This summer so far British Bangladeshis have had to endure being insulted by British politicians; seeing race riots in the North similar to what the NF use to do along Brick lane and finally our ancestral home returning to the worst days under military regimes in Bangladesh during the 1970’s. The latter was of course a source of much embarrassment at school for me!

For some reason during the General Election 2024 a few national politicians like Jonathan Ashworth MP for Leicester South cited Bangladeshis asylum seekers as one of the worst abusers of the system when only the previous month the governments of the two countries entered into an agreement on how to send back failed Bangladeshi asylum seekers to Dhaka. His rant on BBC Newsnight against South Asian asylum seekers clearly contributed to him losing his parliamentary seat subsequently as he learns the hard way, you should not insult your voters. 

Soon after the GE of 2024 was concluded with a Labour landslide, trouble brewed after the tragic killing of three girls in their dancing class in Southport. The fatal stabbing of three young girls at a dance class in the seaside town of Southport, in the north of England, followed by the worst unrest the UK has seen in more than a decade. Immediately after the attack, social media posts falsely speculated that the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a boat in 2023, with an incorrect name being widely circulated. There were also unfounded rumours that he was Muslim.

The day after the Southport riot, violent protests in London, Hartlepool and Manchester broke out, which police linked to Southport. More took place throughout the week – with many targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers. Mercifully when the riots were meant to come to London, the Far Right lost their bottle! 

Through out this time, we had student protests building up in Bangladesh in particular in Dhaka over the quota system for civil service jobs for the descendants of Freedom Fighters from the 1971 war of liberation.  Which all lead to the toppling of the PM Sheikh Hasina Awami League government and an interim government in place with heavy military backing, which for me brought back memories of the military coups in Bangladesh throughout the 1970s and also the 1980s. 

So you can see how it feels very much back to the seventies for British Bangladeshis in the UK. 

I have been going to anti-Racist demos since my school days during the seventies and this must be the first time both the Police and mainstream media have welcomed our actions in light of the threat posed by the far-right threat to London last Wednesday night. 

Now over the years l have had my disagreements with  Police Commissioner Mark Rowley but l totally agree with the statements he made on BBC Radio 4 the following morning “… l think the show of force from the police and frankly the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we’ve seen.”  It’s not often you get the Met Chief praising Londoner’s show of unity. 

Much more disturbing has been Elon Musk and parliamentarians fanning the flames with misinformation. How ever dangerous the circumstances were, we were not on the point of a civil war that is for sure. 

What is clear is that the far right bottled it when communities and the police get together and read the situation well. But let us not be complacent as this is an ever present threat easily fanned by outside forces.  And let us not forget the victims of Southport. 

Letter published in Westminster Extra https://www.westminsterextra.co.uk/article/sir-mark-was-correct-about-the-police-show-of-force

After incredibly momentous week in Bangladesh, the importance of student politicians can not be understated enough in the country to the outside world. 

Students have been at the vanguard of political protest in Bengali politics. They have a particular place and touch a nerve in the Bangladeshi psyche. They led the protests against the Bangla language being banned in the official business of Pakistan in East Bengal from 1947 onwards and were numerous among the February 21st 1952 language martyrs. They also played an active role during the 1971 Liberation from the Pakistan army.

At the end of this week, Bangladesh student leaders will have ousted a prime minister, negotiated with the military, successfully advocated for Prof Yunus to lead a new interim government, and then secure two slots in that interim government for themselves – what an achievement for youth politics!  

Students against Discrimination based in Dhaka University campaigned against the quota system for jobs in government, now have two members in the interim government, Nahid Islam and Nasif Mahmud. Nahid Islam will head the country’s Telecommunications Ministry, while Nasif Mahmud was chosen to lead the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

While law and order issues are the immediate concerns of most citizens in the country, as well running an free and fair election will be the main concerns of the interim government, watch this space in Bangladeshi politics for the future leaders of the country. 

With the imminent closure of the Crown Post Office at Eccleston Street, Belgravia, we have had a change in government that should see its salvation.

In the Labour manifesto we are told, “The Post Office is an essential service in communities across the country. Labour will look for ways to strengthen the Post Office network, in consultation with sub-postmasters, trade unions and customers, and support the development of new products, services and business models, such as banking hubs, that will help reinvigorate the high street…”

What better way to strengthen the post office network and reinvigorate the high street, then saving a much loved Crown Post Office in SW1 from closing at the end of August?

