Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is Claire Kober running a dictatorship?
Below is a blog post that was written by someone who attended the Labour Party meeting where they selected their candidate for Noel Park.
It strikes me that many Labour members do not want Kober as Leader but she has subverted democracy ensuring only people supportive to her retaining power will be allowed to have a vote on her future. This does sound like a dictatorship.
Is this something we should accept as residents. What if there are better people out there to run our council and be our Leader but this is not being allowed? Surely democracy is vital? It sounds like Tower Hamlets.
Disclaimer: I am not a member of the labour party (because of antics below). I do not know Seema, although I had the pleasure of watching her in action at a council meeting and she ran rings around them, whilst still being calm and funny. I can see why Noel Park Labour wanted her.
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ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM, SEXISM, FIXING AND DICTATORSHIP FLY IN STORMY WOOD GREEN LABOUR PARTY MEETING
Following the resignation of Cllr Marshall in Noel Park ward, the Labour party started the process to select a new candidate to contest the by-election to be held on Sept 17th.
The two applicants for the role were Stephen Mann (husband of Haringey Mayor, Jennifer Mann) and Seema Chandwani.
Suspicion began when Mann started contacting members of the Noel Park branch of the Labour Party from mid-July. Ordinary members, unaware of the process were somewhat surprised a few weeks later to see an email sent on the 6th Aug 2015 to formally open the process with a closing date of 12th Aug. Ms Chandwani who had applied, had only been able to contact members from the evening of the closing date.
Both candidates were subject to an interview prior to Noel Park members voting on who they wished to select. The interviews were scheduled on Sat 15th Aug, however Mann already had his interview the previous weekend, before the deadline closed. On both of the interview panels was Cllr Elin Weston, the Councillor in Hornsey with Mann’s wife and also the chair of the Labour group, who herself would require votes from the new Noel Park Councillor to retain that position. Mann, a Hornsey resident would also be eligible to vote for Weston for her reselection in 2018.
Ms Chandwani was informed on Sun afternoon that she was not successful but was able to appeal; her appeal was rejected and she was only informed hours before the selection meeting.
Members of the Noel Park branch, unaware of the situation, turned up to cast their votes and were surprised not to see Ms Chandwani on the list of candidates. Many members were holding her leaflet and began to ask where she was. It was obvious as the discussion of her absence progressed that the majority had come to vote for her. If she was not rejected – she would have won.
Steve Hart, who was embroiled in the Falkirk election scandal, struggled to keep control of the meeting as concerns of racism, sexism and accusations of fixing in favour of Mann were made. Ms Chandwani was the only ethnic and woman candidate.
Members wanted to know the reasons of her being rejected as many did not believe from her literature and meetings they had with her that she was incapable. Ms Chandwani is currently the Secretary of the Tottenham Labour Party, one of the most senior positions in the party, members were bemused how someone in such a position could be unsuccessful. Tensions grew as Hart could not give any responses to the questions posed.
It is believed that Ms Chandwani was blocked as she is a “Lammy-Loyalist” [it is no secret that David and Seema are very close]. Tensions between the Council Leader Claire Kober and David Lammy have been simmering for a number of months as Lammy questions decisions made by the council on housing, youth centres and Marcus Garvey library. Kober in-turn has publically endorsed Lammy’s rival in the mayoral race. Blocking Ms Chandwani is being seen as another attack on Lammy from Kober. Some believe that Ms Chandwani’s popularity could see her overthrow Kober as Leader, leaving her and Lammy to overturn some of the decisions upsetting many residents.
Members of Noel Park branch were presented with Mann and two other candidates, both of whom the members had not heard from until the meeting. One was a former Councillor and the other the son of a current councillor – all were white males.
After the selection meeting Ms Chandwani tweeted congratulations to Mann. Mann, who ironically wrote a book on blacklisting, did not respond.
Ms Chandwani continues to be the Secretary of the Tottenham Labour Party for the third year, a position she won by being voted in by members from all 9 wards within the constituency, including Seven Sisters where Kober is a councillor.
2018 will be interesting.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by P Knight on
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Simon,
I have double checked and she is definitely the Secretary of the Tottenham Labour party.
I have no knowledge of Seema's popularity, however what is clear is most people could overthrow Kober, she is bland, dry, monotone, uninspiring, useless, always looks like she is about to cry and wears the same blue suit and white vest to every council meeting! So on comparison, I doubt anyone's popularity could be any worse than Kober's.
What if we stopped Kober being able to buy votes by selecting her own cabinet and giving those that vote for her £25,000 each of our money as a reward and see if she is still voted as leader?
It feels that Kober has never won that position, maybe she keeps it by paying people with our money or maybe by fixing selection meetings and ensuring only her friends become councillors to vote for her? It is a question, not an accusation of course.
As for your last two requests, I have decided not to post the author or the website link.
This thread is not about Seema, it is about democracy in Haringey and the role of our leader. However your only contributions seems to be about Seema and wanting to discredit her. Odd.
I will not give you the name of the party member as I do not want Kober to get him expelled. The blog is still on the internet - search for it.
I do have a question for you, are you Simon, the communications director of Haringey council?
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Permalink Reply by 1lt1j1e9vpo6f on
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P Knight, the idea that the Secretary of a constituency holds one of the most senior positions in the Party is ludicrous. There are 650 constituencies in the UK, each has a chair, vice-chair, vice-chair/membership, secretary, Youth Officer, treasurer, women’s officer and ethnic minorities officer... these are referred to as 'Key Officers'.
