Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Lydia taking the leap--I'm a Tory now!
Hello Harringay,
A few weeks ago a good friend in the Conservatives asked me to run under their banner in the local elections and I didn't laugh right in his face.
My original excursion into politics was in 2001, when I joined the Conservatives because I was so angry about the Victoria Climbie thing but then I left them in 2005 because:
a) I got fed up of politics and
b) I got fed up of the Conservatives (mind you I was just as fed up of the other lot).
When, a few weeks ago, I was invited back to the treadmill, I wasn't any better disposed to the political life but there is so much sh*t going on in this borough that I decided I couldn't ignore it any more. I don't fit that well into a Party mold but seeing as the Conservatives are the only group really serious about opposition in this borough and seeing as I am an Angry Old Woman, I decided that *someone* has to do something. Don't talk to me about the LibDems. The place for nodding dogs is in the back of the car, not in the Council chamber.
*If you want to follow me on Twitter, the address is <@LoveHarringay>
*If you want to get in touch with me by phone, leave a message with Tottenham Conservatives on 020 8374 6305. I'll get back to you. Or email loveharringay@gmail.com.
*If you want to discuss political theory, ring the LSE.
And from now on, you can be as suspicious as you want about anything I say.
btw:
I and my two running-mates, Sean Rivers and Massimo Rossini (NB--Rivers, Rivlin & Rossini make The Three Rs, which all good Conservatives support) will be putting out a leaflet soon.
The local party have agreed to let us write up our own stuff, so we are actually going to be working hard on it, ourselves. At least take a look when it lands on your doormat.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I read a paper to see what the contributors say - I'm not interested in what other readers think of the contributions. I would imagine ( with no evidence at all ) that the reasonable people who are natural Telegraph readers and are in sympathy with the editorial line would not bother to comment in the on-line version. Only the wild-haired attention-seekers do that.
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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Great Heavens, I didn't realise you meant the deranged ramblings after the items in the online version. Judging the Telegraph (or the Times or the Guardian) by the nutcases they attract under their articles would be like judging me by quoting your contributions.
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Permalink Reply by Albert Ross on
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Oh of course the comments do often attract the dregs - like on here haha! I agree and the Guardian is actually pretty snarky too just without the racism and homophobia, but it is interesting to compare the bottom of each's barrel and the Torygraph's is infinitely murkier!
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Very weak defence Lydia and to continue with what I assume is an obscure reference to Victoria Climbie does you no favours either. So everyone who disagrees with you is an apologist for baby murderers are they? Congratulations I think you've come up with your very own Godwins Law for Harringay!
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I was merely referring to Jesus weeping. I cannot imagine He would do so over an elaborately contrived indignation about a slang expression but would save his tears for something more deserving. Tell me, how do you manage to get to sleep at night, with all that fury boiling in you all the time?
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Eh? I was going for 'detached cynicism' rather than fury. I also made a joke! Im not the one who keeps bringing up baby murder as justification for my points either.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Victoria Climbie was a little girl, not a baby, who would be 22 and casting her second vote in Haringey this May. This was written four years ago:
The recent court judgement rejecting Sharon Shoesmith’s appeal against her treatment by Haringey Council & others reminds us of how, in contrast, one of her predecessors prospered by simply transferring out of Haringey after Victoria Climbie’s death while her political overseers prospered by remaining in Haringey, offering themselves to a gullible electorate, election after election…
Oh, the distractions of Spring cleaning! In the case of carpet laying, admittedly historical distractions. Ripping up a strip of mouldy boxroom axminster this morning I found a yellowing page of The Independent made for a perfect excuse to put off till tomorrow what I didn’t feel up to today. An all too common Haringey failing, ’tis true – though I’m not so sure that Lord Laming wanted it swept under a Haringey (or even Harringay) carpet for quite so long.
“Social services ‘chaos’ before Climbie death: by Terri Judd – Saturday, 19 January 2002
More than 100 at-risk children were waiting to be assigned to a social worker only months before Victoria Climbie’s death, it was revealed.
Haringey Social Services, the last local authority to deal with the eight-year-old before her death in February 2000, was in such a state of disarray that 109 of the children for whom the authority was responsible had not been allocated social workers in May 1999.
Furthermore, the senior councillor overseeing social services was unaware of the state of affairs. Yesterday Gina Adamou, then Lead Member of Social Services, blamed the authority’s senior staff, insisting she had been kept in the dark about the matter.
The Inquiry heard that a report dated 17 May 1999 listed 61 unallocated in the western section and 48 on the eastern side.
‘As the Lead Member you did not know at that time there was (sic) 109 children who the authority had accepted responsibility for that had no social worker allocated to them?’ asked Lord Laming, the inquiry chairman.
‘If I was not told by the director or assistant director I would not know, no,’ replied Mrs Adamou, agreeing with Lord Laming that it was a ‘quite serious’ state of affairs.
‘I was quite upset when I saw this document on Wednesday for the first time,’ she said.
