The "Baroness of Bethnal Green" - a comment from the Daily Telegraph web site

1450 Hrs London 4 May 2009

EAST LONDON PRESS noting that the 'East London Advertiser' has still not published anything about the matter.

We shall keepo vuers and svsitors posted on the cointining lack of jouralsm by the 'East L:onon advesrtir'.

In the mranti,e the follwoing comment is being produecd here dfrom the extetal web site mentoiend below. This is porely fpor reference. We are not staying any views on the matter to which they have linekd the 'baroness of Bethnal green' to.




http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole/blog/2009/05/04/whatever_did_we_do_to_deserve_baroness_uddin


Whatever did we do to deserve Baroness Uddin?
Posted By: James Delingpole at May 4, 2009 at 13:28:34 [General]
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Baroness Uddin, fluent in multi-culti, second homes, Tower Hamlets

Until this weekend's story broke about her expenses irregularities you'd probably never heard of Britain's first Muslim peer Baroness Uddin. I had, though, because a couple of years ago, I remember being particularly incensed while driving along listening to a Radio 4 programme about the disasters of multiculturalism.

On one side of the debate was an intelligent, articulate, well-spoken Muslim doctor who was talking about the damage multi-culti pieties had done to social cohesion in East London's Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. Particularly rubbish, he said, was the policy of PC councils of translating everything into languages like Urdu and Bengali - rather than encouraging immigrant communities to learn English. This, he explained, did bullying Muslim husbands' dirty work for them by enabling them to keep their non-English-speaking, often-imported brides in thrall, and away from the tainting influence of the kuffar.

Baroness Uddin was speaking opposite him and though I can't remember exactly what she said, I do recall being so struck by the unutterable idiocy of her half-baked and ill-expressed views that I stopped the car to jot down her name. "Christ on a bike," I thought to myself. "What kind of world do we inhabit that someone like this gets a peerage?"

I'm still searching for an answer. She can't be totally stupid, for her response when the story broke about her having allegedly claimed £100,000 for a "main home" she doesn't live in was impressively swift: round she came in her BMW 4 x 4 to put some curtains up and a mat by the front door. Iain Dale has lots more comedy dirt on this, such as the claim that the house she DOES live in is Housing Association property with a subsidised rent supposedly designed for low-income families. Principled socialism in action, eh, readers?

Here is a video of Baroness Uddin in action.



Was your immediate thought: here is a woman whose intelligence, rapier wit, wisdom, commonsense and mastery of the English language in all its nuance and complexity more than justifies her elevation to the Lords?

Me neither.

She was elevated to the peerage by Tony Blair (says it all really) in 1998, though for which particular service to the nation is not immediately apparent. She has been a Labour councillor, a liaison officer for Tower Hamlets social services and is described on her Wikipedia entry as a "community activist."

Hmm. Sounds like perfect MBE material to me.

But a peerage?


[ 3 comments ]
Comments

Just another Nu-Lab kleptocrat. What I want to know is which Labour MPs might top themselves if their fraudulent expenses are revealed, and if there is anything we can do to expedite this topping oneself process?
Sebber
May 04, 2009
01:50 PM GMT

"Was your immediate thought:...?"

My immediate thought was she should be in prison, but that was for the second home claim. I'm not sure my temper could stand the video.
Sheumais
May 04, 2009
01:57 PM GMT

Labour MP/peer/councillor/whatever is now synonymous with 'thief'.
Chav Dad & Minger Mam
May 04, 2009
02:25 PM GMT
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EAST LONDON PRESS Update on UK 'Work and pensions' cabinet minister James Purnell joining as a character in the sleaze and fraud news reports

0245 Hrs London ['Bank Holiday'] Monday 4 May 2009:

EAST LONPON PRESS report

EAST LONDON PRESS Update on UK 'Work and pensions' cabinet minister James Purnell joining as a character in the sleaze and fraud news reports his various 'Party' colleagues. Including 'Bethnal Green Baroness' Pola Uddin.


PURNELL heads the DWP the UK Department for Work and Pensions. On its books about Tower Hamlets, a large majority of persons reporting low income or no income are from the section of the population that Pola Uddin says she identifies with.

At the time of writing, we could not finalise verification of several details that have emerged during the weekend.

One concerns Ian Dale's reference to the 'Housing Association' that allegedly owns the property in Wapping in which Pola Uddin actually lives.

