The disgraced mayor of Tower Hamlets forced to stand down

It was with such relief and more than a little joy when I heard that Lutfur Rahman had been removed from his post as Mayor of Tower Hamlets. Almost any fraud, any cheat and any dishonesty that you can imagine, were committed by this man. For instance, the judge who ousted him found that this man used fake voters to win elections for him. He used public funds for his own aggrandisement. He offered grants to people who might bolster his position.  He took money intended for The Alzheimer's Society - yes, you did read that right. And, he took money from one of the poorest wards in East London - those inhabitants need every bit of help they can get.

 I am in the East End as I write. I have family here and I love to visit and sometimes work here too. Today, as I walked along Ronan Road in East London, I was struck by the obvious poverty surrounding me. Many have no education and many of theSeeing the people who Rahman cheated made his crime all the more hideous - preying on the very people whose lives he should have been making better. These people are the ones he intimidated and threatened, telling them that if they didn't vote for him they were bad Muslims and that they were making God angry.

Rahman used the race card innumerable times. One of those times, he attacked, with great ferocity, the Labour candidate John Biggs. When Labout began its canpaignm the whole campaign was racist. Rahman himself to anyone who tackled him said that they were members of the English Defence League. In fact anyone who challenged him including the BBC, was branded a racist. So, thank goodness that we have the courts to decide who is and who is not guilty. Rahman was found guilty. So, the consequences of his crimes are that he must pay a huge sum of money. The worst one though is total humiliation. Those he frightened and those he cheated can afford a satisfied smile, at the very least.