Neil Wilby Media

On 6th August, 2023, an article headlined ‘Ignore them and hopefully they will all go away’ was published by Neil Wilby Media (read in full here). It was a sharply pointed piece, aimed directly at the Labour administration that has run Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council for the past twelve years or so.

Its spikiness, borne of frustration at the ineptitude of those running that same local authority and allowing an unemployed, Tameside-based conspiracy theorist to dominate the political agenda in a neighbouring borough, can best be summarised in these concluding paragraphs of that article:

“There has to be a change of plan by those running Oldham Council and a much sharper focus upon tackling the darker corners of Oldham’s (and Greater Manchester’s) internet and confronting head-on the routine hate, division and libellous smears.

“In 2014, Parliament gave councils and other public authorities, including the police, very specific powers to do just that. It is a travesty that injunction court proceedings under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Policing and Crime Act were not filed and served on Raja Miah and key members of his support group.

“For Cllr Arooj Shah, re-elected as Leader of Oldham Council for a second term in May, 2023, and one very regularly targeted by Miah and The Rabble, this is the right time to review the Labour strategy, leverage the collective audience her fellow elected Members, and other Party activists or supporters, enjoy and drown the Recusant Nine negativity both in the council chamber and on social media.

“In the case of the departing Chief Executive, Harry Catherall, and Borough Solicitor, Paul Entwistle, also both regular Recusant Nine targets, their parting gift to Oldham Council could be retaining specialist leading counsel to guide injunction proceedings against Raja Miah and others to a successful conclusion.”

The ongoing Council ‘plan’ was summed up in the headline: ‘Ignore them and hopefully they will all go away’.

Bradford-born Raja Miah is, of course, the notorious conspiracy theorist in question and about whom much has been written elsewhere on this website. The Rabble (or Raja’s Rabble) is his support group. Miah is pictured above with de facto Rabble leader, Gary Tarbuck, a perennially failed local election candidate and well-known political axe-grinder (read more here).

Fast forward six weeks and it seems that the Neil Wilby Media article has, belatedly, prodded Oldham Council into action: In a ‘press release’ posted on his subscriber-only Recusant Nine Telegram channel on Friday 15th September, 2023, Miah discloses that Borough Solicitor’s office has put him on notice of injunction proceedings.

“Please see below communication that I have sent to ALEXANDER BOUGATEF, Interim Assistant Borough Solicitor at Oldham Council, in response to his attempts to censor freedom of expression and interfere in free and fair elections. I urge all of you that are able to do so to attend the rally tomorrow afternoon at 1pm in Oldham town centre.

“It seems that not only must we protect our children, we must also protect the very foundations of which our democratic nation is built on.

“Dear Mr Bougatef
I note confirmation that YOU have instructed Browne Jacobson to attempt to secure an injunction against me. Irrespective of your viewpoint, I am clear that Oldham Council’s actions are a violation of Article 10 of the Human Rights Act and also Protocol 1, Article 3:

“Right to free elections.
As this is an extremely serious matter, and is likely to escalate as a matter of public interest, can you please confirm if you have taken this action of our own volition without sign off from the Borough Solicitor or the Chief Executive? I look forward to confirmation from you as to who else is involved in allocating vast sums of Oldham Council Tax Payers’ funds on what is a clear Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP), a violation of the Human Rights Act and an attempt to interfere in free and fair elections.

“It is my position that Oldham Council are also attempting to censor a campaign seeking government intervention in taking over the running of Oldham (as in Liverpool) and prevent me from questioning council decision making and campaigning against corruption, censorship and the cover up of the gang rape of children. Specifically, I believe your actions are motivated by an attempt to;

1. shut down the campaign to secure a Public Inquiry into the failure of Oldham Council and its partners to protect children from the Rape Gangs, something for which your at the time Council leader has already publicly apologised for and GMP since launched Operation Sherwood in response to
2. protect Labour Party politicians and interfere in a campaign to remove from power Labour Party politicians that have been exposed for their links with convicted criminals
3. interfere in lawful campaigning in the lead up to the 2024 local elections where the Labour Party are at risk of losing power
4. obstruct free and fair elections
5. inhibit my campaign to remove Jim McMahon in the next General Election where I am a declared candidate

If I have not heard from you by 5pm Tuesday 19th September clarifying who else is involved in approval of this action, I will have no alternative other than to start by reporting both yourself and the Borough Solicitor to the SRA. If required, I will also commence immediate legal action against Oldham Council to prevent it from interfering in the May 2024 local elections and the autumn 2024 General Election.