Other aspects of Pola Uddin’s claimed ‘political and community life’ have caused outpourings of mirth in the East End





DAILY MAIL, updated file on Pola Uddin as at 0142 Hrs 4 may 2009


Labour peer 'claims £100,000 on vacant flat she said was her home'
By DAN NEWLING
Last updated at 1:42 AM on 04th May 2009

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Baroness Uddin has been claiming expenses on a 'unoccupied' flat in Kent

A Labour peer faces a possible police investigation for fraud after she claimed £100,000 in expenses for a flat she appears never to have lived in.

Baroness Uddin received the money by claiming that the apparently deserted flat in Maidstone, Kent, was her 'main home'.

This meant the Baroness, Britain's first female Muslim peer, was able to claim nearly £30,000 a year towards the cost of staying at a separate London address while she attended Parliament.

Members of the House of Lords are entitled to a daily allowance of up to £86.50 for 'meals and refreshments' and travel around Westminster, up to £174 for overnight accommodation in London and office costs of £75 a day.

They are also entitled to £116 per night accommodation maintenance allowance for a second home and 'additional office costs' up to £75 for up to 40 days.

The accommodation allowance is available to any peer 'whose main residence is outside greater London and who maintains a residence in London for the purpose of attending sittings of the House'.



'Main home': The flat in Maistone, Kent, which neighbours say has lain empty


There is no official definition of a 'main residence' in the rules, but Mary Morgan, director of public information at the Lords said: 'A member will know what his main residence is. It's where they live. For the purposes of claiming expenses it's where they travel to and from.' However, neighbours at the Baroness's ground floor flat in Maidstone say that since she bought the property in 2005, they have never seen her.

A plumber who entered the apartment last month described it as 'uninhabitable' - covered in dust with just an old mattress on the floor to sleep on.

By contrast, neighbours at her other property - a three- storey house in Wapping, East London - said she is regularly seen there.

The Wapping address is where the 49-year-old peer brought up her five children and is registered to vote.

Her personal website describes the East End as her 'backyard' and 'my home for over 30 years'.

Every time she has registered as a director of a company, she has given her London address, which is four miles from Parliament. However, the Baroness has told the Lords' expenses authorities that it is only her 'second address'.


In the financial year to March 2008 she claimed £29,600 in overnight accommodation allowance. If she has done the same every year since buying the Kent flat, she would have earned more than £100,000.


More...
MPs' secretaries threaten to strike as even they are caught up in expenses row
Yesterday LibDem frontbencher Lord Oakeshott said: 'An empty property can't be a peer's main residence. The Lords authorities must check the facts of this case and investigate.' Baroness Uddin denies any wrongdoing and has instructed libel lawyers to represent her.

When approached in Maidstone at the weekend, the Baroness refused to allow a journalist into the flat to check it was being lived in.

In a statement she said: 'The Wapping house is rented while I own the property in Maidstone. The Maidstone property is furnished and I strongly deny that I have never lived there. Indeed I have stayed there regularly since buying it.'


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its within the rule book so why not, everybody does it so why not the Baroness. in the words of the song "you gotta pick a pocket or two oo you gotta pick a pocket or two.

ken moody
sheffield
- ken moody, sheffield uk, 03/5/2009 17:15Click to rate Rating 278
Just shows the level that greed can plumb to... After all the cases of false expences claims one would have thought that the trough feeders would have had the common sense to realise that sooner or later they would be rumbled.
- Mac, New Town, 03/5/2009 17:13Click to rate Rating 287
Just check the utility bills for the period
- timothy timberlake, dorset, 03/5/2009 17:13Click to rate Rating 347
Are we really supposed to be suprised.?
- Paul, East London, 03/5/2009 17:08Click to rate Rating 281
The answer is simple. Get her to pay back all the spurious claims. But of course with Jackie Smitch on her side she'll claim it was all legal. Legal, perhaps. Thoroughly contemptible - certainly. Another nu lab peer completely discredited. Its not just Lord Mandy that gives the party a rotten name. They're all at it!!! Socialists to their last bottle of champagne...and blow the rest of us. Tony's Brave New World is crashing down all around us. Oh dear.
- Atrie, Oxford, 03/5/2009 17:02Click to rate Rating 287
It seems that most of them are rotten to the core!
- George Philips, SE London, 03/5/2009 17:00

Mortgage fraud alleged in Tower Hamlets: UK Financial Services watchdog almost shows teeth!

