Market Protest *2 “This is Completely Lie”

We noted in our article concerning the complaint that Cllr Godfrey has had lodged against him, that he has told people that his What’s App account has been hacked.

Cllr Godfrey is alleging that the traders told him that the protest was organized by the Independent Group. This is the denial from the Independents;

The gist of the story from Cllr Godfrey is that Newham Independents organized a protest at the mayor’s abysmal launch for the ‘Borough of Culture’ award.

The Independents deny this. There were two of their councilors at the event and in the video, you can see Cllr Mirza briefly talking to the group of market traders from Queens’ Market and at the end of the shot walking across the screen holding two drinking cups.

We assume that Cllr Godfrey was seeking to minimize the embarrassment to the mayor of what looks like a spontaneous protest, (the protesters were local traders and the signs were hastily and unprofessionally written) and shift the focus to the Independent Group.

It seems that the Independents might be more accurate in their reporting on this than Cllr Godfrey.

The BBC reported on the dissatisfaction local traders have with Newham Council. In particular, this is regarding the levels of street crime in the area. Traders allege that the area is unsafe in which to work and are reporting that shoppers are staying away because of fear of street crime. On top of this they are feeling neglected and disposable. Uncollected rubbish at the end of the day makes the site dirty and smelly; the council’s redevelopment plans leave the traders cold.

This picture at the Town Hall is from an earlier protest at a time when the Independent Group had, but a single member and he was nowhere to be seen.

On top of this we see that there is now a video from Naveed Choudhary, the Chairman of the Traders’ Union in which he asserts that the protest was the product of the union and had nothing to do with the Independent Group. Mr Choudhary is forthright in his refutation of the allegation that the protest was done at the request or instigation of the Independent Group. His words are that the allegation is “completely lie” (sic). He confirms that their longstanding dissatisfaction is with Mayor Fiaz and that it was the Traders’ Union that organised the protest.

Storm in a teacup or the dark arts of politics in action? You decide.