Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Harringay By-Election Candidates Respond to Harringay Online's Questions
It's been something of a tradition since the 2010 local elections for HoL to try and get behind the party literature and gain a little more insight into what kind of councillors candidates in local elections across Harringay might make.
In 2010, we made a ridiculous number of video interviews with candidates from all three Harringay wards.
In 2014 we co-organised Harringay's first hustings along with the Friends of Harringay Passage.
This year we sent all six candidates standing in the Harringay Ward by-election a set of four simple questions. The questions aren't rocket science, but by getting responses to a standard set of questions, I hope you'll get some sense of who the candidates are and how they differ in their approaches.
The responses are contained in the attached pdf.
- Attachments:
-
-
2016 By Election Responses.pdf, 118 KB
-
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
-
Thanks Hugh. This is very helpful and quite revealing.
-
Permalink Reply by matt on
-
Or you can come along to a locally organised hustings at North Harringay Primary school TONIGHT from 7:30pm, Falkland Rd N8 & ask your very own questions of the candidates directly.
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
My apologies to the Conservative candidate with whose name there was a transcript error. I've now corrected it and attached a correct pdf.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
Can you vote in local elections now?
-
Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
-
If only the Green Candidate(s) and others of all parties would take a leaf or two out of Caroline Lucas's just concluded 10-minute Bill in the Commons the future of PR and the lowering of the Voting Age to 16 would be much more assured. The Bill was defeated as expected, 81-74. This is the sort of twin reform that cannot be brought about in this jurisdiction unless it receives priority at the local level, i.e. from Ward councillor candidates on doorsteps over years and by some Damascene conversion of their local parties. (Actually I'm not certain which variety of PR Bashar/Basher Haddad practises in Damascus.) First past the post is an extremely primitive device for determining who gets their bums on seats for the next four or five years, either in a local council chamber or in the Commons. Of course if the English do not have the requisite level of expertise to deal with multiple counts on Election night or the day after, we could always outsource the count to much more experienced psephologists and ballot jugglers in Ireland, North and South. Just a kindly offer.
-
-
The Green Party views Proportional Representation as absolutely essential to local elections. In the 2014 Haringey Council elections, a full 33% of voters voted for parties which have zero representation on the Council. Not to mention that 61.9% of eligible voters didn't bother to turn out for these elections at all. When local people are so powerless to affect the results, how can we still describe this as democracy? PR is needed to provide a balanced council which functions better for everyone in the borough.
Unfortunately, this is not something we are able to deal with in a local by-election for one councillor. For some reason, we have not been able to identify any support for a change in the voting system among the 48 out of 57 Labour Councillors elected to a super-majority on the council despite having the backing of less than 18% of the electorate.
Jarelle as a single Green councillor can't bring in Proportional Representation overnight, but he can provide scrutiny and opposition with the backing of hundreds of Green Party members across Harringay and Haringey. I ask people to give their vote or lend their vote to the Green Party to kick-start some degree of change and end the complacent position of Labour councillors in Haringey.
-
-
Ronald, nobody expects Jarelle Francis or his party to bring in PR overnight or ever, but if the Greens are not advocating for such reforms in season and out of season how are we to believe that they really believe it? Caroline Lucas made the solid case for these two reforms in her 10-minute Bill this afternoon, but such enthusiasm should not be kept exclusively for occasional 10-minute bills in Westminster. That's not what politics or political reform is all about. The four questions put by HOL to Jarelle and his answers had more than enough scope to allow him mention voting reform in, say, half a sentence. Why indeed would the 48 out of 57 Labour Councillors show even a pretence of support for voting reform? Turkeys. Christmas. Sheep or goats to the slaughter. Eid. So where is the fresh Green rhetoric when they're given a chance to say what they've achieved or what they will have promoted at local level before the next outing in 2018? Lucas is an enthusiast and a hard worker, which is why she won Brighton and held it again last year. No doubt she will be leader or jobshare-leader again before September But enthusiasm and hard work shouldn't be left to a leader only. Local ward-level enthusiasm shouldn't be for what seems immediately politic on the doorsteps.
-
-
I'm pretty confident that the Green Party does talk about voting reform quite often, and it's even acknowledged by other parties: https://twitter.com/Dawn_Barnes/status/722856747304677376
We have prioritised pollution, traffic and housing here, because - as you say - this is what people are talking about on at a local ward and council level and we are keen to make sure these issues are represented. I'm sorry you think that this is an opportunity missed, but that doesn't mean that voting reform is forgotten and I'm glad that you have taken the chance to bring it up in this forum :)
I would encourage you to attend Make Votes Matter North London, who have been meeting in Muswell Hill: "Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month from 18:30 - 20:00. The venue is in Muswell Hill at the Friends Meeting House, Church Crescent, London N10 3NE." (http://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/north-london)
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
