Running Total #3 mk2

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Permalink Reply by pamish on November 22, 2017 at 3:09

Moyeed/Moyeen. 

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on November 22, 2017 at 9:00

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on November 22, 2017 at 10:53

Got any links that can help me fend off the people saying that's not the case?

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Permalink Reply by Philip on November 22, 2017 at 15:12

So can someone do the maths for me and say how many Pro and anti HDV selected so far. Not bothered about libdems.

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Permalink Reply by pamish on November 22, 2017 at 15:21

see this map, the version on previous page forgot WHL.

count the solid red and blue dots. That's actual results. The rows of dots on the left are presuming all the incumbents are re-selected so it's not real.  More will be clear after tonight when five wards are doing their shortlisting.

57 seats to vote on next May.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on November 22, 2017 at 19:49

Philip Foxe, Can I suggest that it's important to acknowledge the contribution of the LibDems in helping to fight and hopefully see-off the HDV monstrosity. Calling-in decisions for example. And do have a look at Clive Carter's thorough  and careful mapping and photographing of the homes and streets targeted by the KoberTories.  He has posted over thirty albums here/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23097244@N02/albums

The arithmetic will come into play should the Kobots still have a sizeable number of councillors in May and want to press ahead with Tory policies.
Or if Kober and her pals seeing defeat coming, decide to operate a scorched earth strategy, committing the Council to reckless decisions and agreements as they bail out.

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Permalink Reply by pamish on November 22, 2017 at 19:53

yes there's still six months to do a lot of signing of contracts.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on December 3, 2017 at 17:01

All three of Crouch End's sitting Labour Cllrs announced at around 2pm they'd dropped out in advance of today's (Sunday 3rd Dec) 3:30pm meeting where they faced a selection challenge. Their term will end in May 2018. https://crouchendlabour.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/we-have-withdrawn-...

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on December 3, 2017 at 17:17

Cowards.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on December 3, 2017 at 18:45

Wonder what took them so long? All the other non-triggered seem to have decided within a very short space of time after being triggered that they were doomed. They must know that as they spent lots of time tweeting their regret that so many mighty had fallen.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on December 3, 2017 at 18:58

I missed most of today's events because I've been in bed ill. But I got a phonecall about this.
A couple of points before getting back under the duvet.

Every Labour councillor "faced a selection challenge".  As indeed they ought to. Nobody should assume a council seat belongs to them. Or that they are entitled to be automatically selected as a candidate. The appalling arrogance of anyone who thinks they are, should be carefully considered by any Party member thinking of voting for them.
In the many decades I've been a Labour Party member people hoping to be candidates have had to get through an interview procedure at Borough level. And then at ward branch selection meetings.  All shortlisted hopefuls were expected to stand-up in front of a meeting of ward branch members and explain why they personally should become - or remain - a Labour candidate. And to answer members' questions.
This year the rules had been changed to explicitly favour sitting councillors. So it was open to a first member meeting to vote to endorse one or more of the three sitting councillors. In my ward, Tottenham Hale two sitting councillors were endorsed. One was not and they had a second chance, at a second meeting and ballot to persuade members.
Sitting councillors are in any case favoured because they receive the membership lists and in three-and-a-half years have plenty of opportunity to meet, report-back and get to know party members in their ward branch.

I've read the letter posted by the three Crouch End sitting councillors and think it misleading and rather pathetic. But also damaging and mischievous. It does not engage honestly about the (HDV) Haringey Development Vehicle - the major issue now responsible for Labour candidates being deselected. (Though in Crouch End the cock-up with disposing of the former Town Hall is also a factor.) Instead it adopts the McCarthyite smear tactic also being peddled by the Dear Leader: that opposition to the HDV is a far-left plot.

It seems that in their desperation Claire Kober and others have been trawling the records back to the 1970s and 80's to see who belonged to which three-letter acronym group. So I'd better confess that in the days before I got too scared to cycle in London, I have on occasions biked past the Marx Memorial Library. I've also enjoyed Marx brothers films.
I own a couple of books by Kropotkin. Though I never managed to read them.
And I once had a long letter published in the Guardian poking gentle fun at that paper's non-coverage of the honeymoon of the Prince Charles and Diana. I'm unsure whether Kober's right-wing apparatchiki would consider that mildly royalist or mildly republican. Or if they would simply not get the jokes.
Now back to the Lemsip, and to finish Michael Rosen's book "So They Call You Pisher". (But maybe he's in some Party they want to ban and perhaps burn his books? "Going on A Bear Hunt". Does that sound suspicious? ) 

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on December 4, 2017 at 1:11

Wish you better Alan!

I don't think the membership rules will ever get fixed - they seem to lurch from one imperfect fudge to another. Now Labour has seen such a huge spike in those joining, JC's desire for a more member-led institution will see the rules change yet again.

If it was up to me I'd have 'primaries' and face the challenge that turnout is pathetically small in local elections. Everyone and their uncle seems to have definite political views as to what should or shouldn't happen and whose fault it is, but I meet few who accept that if you don't vote, it's your fault as everything the council does is done in your name whether you like or or not. Not voting makes hypocrites of the opinionated.

