Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Green Party candidates? - Harringay Ward
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
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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Why don't we all stand...
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I'M SPARTACUS...
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Permalink Reply by Lucy Craig on
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(Nice description JL, “incredibly hard-working” but I think you may be mistaking me for someone else!)
I haven’t ever really properly responded to anything on Harringay-on-line but the exchanges re the Green Party’s visibility in Haringey have prompted me to do so now. The reason the Green Party has not yet publicised which-candidates-will-be-standing-where, is that we’re still in the process of confirming the final few. As soon as that’s done, we’ll publicise the list widely. At the last election in 2010, we had candidates for every one of the 57 council seats. We may or may not do the same this time but we also want to look at who else is standing. However, in our ‘target ward’ of Alexandra, we did have three confirmed candidates until recently when sadly one had to drop out – another victim of the terrible housing shortage giving rise to prices which forced him and his young family to move out of the borough. A new 3rd candidate will be confirmed shortly. In the meantime, Gordon Peters – a semi-retired former Director of Social Services – and myself are the confirmed Green Party candidates for Alexandra. Alexandra was chosen as our ‘target’ ward since we had a good result there in the 2012 GLA elections beating the Lib-Dems into 3rd place and coming 2nd to Labour.
Some of the previous HoL comments are critical of the Greens for not being seen in parts of Harringay (and Haringey) since the last election. This is partly because we are admittedly a small party compared to the ‘grey’ parties: the Conservatives, Labour and the Lid-Dems (‘grey’ because they’re all much of a muchness, eg they all support the austerity agenda, which we, crucially, don’t) and so we just don’t have the ‘foot-soldiers’ necessary for a continual, broad campaigning presence. However it’s also because we have a serious ‘Target to Win’ policy which means we put all our resources and efforts into the place we think is most likely to give us a historic first Green foot in the Haringey Council door. To that extent, some areas are ‘neglected’ for the greater good of actually winning Council seats.
Since the Coalition government came in at the 2010 general election, which of course coincided with the last local election, Greens like many others in any kind of oppositional politics have felt a bombshell has hit us. The NHS has been seriously under threat at local and national level - likewise, every kind of public service as well as a wide range of benefits. The Green Party is the ONLY party, or the only one with a representative in Parliament, to be opposed to the privatisation of the NHS, that is the creeping contracting-out and marketisation which took a horrific leap forward with the 2012 'reforms'. Locally we have taken part in four NHS defence groups - the Defend the Whittington Hospital Campaign, 'Haringey Needs St Ann's Hospital', '38 Degrees' and the older 'Defend Haringey Health Services Coalition'. We have joined in much demonstrating and lobbying about Council service cuts, whilst recognising that the real demon is the national government and the straitjacket it has imposed on local authority finance. Nationally Greens have been campaigning against that, against the bedroom tax and the benefits cap. Locally we have also been active on environmental issues like Pinkham Way and the Haringey carbon reduction programme. And at London level GLA Green member Darren Johnson has been pushing for rent control and greater investment in affordable housing. The more important the issue, the more likely the fight is to be at London or national level rather than in one borough or one ward. We're stretched – very stretched - but we're doing our best and we invite others to help us build the strength of opposition on these key issues.
I should say also that we’re a small party not because our policies aren’t excellent (I would say that wouldn’t I? However do take the trouble to look at them http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/) but also because of the derisory coverage the mass media gives us. When you look at the coverage given to Nigel Farage and UKIP – who have not many more councillors than us up and down the country and no MPs (whereas we have the excellent and frequent Politician of the Year winner, Caroline Lucas) – it’s not surprising that we’re not a much bigger party. That being said, as it happens our membership is growing extraordinarily fast at the moment! And I think that’s partly because we’re finally beginning to shake off our image of being simply and only, an environmentalist party as well as the fact that the recent drastic weather patterns maybe bringing home to people the reality of climate change. Whilst of course we care about our planet, we know that it’s a system based on inequality and exploitation that most threatens it by encouraging reckless, environmentally damaging consumerism and the indiscriminate accumulation of wealth. The Green Party isn’t just another ‘grey’ political party. Rather, green politics is a new and radical kind of politics. Our party is one of social and environmental justice which supports a deep-rooted transformation of society for the benefit of all, and crucially, for the planet as a whole.
Finally, and to pick-up Philip Foxe’s flattering remarks about me, I would just point out two things: First, the Labour Party – like most parties – is a ‘whipped’ party (whereas the Green Party isn’t) and whilst I was very unhappy, whilst I was a Councillor and after, with the right-wing Labour policies, I was bound by Labour Party rules - though I was frequently in trouble with the Whips! I’m much happier in a party which ‘trusts’ me to say and do the right thing but one which could of course de-select me if I didn’t. Secondly, I didn’t “turn my back on Labour”, since as a naïve optimist, at the time I genuinely believed it was possible to ‘reclaim the party’: they expelled me. (Which in some ways I like to think of as my badge of honour – I think I must have been doing something right if New Labour expelled me!)
So, please be patient whilst we try to get our candidates list sorted and in the meantime try this quiz – put together for the last General Election but still fairly relevant, thought-provoking and even fun! You might find yourself advised to vote Tory (aaargrh!) but then again you might find that the Green Party’s policies are closest to yours. http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Good to hear from you Lucy.
I do think the Green Party would benefit from putting Harringay as its number 2 target area, installing candidates who are keen to win a councillor seat, rather than standing for 2014 but publically announcing they're really aiming for 2018!
The Greens need to up their game if they're to be taken more seriously. Voters are looking for good alternatives from the 3 'grey' parties (as you put it) but, if there aren't any, then those voters may not bother going to the polling station. And that ain't good.
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Good post Lucy and at least you point to the elephant in the room when many are happier to focus on the small stuff as they are embarrassed by their national parties
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Hi Philip, that would be great. For (I hope) obvious reasons we don't put too many personal phone numbers or e-mails online, but you can find the e-mails you need at http://www.haringeygreens.org.uk/contact. If 'your' candidate isn't yet up there it might just be because they want to keep their e-mail private - then the general one contact@haringeygreens.org.uk will do fine. Just tell us your address and we'll drop one through your letterbox. And if you live on a main road, we're looking for people to put up estate agent type boards on stakes in their front gardens too.
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