Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Councillor Stanton Sent into Wilderness by Local Labour Group
The Labour whip was withdrawn from long serving Tottenham councillor, Alan Stanton last night.
A meeting of the local Haringey Council Labour group last night took the rarely used step of withdrawing the whip from one of its longest serving councillors. The official reason given was Councillor Stanton's voting in opposition to the appointment of new Council Chief Executive, Nick Walkley.
The action was taken by the Labour political group on the Council. It's party business, rather than official council business. However, I do wonder at the meaning of that distinction; when it's a decision by the ruling group over the issue of the appointment of the Council boss, it seems barely relevant to draw a line between the two.
Being deprived of the whip cuts a concillor off from the party’s support machine, labels them as a bad boy, and can lead to their being deselected as the party’s candidate for the next election. It's the grown up political equivalent of playground kids sending someone to Coventry.
So that must be awful for a serious councillor like Alan Stanton with fifteen years of office behind him, right? Wrong. Stanton made clear how he felt about it at 3:00AM this morning on Twitter:
Kober threw me in the briar patch. This is really gonna be fun!
— Alan Stanton (@AlanStanton_) December 7, 2012
(For those of you less familiar with Uncle Remus, Stanton's briar patch refers to an apparently awful thicket into which clever B'rer Rabbit tricked Bre’r Fox throwing him and from which he quickly escaped to make more mischief.)
In conversation with Alan, some hours before the briar patch tweet, Alan told me, "I'm so disillusioned with the level of secrecy in the local party, the need to control from the top, that I'm glad to be out of it".
The current censure applies to Alan for three months. Whist it's by no means certain whether the party want the independent minded Tottenham Councillor back amongst their number when that time is up, this Councillor is certainly not for turning. Alan told me, "No, I won't reapply to rejoin the Labour group that's enough for me." Their loss I'd say. Independent minded he may be, but he's a politician who is a serious thinker and has his heart in the right place. I have to question where a party who doesn't have room for someone like Alan is headed.
As for Alan's future, he has a big agenda he wants to get his teeth into with the big issues around making Tottenham a better place to live, short of simply allowing it to gentrify. He seems to think the chances of his serving as a councillor again are slim though since he sees little chance of an independent councillor ever being elected in his neighbourhood.
Let's not bid farewell to Alan yet, though. This is after all a rabbit that lives by its wits.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by hob on
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I think that picture of Cllr. Stanton looks a bit like a sad santa. Maybe parents are showing their children this article and telling them that "The Haringey Council Labour Group" sacked santa and not to expect much this Christmas.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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What leaves me so flummoxed Alan, is that this happened even though you tried so hard to endear yourself to all the key people.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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What leaves me so flummoxed
Hugh: don't worry, I'm sure that the next issue of the council's Haringey People magazine will cover this story in depth.
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Erm...I don't think so!
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I'm glad that one of our local councillors has voted against ratifying the appointment of Nick Walkley as the new Chief Executive of Haringey Council. Many local residents have already voiced their opposition to this appointment in light of Mr Walkley's activities in Barnet, and so it's only right that their elected representatives here put forward those views.
I also think that it's inevitable that Cllr Stanton has now had the Labour whip withdrawn - the leadership must have been wanting to do that for a long time and are using this situation as an excuse. It's a pity that more of our elected representatives aren't as courageous and plain-speaking as Cllr Stanton...but I guess that's politics for you!
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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So does this mean that HarringayOnline can expect a rougher ride at the next local elections or a smoother ride? Anyone who saw even a small amount of the vitriol poured on Hugh, Liz and I by the Labour party during the 2010 elections would be put off local politics for life. And my question relates to the unanswered question that I had after it: Was Alan responsible for some of it or was he responsible for making it a little less severe?
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Anyone who saw even a small amount of the vitriol poured on Hugh, Liz and I by the Labour party ...
John, I wasn't aware that any political party had poured vitriol on you. Why should they? Does the Council Majority Group believe that you are their agents, who have failed them in some way? If so, why should they believe that? It doesn't make much sense to me I'm afraid.
As for Cllr. Stanton, surely Alan has no more or less right to comment on HoL than any other resident, no more or less than any other councillor?
How could HoL be given a "rougher ride" in the next local elections: HoL is not a candidate, but it may, as in the past, act as a soap box for all candidates and to that extent, it will act as a part of the fourth estate and a bona fide part of the democratic process.
With the demise of the Hornsey Journal, HoL has become more valuable than ever as an independent forum.
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They constructed a fake front page of HoL where they took the mickey out of Liz for her extremely objective write-ups on the candidates, me for posting mostly late at night and Hugh for setting up HoL in the first place. I did some snooping and found that the person trying to direct people to the site was Julie Davis, who was chair of the Haringey Labour party at the time. Politics here is pretty nasty.
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Interesting. I thought Liz and HoL were performing a public service in portraying the candidates. It's a democracy, isn't it?
When I posted a couple of years ago [here], suggesting that majority group councillors saw all opposition as party political opposition (along with a few other remarks), Julie replied, "My God. I actually agree with this".
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Billy you are just wrong on this.
Alan was a life long Labour party member, you think about leaving but you don't. You try to stay within and effect change. I think he did the right and courageous thing in picking this fight. I don't think the comparison with a two year old is at all appropriate, he's been quite selfless as far as I can see.
Julie is actually quite nice if you meet her in person (just like me!) and I hear a lot of good things about her from local teachers. I think that, like many corporate nasties, she thinks she's doing her job.
Get a pass for Friday and I will see you at the Salisbury. Wear your contacts.
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Today's Ham & High (Broadway edition) has half of page five on this story. Apparently our maverick councillor can re-apply to join his council group in two or three months' time.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Thanks for letting me know about this, Clive. The Broadway e-edition seems to be the same piece as in the online webpage. Although with a couple of extra lines where Ian Cooper got things very slightly wrong. But he's a busy journalist who tries to do a decent job.
For the record, I've never had the Labour whip withdrawn or suspended before. Although one former Chief Whip and one-time Deputy Leader Cllr Harry Lister had this aim. He objected to my posting the truth about Cllr Charles Adje's manoeuvres over the Welbourne Centre; and the loss of at least £1.5 million over Alexandra Palace. Harry Lister tried to stop my reselection for the 2010 elections. He also objected to my Flickr photoblog. But never told me exactly which photos were not to his taste. (These days, everyone's an art critic.)
To be fair to Harry Lister, I had previously had the occasional word of gentle rebuke from other Chief whips. Richard Reynolds was a pleasant bloke and I can't remember what he was unhappy with me about. He was deselected by his own Seven Sisters ward and I suggested he tried another ward. He defected to the Tories instead.
Alan Dobbie when he was Labour Chief Whip heard me say two words he didn't like in a council meeting and he later asked me to meet him. Sadly, time went by and our diaries were full. He too defected to the Tories and we never did have our friendly little chat.
One Chief Whip - I can't remember which one - objected to my going on BBC TV to blow the whistle on Haringey's unlawful yellow box junctions outside the Arriva Bus Garage in Tottenham.
Claire Kober and Joe Goldberg both served as Chief Whip. I was probably in their good books as I'd helped expose Charles Adje. Claire Kober even listened to one of my suggestions: she told Labour councillors to buy their own diaries instead of expecting them as a freebie from the Council.
The current Labour Chief Whip, Pat Egan is, I think, the best of the bunch. I have formally told Pat that I shall not be removing my whip from him. Provided of course that his good behaviour continues.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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