Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Harringay Ward Hustings Tonight
Candidates and Chair (Left to right): David Allen, standing-in for Cansoy Elmaz (Conservative), Neville Watson (UKIP), Jarell Francis (Green Party), Bruce Kent (Chair), Zena Brabazon (Labour), David Schmitz, standing in for Karen Alexander (Liberal Democrats).
Tonight saw the hustings for the Harringay Ward By-Election. After 5 minute introductions by each candidate, questions were taken from the floor. Every candidate then gave their answers to every question, each taking about three minutes. That gave time for about four of five questions. Topics included the candidates views on homophobia, pollution caused by traffic, the management of private rented homes, and provision for autistic adults.
All candidates and their stand-ins handled themselves well.
I'd be interested to hear what others who attended thought of the evening.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Justin Hinchcliffe on
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That's fair enough. Perhaps we should all study Zena's one and only term on the council. What was her attendance record, and did she ever vote against the council's Labour leadership (if so, how often)?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Err now you are speaking on my behalf liz.
Not sure, Billy, how you are inferring that from my reply to Jessica but any how.
Justin - perhaps when your party have got a minute they could assist Billy with examining *Zena*'s term as a councillor. Speaking as a resident of a neighbouring ward, she assisted on the things listed above most ably particularly over the closure of children's centres in the borough and widening participation at Area assembly. As to voting records and attendances - I'll leave that to the political statos to look up :)
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Permalink Reply by Helen Riley on
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#everydaysexism
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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Good to hear Jarelle doing well.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The first question was a great one and none of the candidates answered it: "What will you do for private renters?".
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Any posturing or mention of our Children's Centre's closure on the Ladder, or the sell off of St Ann's hospital land, or a Community Land Trust endorsement, or Age Care/ Independant Age Care provision through StArt, or truly affordable homes on development sites across Haringey, or a Healthcare facility for the proposed Hawes and Curtis redevelopment site?
Was there tangible substance discussed, or was it a broad brush? issues but a few.
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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UKIP man said he was 'only there to make up the numbers'. At the end when all were going home, UKIP man & Tory guy were comparing notes on Trump getting in. Both seemed sure he would & excited by the prospect.
I may vote for the Green candidate who's keen to make a difference. Karen is good & I'm sure Zena would be OK as well.
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It's a two horse race between Zena and Karen.
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Really? same old same ol', if you want a red route vote Karen, if you want to be ignored like the Gardens were, vote Zena. Not good examples of listening representatives. If Zena is voted in she will be under the control of the Labour Council Whip.
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Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on
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For those who weren't able to attend, here's a copy of the speech I delivered at the start.
From past voting and from my soundings on the doorstep, it is clear that this is a close contest between Karen Alexander for the Lib Dems and the Labour candidate. A vote for any other candidate will not influence the result.
In 2014 Karen came quite close to being re-elected despite the difficulties which our party had at the time, difficulties which now are largely behind us. And she got just slightly less than twice as many votes as the top polling Green Party candidate.
As a Councillor, Karen will be a member of a well informed opposition group which will continue, ever more rigorously, to present alternatives to Labour's policies and practices. She will not have the handicap, which the Labour candidate would have, of submitting to the Labour whip and of having to promote the many policies for which, as she made clear yesterday, she has little sympathy.
I also think it's important to compliment both the organiser of the event, Gordon Hutchison, and the chair, Bruce Kent. If only Bruce with his considerable skills, had been able to chair neighbourhood forums, they'd have been immensely more productive.
Anyway, here's the speech.
I’d like first to convey Karen’s apologies. Like almost everyone else, she only heard about this by-election a month ago, and by then she and Mark had arranged to take their kids to see their grandmother.
But, this gives us a chance to show that when you elect a Lib Dem Councillor, you get a team as well as the individual. Also, because she’s quite modest, it gives me the chance to let you know (if you don’t already) just how exceptional a councillor she was in the past, and how excellent a councillor she will be after the 28th if she’s elected.
Karen is, of course, local. She and her family have been living in Wightman Road for 20 years. No other candidate lives in the Ward.
This matters. One of the most important parts of a councillor’s job is to help people who have problems which the council could solve, but won’t, or who have problems which the council has itself created. To do that job well, you need to be on the spot.
And when she was in office, she did that job superbly, as some of you can attest.
Karen will have my full backing after the election as well as before, and I too am local.
So individuals and residents groups will be getting a truly local councillor and assistant – two for the price of one.
Every council has a scrutiny committee, keeping watch on the way it delivers services. For years, Karen served on that committee, looking into services as varied as road safety and breast screening, and she chairedenquiries into housing providers and into services for school kids with alcohol and drug problems.
Her colleague, Dave Winskill, told me that Karen was the hardest worker he’d ever known. On the phone as soon as the agenda was circulated, working out lines of enquiry and questions to ask. She then prepared thoroughly in advance.
He described her questioning as relentless.
There is much to question in the way that Labour runs this borough.
- Why did it pay £300,000 to set up a chicken restaurant?
- Why did it pay a six figure sum to support an estate agency which has just one property on its website?
- Why did it pay £86,000 for a logo that makes its refuse lorries look like props for the London Dungeon?
- Why did it fail an incontinent woman with dementia whose feet were deformed from her toenails not being cut?
- What’s to take the place of the day care centres for vulnerable adults after they’re scrapped in September?
- Why are they even considering spending £33 million on new offices?
- Why is there no sign of them delivering the 250 council built homes which they promised as a key manifesto commitment in 2014?
There are now 47 Labour Councillors, with 9 Lib Dems keeping an eye on them. This Borough can do with another well-practiced pair of eyes.
As we’ve been seeing nationally, no government works well without a strong opposition group, and in Haringey, it is the Liberal Democrats who form that opposition.
We are the only other party to have any elected councillors, and the only party that is likely to elect any councillors. Here, even in 2014, when our party was not exactly popular, Karen came close to being re-elected, and she got almost twice as many votes as the top polling Green Party candidate.
So if it matters to you that there is a strong and well-informed opposition holding the administration to account, Karen’s your obvious choice.
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Whatever happened to that guy Matthew? I think he was Independent. Then he was Green. Then, like myself, he doesn't seem to have made it to the hustings. Has he got a job with James Ryan?
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