0215 Hrs ['Bank Holiday'] Monday London 4 May 2009


http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=185606&d=403&h=401&f=402




FSA BANS EAST LONDON MORTGAGE BROKER FOR FRAUD
Natalie Martin
30-Apr-2009
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The Financial Services Authority has banned Tower Hamlets based mortgage adviser Zia Chowdhury for certifying client identities for fraudulent mortgage applications.

He also operated his firm Express Financial without being approved by the FSA as required.
Jonathan Phelan, head of retail enforcement at the FSA, says: "Mr Chowdhury’s actions posed a serious risk to lenders. Our crackdown on mortgage fraud is gathering pace – we have banned more than 40 mortgage brokers over the last two years, and we will continue to ban people who become involved in mortgage fraud, in order to stamp out this behaviour.”
The FSA found that Chowdhury certified client identity documents accompanying five fraudulent mortgage applications as true copies of the originals without seeing the original documents or meeting the clients.
He also submitted the mortgage applications in circumstances in which he must have suspected that false information might have been used or that the individuals who referred the applications might be involved in mortgage fraud; and knowingly carried out controlled functions at Express Financial without being approved.

How the Guardian has been building up an image of the "Baroness of Bethnal Green". So much talent. So little.......

0110 Hrs London Monday 4 May 2009


Frm the Guaradin web site:

Comment is free

We need all kinds of women in politics
National representation of minority ethnic women is nowhere near what it should be – we must open the political door to them
Comments (63)

Pola Uddin
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 31 March 2009 15.30 BST
Article history
When I entered the House of Lords 11 years ago, there was no fanfare, no acclaim at being the first Muslim female peer, or even acknowledgement of my work in the London borough of Tower Hamlets. Rather, all the coverage centred on what value I could possibly add to the House as a woman who wore a sari and breast-fed her son in the female peers room. In fact, I was advised by my peers and so-called friends that I may wish to consider wearing a suit to be taken seriously.

So, did my appointment to the Lords herald a sea-change in female minority representation, or even an acceptance that women of colour could potentially add value and insight to governing institutions? The current situation suggests not.

National representation of minority ethnic women is nowhere near what it should be, but this comes as no surprise when local government – a breeding ground for many an aspiring politician – remains staunchly middle-aged, pale and male, unlike our society at large.

Whilst the number of female councillors has risen, from 27% in 1997 to the current level of 31%, for minority ethnic women the situation appears to be deteriorating. There are now only around 149 female councillors from ethnic minority backgrounds out of nearly 20,000 nationally, a fall from 2006. I find it alarming and disappointing that minority ethnic women represent less than 1% of all councillors despite making up more than 5% of the population.

I had hoped times had changed since the 1980s and 90s when I was a councillor. Back then there was a prevailing view that Asian women were too much of a political risk and were too family-orientated to dedicate sufficient time to the needs of their constituents. Strangely I managed to juggle a husband, five kids including one with autism, and my responsibilities as a councillor. I'm no superwoman, I was just underestimated.

What's even more frustrating is that opposition comes not only from traditional sources such as the old boys' network, a predictable enemy. I know of many women who have encountered fierce criticism and alienation from those you would expect to be their biggest cheerleaders – their family members and local community. A fellow member of my Taskforce and Respect party leader, Salma Yaqoob, even received death threats from an extremist group.

As Muslim women we'll always have to balance along this thin line of dual identity – either being questioned about dress code that instantly labels us "too Muslim, therefore potentially disloyal", or that we've sold out and become "white and middle class". Hearing these comments makes you realise that those who want to come forward to serve publicly have their work cut out for them – they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. The reality is that we need their contribution and colourful opinions and we need women, with children, with disabilities, with saris and hijab – we need everyone.

It's plain to see that for minority women it's not a question of hitting a glass ceiling – many of these women simply can't get through the door. I have been called as a witness at today's Speaker's Conference in parliament, where I will be answering questions on what can be done to rectify the under-representation of women, minority women and the disabled in parliament and society at large. And maybe, just maybe, we can slowly inch that door open.

http://www.euronews24.org/united-kingdom/peer-denies-%A3100000-expenses-claim/

http://www.euronews24.org/united-kingdom/peer-denies-%A3100000-expenses-claim/


Newspaper reports said Baroness Uddin registered the two-bedroom flat in Maidstone, Kent, as her main home, even though she lived a few miles away from Westminster in a house in Wapping, east London.
The reports said the arrangement meant she was able to able to claim the controversial parliamentary second home allowance on the Wapping property.
Neighbours were quoted as saying that nobody lived in the Maidstone flat and it was not even furnished.
MP Angus Robertson, the leader of the at Westminster, said he would now be asking both the police and the House of Lords authorities to investigate the allegations.
Lady Uddin, who became Britain's first woman Muslim peer in 1998, said in a solicitor's statement: I do not believe that I have done anything wrong or breached any House of Lords rules. Should the relevant House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, co-operate fully.
The statement added: The Wapping house is rented, while I own the property in Maidstone. The Maidstone property is furnished and I strongly deny that I have never lived there. Indeed I have stayed there regularly since buying it.

