MAYOR LUTFUR RAHMAN began the Cabinet meeting last week – taking place during the first week of Ramadan – by extending Ramadan greetings to everyone in the Town Hall and the community. He explained how important Ramadan is to Muslims, ...

OVER THE last four years, Mayor Lutfur Rahman has lived up to his promises and transformed the Tower Hamlets Youth Service. Gone are the Biggs days, when the Labour Mayor expected young people to share just eight hubs across the ...

IT’S NEVER easy for a political party to write its manifesto. Usually the problem is how to condense all their aspirations, all the things they want to achieve, into a short snappy statement that people will read. But when it ...

THE TRAIL of destruction Peter Mandelson leaves in his wake is vast. As Labour loyalists – from elected representatives to ordinary party members – queue up to denounce him, the question “what took you so long?” remains unanswered. Mandelson’s transgressions ...

SWARNA SPICE Ltd produces a popular curry – Praveen Kumar Vegetable Korma. The company is now recalling the product, as traces of almond, cashew and pistachio have been found in it. The nuts are not mentioned on the label. If ...

LUTFUR RAHMAN – most residents in Tower Hamlets have heard of him and know he is the Directly Elected Mayor. Kim Bromley-Derry (above) would not have anything like the same name recognition – but he is the man sent in ...

HE LOVED Tower Hamlets.  And Tower Hamlets loved him back. The announcement that Simon Baxter, Corporate Director for Communities, has died after a short illness has been met with genuine sadness across the borough. The news that Simon had passed ...

THE TOWER HAMLETS Council Cabinet met on Wednesday, 7th January – in what was probably the warmest room in the Town Hall.  The meeting had a single main item on the agenda: the budget for 2026/27 – but it began ...

IT WAS back in 1997 that the new Labour Government capped class sizes for children aged 5-7 to just 30 pupils. That achievement has endured – and class sizes across England are below that magic number. But the bare numbers ...

BEFORE WE look forward to 2026, let’s take a moment to look back at what was happening in Tower Hamlets in 2025. What was the Council up to? What were its memorable moments? Here’s the highlights of the first six ...