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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Labour have been running Haringey for the best part of half a century and throughout that time have consistently refused to take responsibility for their own failings, blaming every mistake and foul-up on the government--especially if it was a Conservative one--and frequently refusing to acknowledge internal faults until some outside authority took charge. 

That is why beautiful Harringay is today cursed by a legacy of HMOs, weeds in the pavements, overgrown trees, traffic mismanagement, late night licences, betting shops, uncollected rubbish, rubbish and more rubbish and a punitive, excessive and expensive CPZ.  All of these are solely the responsibility of an out-of-control, self-obsessed and completely unopposed local Labour Party.

We say "unopposed" deliberately.  Although some more imaginative Labour voters finally lost patience in 2010, the resulting LibDem group have had little effect on Labour's performance.  Traffic is still a problem, speedbumps still damage house foundations, CPZ charges are still extortionate, late-night licences and betting shops still proliferate, unkempt trees still lift pavements and block light from homes.  At the same time the "strategy" groups multiply, go nowhere and pile up attendance bonuses for the committee chairs.  There is no change because Labour regard the LibDems as a 'lite' version of themselves and do not find it particularly embarrassing if a few council seats pass back and forth between them.

However, 50 years of extremist rhetoric and two generations of justifying all sorts of cheating on the grounds that they are in the service of Good against Evil have propagandised the local Labour Party into an absolute terror of any sort of Conservative gain--which presents voters with a unique opportunity.

Conservatives on the opposite benches would be a mortification for Labour and would send a message impossible to ignore.  The shockwave could even be the saviour of the local Labour party itself, perhaps forcing them to abandon their vicious internal power-struggles and concentrate on restructuring.

Personal:

We, Lydia, Sean and Massimo, are not hung up in political theorising and we do not forget that the Council is using tax-payers' money.  Borough-wide, this money should be used responsibly and to make the lives of Haringey residents easier, not more complicated and uncomfortable.  We believe that the purpose of a Council at the very least is to keep the streets clean, well-lit and safe; to keep the traffic flowing, to educate our children and take care of our elderly.  This is a basic requirement and any Council which does not do that, has broken down and needs repair or replacement.

What we want to do:

CPZ reform

Parking controls are clearly necessary on the Ladder, but why such punitive charges when we are already paying a heavy Council Tax?  Why are we, in practice, being fined for having visitors?  Fairer, cheaper–even free–parking control systems exist elsewhere in Britain.  They do not exist in Haringey quite simply because the Council has learned that holding our cars to ransom yields easy pickings.  The extra 'eco' charges fool no-one and are a tax on the least well off who cannot afford late model cars.

Borough of Haringey

Conservatives want to re-open the day centres for the elderly which were closed by Labour, and to focus on Children's Services.  Lydia Rivlin has a long record of calling Haringey to account over their murderous inefficiency in this sector.  Sean Rivers, a disability lawyer, is keen on coming to grips with provisions for the disabled in this borough and Massimo Rossini who was a council officer for many years, knows much about the inefficiency and wastefulness of this administration and how it can be rebuilt.

We all proudly support the Wards Corner Coalition.  The approach taken to regeneration there will be a template for the rest of the borough, so we have to get it right.  On our own patch, there is major construction proposed for the Arena.  Detailed information is still difficult to find (possibly because the Planning department learned lessons of obfuscation during the Wards Corner rebellion).  However, we worry that this "development", like others, will ignore local social unity, will be overcrowded, will force more vehicles on to surrounding roads, will create insoluble access problems and will lack adequate infrastructure back-up.  Without sympathetic planning we could be opening the door to all sorts of problems for the future of The Ladder.

Council meetings  

For several years now, there has been very little sensible deliberation in the Council.  A noisy student-politics Labour clique turn debates into rows, stifling dialogue.  Councillors are also paid far too much.  Except in some specialised areas, being a councillor should not be a career but a civic duty and the current squabbles within the Labour group are battles for resources, not for the people of Haringey.  We want to create an environment for sensible decisions to be made.  

Tell Labour that they have got things wrong.

Tell them in the most powerful way available:

vote Conservative. 

@tottenhamtories   @loveharringay  

loveharringay@gmail.com  www.loveharringay.co.uk

Tel: 020 8374 6305

Promoted by Justin Hinchcliffe, on behalf of Tottenham Conservatives,

both of 178 Walpole Road, LONDON N17 6BW Tel: 020 8374 6305.

