Flickr/Alan Denney. Some rights reserved.
Now the general election is over, it’s worthwhile trying to understand the nature of political consent in Britain by looking into recent events in Tower Hamlets. In late 2014, Eric Pickles, then communities secretary, took over administration of the borough through commissioners, pending a judicial report on electoral corruption. The majority party in the most recent mayoral election was declared dissolved and banned from standing in future elections.
None of the four commissioners – Sir Ken Knight, Max Caller CBE, Chris Allison or Alan Wood – is Bangladeshi, the largest ethnic group in the borough representing one third of the inhabitants. They are all white English men. Does this not have the air of a neocolonial coup?