Jason and Natan were excellent Cllr candidates here in sunny Crouch End in 2013. Sharp, highly intelligent, dedicated, inclusive, reasoned, fluent in social media, open to new ideas.  You couldn't meet nicer people.  What went wrong?

Their first mistake was to tie their efforts to their victory in 2014.  They didn't win it, it was Labour what won it for them nationally.  People didn't want the Lib Dems after Nick Clegg and the Coalition and Labour nationally suddenly seemed a credible alternative again.  Hardly anyone here voted for them personally because they had no platform - not a single local issue except some vague HTH promises. They regarded LBH as toxic to their chances (and they were right) so didn't try to bring any Borough issues forward either. So it wasn't 'vote locally, it was vote nationally and people did. Same with our MP - they didn't know who she was, they voted for Labour, not her. 

I tried to relate to them over the course of their reign, always being careful to stick to one specific issue and put months and months between emails as I want a lot of things from my Cllrs.  My main concern is HTH and I have a lot of need to engage Cllrs but I tried to keep it to an absolute minimum as they have other fish to fry. 

Soon discovered that they had decided to stand between us and the Council, trying to keep us from making direct links - silly!  Typical authoritarian tactic - keep everyone in the dark and feed them manure- mushroom management. Everything had to go through them. No change was possible unless it was first passed up the chain for an OK. Their demeanour was - we are the Council, 'let us know what you want doing and we'll sort it' when in fact all they wanted was attention because no Cllr can sort most of the serious problems - they tried to stick us with a false contract, which served to harm the reputation of Cllrs even further. Do all Cllrs do that?

I couldn't stop myself asking them for a few things. I alerted Jason (as he was a Cabinet Member) to the Borough's adoption of the Transparency code and tried to get him to apply it to HTH - no joy.

I hardly mentioned other issues but some I couldn't resist. For example I tried to engage Natan (as he was Chair of Planning) on a local planning matter that was winding up a householder who'd asked me for help - no joy, couldn't be bothered.  Tried to alert them to some tree mischief by an industrial estate - no joy, couldn't be bothered.  Alerted Natan to the fact that the each Council Cttee Video archive was to be deleted after 12 months  - a bad budget decision - suggested his supporters could upload the Planning Cttee footage to YouTube once a week as that would last forever and be free of charge - not interested. 

Noticed that the Highgate Library Campaigners complained that our three Cllrs were nowhere to be seen in such a pivotal fight which eventually defeated LBH.  Our trio's HTH views were parroted from Cllr Strickland and before him Cllr Goldberg  - senior Cllrs who were 'in charge' of the HTH project. I'm guessing this kowtowing happened because, as you'd know more than I, they had a decision to make very early on? Either support the Leader and her top team in all their causes and get preferment, or go your own way and be marginalised out of the game, powerless?

As new Cllrs it maybe seemed to them that everyone else knew what they were doing in such a 'safe' Borough and, keen to serve, I wouldn't be surprised if they took the Monarch's shilling. Downward slope from then on. We've seen how dissent is dealt with - harshly. JC should have left them the legacy (when he was an LBH Cllr) of encouraging those outside the tent but he clearly didn't. 

Over the dozen years that the Lib Dems were in power in Crouch End I got the distinct feeling that a political win for the LDs was considered a loss for Labour by LBH, especially when in 2006 the LDs had nearly half the seats. Mind you, the Lib Dems didn't deserve power - can't identify almost anything good they did of significance but they were harsh when it came to protecting their backs and tried to use HTH as a political football if they ever thought about it all, which was seldom. 

The Lib Dems never 'called in' any decisions or produced any initiatives, preferring to sit idly by except when joining in with the Council in quashing the community spirit that arose at the beginning of their reign when there was a real strong community push to get a local solution for HTH. They took their seat on the Board of the failed HTH 'Creative Trust' talking shop though, probably glad of the extra cash. As the Board met in private and published no minutes, it probably seemed unreal, incapable of anything practical.

So none of the Cllrs so far have demonstrated the creativity Crouch Enders see themselves as possessing. The deeply depressing difference in life expectancy between the West and East of the Borough remains high. I once asked Cllr Strickland (at an HTH meeting) what advantage was he taking of the HTH spend to address the inequality (e.g by making sure as many of the jobs and cash went to those hungry for it in Tottenham rather than outside of the Borough) and it was clear from his fumbled response that it wasn't even on his agenda.

One of the many bad things about the current HTH deal is that it makes the gap between us worse, not better.  There are enough well-off people in Crouch End as it is, the last thing we need is 146 luxury flats bang in the middle of our town - but don't get me started. My point is that Cllrs must address the Borough's inequality first, and urgently as people in poverty are increasingly in deep distress. 11 'affordable' flats in Crouch End not only don't help, they hinder. It seems to me that Cllrs all get bogged down by side projects that skirt around this and our three local ones were no different - they had good teachers.

Easy for me to write of course, unlike you I've never been faced with putting my money where my mouth is.  All I can do is hope is that Brian Cox was right  - things can only get better :)

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