After filming for nearly a year, having to rehash much of the old mumbo jumbo written about me and reading incessantly from the cesspits of the blogosphere – I am not surprised at all that Andrew Gilligan has become my biggest fan.  ‘I feel like I’ve known him for ages’ says Andrew and ‘I sort of liked him, actually’.

Well Andrew I am touched, but you still have to queue in an orderly fashion mate and display some ‘Britishness’ in your character. One of those qualities would also be to not turn up uninvited to an invitation only event. You see old chap, it puts the host in an awkward position having to turn you away at the door in front of your ‘friends in the Bengali media’ and it belittles you in their eyes. It was also noticeable how none of your ‘friends in the Bengali media’ came to your aid!

During this encounter, Andrew was keen to tell me that he had much more on me and that he wanted to talk to me there and then. After telling him that I was busy and if he waited I would see him, Andrew agreed to call me after trying the ‘lamb chops’ at Needos. Alas no call at all – stood up on the very first date!

It would appear the news about me was to come another day – Andrew promised that he would offer a fair chance for me to respond, an honourable gesture. I know what you’re all thinking… but everyone deserves a second chance, right?

Andrew was also keen for me to read the entire transcript of his interview with Council leader Luthfur Rahman – I did, but I am not sure at what point the excitement was supposed to have kicked in?

Yes Andrew, I too want to speak with you person to person, no hidden agenda (or camera) and see if you are a man of reason, fairness and balance or if the rumours are true.

As for releasing a record, I totally agree we should release a single together but not for Eid mate, don’t want you to accuse me of entryism against you. I’ll ask our readers here to suggest a song title and perhaps even the lyrics, let me know what takes your fancy.

You wanted to know what I thought of your year long project – well I was so impressed that I have created a ‘suggestion’ box dedicated to you, as you say for all your allegations Andrew, it’s not “conclusive” only “suggestive”. You provided no evidence for your allegations, relying instead on sensationalist presentation techniques and sinister mood music.

Andrew makes the same old allegations in CiF today but slips up, he says ‘Perhaps the unequivocal statement by the local Labour MP, Jim Fitzpatrick’ and provides a link to his Telegraph article which gives us this ‘unequivocal’ quote:

“They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level”

You see for something to be unequivocal, one would have to remove the qualifying word ‘almost’ before the statement. Jim’s no fool. However, look at another quote that Andrew provided us with from Mr Fitzpatrick:

“suggestion is that [the IFE] have councillors, candidates, standing for different parties, in different parts of the country, and that [the IFE] encourage their members to vote for those candidates regardless of which political party they are representing in the ballot box, because what they want, are IFE people winning elections”

Suggestion, that’s right – not unequivocal! This tactic being used by a man who is calling for honesty? Oh dear Andrew, caught with your pants down! I hope when we meet, you will bring the unequivocal proof with you and some honesty.

Can I also congratulate you for getting 6 people to speak against IFE from one political party from Bangladesh and ‘linked’ to both the Brick Lane Mosque and Bangladesh Welfare Association – stroke of genius.