Dear readers — remember the other week when we published that piece about Oldham being ungovernable, and all the petrol bombings? Well, since then, things for Oldham Reform have only gotten worse.
Keen Mill readers will know all about Raja Miah, online agitator and long-time puppeteer for the Oldham branch of the party. Over the last week, not only has he cut his puppet-string ties, but the party's local leader has abandoned ship, their own supporters are calling them “treacherous snakes” on Facebook, and a Reform councillor has personally rang Miah up to call him a “twat”. What’s gone wrong now?
Our reporter, Alec, was at the town’s council chamber last night to witness the culmination of a strange few days, even by Oldham’s standards.
But before we get into that we want to remind you to get your tickets for the next of our popular talks. This time we’re asking the question: did Manchester University do the right thing in removing 2000-year-old Egyptian mummy Asru from its displays? Expect disagreement and impassioned debate from the expert panel and audience at Manchester University on Thursday 24th September. Grab your tickets now.
And, finally, before we begin — it’s Thursday, which means we’re dropping the latest episode of The Run of The Mill, our weekly podcast. Yesterday, Jack and Ophira spent the whole day marching around Manchester, asking unsuspecting members of the public what they do, and how much they earn. In today’s episode, they talk taboos around money in Manchester, plus give the details on when they saw Gary Neville in the flesh on Tuesday, and what he had to say about affordable housing, development in Manchester, and of course, VAR. You can listen to that via your podcast provider here, or on Spotify using the link below.
And by the way — if any Millers want to be featured in our upcoming money edition, and are happy to put a name and a face behind their income, please get in touch with us here! Ok, now the Oldham article...
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The Oldham saga continues — and Reform falls apart
The Mill has said it before — but follow almost any major political story in Oldham of recent years, and you can trace it back to one of Raja Miah’s “transmissions”. This is the man that has engineered the downfall of numerous council leaders – and of course waged war with The Mill itself – all through his three blogs: Recusant Nine, The Forsaken, and Red Wall & the Rabble.
In recent years, Miah has been the guiding hand of Reform in Oldham. He says he “professionalised” them; various Oldham councillors call him their “puppetmaster”. Now the strings seem to have been cut.
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