Ali, Cllr Amy Lee, and the Speaker pointed out that Cllr Mohammad Chouwdhury was online. That was the answer to the question the public had been pondering on since the start of the meeting: who was missing from the Labour benches?
The minutes of the previous meeting came next. Cllr Golds asked for a correction: his vote against a motion and an amendment had not been recorded. The Speaker agreed the minutes would be corrected.
Thus the opening part of the meeting drew to an end: nearly half an hour after kick off and mostly devoted to “Speaker’s Corner”, as described above but not on the Council agenda. The meeting went on to deal with the substantive part of the agenda: petitions from members of the public and two motions – of which, more in later reports.
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