After it was discovered at the St Ann's Labour Party selection candidate selection meeting that there were people present and voting who should not have been, I came home from the pub (where I'd heard about it) and wrote this article. It has subsequently been edited by site admins to remove the names of people who were embarrassed or in the final case where a journalist said it was potentially libellous. Well here I will attempt to summarise what we have subsequently found out and hopefully take people's attention away from my original appalling rant.
*An individual has asked that their name be replaced with their function in this post on the grounds that they are not seeking public office. This has been done.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour, st ann's labour, stanns
Oh Clive don't be so ridiculous! people do not go to the polls and vote for a coalition it is not on the ballot paper. There was no clear majority therefore a coalition was formed rather than a minority government. Please talk in the realms of reality.
You may enjoy pouring buckets of water over students, nurses, care workers, the disabled, families whose kids have grown up and now have a spare bedroom, teachers, police officers, fire fighters (the list is endless) but most people don't. However I am sure Haringey Liberal Democrats are heartened by the fact that you have been able to muster up people within a 50 mile radius of Haringey who are actually willing to stand for your party. Some of your current councillors have EVEN decided to stand again, although I haven't counted I think its barely in double digits.
Emine Ibrahim
Labour Party Candidate (Harringay Ward)
Of course both Clive and Emina are both right, but in different ways.
The formal position is that in this country we have a "Parliamentary Democracy", so we each in our seperate consitituencies choose MPs to represent us, and they go to the House of Commons and decide who should be in government, and then have the job of scrutinizing the Government, deciding which laws are made, and at any time, removing the government. So Clive is right. A coalition last election was the outcome, and it was the outcome because of who got to sit in parliament. At every general election the only thing to appear on the ballot paper is the names of the candidates, and the party, if any for which they stand. So, in form we never get to vote for a government, except as an outcome of our vote, we get one.
Emina is also right, cos in practice, in this country, almost always, one party wins, and in the election almost all voters see themselves as choosing between two alternative parties and when the Commons meets the choice of a government is a formality.
Clive's problem is that he is standing at LOCAL level for a party associated at NATIONAL level with breaking an absolutely categorical pledge at the last general election over tuition fees. (see above) So given that we know his party has a record of breaking pledges nationally, how do we then deal with any pledge made by the Liberal Democrats in Haringey?
(Actually I live in Islington, and ironically, in view of my above point, find myself unable to vote Lib Dem in my Ward because I profoundly disagree with a local pledge they have made....while still having a beef with them over breaking the tuition fees pledge.)
No pleasing me I suppose.
I have literally begged some of my neighbours to join the Labour Party locally because they are not trusted to select candidates fairly and more members would mitigate this. They almost always cite the Iraq war (20/3/2003) as the reason that they left the party in the first place and will not go back. I appreciate that their manifesto did not say "we'll avoid resource wars" but the fact that Britain's usual method of holding governments in office to account (massive street protests) did not work shows that something is very wrong with democracy. Just look at the fortifications around Westminster since then if you need any confirmation.
All I can say is that I am proud of my party rules. The biggest insult is to the residents of Woodside where the Liberal Democrats have fielded a candidate who lives in a borough that does not even have a border with Haringey. In West Green they have fielded 2 candidates from outside the borough and that tells me what Liberal Democrats in Haringey think of people living on Broadwater Farm.
Emine Ibrahim
Labour Party Candidate (Harringay Ward)
But the party rules have been broken, Emine. A load of people who live outside Haringey joined to select Ali Gul Ozbek, Barbara Blake and Peter Morton, giving their addresses as shops where they neither live, nor are registered to vote. There's no evidence they even work there, actually.
Five people took part in a selection they had no right to be in and then the party just ignored it. The candidates, who have never once denied that there were dodgy dealings at their own selections, are just looking shifty and making a dash for the finish line. They will never be able to say they are the rightful candidates in the ward and their lack of integrity is shameful. They, and Sheila Peacock for that matter, should do the decent thing and step out of the way. There are plenty of hardworking, effective and, above all, honest people who could be Labour councillors in their place.
I have posted two updates for HoL readers about and other peoples’ efforts to get the Labour Party to apply its own rules and to act in a right and ethical manner. Links here and here
To summarise the Party simply refused to act, with the same responses coming from members of the National Executive Committee, including the Chair. This is the same Angela Eagle MP who was very quick to remark on the need for integrity when it came to criticising Maria Miller for her expenses.
So if integrity is the issue when dealing with your opponents, it should be the basic moral principle and starting point for the Labour Party in managing its own affairs and selections.
The selection process in St. Ann’s was unacceptable and it is a disgrace that neither Barbara Blake nor Peter Morton were ready to join us in calling for a rerun when the rule breaking was first exposed. Had they done so, I am sure a rerun would have been agreed. They would have earned the respect from many people, including me. They may have been selected legitimately. And I would have supported them whether selected or not. Instead they went along with it and are now part of the rottenness permeating the local party.
Zena Brabazon
Cllr, St. Ann's Ward till May 22nd
The point is Emine, that these people are not almost guaranteed to be elected, far from it. The fact that you don't get that worries me.
All that doorstepping that you have been doing as part of the party machine that will effectively impose its candidates on many ward in the borough is rather an affront to democracy given that nobody else can do it.
The philosopher Martin Buber retold a story about Rabbi Susya, who became afraid as he approached death.
He friends teased him, "Are you afraid you'll be judged because you weren't Moses?" "No," the rabbi replied: "Because I was not Susya".
So Emine be yourself. Be judged by your own principles and conduct. You are an excellent, lively, intelligent, principled, Labour candidate. I very much hope you are elected in Harringay ward.
In other Haringey wards let the sheep defend the sheep.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor 1998-2014. Labour Party member 40 years +)
Besides, Emine, there has long been a vague rumour going the rounds that your stable-mate, Gina Adamou, is a resident of Harringay Ward. But how could one possibly prove that? It shakes my long held belief in the desirability of residency. She may, however, like the Holy Spirit, be immanent rather than resident. She cannot, then, need our votes.
Not quite - as I understand it (from the sidelines), a candidate for a council seat just needs to live in the borough, not in the ward. However the candidates (mostly three per ward) are selected by the local party members who do live in the ward and have been living there and registered to vote, at a cutoff date some time before the selection meeting - this should avoid loads of people signing up to the Party at the last minute. Members sign in at the Party meeting where candidates are selected. The ward membership should have been checked against the electoral roll before that meeting, by the ward secretary. A pretty straightforward process, no?
Hi Pam and Therese
I posted a comment in reply to Bethany's question about the St. Ann's selection and breaches of the party rules. Here's the link.
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