Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Local Harringay ward Councillor James Ryan has resigned. There will be a selection meeting by the Labour Party followed by a far more perfunctory by-election.

Zena Brabazon!!!! Please stand in our ward!

Local Labour Party members, please select Zena!

More details here and here. Expect Council Leader Claire Kober to have an alternative candidate in mind.

Tags for Forum Posts: by-election, democracy, labour, politics

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"huge reductions in council budgets" most enthusiastically and draconianally implemented in Haringey by the dear leader. Not a pip of protest. The Labour Party is all about getting candidates elected. Tottenham's past protest movement has cost them votes in swing seats so they are trying to keep a lid on that and administer the medicine quietly.

John there's a lot of bad stuff written about James Ryan in this thread - reading it makes it look as if he was an abysmal Cllr who did Harringay harm. But there are no facts mentioned. I doubt very much that he was anything but representative of the range of Cllrs we appoint but to read this thread, you'd think him 'History's Greatest Monster'. This is why people discount publications like the Daily Mail - you just can't believe what you read. They harm us. Let's not mimic them.

We have a responsibility not to endorse the gutter press with unfounded claims masquerading as facts and your libel against 'the dear leader' is an example of that. That you appear to think that a leader of a council, any council, is happy to cut devalues you and everything else you write.

That you think that a leader of a Labour Council is happy to cut is stupidly wrong and a moment's thought must see you agreeing John - I think you should apologise.

The fact that you can spout garbage and nobody challenges you is not a good thing John so I hope you won't turn on me for this - my intention is to strengthen your arm, not to bridle - I want to continue to believe what you write and continue to automatically assume that, if you consider something worth raising, it's worthy of attention so please, enough with the shallow, thoughtless characterisations!

James was basically absent. He didn't even turn up to his surgeries with Emine most of the time. If others are accusing him of things then they're wrong, he didn't do anything.

I haven't libeled anyone, get off your high horse; I've passed comment on a politician's actions.

Hi John

Me and James don't do joint surgeries we shared venues so i do the 1st Saturday at the Falkland Centre and the 4th Saturday at St Paul's Church Hall on Wightman Rd.
All I can add is that he never responded to any of my emails or phone calls. Not once. I even emailed him to ask for a reply.

I feel sorry for James Ryan. I saw him as a young man who got in with a bad crowd. Hopefully  in his new job he'll learn from better more competent people.

As you know, Chris Setz,  I was a Labour councillor for sixteen years until May 2014. Criticisms of Haringey councillors are not "endorsing the gutter press".  There are many good people who try to do a decent job. But that description does not always apply. 
If you don't think the Leader of Haringey Council sees things getting better after the cuts, then you haven't been paying proper attention to the stuff she writes. You are entitled to agree with her right-wing views, of course.

What John McMullan writes is not always correct in every detail. He won't always be, as he's not an insider, and insiders close ranks. But he does not "spout garbage" and owes nobody any apology for the general views he offer here. He was also the brave man who - at real risk to his own interests - did his best to tell the truth about the vote-rigging in St Ann's ward selection in the last Council elections.

I think the issue, Chris, was that he was almost completely absent. Following his election he was initially rarely seen and then never seen. That compares very unfavourably with other Harringay Councillors. He may be a great guy who'll go on to do great things, but it is certain that he has not served the people of Harringay well at all.  

Thanks Hugh - my point was that threads which try to pass off opinion as fact on important local issues need to at least refer to some facts as justification. If someone writes that 'everyone knows that Hugh is the worst Harringay Admin there has been' then that would only be OK if there was a reference to something bad you'd actually done (or a thread about you).

If it's allowed to stand without comment it's a libel on your rep. The way the net seems to work is that those libels get shared, come up in searches etc - there's no smoke without fire etc  - lies built on lies.

If you're going to heavily criticise someone who has the courage to stand up and be counted on all our behalf I'd like to see a more rigorous approach because otherwise it helps deter people. 

Many Cllrs don't turn up to many local events and if you ask them to justify their behaviour, some say they can do more good in the Town Hall.  I have sat through many meetings where Cllrs have been present and it's been a waste of their time - they shouldn't have been there, they somehow feel they've got to show their faces because people have this weird need to look to someone 'in charge' to provide the 'official voice' when in fact those days are long gone.

So maybe the best thing James could have done for Harringay was to leave it to colleagues to show their faces? I don't know him personally but guess he's not stupid.  If he felt it was wise not to attend locally, maybe he had a good reason?

The benchmark may have been set by the previous Lib Dem Cllrs, who are lovely people, hardworking locals who are on our side but honestly, with no disrespect to their intelligence or commitment, did they make a lasting difference? Surely the Cllrs we want are those who can bring about beneficial change and you need to be in power to do that, don't you?  So the best we can do for Harringay is appoint a Labour Cllr but you want more - you want them to behave in certain ways they may not be aware of.

The question is, is it fair that you condemn them for using their judgement and not being as lovely as Karen, David etc - maybe they did more good in other ways?

I agree with your general point about baseless criticism.

On James though, I think the plain matter of the fact is that he just wasn't present. He didn't even turn up to his pre-aranged surgeries. I think if you have a quiet word with some local Labour party members you'll find that they were exasperated, infuriated and embarrassed by his performance. As I've been given to understand it he was essentially kicked out. 

Thanks Hugh - good to know that, if a Cllr is rubbish, their own party will kick them out.

The Schmitz pedestrian crossing ? The Alexander enforcement camera on Wightman ? Those alone make a lasting difference.

Good to know John - thanks. Be even better if Cllrs were fully aware of the standard set by predecessors and if there was a quicker way of getting rid of those that are not up to snuff.  I saw no moves to act against James Ryan on HoL - had he not gone, would he have continued without anyone on HoL raising the issue of his performance or is it silly to think that we can have an effect on how our local Cllrs behave?

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