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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Anyone know if the Green Party candidates for councillor elections coming up in a little over 2 months time have been announced?

Tags for Forum Posts: 2014 elections

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I'm much less inclined to be swayed by party politics at local elections and prefer to take account of the person and how I believe they will do the job.

Despite the kicking and screaming we experienced from some politicians locally, this was the whole point of my taking the time to scratch the surface of the candidates in 2010 in a completely non-party political way. Although some people have said they were grateful for the insight it offered, I'm not convinced that it was very successful and I'm trying to decide what, if anything, to do this time around.

As well as the online methods, I did have discussions last time round about a local hustings. The possibility has come up again this year........

I thought the videos you did were very useful Hugh.

It would be good to know what each of the current councillors;

  • feel they've achieved for their community over the last 4 years,
  • what committees they've sat on,
  • what they've enjoyed about being a councillor and obviously,
  • what they see as the issues for our area going forward.

But how that's communicated effectively to voters is an important point ...

This is precisely why I have offered some friendly practical suggestions to a former LibDem Haringey councillor who has the extremely bad luck to share the same unusual name as a member of our right-wing Neocon government.

I'm getting a lot of criticism for this. So can I please explain to everyone that the Lynne Featherstone who has been an enthusiastic supporter and unashamed apologist for the worst excesses of the LibCon Coalition in the Westminster Government is a completely different Lynne Featherstone  to the caring, grass-roots community activist in Haringey.

Oh dear, we have drunk deep of the LibCon KoolAid.

As many people who have seen Featherstone and the Libs work locally have seen the modus operandi is v similar. They will promise the earth, jump on any campaign which looks as if it will succeed — and call it their own.

Pinkham Way is good example. Any victories are down to the hard work and dedication of the volunteers of Pinkham Way Alliance, but stage a few photo opportunities and write a few blogs and suddenly success is due to a coaliation of PWA and LibLiars.

Where were our Lib Dem Councillors in May 2010 when the council first tried sneaking this proposal past residents via changes to the Borough's 'Core Strategy'? Silent. They either didn't notice, which makes them incompetent, or didn't care, which makes their subsequent bandwagon jumping even more cynical.

Nationally Featherstone is doing the same with 'her' campaign to stop FGM. Puhlease Haringey! Wake up and smell the bullshit. What Featherstone cares most about is her next photo opportunity.

JP I understand the ideological (and sometimes tribal) affiliations that many of us have to national party politics and politicking, but again I stress that, for me, there is a need reframe the way we think locally. 

In Haringey, in 2014, in part because of these national affiliations, it's very unlikely that we'll see the semi-permenant Labour majority over-turned. So personally, I'll be looking at what I think each candidate might offer as a jobbing local councillor looking out for the interests of the ward they represent, the neighbourhood of which it is part and the borough in which it is located.

Personally, I'll be particularly unimpressed by negative campaigning and overblown claims of parts played in successes over the past four years. I'll be paying much less attention to party affiliation than I will to my perception of a candidate's potential efficacy.

Ah, but that's where you are wrong. I have no party affiliations, tribal or otherwise, and have in fact voted for pretty much all of them at some time or another, including Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP.

I also believe a semi permanent majority of any persuasion is unhealthy and don't particularly like the simplistic us or them soundbites of first past the post electoral systems.

But when it comes to the LIbLiars, for me the turning point was some a particularly divisive issue. Labour had a clear policy with which I agreed, the Tories had a clear policy with which I disagreed but I respected their position and honesty of their campaigning. The LibLiar position depended on the position of the person the councillor/activist was talking to at any given moment

That said, or perhaps I should say vented, Hugh I agree with much of what you say about the need for councillors looking out for residents, not a party machine or with an eye to selection for a Westminster seat. Sadly I suspect there will be more of the latter than  the former, but anything that shakes up the current status quo has to be a good thing

I agree that a semi-permenant majority of any colour is unhealthy, but this is what the local electorate is returning, so that's what we gotta live with.

As to your personal affiliations, JP, whilst it may be that some people would make assumptions about your affiliations from your previous post, I drew no such conclusions. If you reread my last comment, you'll note that my phrasing is "affiliations that many of us have to national party politics and politicking". I quite intentionally avoided writing "affiliations that many of us have to national parties and their policies".

Playing devils advocate I feel anyone who commits time to an election, on top of their regular commitments, shows a sense of service to community and to democracy, I understand your frustration, but it does mean that each election, the DNA of local politics is richer, the greatest disappointment is an elected politician that doesn't meld with the community from day to day, varying their experience, who knows, you don't know if they wrote a reference commending a Turkish lady desperately applying for British Citizenship, that doesn't go on a banner. I know that running in the last election Harringay informed me, you don't have to be elected to bring about change, a lot of what is great about living in Harringay is community led, I only hope the council takes the lead and supports this effort.

I wasn't targeting you, Matt!

There has not yet been a formal announcement, but I am one of them! I moved to the ladder in 2011 when my partner ( now wife :-) and I bought a house on Beresford Road, so I don't really know what happened with the Greens before then. I used to live in Westminster, where I stood for the Green Party in the last two general elections. Most of my spare time at the moment is spent renovating the house so I can't say that I have been heavily involved with the local community so far, but I can promise that I am here to stay and will be working hard over the next four years to become a credible candidate in 2018

Hi Tristan, are you saying that you are standing as a candidate in 2014?

Yes, I am :-)

I actually agree with Hugh about what makes a good candidate. I won't be knocking on doors just yet, as I am still relatively new to the area and have a lot to learn. Give it four more years, though, and I would hope to have a decent chance of representing this ward.

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