.... While Newham pays for recent immigrants to learn English, Tower Hamlets, incredibly, pays enormous sums for British-born children, who have grown up speaking English, to learn Bengali.
Since his election two years ago, Mr Rahman has sought to “Islamicise” Tower Hamlets, clamping down on strip clubs and a gay pub. And he has just launched a “community faith buildings support scheme” to pour further millions into religious organisations – substantially, though not exclusively, mosques.
Robin Wales, like many other Labour people, will not deal with Rahman and admits that what he sees across the border has helped spur his policy in Newham. “You look at the community faith buildings grants and you ask yourself, what’s going on?” he says. “Lutfur is following policies that will not benefit anyone in the future. I’m extremely worried that you create an enclave, and whenever you have segregation it is an unmitigated disaster.” [telegraph.co.uk] Read more
