Galloway's open letter to Jim Fitzpatrick

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No but apparently the decision for GG not to stand was made some time ago at least in September 2007.

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and they say a week is a long time in politics

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There was a show on Radio 4 this week with Clement Freud who was a Liberal MP doing his memoirs and he said that only 4% of people who defeated a sitting MP from one of the two big parties managed to retain it at the next election.

I'm not sure if that stat still stands but it is a truism that often after a surprise win very often the minority party gets kicked out at the next election.

That said I still think it's a bit dodgy for an MP to move to another seat rather than defend their record because it invalidates our 'democracy' just a bit more. The argument politicians use when criticised about their actions or pay(GG included) is to say well MP's are a special case. If you don't like what we're doing then you can kick us out.

If the MP keeps moving how are you meant to land your kick?

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You seem to be forgetting the most basic principle of democracy - not everyone thinks the same as you.

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Here are the euro-election results for Tower Hamlets. What gets me is the amount of people who voted Conservative. Working class tories are the worst.

TOWER HAMLETS VOTES

The parties:

Labour 16,138

Conservative 10,393

Green 5,406

Liberal Democrat 5,080

UK Independence 2,781

BNP 2,158

Christian 756

No2EU 626

Socialist Labour 456

English Democrat 437

Jury Team 341

Pro Democracy 192

Socialist Party of GB 127

Yes 2 Europe 77

The independents:

Steven Cheung 211

Sohale Rahman 179

Jan Jananayagam 109

Haroon Saad 93

Gene Alcantara 31

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Jim Fitzpatrick, Government minister, condemns traditional Muslim wedding
Jim Fitzpatrick, a Government minister, has publicly condemned the Muslim tradition of separating men and women at weddings.
Martin Beckford and Stephen Adams
13 Aug 2009

The farming minister and his wife walked out of the marriage ceremony of a constituent after discovering they would have to sit in separate rooms. He said the gender segregation was a sign of increasing radicalisation and was damaging to social cohesion.

However, Muslim leaders insist the custom is traditional at Islamic weddings as well as in mosques, and expressed surprise that Mr Fitzpatrick, a third of whose east London constituents are Muslims, was unaware of the fact. It was suggested that the Labour MP was trying to appeal to white voters who may fear divided communities.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, a founding member of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “I think in the interest of cohesion it would be better if Mr Fitzpatrick established more contact with the Muslim community. It shows a lack of interest on the part of the MP to engage with people with different backgrounds and sadly it reflects badly on him. If he had a little bit of knowledge he would have found it was quite normal and nothing unusual for them to enjoy the celebration in this way. There are some who prefer segregated events and some where they are joined together. We live in a society where we need to respect all traditions.”

George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow who will contest the new Poplar and Limehouse constituency against Mr Fitzgerald at the election, said: “If he doesn’t wish to attend an Islamic wedding and observe the religious customs preferred by the bride and groom, he should not go rather than insult them for perceived political gain. I am absolutely amazed and astonished that a Government minister with a substantial Muslim minority in his constituency should have decided to give such a gratuitous insult to so many Muslims.”

Tim Archer, who will stand for the Conservatives locally, said: “I can’t help but feel he’s playing a certain race card to save his skin at the next election. I think it’s a desperate strategy.” Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, a director of the Muslim Institute, a leading think tank, added: “He shouldn’t have been surprised, or perhaps he didn’t read the invitation card properly. But he’s going to annoy a number of people in his constituency.”

Mr Fitzpatrick, a former fireman, has represented Poplar and Canning Town since 1997 and served as a junior transport minister, London minister and as Post Office minister. Most of his constituency is in Tower Hamlets, where an estimated 35 per cent of the residents are Bangladeshi Muslims, and he says he regularly attends Islamic weddings where men and women mix freely.

On Sunday he and his wife Sheila, a GP, were invited to a wedding where they found male and female guests were seated in separate rooms, and promptly walked out. The event was held at the London Muslim Centre, next door to the prominent East London Mosque in Whitechapel. The minister later told his local newspaper: “It’s a disappointment. We are trying to build social cohesion in a community but this is not the way forward.”

He told The Daily Telegraph: “My wife and I go to weddings to celebrate the occasion jointly. If we are welcome as a couple we go as a couple and if not it is our right to say we don’t want to do that. I’m not pandering to any minority opinion.”

Mr Fitzpatrick claimed the invitation to the wedding, of a couple he did not know personally but who were related to a friend of his, did not make it clear that the event would be segregated. He said he had only ever once encountered a similar situation at the centre, and had left that wedding as well. The minister blamed the policy on the Islamic Forum of Europe, a hardline group based at the East London Mosque.

He said: "The segregation of men and women didn't used to be as much of a strong feature. We've been attending Muslim weddings together for years but only recently has this strict line been taken. But it is an indication of the stricter application of rules that is taking place that didn't exist before. I think the stranglehold influence of the IFE is present more than ever before."

However, the mosque insisted that men and women have been kept apart at weddings in the centre since 2004. The policy is traditional at Muslim marriages, as it is in mosques, as an illustration of the importance the religion places on modesty. A spokesman said: “Segregated weddings have always been popular in the Muslim community; the London Muslim Centre has facilitated them for over five years. It is part of the attraction for Muslim families so they can celebrate their happy day in a religious atmosphere, a custom which is also found in other religious traditions represented in Britain. We have always allowed non-Muslim guests to be seated together without segregation, but this is entirely at the discretion of the families who have hired the halls.”

Syed Ahmed, a spokesman for the IFE, said his organisation had nothing to do with the wedding policy. "It is a bit confusing. If he has got a problem then he should take it up with the relevant person who invited him.”, he said.

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From what I know some especially religious Jewish marriages are segregated too - and I somehow doubt that he'd have walked out if he'd been invited to one of those...

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Galloway calls for Fitzpatrick resignation
2009 August 16

“Jim Fitzpatrick has lost all credibility. He should resign as a government minister.” So demanded George Galloway this morning as it emerged that Fitzpatrick’s account of events at the Muslim wedding he snubbed omitted some crucial facts.

Galloway continued: “If the account given by the groom in the Telegraph is to be believed, it now emerges that Fitzpatrick’s wife was not told by anyone in authority at the wedding that she should go to the women only section, that Fitzpatrick did not take the issue up with the wedding organisers, and that the family of the groom contacted Fitzpatrick as soon as they became aware of the misunderstanding and invited him and his wife back to the wedding to join an unsegregated table.

“This makes it abundantly clear that Fitzpatrick was simply using this wedding to pursue a political vendetta against the Islamic Forum of Europe, entirely misdirected as it turned out, and to pander to those who have prejudices against Muslims and Muslim traditions. Fitzpatrick chose to do this over an event that should have been the happiest day of this young couple’s life, which the families will have spent thousands of pounds organising and which Fitzpatrick was privileged to have been invited to.

“He has been an MP for a constituency with a large Muslim minority long enough and he will have attended enough Muslim weddings in that time to know that these weddings are traditionally segregated for Muslim men and women but that exceptions are almost invariably made for non-Muslim men and women on the basis that offence should not be given to those with different traditions and expectations.

“I note Fitzpatrick now says he will apologise for offending the couple and that he left the wedding discreetly. But this must be a bad joke. He went straight to the press and made a statement about his outrageous treatment at the wedding. This is unacceptable behaviour by a government minister and MP. More than that, this behaviour has discredited him as a representative of this government. If he does not do the decent thing and resign, Brown should sack him.”

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