What I thought in 2012 (join the Labour Party)

This is something I wrote in June 2012 and batted back and forth a bit between Hugh and Liz. I didn't post it in the end because we decided it was unfair to Karen and David. I'm posting it now to make myself feel better.

In the 2010 local elections the ward of Harringay was a hard fought battleground. We were inundated with election literature from the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party. In the end the vote was so close that there were two recounts of our vote and finally the Lib Dems edged out the Labour Party two seats to one by 13 votes. Matt Cuthbert, standing as an independent gained a very credible 292 votes. The lowest polling winning councillor who won a seat was David Schmitz with 1,987 votes. In the next local elections I am willing to bet hundreds of pounds that we return three Labour Party councillors for Harringay because the Liberal Democrat brand is nationally not what it was and nobody else will get a look in.

You may ask yourself, if you believe me, "So, what is the point in voting?". Well of course there's always a point in voting. It's not just for influencing the outcome of this election but it determines how the battleground will be drawn up for the next elections. Just think of how the Green Party's policies have been taken on by mainstream parties as they have seen the percentage of their vote increase. But you can do even better than this.

In the last local election I was very interested to see the St Ann's ward de-select a currently standing Labour Cabinet member, Brian Haley, from their list of candidates. This was a very well connected and powerful local politician who was in a very safe Labour held ward and yet he was cast aside, voted out by a small number of local Labour Party members. These people were able to do something the electorate could never realistically do, choose who would represent them.

The meeting to select the three Labour candidates for Harringay was attended by no more than nine local Labour Party members; Gina Adamou, Andreas Adamides, Jon Vellapah, (REDACTED BECAUSE OF LEGAL ISSUES) and four other Labour Party members. From this group of nine was selected Gina Adamou (long standing Harringay councillor), her son-in-law Jon Vellapah and (REDACTED BECAUSE OF LEGAL ISSUES). Andreas is Gina's son. Presumably everyone attending wanted to stand and there was a fair bit of horse trading going on, not necessarily "selection". At the next election this meeting may very well decide who represents us more than the actual election and I think it is poorly attended and subject to manipulation.

So join the Labour party now. Go to their selection meetings and help them select three good candidates for the next local elections.