Labour Party Verdict on Cllr Sheila Peacock?

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Permalink Reply by neil on Friday

Gaffs or not, she should retire, put her feet up and spend time with the grandkids. She must have a demonic grip over the local party machinery for them to select her again ? 

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on Friday

Neil, on that demonic grip:

There are some good and decent Labour Councillors in Haringey.

Too often however, this Party selects candidates largely on their ability to attract groups of voters identified by race or religion, rather than a general appeal that transcends ethnicity, nationality etc.

This is consistent with the current leader's fondness for Identity Politics.

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Permalink Reply by neil on Friday

Sure, I know two of them (good councillors). As a general point, surely there needs to be an age limit for standing.  If councillors spend more time protesting about Palestine than traffic in the borough, that's a red flag as well. 

I don't care that much for peoples' affiliations so long as they do a decent job taking up local issues and defending their wards. 

I used to be political but I've given up with it. Caring about local issues and trying to add value to the community is more rewarding. 

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on Friday

Neil, following Alan Stanton's reference to the Pickwick Papers and being lazy—not wishing to look up Dickens' discussion on the Eatonswill election—I asked ChatGT for a summary. Not all of the following will describe the Haringey local election in May 2026 ~

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In The Pickwick Papers (1836–37), Dickens gives a sharply comic and satirical portrait of the Eatonswill election, mocking the corruption, hypocrisy and rowdiness of contemporary English elections.

Briefly, Dickens shows that Eatonswill’s candidates are:

• Party puppets, supported not for merit but because they belong to the Buffs or the Blues (the town’s rival political factions).

• Shamelessly flattering, each promising whatever their supporters want to hear.

• Surrounded by bribery, drunkenness and mob violence, with free beer, paid crowds and inflammatory speeches.

• More interested in spectacle than substance, with insults, parades, and propaganda leaflets replacing any real policies.

Through Mr. Pickwick’s horrified observations, Dickens ridicules the entire process, implying that neither candidate is genuinely worthy — they are simply figureheads in a noisy, corrupt, and farcical system.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on Friday

Neil could you please take a little time and be specific on  your remark against councillors spending "time protesting about Palestine" [rather] "than traffic in the borough",  Do you think its not possible to do both?

Is this about Independent Socialist Mary Mason joining a protest walk from Egypt to Gaza?  I admired  her courage. (Even if it was highly unlikely to succeed.) 

Or was it an implied criticism of Alex Worrell in mentioning Gaza in her letter  resigning from Labour?  Again a decision of principle referring to wider key issues affecting everyone: the threat of Climate Change ; The recasting of refugees as a burden instead of a duty under international law. Plus the redefinition of social security as "Welfare" or handouts. As if we should abandon and forget all neighbourly or community ethical or religious traditions we once professed.

I don't expect everyone to join me in giving priority to Genocide - Raphael Lemkin's crime of crimes. But that's how I see it when the Political Party I once gave my energy and spare time to, is now complicit in enabling this industrial scale murder to take place.

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Permalink Reply by neil yesterday

I wasn't having a dig at anyone in particular. Local party politics is so tedious! Much grandstanding, dramatic resignations, attention seeking! 

What good does any of this do in solving local issues, the matters that should be priorities for local councillors ?

Surely there are better ways to channel energy into matters you care about ? Work or volunteer for a charity ? Raise money for causes ? 

Please don't stand for election in Haringey and spend all your valuable energy and spare time devoted to causes out with the local area.  That's all I ask. 

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