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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Harringay Councillor Zena Brabazon Front Runner as New Leader of the Council

I've been told by a Labour Party member that at a hustings lat night, Harringay councillor Zena Brabazon has been voted as favourite to occupy the now vacant role of Leader of the Council.

What a different council that would be!

The other candidates were Cllr Ahmet and Cllr Ejifor.

The final choice will be made by elected councillors.

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Well there ya go. Anyone know owt about him?

Here's his bio on the council website -- 

I am a London-born Spurs fan, who has represented Bruce Grove Ward since 2010. In addition to serving 7 years as a Haringey Councillor, I also have the experience of previously being elected three times as a Councillor in Newham. I have been a governor at a number of schools over the past 24 years. I am currently a Governor at Fortismere School.

I am the Deputy Leader of Haringey Council, a position that I was elected to in May 2017. I hold the Customer Services portfolio. During my time as a Councillor, I had previously held the Cabinet portfolio for Planning & Enforcement, and am a former Chair of West Green & Bruce Grove Area Assembly. I was also a former Chair of Education Overview & Scrutiny on Newham Council.

I come from a working class background; not from wealth or privilege. My first job was stacking shelves in a Fine Fare supermarket (where I first joined a Trades Union – USDAW – at 16), and I worked for 9 years on London Underground. I graduated as a mature student with an honours degree in Politics and Government.

Over the past 18 years, I have worked as a manager in the public, private and the voluntary sectors; specialising in ‘risk and performance management’ and ‘diversity and change management’. Over the past couple of years, I have worked in a number of freelance consultancy roles specialising in iBusiness development.

I am ardently pro-European, and I was a Labour European Parliamentary candidate in 2004. I support the provision of Council Housing, and continue to campaign for local authorities to take the lead in building and developing mixed communities that include sufficient social and affordable rented accommodation for local needs. Furthermore, I believe that it is the role of government to pro-actively challenge discrimination and to promote equality.

I am married and we have two daughters who attend Haringey schools.

I am also a member of the London Capital Credit Union, Unite and the Co-op Party.

He missed the opportunity to say that he was married to Cllr Anne Stennett and maybe she and Mark Blake could have declared their sibling relationship. Nice little earner for your brother-in-law when you put him in the cabinet (£25K).

Here's a blog post from 'On London' by Dave Hill, previously The Guardian's London correspondent, giving details of last night's events and an assessment of future political dynamics. Former Harringay councillor Emine Ibrahim is deputy leader.

http://www.onlondon.co.uk/momentum-members-win-haringey-leadership-...

The former journalist Dave Hill has been a consistent and uncritical supporter of Claire Kober and her right-wing faction; and of the "Haringey Development Vehicle" deal with Lendlease. So it's no surprise that he should describe the divisions between Left and Right inside the Labour Party as between Momentum/"Hard Left" and "Moderates".

I regard anything that Mr Hill writes as framed in this misinformed and misleading filter.
____________________________________________
My political declaration is on this page. My wife is Cllr Zena Brabazon.

His article contains a bit of a slap for the new leader who he describes as flexible, this is DH code for weak.

John McMullan, of course Dave Hill's blog "contains a bit a slap for the new leader".  Hill remains a Kober fan.

Meanwhile Cllr Joe Ejiofor is no doubt busy putting together his "cabinet" and allocating posts to other Labour councillors who aren't yet nominated to Council or party posts within the new administration. Some will I expect have been promised by Ejiofor in advance as part of the deal-making which partly determined the leadership vote. Key names to look out for are probably Cllr Noah Tucker and Cllr Charles Adje.

If you have any time and haven't already read it, I suggest a little book called "Who stole the Town Hall" by Peter Latham. The excellent website "Inside Croydon" had a review and half price offer in August 2017.

Are you back on Councillor Adje's Christmas card list?

Thanks John. This was my gentle and kindly advice to Cllr Adje.

The Adje events were one of the two occasions when I complimented Claire Kober on a judgement she made. It may also have been the one time she asked me for help.  I'm pleased to say that I was able to refer her to my Flickr photoblog. Though former councillor Clive Carter is far better informed about the detail of the Walklate Reports.

_________________

I tried to explain to my former colleagues the difference made in politics by both the persistence  of online material and the ease and speed of searches and retrieval.

Though of course, not just politics. A friend of Zena's from the U.S. once stayed with us (sleeping behind the sofa in a tiny flat) when researching in the Colindale newspaper library for his books on The Kinks. Remember those dear distant pre-online days when people peered at microfiche records in libraries? Were we still using the wheel?

Can Councillor Tucker can be judged on the company he keeps?

I presume that if he and Councillor Adje had voted differently then the outcome would have been different given the 15/15/11/1 split in the first round. Nice to see their respect for the members who walked the streets for them.

"Relatively flexible" sounds like good news in the context of what we've been "promised".  Good luck to him, I think we should be open minded and judge him on results. 

He has been deputy leader for a while so we can judge him on results already. The HDV is not dead it seems.

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