hello good evening and assalam alikum
everybody thank you very much for being
here this evening I'd just like to give
a brief introduction of myself before
going on to speak about the issues that
face Brent and Harrow residents and
these issues face all
londoners and also I'll be talking about
why next year's maral election is very
important now many of you here know me
quite well but for those of you who
don't I was born in Brent I was educated
in Brent and I was bought up here and I
worked here in
Brent and I was born to a Muslim family
who have instilled in me hardworking
Relentless work ethic and
also they've given me strong values and
these two elements have been key to my
upbringing and they've seen me through
some very challenging times in my life
um I've always been inclined towards
helping people and that's possibly why I
chose to study a career medicine however
that all changed when I was 17 years old
and I became incredibly ill and uh my
whole life perspective changed and I
decided to study politics instead and I
graduated at International politics in
2009 since 2014 I've been involved more
in Grassroots campaigns on various
issues and uh I've been writing my own
blog as well on political matters and I
became involved with George Galloway's
campaign earlier this year in
summer and I've traveled all across
London and I've spoken to various people
from all sections of the
community and they've all got the same
concerns that we have here in Brent and
Harrow and the main concern that always
keeps coming up the biggest issue is
housing specifically social and
affordable housing now many of the
housing developments in Brent and in
Harrow are luxury apartments which are
out of the reach of most ordinary
londoners most people simply cannot
afford them and I know there's people
here tonight who've uh spoken to the
council about many issues but the
council just seems disengaged and
doesn't want to you know address those
issues adequately they don't talk to
people they don't consult them properly
and they just do whatever they want to
do and they think that people don't have
a choice but in this may election we do
have a
choice uh I know there's people here
who' run campaigns on local issues like
parking there's been a big problem about
the closure of the libraries in Brent
and the council has done nothing to
resolve those
issues we were in walam store with
George earlier on uh earlier on this
month actually and uh we came across
this demonstration where many labor
members were taking part and they were
frustrated with the labor
Council and uh they always said the same
thing that the labor council is not
paying attention to our needs and
they're just riding rough shot over any
demands that they they have and they're
not listening to any of the concerns of
the
people now this kind of
disengagement and this kind of uh apathy
with local communities will be actively
discouraged in a London for all so we
won't stand for that if George becomes
mayor this will not be
acceptable and
uh now there's a great deal of anxiety
among people about the state of the NHS
about the police and the fire brigade
and other key essential services that
are facing severe cuts and uh we were in
wilon Market earlier on this week and uh
we spoke to this lady who works for the
probation service just across the road
from there and she was telling me how
the cuts have taken such a toll on the
probation service that the reoffender
rate in Brad has absolutely
skyrocketed now that's not good for
anyone and the NHS is in such a severely
bad State at the moment that my illness
would have cost me my life if it
happened today it would have cost me my
life I would not have made it because
there's not a single accident and
emergency unit in the whole of Brent and
that is unacceptable we shouldn't have
to accept it and the late and great Tony
Ben once said if you've got the money to
kill people you've got the money to help
people now our government seems to have
plenty of money to go around and bail
out Bankers it's got plenty of money to
go around and launch new Wars and launch
new air strikes in yet another country
but whenever it comes to the key
essential Public Services they always
say oh it's a austerity we've got
austerity we can't help out we don't
have the
funds and these problems are just going
to multiply and multiply and it's going
to get worse and
worse and we we need to make sure
that these key Public Services get the
funding they need they're not
luxury uh optional extras these are
Necessities we must have them we can't
live without them we can't do without
them it's not just an extra that we have
and uh the government needs to know
that um the
ideological ideologically motivated
slashing of Public Services is what it
what this is it's not austerity they've
got plenty of money they're just doing
it on ideological basis they're
dismantling the state help for people
and that's what they're doing and we
will not tolerate this we will challenge
this in a London for
all now another issue of great concern
at this moment in time is uh the rising
trend of islamophobia and anti-muslim
hate attacks and I'm ashamed to say that
some attacks have taken place in
Brent which um you know is a real
concern for myself and many of you here
this evening
racism cannot be tolerated in any shape
or form whether that's islamophobia or
whether that's anti-Semitism or any
other kind we will not tolerate that and
uh we were in uh Tottenham earlier this
year in
August and we came across uh leaders of
the black community who were protesting
against police brutality and
institutional racism in the
police and some of the stories and
accounts that I heard that day were
truly harrowing and
shocking um and many of ended with the
deaths of innocent people people who
often had mental health
issues uh people who had physical
disabilities these people were shot down
simply because of the color of their
skin they weren't given a fair
chance um this is not acceptable and no
no one should have to live through that
these people are still waiting decades
later for
justice and in a London for
all we will give them Justice and we
will find the perpetrators of these
primes now I know there are many people
here today from uh the private higher
trade and uh they have huge concerns
about the way that tfl is dealing with
them and I'm sure George will be
addressing those later on this evening
but I'm going to turn now towards uh the
importance of next May's maral
election and I'd like to say this that
in my many conversations with people
people from all walks of life across
London one theme has been consistent and
it's been
recurring and people are sick and
tired people are sick and tired of the
disillusionment that they face the
apathy that they face from local
councils and from local government they
don't feel that there's any hope left
and that is why we need to make them
come and get engaged with this campaign
be interested in this campaign and
that's my goal over the next 5 months
I'm going to get as many people who are
disinterested and disengaged with
politics interested and engaged with
politics re-engaged with this campaign
in
particular
so there are lots of issues for
londoners many of
them the mayor of London can't do
anything about specifically but it's
about getting someone like George
Galloway in power at the top and
changing the whole perspective of
government and showing people how it
should be done this will put pressure on
local councils and other institutions to
change their attitude and change their
behavior because I believe that
londoners are fed up of paying for the
crimes of the bankers with austerity
londoners are fed up of being treated
like doormats londoners are fed up of
not having their voices heard in the
corridors of power and londoners are fed
up of being treated as some kind of
ballot F in safe seats where they their
opinions don't matter it's just one
party owns that area and that's it
that's the end of that we're not going
to hear any more of that I think London
and londoners deserve
better and that's where George Galloway
comes in uh when I met George Galloway
and I spent time with him in his
campaign he showed me that politics is
not a job it's not a career path it's
not a stepping stone for greater wealth
or for greater Fame it's a public
service and I've never met a politician
who's such a towering figure the world
over and such a respected figure the
world over but he's so kind he's so
humble he's so personable and so
approachable someone who's ever ready
and ever willing to help people in need
ever ready and ever willing to fight for
those and be the voice of those who are
voiceless ever ready and ever willing to
fight for the working classes the disen
the disenfranchised and the
oppressed um now I understand there may
be some of you here who are Labour party
supporters and feel affinity and loyalty
towards the labor party but let me say
this to you George Galloway is not just
labor he's real labor he's more
labor George Galloway is more labor than
the labor candidate himself in fact he's
more labor than most of Jeremy corin's
Shadow cabinet and that's a
[Applause]
fact now I believe that George Galloway
is the clearest anti-austerity candidate
in this
election he's also the most principled
candidate in this election and I firmly
believe he's the only candidate who will
be the voice of the voiceless in the
city hall just like he's been the voice
of the voiceless both in and out of
parliament for
decades and that's why it's important
that we get him elected that's why I
believe that londoners should and will
support George Galloway for mayor of
London and that's why Brent and Harrow
should and will support George Galloway
for mayor of
London and that's why I'm proud to stand
alongside him in this candidacy that's
why I'm proud to fight for a London for
all alongside George Galloway this
evening thank you very much bra