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Writer's pictureMichael Edwards

Mo Munir's year as Lord Mayor

Speech nominating co-Councillor Mo Munir for Deputy Lord Mayor.  

Chair,  

I wish to nominate Mo for the post of Deputy Lord Mayor, following his successful year as Lord Mayor.  

It is clear that Mo has grown into the role, as anyone watching the TV coverage of him - dancing at the celebration of the Queen’s 80th birthday - will appreciate.

Mo has of course met a lot of people in his year, and says the most significant learning experience is appreciating the range of organisations doing work for the city and the people of the city.  

And for me, there’s been some special opportunities to support Mo.

Such as the world-wide conference of the Anglican Church when Mo and I, got together with John Pennington, to write a speech on Nottingham’s part in the history of the development of the Christian movement.  We cited Thomas Cranmer, William Carey, William Booth and Mary Potter, but stumped the conference by saying that Nottingham was the home of a most famous man of the cloth.  Who is of course - Friar Tuck.  Just another example of Proud of Nottingham.  

Then there was our holiday Pakistan in August.  

It’s always good to see another place alongside someone who knows it - or so we thought.  In the capital Lahore, Mo made a point of wanting to show us some special gardens - the Shalamar Gardens - and our party set off in 2 cars.  We struggled to find the gardens and you just knew something had gone wrong when in the slow moving traffic, the cars met each other travelling in opposite directions.  We finally arrived - the gardens were closed.  

We were pleased to make three official visits during the trip, including to the Governor of the Punjab and the Registrar General of Pakistan.  

We also visited Bahawal Nagar, Mo’s home town and then Bala Arain, his home village - all thriving because of the fantastic canal system introduced by the British.  Hoorah! 

On the way, we stopped at Okara, the town where Mo ran his bus company.  In those days Mo used a monkey to look after the luggage on the roof.  You understand, this was in the days before you could issue instant penalty notices for taking someone’s bag.  

Some snap local elections were called and Mo’s brother stood.  Noticeable that election day was a public holiday!  

The most beautiful part we visited was the Kunhar River Valley bordering Kashmir, which we reached travelling through Balacot.  Balacot was to be the town at the epicentre of the earthquake in November, and it has been flattened.  

My Mum’s holiday photos were used by the BBC during the early reports because so little was known about the area.  

And I know it’s been particularly important to Mo to be able to raise money for the stricken area in his Mayor’s appeal - the latest example of which is our colleague - Peter Scoffings running the London Marathon to raise £800.  

This matter is near to Mo’s heart and is part of the reason he his seeking to serve again as Deputy Lord Mayor and Lord Mayor, the Council and next year - the voters - willing.  

Congratulations again on your year in office.  And good luck in the year ahead. 

[Last reviewed on 2006-05-11]

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