Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Labour party local candidate selection meeting
The local Labour party are having their selection meeting on Sunday the 14th of September. Could I urge all local members to attend this meeting and help choose three good candidates and indeed put themselves forward if they can. There is a very high chance that the three people selected at this meeting will be representing us after May 2014.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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John, isn't there a chance that the meeting's full attendance will select itself as the 3-member slate?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I assume, John, that you're referring to Harringay ward. Although, of course HoL members live in many wards across Haringey; and in Islington and Hackney close-by.
I'm assuming also that you aren't a Labour member or you'd know that it's not possible for ward branch members to turn up and get nominated at selection meetings.
All potential candidates had first to be approved by an external panel. This process is supposed to weed out unsuitable people; though it seems to have failed completely.
Haringey ward branches then shortlist potential candidates from the approved list. Apart from Seven Sisters ward branch which met on the evening of 3 September, other Haringey branches met on 4 September.
To answer OAE's point, I understand at least in Seven Sisters branch only the three sitting councillors were shortlisted.
Wards will now meet in sequence from 11 September - in the order assessed as most winnable - to select their three candidates from the shortlist.
There are strict Party rules aimed at preventing abuses. Only fully paid-up branch members are entitled to vote at these meetings - in effect a "selectorate". Members must turn up and vote in person. There's a check on membership. They have to come on time and stay until the end of the meeting. There's a "freeze-date" some months ago, aimed at preventing people from joining late and trying to "pack" meetings. People must not take part who don't actually live at the address they give.
Some members of HoL will notice that the first date was the start of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana). In addition three wards are meeting on Yom Kippur - the Jewish Day of Atonement. These insensitive clashes were entirely avoidable and were fixed despite protests that they could exclude observant religious Jewish party members.
The excuse given was that for Yom Kippur at least there were no such party members in the three wards affected. However there is no way the party representative who gave this assurance could know this, as there is no record of members' religious affiliation. And in fact the assurance was inaccurate.
John, I have no idea who has been shortlisted for Harringay ward. As a Labour Party member for over forty years I always urge people to vote for Labour candidates who support and practice the values and principles of the Party and who will make effective councillors. I hope that at least one or two - if not all three of the candidates in your ward will meet that description.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Stan, I don't find it in the slightest bit "depressing" that the Labour Party has clear sensible rules aiming to prevent the manipulation of the selection process. (Although it is worrying when a very small number of members 'try it on'. E.g. claiming an address where they don't live, or after they've moved away to a different ward or constituency.)
How can voters judge candidates' values and principles? Tricky, especially given the stifling degree of party control over how councillors vote and even what they're allowed to say and write. (I gather this applies to Haringey's LibDems as well as Labour.)
I'm hoping that nearer the May elections HoL will repeat something similar to the last borough elections - giving local candidates an opportunity to appear in a short online video.
But in the next few months, when you know the names of all the parties' candidates in your ward, if you are genuinely doubtful about who to vote for, I suggest you contact them and ask to have a brief chat. Over the coming months there will be more than enough time for a candidate to get back to you. If they don't reply within a reasonable time, or it's some minion, cross 'em off your list. (Unless of course the minion gives an excellent reason. E.g. Death in the family. Temporarily abroad saving a rainforest.)
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor until May 2014.)
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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If they're 'temporarily abroad saving rainforests ' I'll vote for them.
Add to that (in no particular order),
- reduce university fees from 9000 back to a least 3000 pounds,
- introduce Tobin tax,
- scrap Trident,
- move the summer school holidays to start July 1st (still 6 weeks duration),
- no income tax up to £20,000,
- ban plastic toys that go 'beep, beep, beep',
- bring back reasonable rent controls,
- scrap the HS2 railway scheme (est £80 billion) and use some of this money on real cycling lane schemes,
- increase vat on luxury goods from 20 to 30%,
- introduce tax on global corporations based on sales made in the UK of their goods/services,
- massively invest in reversing the decline in bee populations (we need them for our food crops!) by paying more to enlist more farmers to put back the meadows that have been ripped up over the last 5 decades,
- back more schemes that encourage more kids from more disadvantaged backgrounds to go to the top universities or properly funded & paid apprenticeship schemes,
- scrap nuclear power as there is no way of dealing with the waste safely,
- boast funding of the building energy use reduction schemes (insulation & draft proofing) and micro energy solutions (eg. air source heat pumps but, there are other options),
- nationalise gas and electricity supply (privatisation hasn't benefitted consumers),
- speculation on essential commodities should be banned: the only people allowed to buy or sell contracts for essential commodities should be the companies buying these commodities to supply customers (lessens food cost fluctuations),
- no annual savings tax on savings of under £10,000
- bring in Mixed Member Proportional Representationas the voting system in the UK
And that's just for starters :)
These may not be local area issues but they do affect many households. Some of us vote the party not the individual. After all how many of us really know our councillors/MPs.
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You're half right, Stan. I was referring to the Labour Party's values and principles.
But also to those of individual candidates. I've no idea what "40-year indoctrination" you think I've had. Obviously it wasn't very efficient because I've always preferred finding things out, listening to different points of view and making up my own mind.
But let's get down to local practicalities. I've no idea of your politics. In a comment above you say you're not a party member. Perhaps you don't vote a party "ticket"? So maybe you simply want to know what sort of pigs are in the pokes to be offered by the different parties at the Borough elections next May?