“I look forward to sharing with the Council Tax payers’ of my town how you are attempting to take out an injunction against me and attempting to prove harassment for actions such as;
– describing unspecified individual(s) as ‘samosa nibbler’
– objecting to the scruffily attired appearance of elected representatives at formal Council meetings
– questioning the competency of Council Officers
– educating people how to decipher Council documents, submit public questions and freedom of information requests
– referencing as paedophiles the former Oldham councillor ROD BLYTH and former Oldham Council employee and ringleader of the Rochdale Grooming Gang SHABIR AHMED. Both have been convicted as child sex offenders and both, until I exposed them, had their convictions and/or connections with Oldham Council hidden

“Be in no doubt whatsoever of my position, the course of conduct which Oldham Council has now embarked is an attack on the very democratic foundations on which our nation is built upon. You will not succeed. I do not fear you. Despite your actions, you will not stop our lawful campaigning to remove Labour from power and force direct government intervention in Oldham. At the ballot box there will be a reckoning. Justice is coming. We, the people of Oldham, are taking our town back.

“Yours Sincerely
Raja Miah MBE
Prospective Parliamentary Candidate
Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton”

Curiously, the prospective Member of Parliament has not released the letter sent to him by the Council lawyer which would have given matters a more rounded perspective.

The rally to which Miah refers is a gathering organised by Parents Against Grooming UK (PAGUK) that took place in Oldham town centre on Saturday 16th September, 2023.

PAGUK is probably best known for its support of the worldwide #JusticeForEllie campaign, of which Miah and prominent members of his Rabble were also advocates. In the event, Eleanor Williams (Ellie) proved to be a liar and a fantasist at the end of a ten week trial at Preston Crown Court, and is presently serving a lengthy prison sentence after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice. Largely based on false allegations that she had been groomed, trafficked and raped in her home town of Barrow-in-Furness.

The rally, from a film of the event taken by former Britain First leading light, John Lawrence, appears to show between 30 and 50 people in attendance, including visitors from Hull, Manchester and Rochdale at the very least (watch here). Which tends to give a lie to the proposition that his friend, Raja Miah, speaks for ‘the people of Oldham’. Or, that such paltry numbers are a sufficient force to ‘take our town back’.

As for the Miah ‘press release’, it is doubtful that Browne Jacobson LLP, a leading UK & Ireland law firm with offices in Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Exeter, London, Manchester and Nottingham will be fazed by the wannabe MP’s one-sided rant, and threats, in his missive to Mr Bougatef.

They offer services across a number of key UK and international markets: corporates, education, government, health, financial services & insurance. Taking on an unrepresented opponent in injunction proceedings will seem like a walk in the park.

Raja Miah’s new best friend and current darling of The Rabble, widely known as ‘The Ormskirk Vigilante’, will advise him appropriately, no doubt: Paul Ponting is currently the subject of two injunctions, one permanent and one interim. The ASB injunction obtained by his ‘home’ police force, Lancashire Constabulary, in March, 2020, left him with bills of over £35,000 to cover his own and the police’s legal costs (read more here). If the interim injunction, brought in conjunction with harassment proceedings, is made permanent at a trial in Manchester County Court later this year, or early next year, he may well face another hefty costs bill.

UPDATE: The prospective MP has made at least two angry (and defamatory) posts on his Recusant Nine social media channels, describing this article as an ‘attack’ on him and those pressing for a public inquiry into historic child sexual exploitation failures in Oldham.

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

Page last updated: Tuesday 19th September, 2023 at 07h35

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