Neil Wilby Media

After being, perhaps, the only prospective Member of Parliament in UK history to announce his candidacy to a crowd of seven people, directly after release from police custody following a dawn raid arrest and still wearing prison clothing, Raja Miah, a notorious, unemployed, Mossley-based conspiracy theorist, has, it appears, thrown in the towel after less than five months.

He was arrested by Greater Manchester Police on 9th February, 2023 on suspicion of a malicious communication offence and bailed with conditions. He denies wrongdoing.

The announcement on the same day that he was planning to stand in the Oldham West and Royton constituency was, to all intents and purposes, a futile attempt to distract from his latest brush with the law and maintain credibility with his dwindling band of supporters whom, very appositely, self-style as The Rabble (or Raja’s Rabble).

An exclusive article on the MP topic, published by Neil Wilby Media on 15th February, 2023, was an early and crushing blow: It set out why Bradford-born Miah had wrongly described himself as a ‘candidate’ rather than a ‘prospective candidate’ and he was forced into a humiliating climbdown (read the full article here).

That article also correctly forecast that Raja would never be on the same election ballot paper as the sitting MP in that constituency, Jim McMahon.

The Electoral Commission simply do not permit long-running, highly personalised, malicious vendettas to spill over into politics and taint the democratic process.

The belated realisation by Miah that, for him and any other Parliamentary candidate, answering highly significant public interest questions and submitting to scrutiny of one’s history and background, outside of a carefully sealed echo chamber, is an essential strand of campaigning to be a MP.

These two sets of neutrally framed questions, the product of many hours of research and interviews, put to Raja via Neil Wilby Media last year, are a case in point (read here and here).

Any sane prospective voter reading those questions – even without hearing the answers – would simply disregard the Mossley man as an even remotely credible candidate for public office, particularly in the austere halls of Westminster. Many would also question how he could possibly have the bare-faced cheek in putting himself forward in this way.

But the ill-starred publicity stunt enabled Raja Miah to continue to leech donations and subscriptions from the State benefits of his supporters whom, as can be seen from the picture beneath the headline of this article, largely comprise of the elderly, disabled, vulnerable, gullible or delusional.

So, job done for a few months in that regard and, on ample past evidence, he is already planning the next money-making ‘scam’. Believed to be putting up the de facto Leader of The Rabble, Saddleworth-based Gary Tarbuck, as a candidate in the Oldham East constituency. A renewed smear campaign against the sitting MP, Debbie Abrahams, is already in train.

Tarbuck’s recent background also bears little scrutiny (read more about him here) and, having unsuccessfully represented three different political entities in local elections in Oldham since 2021, he has zero chance of being elected in a general election.

But his name on the ballot paper will certainly add entertainment value, alongside the permanently erratic Saddleworth South councillor, Max Woodvine. Whom is expected to be the Conservative Party choice at the next general election, despite his routine involvement in controversy. More often than not, self-created (read more here).

UPDATE: Raja Miah did not exercise his Right of Reply in the conventional manner (via this link) but made a nebulous comment on Twitter to this effect: “Neither McMAHON’s militia nor his pet poodle will stop us in our quest. We are taking our town back. #JusticeIsComing”

The ‘pet poodle’ is a Rabble alternative to the more regular ‘attack dog’ jibe aimed at Neil Wilby and is a distraction from saying: ‘Yes, the journalist is right; I no longer sign off my public posts as ‘Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Oldham West and Royton’, as he has done since February, 2023.

It is not known whom Jim McMahon’s MP’s ‘militia’ might be? He just doesn’t look the army type and is, seemingly, very, very busy holding the Government to account as Shadow Minister for the Environment.

The mystery over which town is being ‘taken back’ and from whom remains. Could it be Mossley where Miah has lived since 2004, or Oldham where he is the highest profile professional beggar?

Miah’s new best friend, ‘The Ormskirk Vigilante’ (read more here) was, however, more forthright:

It is unclear why the Twitter hashtags #RajaMiah and #RajasRabble were blurred out, but the much more effective and widely known #Oldham and #OldhamHour were left intact.

What is clear, however is that Miah and Ponting are most definitely two of a kind.

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Wednesday 5th July, 2023 at 10h25

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Picture credit: Facebook – Recusant Nine

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