Lutfur Rahman is the latest example in a long line of crooks and chancers
Local government has long been the weakest link in the country’s democratic infrastructure. The verdict that Lutfur Rahman, the one-time mayor of Tower Hamlets, was guilty of corrupt and illegal practices represents only the latest episode in a long line of crooks and chancers, of whom T Dan Smith, the corrupt leader of Newcastle upon Tyne in the 1960s, was the flashiest and most audacious.