I'm not going to suggest another website listing Labour's values. Nor explaining my own. Because the key question is your values - not mine. And the policies and programme you'd like to see your local councillors supporting.
If you or anyone else is interested and open-minded about this, and genuinely unsure about how to vote in May, my suggestion is to find out a bit more about the local candidates by talking to them. (As well as watching updated videos by Hugh and Liz if they make them.) From September to May, there's plenty of time. Talking person to person - or maybe in a small group - you're more likely to get the measure of a candidate. Incidentally, I don't mean them coming to your door with a clipboard and a fake survey.
Has a candidate actually got any values and principles? Some have none beyond their own ambitions and egos. A few would be hard pressed to recognise a principle if it was a rising bollard and had just taken the bottom out of their car. Some are little more than speak-the-party-leaflet machines. Including some party apparatchiks who might fail a Turing Test.
You may have more trouble identifying the smooth-as-silk-tie liars and con-people. Regretfully, over the years I've been taken in by a few of these.
But there are others - maybe more than you assume - who are decent, hard working, ethical, community minded, fair, tolerant unprejudiced etc .... you catch my drift. And you'll probably know them when you meet them.
As you point out, the issue of party control then rears its ugly handcuffs, gags, and blindfolds. So probe their past record. You might also ask them to take a simply test. Hands behind their back and fingers interlaced, by wiggling their thumbs can they detect a backbone?
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor until May 2014)
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Aw. Such flattery.
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I have a dream, Stan, that one day people will judge council candidates in a local ward election, by their values, passions, goals, beliefs, hard work and personal qualities. And not by the colour of their party label; nor the drivel in its leaflets with a photo of the Dear Leader.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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Let's not make the mistake of assuming that local Councillors are able to make much difference, shall we?
Without extensive support from the Haringey civil servants (who do the work, after all), no Councillor could successfully implement any spending, even the most minor, can they?
It's surely a delusion that the Councillors control the Council - they don't.
If you look at any of the council webcasts you'll see meetings chaired fairly by the mayor, attended by local people who can speak if they want to, where decisions are argued over by as many local councillors who care to turn up.
Who has the expertise and who is paid accordingly? Councillors need have no expertise, they needn't even speak english or be able to read, write or count - they are elected to represent local people, not because they are suitable people to direct a council. The local Councillor 'responsible' for 'spending' the huge budget does not need to have any financial qualifications or understanding whatsoever - they are 'advised' what to do. Would you hand them your cheque book?
Sitting next to the Mayor at these meetings is the quiet, unassuming person with the real power in Haringey - the Chief Exec - he is paid around £1000 per working day (more than that in some boroughs) and a whole bunch of his fellow directors are on more than £100k - if only high salaries meant good people banksters would be revered! How can any public servant accept such salaries when the median in the rest of the council is under £28k and the vast majority of his 3400 employees are paid much, much less?
If you were the Chief Exec or any of the other highly-paid executives in the council would you let local Councillors decide anything important? I wouldn't! I'd support them in their belief that they had power and try to enable them if I could spot any relevant value in their qualities, but I'd make sure that I'd thought of any 'initiatives' first, or was able to successfully block any against my interests.
One reason I'd cite is that Councillors come and go as quick as a wink- they get moved to a different role overnight on the whim of the Leader, get suspended, resign or whatever and every four years they can disappear permanently. Up until quite recently they were all doing it for expenses-only. Why invest anything is these transient, low-skilled people in a borough full of transient residents?
Another is that salary question again. How would your bosses feel if you were paid ten times more than them?
The exec could be forgiven for seeing themselves as custodians of their precious Haringey, protecting it for the short-term idiocy of the local bumpkins and their amateur representatives - after all, what do we know? Every time a Councillor or, better still, a party, is accused of incompetence or if the local gorge rises in the throat of the governed, the exec must be pleased to be reminded that they have all the power and none of the responsibility. They're not allowed by law to tell people why they did what they do or what they think about it!
If you look at all the 'big' projects in Haringey over the years you'll see that it's not only the objectors who get regularly defeated, the councilors are so hidebound by the mountain of complex expertise thrown at any decent spend that I guess they must be effectively powerless to decide on anything. Councillor must end up trying to make hollow political points that propagate the delusion that they were somehow instrumental in the matter they pronounce on.
Most development schemes are obvious, central government allocates a pot of local money or a grant suddenly becomes available, the exec cherry-picks the ones most likely to advance the exec's plans and then bring it to the attention of the appropriate cabinet member.
Sometimes Chief Execs overstep the mark - it must burn to be 'told off' by people you tower over - that must happen a lot. Who but the Chief exec, a professional who knows and understands the strengths and weaknesses of the team of highly-paid career professionals working under them and what they can and cannot accomplish, are best placed to direct the Haringey effort?
I've met quite a few local Councillors from all the parties in Haringey and I admire them - they are a decent, principled bunch and not one of them is doing it for the money. They all seem to genuinely care about politics, are grateful to the electorate and do their best in a non-party way to help. It's a rotten job if you ask me - the Chief Exec's domain makes even the slightest thing like swimming in treacle - anything at all they can accomplish is amazing. They're human of course, so not universally likeable
Ask yourself, is the track record of any local Councillor directly connected to the most important activities the council undertakes?
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Surely, Chris, you're thinking about a different Haringey Council? Or maybe this was some dream you had after a particularly nice dinner with very congenial company?
Or perhaps someone's script for a new TV sitcom?
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No errors of fact or import in what I wrote then, Alan?
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