Please sign the petition below and get your local politicians to act very quickly, most of whom are of the same political persuasion as the new government now!

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-closure-of-ecclestone-street-crown-post-office?share=24e0de95-d550-471a-8d3c-f7bff42119ca&source=&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=

Letter published in Westminster Extra this week 

Having come out of a regeneration meeting recently in Church St, l came to the conclusion that West End Gate development with over 500 units of accommodation will be up well before phase A in Church Street is completed. As we were being told it won’t be finished by 2030 now and with the old Paddington Green Police Station all but demolished now, we will soon see the building works beginning there. 

This was difficult to hear after all the promises made on Site A in Church Street ward particular when the council wanted to get the GLA approval to get more monies and thus additional units of residential accommodation. 

Site B works look further down the road than ever, which should give ample opportunity to sort out Broadly St Gardens and the works to Green Spine. Both these need regular maintenance but do not seem in place since the new facilities were opened up!  The Lisson St road closure has worked well and l would like to see it extended beyond Bell St to the subway which get us to the Edgware Rd tube station. As its another major way into Church St and appears to have been forgotten. 

But if the public toilets on Church St are anything to go by we  are in for a long wait. As over the last few years we have seen them closed and lying empty for a long time, then the works seem to go for longer and now it’s been revamped it’s again been lying empty since the beginning of the year. What is going on with the loos? The projects on the Triangle have really not been going to plan at all and thats before l even mention the management of the street market itself. 

Not surprisingly many of us came out thinking, it is not so much regeneration that is being offered but redevelopment of the locality.  And l have not mentioned the state of the market! As locals need to take charge of it all. 

Whilst reading Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera (one of my summer reads), l am struck by the futility of the Commonwealth in todays world when we have the BRICS forming and leading on economic reforms in the global economy.

Take for example, the cost of borrowing money for an ex-British colonial country from Africa. It has been established the borrowing costs during 2020-2024 would be almost 10 times more of an African country than a developed country like Germany, going by bond yields comparisons. For a Latin or Carribean country, its almost seven times more and for an Asian it would be almost five times more! This from the very global financially system largely built around British and American banking system, an example of how British imperialism shaped the globe.  

So if you were a nation state who has experienced the British colonial rule, who would you want to join – the Commonwealth or the BRICs?  Not surprising the answer is the later. Whilst the Commonwealth is a great gentlemen’s club headed by the King Charles, l am not sure what practical help it is at all to its member states any more. As Sanghera concludes in his book the Commonwealth has outgrown its evolutionary usefulness.  This while the BRICs can’t stop the applications coming into their new club as they bring together the world’s most important developing countries, to challenge the political and economic power of the wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe. 

So in 2022 we have Togo & Gabon join the Commonwealth which were never part of the British empire, l am sure they will be wondering why they bothered when everyone else seems to be trying to join the BRICs. 

Many of us in the Bangladeshi diaspora have had a number of sleepless nights during the awful crackdown of student protests in Dhaka and other major cities of Bangladesh over the past week. For some of us, it brings back memories of what the people had to face in 1971 with the liberation of the country from the Pakistan army.

Firstly, it should be noted the student protests were not limited to just the public universities but also the private ones which is very rarely the case. Ironically the latter were set up to offer degree courses without the interference of student politics! They now also find themselves embroiled in student politics over the quota system which reserves a significant percentage of government posts for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 and other categories.

Before the imposition of a news, social media and telecommunications blackout on the outside world and the instruction of ‘shoot on sight’ orders to the police, l managed to phone relatives in Dhaka and got a very clear message from my nephews and nieces studying at universities in Dhaka: “We don’t want the quotas of civil servant jobs.” They said this even though they could have benefited, being the descendants of freedom fighters themselves.

These student protests are not just about these quotas for jobs in the civil service, which has been an issue for a number of years and was actually withdrawn in 2018 by the present government, only to be brought up again by freedom fighters’ families. It was taken to the Supreme Court and reimposed only for the Court on Sunday to reduce the percentage of down to 5 per cent. So that should have been the end of the matter.

