Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Lib Dem team for Harringay Ward: Why we’re standing and a bit about ourselves.
The Lib Dem team for Harringay Ward: Why we’re standing and a bit about ourselves.
The next Council elections
On the 3rd May there is an election for all 57 seats on Haringey Council.
The present Council
The present Council is made up of 49 Labour Councillors and 8 Liberal Democrats. There are no Conservative or Green Party members. It is only the Lib Dems who have prevented Haringey from being a one-party state.
Harringay Ward
Harringay Ward consists of the whole of the Ladder plus Denmark Road, the eastern side of Green Lanes from Alfoxton Avenue to St Ann’s road and the turnings off (Alfoxton, St. Margaret’s, Harringay Gardens, Park Road, Colina Mews, Colina Road), as well as the Mountview Court estate. It is a marginal between Labour and the Lib Dems.
Some History
The balance for Harringay Ward was 2 Lib Dems and 1 Labour in 2006 and 2010, and in 2014 three Labour candidates were elected. The Conservatives and the Green Party have never been in contention, even when Matt Cuthbert got their best ever result in 2014, before becoming a Lib Dem himself.
Two of our candidates, Karen Alexander and David Schmitz, have served on the Council before: Karen from 2006 to 2014 and David from 2010 to 2014.
Why we’re standing
There are two main reasons.
Effective opposition
If, as many assume, Labour elects a majority of the Councillors, there really will need to be a larger opposition group to keep an eye on what they’re doing, to expose the mistakes and waste which happen on their watch and to campaign against disastrous excesses like the Haringey Development Vehicle. Remember, elections are often unpredictable, and a matter of less than 100 votes can often decide a race. So a stronger opposition is both desirable and very much achievable.
The personal touch
Faceless bureaucracy needs a human face. We see our main job as giving people someone to turn to should the system fail them. Whether it’s a flood in Wightman Road on Christmas Day, a family with small children that has been evicted, or an enforcement action that shouldn’t happen, someone has to be prepared to drop what they’re doing and call out the highways department, go with the family to the housing office, or get an explanation from someone higher up the chain of command than the call centre.
We’ve done all this in the past, and we want to do it again, but we need to be in office in order to be fully effective in doing this for you.
Why the Council needs a strong Lib Dem group
The BBC has recently observed, “Haringey Labour Party has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons - de-selections, division, denunciations.”
If Labour form the next administration in the Council, no-one will have any idea as to what that administration would look like, or even how cohesive it would be.
What we know is that there will be plenty of people who, like the outgoing leader Claire Kober, still want to bring in the Haringey Development Vehicle. Remember that for all the chaos caused by this in Labour’s ranks, they still voted unanimously against stopping it only last month, although they had the chance to do so at an Extraordinary Full Council Meeting called by the Opposition Lib Dems. Even more worryingly, they (again unanimously) voted money for it at the recent council budget meeting.
We have long attacked this idea as oppressive because it would throw people out of their homes, and as unwise because it involves gambling £2 billion worth of Council property in a deal with one developer.
There will also be plenty of new people who are quick to talk up grand schemes without any idea as to how they can be implemented or paid for. As one former Labour opponent of ours has said, "Momentum activists at some point are going to come in to contact with reality.”
In the middle of this civil war, who will do the un-glamourous jobs of seeing to it that services are provided, and that the Council’s limited money is used to best effect, rather than squandered on failed fried chicken shops, new logos, and trips to the French Riviera?
And who will address the problems with their children’s services, highlighted yet again
• By a joint inspection by Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, and the police and probation inspectorates, which found that when children are assessed they are too often either not offered appropriate support or their cases are closed too early. https://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/2004846/inspectors-warn-of-ineffe...
• By the Council’s own website which points out how children in care are failed when it comes to preparation for life outside of care http://www.haringey.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/health/joint-stra...
