Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Cllr. Mike Hakata “… to step down from elected office”. Full statement:
The announcement will not trigger a by-election and residents in Hermitage and Gardens will be represented by Cllr Anna Lawton.
- Back-peddling on Net Zero
- Shelving of progress on climate
- On the side of motorists (New Labour's election pledge)
Tags for Forum Posts: Cabinet, Cabinet Member, Environment, Transport and Climate Action, Haringey Council, Mike Hakata
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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On the issue of it not triggering a by-election I assume that’s because of the full council election taking place on 7th May where the seat would be up for grabs again anyway.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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Clive, thanks for trying to keep track of these changes. But without a little more clarity from Mike Hakata himself, aren't we having to make guesses about who does and who doesn't call the shots? Luckily there is a bit of time for residents to find out more about the candidates for each ward; in preparation for choosing who among them is worth a walk to the polling station. The current fragmentation of parties also suggests that this May voters could have a little more power than in previous years. Negative power to identify the likely useless new candidates. ( I assume that many voters already know who has been a passenger for four years.) Mike Hakata who has been an active councillor has also been honest in resigning, rather than as some who turn up for the legal minimum of meetings - and simply draw the allowance.
Mike has also helpfully begun to describe the range of tasks which a good elected councillor is likely to take on. Which is far wider than - as an ex-councillor described to me: cutting ribbons and smiling.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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ALAN,
… aren't we having to make guesses about who does and who doesn't call the shots?
It's only my tentative guesswork, but my wild guess is that it is the Group Leader with their closest cronies who call the shots.
… who has been "a" passenger …
Surely you mean the plural?!
Too many in the Ruling Group fancy themselves as Parliamentarians if not Members of the real Cabinet. For them, this Borough is only a stepping stone to ambition on the national stage.
The most recent following this path were New Labour's Jogee & Strickland. In my view this explains the lack of action and the lack of attention to the needs of residents within the Borough boundary.
There is disappointment with New Labour at national level and this may translate into reduced electoral support at local level next May. This may not necessarily mean Labour support flows to other Parties. Normally-Labour supporters and normally supporters of other Parties, may choose to sit on their hands (a plague on all their houses).
A key metric will be voter turnout.
REFORM
In a properly functioning democracy, voter interest and voter turnout is actually desirable. In my view, this would be enhanced by two innovations: (a) Proportional Representation and (b) at the foot of the Ballot, below all the candidates, a required check-box, "none of the above". That might encourage Parties to take more care in selection. We need reform.
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It seems, Clive, that you've forgotten the time, during Britain's membership of the EU, when my old friend Narnov Theabav was planning to leave his temporarily rented home in Bristol and offer us his many talents.
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GETTING SERIOUS NOW, there have been a very few times when I've voted for only two of the three names on a local council ballot paper. I've never completely spoiled the paper. Nor yet have I taken the option to stay away from the vote as a sort of very quiet protest.
I've been trying to imagine circumstances when I'd want to actually vote negatively. So ticking a box marked: "None of the above" seems like it might feel a teensy bit satisfying. Equivalent perhaps to: Is this the pathetic best all you wretched parties can come up with?
Though having taken part in the elections I strongly suspect that hardly anybody in the local Party machines worries about low turnout provided all the parties votes are shrinking at the same rate.
If I detested all the names on a ballot paper so strongly don't I have some sort of responsibility to take some action? . I think back to everyone who struggled for the right to vote. To spoil my own ballot paper obviously and deliberately, what has gone so very very wrong? If a Trump and a Farage figure can be successful and persuades hundreds of thousands - even millions - isn't there some sort of sickness?
If Keir Starmer no longer sees and feels the dangers of climate change, what mental virus has taken hold? If the religion of greed and endless exploitation of the world's resources reigns unchallenged, what future for our society?Are we- as Jared Diamond once wrote - one more disastrous natural experiment like he described in Collapse?
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