Shocking event! the Guardian actually says that a "Labour peer” COULD be in the wrong! "Baroness Bethnal Green" facing investigation...

Baroness Uddin faces inquiry calls over second home fees
Allegra Stratton
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 May 2009 19.55 BST
Article history
The Labour peer Baroness Uddin today became the latest politician accused of distorting their expenses after claiming £100,000 from the taxpayer for a flat neighbours said had been unoccupied for years.

Uddin reportedly told parliamentary authorities that a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone, Kent, which she bought four years ago was her main residence, allowing her to claim the allowance for a second home allocated to parliamentarians who live outside commuting distance of the capital.

All five neighbours of the peer's Maidstone flat insist the property has been vacant for years while Uddin has continued to live in Wapping, east London, four miles from Westminster. The Sunday Times alleged that Uddin has claimed £30,000 a year to pay for the Maidstone flat and that the family house in east London, where her children went to school, is her "second home".

Uddin became Labour's first female Muslim peer in 1998 and has lived in the three-bedroom house in Wapping since 1993. In contrast, a plumber who recently visited the Maidstone property after Uddin's son asked him to check the boiler, reported that the central heating appeared not to have been working for a "long time". He said: "I've been in more flats than I care to remember, but this place looked like someone had left it ages ago. It was very dusty."

Uddin said the property was a "fully furnished home".

Moshahidur Rahman, who lives next door to Uddin's flat in Maidstone, said: "I would recognise Baroness Uddin in an instant, I've seen her on TV many times. She is very well known in the Bangladeshi community.

"I can't believe Baroness Uddin owns that place. I didn't think anyone lived there. I thought she lived in London. I've never met her."

Tonight Angus Robertson, the leader in Westminster of the Scottish National party, which has campaigned for stricter controls on expenses, said he wanted two inquiries into the baroness's expense claims.

"I will be writing to the police and the House of Lords authorities asking them to investigate this report," he said.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman in the Lords, said: "An empty property can't be a peer's main residence. The Lords authorities must check the facts of this case and investigate."

Uddin said: "Should the House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, co-operate fully." She said she stayed at the flat "regularly" and that it had furniture.

The fresh allegations will annoy Gordon Brown, who 10 days ago moved to expedite reforms to the second home allowance by announcing on YouTube plans to introduce a flat-rate of daily expenses for attending parliament. The prime minister was forced to drop that plan four days later after a significant group of Labour backbenchers joined with Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to threaten a parliamentary defeat and the motion was removed from last Thursday's schedule of votes.

"Baroness" of "Bethnal Green" is reported by Channle 4 News as 'denying' the ££££££ allegations against her

2150 Hrs London Sunday 3 May 2009

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/peer+denies+100000+expenses+claim/3122862

Peer denies £100,000 expenses claim
Updated on 03 May 2009
Source ITN

A Labour peer is facing claims that she made £100,000 in expenses by listing an empty flat as her main home.

Newspaper reports said Baroness Uddin registered the two-bedroom flat in Maidstone, Kent, as her main home, even though she lived a few miles away from Westminster in a house in Wapping, east London.

The reports said the arrangement meant she was able to able to claim the controversial parliamentary second home allowance on the Wapping property.

Neighbours were quoted as saying that nobody lived in the Maidstone flat and it was not even furnished.

MP Angus Robertson, the leader of the Scottish National Party at Westminster, said he would now be asking both the police and the House of Lords authorities to investigate the allegations.

Lady Uddin, who became Britain's first woman Muslim peer in 1998, said in a solicitor's statement: "I do not believe that I have done anything wrong or breached any House of Lords rules. Should the relevant House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, co-operate fully."

The statement added: "The Wapping house is rented, while I own the property in Maidstone. The Maidstone property is furnished and I strongly deny that I have never lived there. Indeed I have stayed there regularly since buying it."

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.