That’s where we come in. We know that Councillors can make a difference, but it isn’t by grandstanding against “the system”, or by getting too close to property developers. It is by patient and probing questioning of council officers and by listening to the people we represent.
We know that the only way to avoid bad decisions is to listen to people BEFORE we make up our minds. Our manifesto is about to be published and we’ll present it here. We believe that our plan will re-assure you that someone is looking after the interests of this wonderful borough.
A bit about ourselves
David, Karen and Matt all live in Harringay ward and are raising families here, so we are here in the ward day in, day out, and we’re always on the lookout for problems that need fixing. If we’re elected no-one will have trouble getting us to help if they find themselves bogged down in the call centre or “customer services”.
Karen Alexander was a Lib Dem Councillor for Harringay Ward from 2006 to 2014. During her terms she served on the Council’s Scrutiny Committee, which brings the Council’s workings into the cold light of day, and calls in questionable decisions – like the sale of the Hornsey Town Hall to a Cayman Islands-based property developer, and the notorious Haringey Development Vehicle – for a second, independent look. Even out of office, she hasn’t let up. She continues to attend meetings of residents’ groups and the police panel, and she works tirelessly on issues of traffic and road safety.
“As far as I am concerned, the 20mph limit on Wightman Rd has [Karen’s] name on it.”
David Schmitz was a Lib Dem Councillor for Harringay Ward from 2010 to 2014 and served on the planning committee. He quickly became known for his effective and tireless work for residents.
“From the moment I first contacted David about the problem, he was on hand with lots of good advice and useful pointers in directions that had never occurred to me. He also kept in close contact at all times.”
“He seems to be everywhere on that side of the borough boundary. Everywhere.
When he’s not working for the community, he practises as a barrister.
Matt Cuthbert is keenly involved in early-years education and the improvement of our local streets. He is an education volunteer at the nature reserve at Railway Fields (by Umfreville Road) and has taught cricket at North Harringay Primary School as well as under 9s cricket at a local club. He has salvaged and maintained many of the planters which brighten up Harringay Passage. The many groups he has contributed to have included the parents’ forum and the Friends of Harringay Passage.
In 2014, he stood for the Council as a candidate for the Green Party here in Harringay Ward, and was rewarded by the voters with the best result outside of the Lib Dems and Labour. After more strongly identifying with the ideals and proposals of the Liberal Democrats, he joined the party, and brings a keen eye to local environmental issues and a welcome take on ways to address them.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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My apologies, John. A stupid and careless mistake typing in haste.Thanks for pointing it out.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on
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My impression of the Lib Dem candidates is that they are honourable people and I too would like more plurality because I think it more accurately reflects the range of opinion in Harringay and further afield in the borough.
However I think the Lib Dems, as a minority, cannot achieve anything significant borough-wide. Even though they can (and do) produce good ideas, our politics prevent any ruling party from supporting a minority parties' cause. So I think it's a wasted vote because the only party that can really change important things is the one that has ruled Haringey for 50 years. The resultant 'one-party state' is a byproduct of our winner-takes-all system. Wandsworth, for instance, has been solid Tory for 40 years - Tory boroughs are as hard to tilt Left as Labour ones are to tilt Right.
Our Borough voted for a form of proportional representation and I guess that is the best way forward. Eventually it will happen in the UK, but probably not under the next Labour government so the basic improvement needed here (a wider range of voices) will have to wait.
So we're stuck with the politics we've got and the biggest fault surely lies with those of us who do not even bother to vote. Last time only 20% of the electorate actually voted Labour yet they won 85% of the Cllr seats - the system is screwed. I'm guessing that around 60% of the electorate will actually vote in May. What we need more than hardworking, locally-effective Cllrs (as I'm sure whoever is elected here will be) is to face people with their dreadful lack of engagement.
