Why not have a seperate harringayonline 'politics punch-up' room ?
It could be next to the 'swear room' up the corridor on the left. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM
Permalink Reply by matt on February 2, 2010 at 17:59
Thanks for this link. Sheik Thompson played the sax at one of our parties at Fairland Park a few years back when he was mayor. Seemed like a good man to me.
At the risk of seeming like the person who always weighs in on these issues, but to set the record straight, I was personally delighted when Sheik Thompson was deselected, and not remotely surprised. As somebody else on here has spotted, being mayor does go to people's heads a bit and none more than Sheik Thompson. That mayoral chain is like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Talk about deselection began in earnest after his outbursts in the council chamber where he called all his Labour colleagues racists when he wasn't called to speak. He behaved very badly in front of the press, the cameras, the public gallery and opposition councillors. Up until then, he had been a bit of a liability but mainly bombastic and self important. Oh, and insufferable to council staff.
Then there was his radio show which broadcast from a website with serious anti-semitic views. Cllr Thompson took some persuasion that sharing a platform with holocaust deniers, videos about an organisation called 'Jew Watch' and articles about how HIV was invented in a laboratory by white people, to kill off black people was a bad idea. It was frankly amazing that he was able to bully his way back onto the panel. He was probably able to do this because he never holds back from accusing people of racism when it suits him.
He started off as a genuinely interesting and charismatic guy. Now he's a pretty pitiful figure.
Permalink Reply by matt on February 3, 2010 at 13:29
Maybe the Haringey Labour Party should start up its own 'red top'. Publish the scandals. These 'details' are getting more & more bizarre every time someone leaves.
The party is in much better shape for taking this action. There are now far more black and minority ethnic candidates fighting winnable seats, good people who have been waiting for some of the bed blockers to go. These recent defectors are people who had the wake up call last summer and autumn, but before that knew they weren't wanted. It's not a job for life and people who don't have values or who aren't hard working, shouldn't be representing electors. Like I've said on other threads, just wanting to be a councillor isn't good enough. All three of the recent floor crossers are just trying to jump ship to somewhere they think will get them elected.
And in the end, it was up to every branch to interview and choose the best three people they could, off the list, to be the official Labour candidates. If the residents of Tottenham Hale want Sheik back, they can vote for him as an independent, but he shouldn't be the official face of the Labour party there. He's a very unstable person with some very strange opinions. He wasn't always that way, sadly, but we are where we are.
These are serious charges, Julie, that you're making against Sheik. If Cllr. Dobbie had wanted to stand again for Labour in Noel Park he would easily have been re-selected. Don't tell fibs about him, please.
I was in the I was in the room with Alan Dobbie, at the group AGM, when he stopped being mayor. He sat with a face like thunder and wouldn't take his place at the table, preferring to sit on one of the observer seats, half turned away from the rest of the room. He voted in every election dropping the ballot paper into the box I held under his nose, as if he couldn't wait to let go of it. I was told he had been expecting to get a post of responsibility and he didn't, so he sulked. And then he left the party. Maybe he would have been reselected for Noel Park (a safe Labour seat or within Tory reach? Interesting question.) My point is that he didn't get what he wanted out of Labour so he went.
If you'd like to take a look at the website Sheik was associated with for eighteen months, at least, here it is:
He finally parted company with the website owner and they fell out, with Sheik Thompson being called a stooge. It's posted on there under 'Counsillor' (sic)
The HIV/AIDS denial is there, along with a link to some you tube clips on the topic of 'The relationship between Jews and Africans.' Some of these clips have been taken down because they are racially offensive
The main outburst in the council chamber is a matter of public record because as I say, he was filmed staggering about shouting at people and calling them racist. It was full council of February or March 2009.