I accept Alan's view that the role requires a lot of effort, but that hardly makes it important. It's a club. A club with rules, disputes, and ample evidence of Injelitisis.
The rules of the club do not suggest 'democracy' is at the core of its decisions. In fact, some of the rules are clearly anti-democratic.
This is nothing new.
Claire Kober has certainly been aggressive in her manipulation of the Party and of the Council, but again, the motivations are not new.
I believe that what Alan, Zena and Seema fail to connect with is the view of their club and its behaviours from those of us who dont belong to it.
Below, Zena talks of conviction politicians. The only conviction they appear to have is to stay 'alive'. Had the individual in question any real conviction she would have spoken out clearly about the perceived injustices (St Ann's and Noel Park). Instead she bedded down again with those who allegedly perpetrated them.
Why? My guess is that many active members of the Party are so fully immersed that they can not extract themselves.
The Party helps define them. It's their social life, their hobby, their cause, their very being.
The members put up with the corruption and mistreatment because the fear of not having the Party in their lives is too great to contemplate.
For me, this is the very opposite of having conviction. It's cowardice.
It is also entirely illogical, given the chasm that exists between the two factions. The Party can not be defined. It has no core values. It has no defined purpose. There will not be a compromise. And if there were, would that not again simply define the lack of genuine conviction these people have?
As for the identity of the blogger, I find it strange that you are willing to formulate a post based on it, but are not willing to divulge the source of it. Is it factual?
The local Conservatives have sent out a piece with the original email containing the excerpt you have posted. So I doubt that the identity of the author will be beyond the reach of Claire and her minions.
Were your fears genuine, you would not expect me to admit that I worked at the Council.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Cllr Stuart McNamara was the chair of the Tottenham Labour Party during the St Ann's debacle and if anyone was a prevaricating fence sitter it was him. Why are you taking this line with Seema? Do you suspect that she was the source of the leaks HarringayOnline received and you now want to goad us into admitting it to discredit her? Ha ha ha. No, she wasn't.
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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There was a distinct vacuum of political Enguagement over st Ann's Hospital, there may have been work going on in the machinations of the Labour Party, so I'd be happy to be made aware of it.
TUSC and the Greens have been active, and 38 Degrees drove a campaign to save our local hospital from the get go.
I was disappointed not to have any Lib Dems, Labour or even Conservative Party activists to complete the political spectrum.
We don't have a police station, a hospital, a fire station or local industry anymore, the High Street and our libraries must be next.
A dying town in the outback is looking healthy in comparison. St Ann's, Harringay, West Green and seven Sisters have a combined population well over 30,000, you wouldn't know it, maybe that's part of the problem.
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Permalink Reply by Cllr Emina Ibrahim on
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Matthew where you at the st Ann's application planning commitee ? Let me jog your memory. Who were the two people sitting to your left as objectors to the application and spoke after you ? It was myself as Labour Cllr for Harringay ward and Barbara Blake as Labour Cllr for St Ann's.
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Apologies, this wasn't directed at yourself or the old school Labour folk that still believe in community services. I was expecting the whole cavalry to come to the rescue, even with a general election that wasn't forthcoming.
Your support at the meeting was welcomed together with Barbara, but we could have done more unilaterally.
Clive was completely impartial throughout the process, but voted to try to save the hospital.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Hinchcliffe on
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Despite local population increases, actual, visible, services have been cut back or re-located to other areas. This has happened under Labour, Coalition and Conservative governments. Ideally, we would have our own hospital (I'd actually settle for just a minor injuries unit - Haringey being the only London borough not to have one!). David Lammy, our MP, has - by virtue of being an MP - been in a ideal position to lobby success secretaries of state for Health. Has he? Not to my knowledge. He was first elected in 2000...
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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our libraries must be next
Matthew, sadly, yes.
Tottenham's library is currently shut for at least six months and supposedly returning at the end of February. When it re-opens, it will be hollowed-out, such that approximately half the previous space will be available for library purposes.
Most of the upper floor will be lost to Council office space and much of the ground floor will become busy, noisy thoroughfares, dominated by non-library users, such that that space will be severely compromised for library use.
There will be several bookcases, but the remaining space is to be dominated by rows of cramped PC terminals. The Council sees this as adequate for Tottenham.
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We've lost Compton Crescent (N17). Coombes Croft (N17) being demolished. Tottenham Green (N15) shrinking. Is St Ann's (N15) next up the council chop?
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Permalink Reply by Neil on
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Don't forget most books can be downloaded onto your smart phone and transferred to a tablet for reading.
Amazon and Ebay also have millions of second hand books that are cheap and can be posted to you quickly.
Google will tell you everything you want to know FREE of charge. This will also be up to date information, unlike a text book that has been on a library shelf for many years.
Why should the tax payer pay for inefficient, slow and expensive ways to pass on information via a library? Libraries have been replaced by the laptop in every home which provides an excellent instant service.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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They're not interested in the books Neil.
Both Clive and Justin are political hacks, just trying to drum up some interest in their different parties. The same old whinging on the same old subjects. And of course, they never offer any positive alternatives.
Unfortunately for them, it's a lost cause.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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@ Neil
Smart phone ???
Tablet ???????
I don't have these.
Can these gizmos provide the breadth of knowledge and experience that a trained librarian has at their fingertips ? Do they smile at you and say good morning ? Can they provide a safe, warm, comfortable place for deprived children to do their homework ?
Can they accommodate art exhibitions, concerts, film shows, talks, adult learning centres, cafes ?
Maybe you should visit one and find out what a library really does.
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