 

Tags for Forum Posts: 2014 elections

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Replies to This Discussion

You forgot the fib about Schools. In the leaflet from Haringey Conservatives I received this morning it was stated that our Schools are failing our young people. That's not true. We have amazing schools in Haringey, our young people are achieving higher than ever.

What fib?  Sharon, wishing things were better doesn't make them better. 

Sure, many schools are improving, but that is only because they started out so low down, going up was the only available direction -- and generally speaking that has required some pretty vigorous government interference as well.

6 months ago, West Green Primary School was put in special measures, are you trying to tell me that's not failing our kids?  If I had a child at WHPS, I'd be spitting tacks.  And it's not the only school in trouble.  OFSTED reports for Tottenham schools are bumping along in the "requires improvement" to "good" categories.  I have more ambition than that for the children in my borough.  This is their real lives we are talking about, not some theoretical socialist paradise.  Why aren't you up in arms that the OFSTED reports aren't ranging between "good" and "outstanding"?


Glad, though, that you read the leaflet.

Lydia Rivlin: Education-junkie and Conservative Candidate for Harringay

Because I think that Gove should take his grubby hands off of our Schools, stop making them jump through hoops and narrowing the goal posts. I have never judged my kids schools by league tables or ofsted reports but by talking to staff and parents and checking out the school for myself. The most important thing is a happy learning environment. Recent OFSTED changes are making it almost impossible for schools to tick all of the boxes, the 'failure' may be nothing to do with how well the kids do but to do with data training for example or lack of enough Governors. I was thinking more though about our secondary schools which or good or excellent. I wouldn't need to see a report to know this. Have you visited any Haringey Schools btw, lydia?

Forget that they're schools for a minute and think of them as just a function of government. They require real-estate in prime locations. Anyone who doesn't see that this is a sell off of school land (look at the leases those companies are getting) is not seeing the full picture "won't someone think of the children".

Exactly.

Sharon, are you thinking with your own brain or with some socialist manifesto being pumped into you by the crowd with which you associate?

I am asking you this only because you start off your message with a stream of cut-and-paste clichés -- the sort of thing I used to tell my pupils to avoid because they are sure signs that whoever is parrotting them is just pulling stuff out of drawers.  "making them jump thrugh hoops" "narrowing the goal posts" (BOTH at the same time!).

No Sharon, the most important thing is NOT a *happy* learning environment.  It is a learning environment.  The most important thing is that children are taught how to deal with the big bad adult world where literacy and numeracy guarantee survival.  The happiest childhood in the world, blissfully spent messing about with play-dough or truanting because of inadequate supervision, will not make up for an adulthood of living in mouldy bedsits because you haven't learned to read.

Of course, it is easier to learn if you do not feel threatened, if you have the books, and if water isn't dribbling through the roof on to your desk.  And good teachers are good teachers.  That is, they make their subject interesting and invigorating for the children.  So the children are happy -- as a by-product.  But that is not a goal, Sharon.  Education is the goal.

And for the record, I would regard league tables as supremely important when finding an educational establishment for my own children.

Lydia Rivlin: believer in anything that works for a good education, and Conservative Candidate for Harringay

money per head for pupils in Haringey is still one of the lowest?

No, THIS government brought in fair funding for Haringey Schools -  Coalition colleague Lynne Featherstone and the Conservatives'  Lord Hill, the then schools minister, are to be thanked. The PP has also made a huge difference to many schools in socially deprived wards in the East of the Borough. Justin Hinchcliffe-candidate for Seven Sisters, and a governor at Tottenham's largest primary school.

Lynne Featherstone had been campaigning for that since well before 2010.

Featherstone 'campaigns' for anything that might win a vote, but actions speak louder than words. She has consistently voted for Tory policies, regardless of previous pledges and promises

Justin, are you still avoiding the issue of handing over our schools to Tory supporting millionaires who are answerable only to Michael Gove, the most ignorant and destructive Education Secretary there has ever been?

"money per head for pupils in Haringey is still one of the lowest?"

I'm going to check that one, C-hemp.  If it is, I am going to try to see why. I'm not so sure, though -- although I don't you are so sure either, considering the question mark.

Do you think that Haringey is being uniquely victimised?

Lydia Rivlin: Conservative Candidate for Harringay

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