But it’s not just about the quotas for jobs but a lot else, including the incredible violence launched against the students, both from the authorities like the police and their Rapid Action Battalion, an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police, as well as the student arm of the Prime Minister’s political party, the Chhatra League. This has led to over 100 deaths officially and many fear a lot more than this.

The students are demanding the resignation of both the Home Minister and Chief of the Police and for the Chhatra League, an arm of the ruling Awami League, to be closed down. Other issues the students are campaigning on include rigged election allegations, the cost of living and corruption. Other political parties are attempting to gain from the dire situation making it increasingly a movement against the Prime Minister herself, Sheikh Hasina. Along with the fatalities have come some serious infrastructural destruction to the new metro train stations, something the PM and her ruling party are very proud of as part of developing the economy of the country.

Students have been at the vanguard of political protest in Bengali politics. They have a particular place and touch a nerve in the Bangladeshi psyche. They led the protests against the Bangla language being banned in the official business of Pakistan in East Bengal from 1947 onwards and were numerous among the February 21st 1952 language martyrs. They also played an active role during the 1971 Liberation from the Pakistan army.

The attack on Bangladesh TV offices last week was very similar to the takeover of Chittagong Radio Station on March 26th 1971 for the famous historic declaration of independence. That night of March 26th also saw many killings in Dhaka as the Pakistan Army launched their Operation Searchlight to extinguish Bengali nationalists. That seems to have been exceeded last week by some who were there on both occasions.

Allegedly from some local papers in Dhaka, we hear that between July 15th and 21st last week over 800 people have been killed. This would be more than the sum total of all the people killed in popular agitations from 1972 to 2022. During the 1980s and 1990s, with the various anti-Ershad movements, and the caretaker governments in the 1990s, fewer than fifty people were killed.

The verdict is still out on whether this could be a rerun of the 1971 liberation struggle as some of my older cousins suggest, or just another rerun of political turmoil in Bangladesh that we had to endure during the 1980s and 1990s. But we will know soon enough which way things are heading for the country that desperately wants to move on developmentally and is on the front line of the global climate crisis – all this while 30,000 Bangladeshis left the country in five days last week.

Whilst all the focus is on sewage leakages into the Thames, let us not forget according to Thames Water’s own records, water leakages run almost at a quarter of all their pipes and the attempt to replace them has seen no end of road works. Ask any black cabbie in London, who causes the most work roads in Central London? Thats after having this responsibility since 1989 and over 3 decades, we still see no real progress has been made, as it continues to literally be money down the drain for its customers.

On top of this we have their poor performance of capital works. One only needs to point to their desalination plant in Beckton which has largely been lying empty since being built in 2010 for £250 million from our bills. It was approved by the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson after the previous Mayor, Ken Livingstone had refused planning permission for it.

It has been built at great expense of Thames Water customers, using a process called reverse osmosis to turn saltwater into drinking water. It was meant to have had the capacity to pipe drink water into 400,000 homes in London by drawing on 100m litres a day of water from the Thames during a drought. In the meantime Thames Water has admitted the high-tech plant is off-line and been hardly used, if at all.

The Glazers are notoriously known for taking major dividends annually out of Man Utd and investing very little back into the football club. The same can be said about Thames Water and their relationship with their 16 million customers. You only have to look at their performance on water leakages and capital expenditure to see this very clearly.

I am glad to see that TfL have not forgotten the unpaid congestion charge bills of  diplomats in London. As it almost 20 years ago l brought up the issue at the London Assembly as a new AM representing all Londoners, as l saw it as an abuse of Londoners hospitality particularly in Central London. 

I also brought it up under Boris Johnson administration when he was Mayor of London between 2008 & 2016. The diplomats should be shamed into having to pay up these fees due to TfL. Can you imagine what could be done for Londoners public transport options if we had £144 million to spend on their priorities, as reported by TfL this week in the Evening Standard. 

The charge is not a tax under British law and the charge is not dissimilar to the charge you pay to get into Manhattan UN HQ via its bridges and tunnels. If its good enough for British diplomats to pay in New York then why not here with US and other countries diplomats. It is of direct benefit to diplomats, as it helps give them more space on the roads of Central London. And could be interpreted as an abuse of our hospitality . So do pay up asap and lets avoid a diplomat incident over it all annually.