Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Local Labour selection meetings
By the end of this evening our local Labour party will have selected who will represent us after the local body elections next year. I hear that it has been complete change in St Anns with Councillor Canver stepping down and Councillors Brabazon and Brown deselected. Will this be the end of the bollards in the gardens?
Any bets on whether or not they'll have a quorum at the Harringay ward selection meeting?
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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I think you can see the effect of unsupported, negative comments Billy - thanks for contributing some direct evidence to back up your opinion.
I notice from the list of payments to Councillors you include (why?), that everyone who has extra responsibility gets paid extra, including the leader of the opposition - what's wrong with that, exactly? If you led the Council would you ask Cabinet members to forgo the pay rise and remain on £10,500 per year?
Or do you mean that, because a Councillor is being paid extra for extra work, they should attend most of their local wards' Safer Neighbourhood Team meetings as a condition of their salary increase?
Got any more rules not in any existing rulebook that you think your Councillors should obey because Billy has so decided?
Which other residents attend the SNT meetings and why were you there?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Actually, most of the time you don't. Even the list you linked to tells only part of the story since many of the "cabinet" councillors get additional allowances from some other organisations Haringey sends them to.
Haringey residents can find these out by digging around websites and emailing. But we shouldn't have to. It's all public money. It should all be collated and set out transparently and clearly on the Council's own website.
What a shame there is no effective opposition leadership in Haringey.
For the record, Bernice Vanier and I share our councillors' advice "surgeries". The only time Bernice hasn't come is when she was on holiday; ill; or had a sick family member. She has covered for me in similar circumstances.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Alan can you clarify a couple of things on the expenses list please - what does SRA stand for? And who are the six people whose names appear below the Councillors', who were paid £4236 in total? Also are these payments taxable (not actual expenses obviously)?
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SRA = Special Responsibility Allowance. (Cabinet, Chair of Planning etc.)
The extra six are former independent members of the Standards Committee. In effect, abolished in that form by the current government.
All payments taxable.
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I did post something about Richard Watson but it seems to have vanished. He is moving out of Haringey. And yes, I have a good opinion of Richard, as well. (I just wish we had a Council Leader who knew the first thing about teamwork and how to get the best from a wide range of people.)
Richard achieved several significant changes. One is the development in Lawrence Road - for years left to rot. I kept raising this and while I got e.g. dumping cleared by very willing enforcement staff, could make no progress in dealing with the causes. Richard drove this forward.
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Shortlisting happened at the monthly ward meeting on 4th September. Eight applications were seen, with their application forms circulated on the night. Again, only paid-up members could vote. The process of who goes for which seat, given that party members in the west of the borough won't get elected in their home ward, is a mystery to me still. They don't have to live in the ward to represent it.
It was up to the meeting to choose how many they wanted to shortlist (it has to be at least number of seats plus one), how long they would speak, and what and how many questions to ask in a Q&A. Those questions were then kept within the walls of the meeting, so no candidate was privileged by knowing them in advance, regardless of friends and family having that info.
It has been an education for me to experience how this all works, as someone who has doubts about the validity of parties as a form of representation in the first place, but who set aside those doubts to be able to join the party and see what I can do as one person, to improve the lives of the people of Tottenham Green - including those who have no voice in local politics except maybe adding their crosses to a list every four years.
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Pam, how did it happen?
Well, it wasn't a "mistake". The Koberites not only knew about it but ignored protests. Same issue with having shortlisting meetings at the beginning of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah).
As far as I know, they just went ahead in the same sensitive and inclusive way they do everything. Of course, making an exception for Seven Sisters - the ward which - so I hear - shortlisted and then reselected only Claire Kober, Joe Goldberg and Dhiren Basu.
Former councillor Liz Santry even told a Jewish Chronicle reporter that there were no Jewish party members affected in the three wards allocated Yom Kippur for candidate selections. Which of course she had no way of knowing since - as you would rightly expect - Labour Party members do not have to give their religion. Nor tell Liz Santry how observant they are.
And you're right that it's not a matter of who is an atheist or anything else. We just need a Party leadership which respects all its members' private beliefs.
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I think the answer is openness - all the parties seem to be missing the trick - publish everything that's practical on the local party website, let the light shine in.
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Party websites, who reads 'em? Not me.
But, yes, of course, put stuff on the Council's public website. As I've often said: fresh air and sunlight as a disinfectant. Sadly the default for our Kober Council is fetid secrecy.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Still like to see the political process opened up an all the local party websites. What does being a local member actually involve? Can anyone just pop-in for a look? What do the various officers actually do and what sort of people are they? What has been accomplished locally over the years? How many social events, what type and how well attended? Twitter lists of everything mentioning ward politics etc etc etc
Youtube record of meetings. Local party 'thoughts for the future' - what does the local party see as the most important things to be achieved in the ward and how will they bring them about?
Then there's the real issues of why the other teams shouldn't score - that'd be fun to read...
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On second thoughts, Chris, my apologies. You are probably thinking about procedures for political parties' candidate selections. Plainly this is something which has no place on a Council website. But could go on the local parties' own websites.
I've no idea why former Tory candidate Will Hoyle has shown such a keen interest in Labour's selections. It's all very humdrum. Very short speeches; the same questions to every potential candidate; secret ballots; bottom candidates drop out etc. The usual stuff which I assume all the parties do.
Of course some wards simply have an anointing and enthronement of three brightly shining starcandidates. And why not? I've even suggested appropriate music.
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