‘I can understand you being upset, Mrs Adamou. The question that the inquiry has to understand is, was that a failure on the behalf of the members of the authority – in particular the senior members of the authority – or was that a failure on behalf of the officers and the senior officers of the authority?’ replied the chairman.
Mrs Adamou insisted the fault did not lie with the elected councillors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A spokesman for Haringey Council said: ‘Victoria’s case was allocated within a matter of days. By November 1999 we had reduced the number [unallocated] to six.’ “
Had she lived, Victoria Climbie would now be a young woman of 18+, possibly living in Harringay Ward and about to exercise her right to vote for her very first Labour Councillor. She just might want to ask the former Social Services Lead Member and later Mayor about that ‘quite serious state of affairs’ in May 1999 – or indeed about those forgotten years and responsibilities at the turn of the millennium.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I've attached the report of Lord Laming's Public Inquiry into Victoria's death. The report runs to more than 400 pages.
However, those pages (amongst others) that relate to political responsibility and accountability, are pages 125, 131 and 136. I would particularly draw interested person's attention to Lord Laming's comments at paragraph 1.23 (Management Issues).
Since the extraordinary "AB-CD" High Court case 12 months ago, there do appear to have been some needed changes in personnel in the area of Children's Services, but these welcome improvements were long overdue.
Disclosure:
am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Clive, you invite people to download and read a 400 page report? I hope they do.
Though I sometimes wonder how many elected Haringey councillors read it. And the Serious Case Review reports about Peter Connelly.
But for people who'd like something short and clear - though still painful - I recommend an article by our friend Ian Willmore. He is a former Deputy Leader of Haringey Council. His article is called: An evasion of responsibility.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Alan, many thanks for your link (An evasion of responsibility) that I've now read. I was particularly struck by Ian Willmore's last paragraph that I reproduce:
The picture of a wretched eight year old beaten and starved to death should haunt the dreams of everyone involved in the case for the rest of their days. Past experience suggests that it won't. It is futile to change procedures and structures if so many key individuals refuse to take personal responsibility. If that lesson is not learnt, Victoria's tragedy will happen again.
It happened again of course, with Peter Connelly (Baby P). It isn't good enough that key individuals can refuse to take personal responsibility: they shouldn't continue to be employed, in some cases, for years after their level of competence is clear.
I sincerely hope that some departures over the last 12 months have reduced the chances of something similar happening again; even in the best of circumstances it will take time to change the culture and build confidence.
Disclosure:
am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party
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Takki Sulaiman when a Haringey councillor was Deputy to Cllr Gina Adamou, when she was Chair of Social Services. Below is his letter to the Guardian on 14 January 2002.
Needless to say, former councillor Sulaiman was unhappy at the idea that: the chap at the top does the decent thing and falls on his sword" . The only "chaps" I can recall falling on their swords were Cllr George Meehan and former Cllr Liz Santry who stood down as (respectively) Council Leader and Cabinet member for Children) following the death of Peter Connelly. Although they didn't resign as councillors. George Meehan, of course is still a councillor; actively supporting the appalling Claire Kober. While Liz Santry did not seek re-election but remains a prominent member of Hornsey and Wood Green Labour Party. Liz Santry played an important role in last year's candidate selection process as "Procedure Secretary".)
"Ian Willmore (Comment, January 12) offers a one-dimensional perspective on the Climbié case that serves only to satisfy our instinct for blame. His view is that "this inquiry is all about responsibility". Its role is not to apportion responsibility and mete out individual blame but to learn lessons for the future. We cannot ask for heads on a plate while simultaneously asking why it is hard to recruit care professionals or able local councillors.
"Society has moved on from the patrician concept of public service where the "chap at the top" does the decent thing and falls on his sword. Democratic bodies are complex beasts and many individuals will have their fingerprints on a particular outcome. All agencies involved share responsibility and the action, inaction or decisions of groups will have contributed to this collective failure. Serious misconduct or negligence by individuals must be dealt with using the appropriate processes.
"Willmore dredges up the ghosts of his impotent political past (he was a Haringey councillor up until 1994), but insists on giving them power into the political present. Nearly every protagonist in his article has long since departed Haringey. Labour politicians are frustrated at the weaknesses of many public services, but the key is to seek improvement without damaging either staff morale or what has already improved. New democratic structures in local government, with their emphasis on multi-agency collaboration, scrutiny committees and stronger cabinets, mean that accountability and better outcomes for service users will become a reality."
Cllr Takki Sulaiman
Cabinet member for social services, Haringey Council
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Wasn't Takki on Panorama last night out in Tower Hamlets? He was also a councillor for Harringay Ward, not just Haringey.
His point about it being difficult to recruit able local councillors ashes in the mouths of two people who begged Seema Chandwani to stand in Harringay only to have her denied the opportunity by Claire Kober's old University buddy Luke 'The Nuke' Akehurst. I hope he felt sheepish when she was elected as the Tottenham Constituency Secretary a few weeks later.
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