Leader of the council has always been an influential role. With new powers granted to leaders across the UK, it's about to become even more important. So I thought it's important for us all to get some sense of who might be leading us.
To this end I'm pleased to have been able to get the agreement of the the two people from between whom it is all but certain will be chosen the next leader on May 6th.
- Claire Kober, Labour candidate for Seven Sisters ward & current Leader of the Council
- Robert Gorrie, Liberal Democrat candidate for Hornsey ward.
I am grateful to them both for making the time available to do the interviews and to John Douglas for acting as camera and sound man.
Well done. Caps off a very successful move into new media for this election by HOL. Far more interesting than all those party propaganda leaflets that end up straight in the recycle box!
In the interests of complete fairness, he'd be welcome Justin. However there are two reasons that he hasn't been invited so far:
1. I've sent several emails to you & Tim Caines chasing up on the Harringay & St Ann's candidates for video interviews. I've had no reply. I've taken this as a lack of interest. My recommendation would be for you guys to focus on this bit first.
2. In this section of our coverage, I'm focussed on the person who might become leader of the Council on May 6th. Whatever a significant slice of Haringey's population might feel, on the basis of the last election results in the borough, it's extremely unlikely it will be a Conservative. So my limited resources are directed at the two candidates from whom the leader will be chosen.
Notwithstanding all that, I do want to be fair and seen to be fair. So do put Alan in touch. And, how about any of the St Ann's & Seven Sisters candidates? That'll be more important for users of this site.
See this blog posting for (hopefully) some insight into the new powers that will be made available to whoever is elected as the new leader of Haringey Council.
It's interesting that, as nationally we move towards a presidential style of Government, locally we now have something closer to a Prime Ministerial model.
This includes parliamentary-style council "cabinets" ─ increasingly separated from "backbench" councillors.
Less prominent but very significant, local councils now have a version of what in Parliament is called the "payroll vote" ─ in other words Ministers who will vote with the Government. On councils this roughly corresponds with "cabinet posts" (now in the gift of the leader) and to some extent other posts carrying Special Responsibility Allowances.