Not only do people not vote, but they are all full of political opinions they do not recognise as carrying responsibility. If you sit idly by whilst bad stuff happens, you're part of the problem. People here could get together and make Harringay a much more loving and thus safer society but they don't - they're wrapped up in their own lives and the community can go hang - blood is thicker than water. And yet they moan about all the symptoms of a disengaged society full of strangers who detour away from those on their knees. Good-hearted community-minded people live on every one of our streets and many work their socks off selflessly for the common good but they are a tiny minority undertaking largely thankless tasks.
So I ask all candidates, who is brave enough to call us out? Who will tell us to our faces that the dire political situation is our responsibility, to face people who might come back at them but, when push comes to shove, will not even bother to fill out a post vote, let alone go into the polling booth?
I'd very much like to see our Harringay local Cllrs hold large public meetings to help ladderites carve up the £millions the Council spend here every year (participatory budgeting) but what's the point if only a few turn up?
A way forward could be to increase the amount of online voting generally (eventually through the blockchain) and that could be done now through the Borough website with it's one-per-citizen secure login, but I bet people still wouldn't take up the challenge of getting involved, partly because it's not rewarding enough.
So the huge challenge for all the candidates is to make participation in local matters rewarding for the vast majority who clearly don't give a stuff. That means that no Cllr has a mandate and must attempt to represent a huge number of people with no idea what those people would have voted for.
Solving these problems is urgent if you ask me - what sort of place do you want to live in? Not solving them means our Borough (and hence this ward) will get even less in future - central government will continue it's persistent attempt to marginalise via central control and we'll all be worse off. Doomed! We're all doomed :)
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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on
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This is what I choose to focus on as a common aim.
The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.
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Thanks for this Matt - I've often wondered what the Lib Dems actually stand for and I recognise your sincerity. I hope you don't mind (I'm not getting at you) but as they are so generic and shared by all the Labour candidates too, could you state something that is specific to you as a Lib Dem?
You views above are all value judgements open to a huge degree of manipulation so can end up meaning whatever you want them to mean. All of the candidates want:
"a fair, free and open society"
but the definition of what is fair, free and open is where you differ from other parties Matt, so what is your specific Lib Dem view?
All Cllr candidates
"balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community"
because this too is a political set of aspirations - it's how most of them see themselves, as 'deciders' on our behalf. Are you not saying that it is you personally who want to be part of a team of Lib Dems who will weigh all the options and decide the balance on behalf of Harringay? So again, how do you specifically balance the liberty to be free of government control with massive inequality for example? Is this a way of saying you want tax cuts for the poor and a mansion tax? Would you have voted to freeze Council Tax here or raise more for Social Care?
"no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity."
Everyone wants an end to poverty and less ignorance but conformity? What's that all about - how many are 'enslaved by conformity' here in Harringay and what do you intend to do about it Matt?
Hope this doesn't come across as too negative Matt - I have great respect for you and anyone with the courage to stand up and be counted and wish more would, simply because the more diverse the range of views the more likely we are to get a better collective solution. I'm really not trying to wind you up - I hope it helps you clarify what you mean in practice and thus attract more support from those who are on the same page.
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I for one would like to see a ‘Cleaner Politics,’ the kind of politics Jeremy Corbyn spoke of when he launched his leadership.
Behind the scenes unity has been thin in bringing the party together under a common vision. Haringey Labour Party is in transition, we don’t fully understand how it will manifest, HDV is parked on hold, Claire may be standing down but there are others committed to see the HDV program through.
The cabinet member for the Environment, Stuart McNamara, bravely spoke out on his resignation, but not often do we see the internal tensions within the party. A heavy hand reshuffling a party leaves us short. Why don’t we opt to bypass this and elect fresh candidates external from the unpleasant personal politics in Labour at the moment, and put residents first.
We want candidates that are interested in our traffic, over branch politics. Improving pedestrian linkages, improving access to our train stations, improving our air quality, encouraging community and activity. I don’t see my Councilor’s enough, at the local meetings or freinds of groups to gauge their commitment.
Park your hatchets guys, we’re all losing here.
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