The Islamic Republic of Dewsbury by Danny Lockwood

Author:Danny Lockwood
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: The Press News Ltd
Published: 2011-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

THORNHILL and Thornhill Lees lie in the electoral ward of Dewsbury South which includes Savile Town and now has three Muslim councillors, one Labour, one Tory and one who was Tory, switched to Independent and who has since reverted to the Tories. Dewsbury West, which includes the heavily Muslim populated districts of Scout Hill and Ravensthorpe, also had three Muslim councillors, two Liberal Democrat and one Labour, until the local elections of May 2011, when Darren O’Donovan, a white member of the Irish Catholic community and son of former Mayor Tom O’Donovan, ousted a Lib Dem Asian councillor.

Although still a minority population in the town the Muslim community has had a disproportionate impact on the political landscape over recent years. That influence will only continue to increase as the years pass, not just through population numbers but assisted by the ability to mass-mobilise the community’s vote.

Their turn out is regularly (and admirably from a sense of exercising your franchise) higher than in other wards. This is a factor the politically-active within the Muslim areas are acutely aware of and adept at manipulating.

Of those six Muslim councillors at the time of the last general election only two represented Labour, and yet in an express example of how this manipulation works, the ethnic vote came out overwhelmingly for Labour’s Shahid Malik.

Democratic? Yes, even if not in a party-political way that we would prefer or expect our Parliamentary system to be characterised. Local affiliation to Lib Dem or Tory – or in the case of a major local political character, Tory-turned-Independent-turned-Tory councillor Khizar Iqbal – counted for nothing when Malik was trying to win the seat after replacing Ann Taylor as candidate in 2005.

It was the same again in the General Election of 2010 when he faced the white Conservative candidate Simon Reevell, local Lib Dem businessman Andrew Hutchinson, and newly Independent candidate Khizar Iqbal. The ethnic vote fell in four-square behind Malik on both occasions because the politics of race, religion and vested interest trump those of notional secular allegiance every time.

As Malik himself described it, ‘Paki Politics’ – but only in its mildest sense. There is nothing wrong with mobilising a section of the electorate that I’m aware of, at least when the tactics are within election law – although that isn’t always the case.

Khizar Iqbal is one of the longest standing councillors to emerge from the midst of the Muslim community and he was, until the run up to the 2010 elections, a staunch Conservative. Well I say staunch. That he held a completed Labour Party application at the time he opted to become a Tory is not shocking, at least not in local terms of political reference.

A character like Khizar – a man I consider a personal friend and a thoroughly good ward councillor – has a currency in a town like ours akin to a Wayne Rooney or a John Terry in football. Chelsea (Conservatives) and Manchester United (Labour) will barter for his valuable services based not on

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.