Police ask blogger to remove tweet about UKIP

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on May 13, 2014 at 8:20

Michael thanks for posting this article that I read with interest.

There are parallels with the treatment accorded John McMullan and the St Ann's scandal.

In both cases, there appear to have been questionable judgement exercised by the police. On the one hand, they received a complaint that they felt they should act on (in St Ann's, apparently either from the local Labour Party, or at least sanctioned by Labour Party officials). On the other hand, one of the most precious things we enjoy is freedom of speech, especially in political discourse.

It seems to me that if a few police officers cannot exercise sage judgement, then a set of objective guidelines need to be formulated and published for everyone's benefit.

If the police are to maintain the public confidence that is so important, then it is essential that they stay above and out of party political disputes. Any argument about alleged defamation or misrepresentation are surely and strictly, civil matters.

Disclosure:
am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on May 13, 2014 at 9:50

I'm back wondering if it's just because I'm a nerd that I didn't garner as much attention. The only consolation I have is that the Guardian (who are the only paper I am really badgering to cover this) are rekindling their love affair with The Labour Party and seem reluctant to damage them. I've discovered that there is yet another Oxford graduate aged around 31 involved in all of this (so that's four so far) in the form of Alan Strickland. They won't have any media contacts will they?

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on May 15, 2014 at 1:48

John, I think it's very unfair to criticise anyone on the basis of some town in the provinces where, several years ago, they happen to have taken a few college courses,

Let's please judge Alan Strickland for what he's been up this year - including hobnobbing with developers in Cannes; paid for by other developers as "sponsors"; and colluding in Tory plans for the wholesale  demolition of homes and businesses in Tottenham.  And of course his slavish obedience to the Muswell Hill Colonial Administration.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor - but only just)

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on May 15, 2014 at 7:14

ALAN, for anyone away from home and wishing to hear election results by radio, I can recommend this model by the German manufacturer Grundig, that won the 1994 World Radio TV Handbook Industry Award for Best Shortwave Portable.

Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on May 15, 2014 at 13:23

You've missed my point, Clive.  John McMullan seems to want to hang a label on councillors according to which university they went off to as teenagers.

I would still have a smidgen of respect for Cllr Alan Strickland had he ruefully and publicly accepted that his Cannes yacht adventure was a mistake. And actually both a political error and a lapse of judgement to accept "sponsorship" (i.e. cash) from developers and Arup the Council's planning consultants. What sort of "arm's length relationship" does that show?

My view of Alan Strickland would also have risen if he'd expressed regret for the Council's stupid lie about the one billion pounds "regeneration" cash coming to Tottenham. This was exposed by Martin Ball's Freedom of Information Request. (Posted on HoL by by Pam Isherwood.)

What did the now grown-up Alan Strickland do instead?  He went to the Victoria and Albert Museum on its Tottenham evening with ten Haringey regeneration staff sitting in the audience. (Entirely voluntarily in their own time and at their own expense, it was claimed.) There Cllr Strickland said it was nearer £2 billion. When he's in a £1 billion hole this man really does keep digging.

Cllr Alan Strickland is no longer a boy.  When he became a grown man it was time for him to put away childish things.  By continuing not just to make childish mistakes like the Cannes scandal but to justify them with childish excuses, he has shown that he is unfit  to have any role in decisions affecting the lives and futures of residents of Haringey.

(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on May 15, 2014 at 13:33

No, my point is that they'll be friends from University. All four of them. One of them probably had extensive media contacts through his job as "Head of Press" at the Labour Party National office and it is possibly why I am gaining so little traction.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on May 15, 2014 at 18:18

Alan, Alan can't be all bad. At the 80th birthday celebration of the Muswell Hill Library, he kindly cut me a slice of birthday cake. I believe he is also a defender of the libraries.

However, with Tottenham regeneration, there is far more at stake. The decision to accept a subsidy from developers was a big misjudgement, but not Cllr. Strickland's alone.

I understand that the decision to attend this bash was personally signed off by the Council Leader. Really the whole Council Majority Group need to accept responsibility for this.

When I'm canvassing, residents are astounded when I tell them about the Council-sanctioned trip to the South of France to meet property developers. I encourage them to search out independent accounts of the jet trip to Cannes, the lunch on the yacht Clara One – and what appears to be a carve-up of Tottenham.

The amount of public monies spent on the trip were relatively small. Ditto for the total sum of the subsidy paid by the group of developers (the latter are likely to get extremely good value for their cash).

However, the appearance of compromise is enormous. Having received this benefit from developers, can the council characters be trusted to discharge their responsibility to the public fairly and objectively?

Having taken money from developers once, might they be tempted to do so again?

Would we know, if there were a next time?

I believe it's symptomatic of the arrogance that four decades of power engenders.

Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party

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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on May 14, 2014 at 23:03

Disturbing behaviour, thanks for picking up on this.

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Permalink Reply by Seema Chandwani on May 16, 2014 at 1:33

Hi Michael

I think this is a bit more technical than first thought. 

• The tweeter is a Green candidate
• The tweet he sent was an image, spoof using the UKIP logo & branding

There is something in electoral law about candidates being unable to pass of election material that maybe misunderstood to be from another party. I.e, if he was not a candidate, there is sod all UKIP can do, hence why the Independent newspaper tweeted it as part of reporting this case/story - they arent candidates and thus not impacted upon by this law.

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