Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Councillor Stuart McNamara: a personal view
I have, of course, read Stuart McNamara's letter to Cllr Kober with great interest, and it will come as no surprise that I agree with most of his conclusions. The letter makes Geoffrey Howe's demolition of Margaret Thatcher appear to be a tummy-tickle by comparison, and quite right too.
However, I am saddened by the fact that someone of his calibre should now feel that he ought not to seek re-selection by his party, even though I would be aiding his opponent in any subsequent election. It is, after all, possible to have opponents whom one respects, and Stuart McNamara is one such opponent.
Stuart and I were part of the 2010 intake and I very quickly formed the view that, while we were destined to be political opponents, we would nonetheless be able to work together constructively for the good of the Borough which we had undertaken to serve.
During the years that followed, I remained of that opinion, especially when we worked on the planning committee. For those who do not know, the planning committee is in some ways quasi judicial, and members are not supposed to be whipped to follow any party line.
As fellow lawyers we would sometimes discuss the papers in order to ensure that any questions which needed to be asked with regard to an application were properly put. At the end of the process, we would frequently come to different conclusions, but I never doubted his good will, his capacity for hard work or his professionalism.
It has been remarked that he is someone who is dedicated to the people he represents. This was demonstrated to me most graphically when, at an impromptu meeting of councillors in the wake of the Tottenham riots, he managed to be present after making a hasty and unscheduled return from a foreign holiday.
It is, for me, sad that the current strife between the corporatists and the hard left in the Labour party should have claimed such a victim. I wish him well.
David Schmitz
Liberal Democrat former Councillor
Harringay Ward
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Thanks for this David. I agree with your assessment of Stuart. I had a number of meetings with him around the traffic issue and I concluded that he was a genuine chap sincerely seeking a solution to a problem that for whatever reason had for too long not been effectively dealt with.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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David, I have great respect for you and the work you did on the Council. But please don't fall into Daily Mail style descriptions of what's happening inside Haringey Labour Party. Most people who've joined or rejoined are no more "hard left" than you and your colleagues were "hard right" or "hard centre" or some nonsense like that.
In my time on the Council I had many conversations with LibDem councillors - many more than with Claire Kober. I suspect that you and they shared with many Labour members some basic attitudes about freedom of information and freedom of speech and dislike of the authoritarian attitudes and practices which we've seen with the Kober regime.
For example suspending Labour Cllr Gideon Bull for speaking out on behalf of elderly residents was stupid and undemocratic. So was the way that Cllr Lorna Reith has continued in this authoritarian style as Labour's current Chief Whip. With 49 Labour councillors to eight LibDems what's the point of Kobotic control freakery? Why seek to gag and control? Fear of a LibDem takover? Hardly likely.
As you'll know very well, outside the smug complacent fug of Kober politics there's increasing alarm about environmental issues; about worsening poverty and inequality, attacks on civil rights, the crises in housing and the NHS; and the need to respond to racism. And among many other areas where shared values and aims may, at minimum, enable fruitful dialogue across parties of the left. To "read" 2017/18 as a rerun of the 1980s makes little sense to me.
All sorts of people have been talking as a consequence of the anti-HDV campaign. Large numbers of politically unaligned people included. So let's please keep the channels and debates open; and continue the learning and thinking.
If there are some common features which mark out the shrinking right wing of Haringey Labour it's not simply their worship of property developers and billionaire stadium owners. Their apparent incuriosity and unwillingness to learn may turn out to be a worse flaw.
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Permalink Reply by David Schmitz on
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Thank you for your kind words, Alan. The respect you speak of is, as you know, entirely mutual.
I also agree with you that there is much to be gained by dialogue and a search for common ground between us.
However, there is one thing which overshadows all other considerations locally.
That is that there are plenty of Labour party supporters who have started to feel that they are politically without a home.
It needs to be remembered that it was the Liberal Democrats on the Council’s scrutiny committee who first called out the HDV and then called it in for consideration.
And while there was Labour support for the move to stop the HDV, it was the Labour cabinet and council which ultimately passed it, so that now only a court action is standing in the way of its implementation. If the court challenge fails, what hope is there that the present or any future Labour administration (should there be one), will change course?
It is too much to expect that something so large and unwieldy as the Labour group will be capable of change. A large ship cannot turn on a sixpence.
What it all comes down to is that the Labour group will become neither agile nor responsive until its size is dramatically reduced.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Who are the dissidents? The Socialists (the founding idea behind the Labour Party in Britain was that its purpose was to bring about a Socialist Government through the UK's Parliamentary system) or the ummm the others?
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Many thanks for your comments. While I can understand your wish for some independents to stand, my own view is that this would cause difficulties if it were to happen.
In the first place, independents seldom do well. Getting elected is a gruelling business and it's extremely hard to do it on ones own.
Secondly, it really is useful to have constructive input from like-minded colleagues. It brings the best out of one and it (usually) saves one from simple errors, which it is easy to make on ones own.
Thirdly, if there are a number of independents, this can split the vote and let the incumbents back in.
Fourthly, and most importantly, a political group has to prepare a manifesto, which will then give the voters an idea of what they are voting for. It isn't perfect, of course. The unexpected can occur and sometimes it is necessary to make compromises if one doesn't get a majority. But still, if the job is done correctly, the voters are presented with a coherent programme of what the party is trying to achieve. That's better than them simply having to take a punt.
If I may make a pitch for my own party, the preparations for our manifesto are now underway, and we will be publishing it well before next May's elections. Perhaps you'll let me know then what you think.
Best,
David
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Thanks, too, for your considered reply, Neil.
Like you, I believe that while of course a party's overall values should be reflected in both its local and its national campaigns, it is upon local issues that local elections ought to be decided.
The point that you make was also made very powerfully some years back by another HoL contributor in these terms:
As a child, I used to help my mum who was a volunteer for the Paddington Labour Party and saw at close hand the sort of problems local councillors have to deal with. From then onwards, I have always believed that at local level, it’s the (most effective) person rather than the party you should vote for. I have never been able to fathom why for example, people express their anger at the government in Westminster by voting out of office the guy in the next street who gets your drains unblocked or your broken windows fixed.
The full posting can be found at (my blushes) http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/in-praise-of-david-schmitz
That brings me to another point which is that you can do far more for your neighbours and community if you are elected than if you are not. This was brought home to me about a year ago when I was unable to save a refugee from bailiffs who were seizing his meagre belongings for unpaid council tax which he couldn't pay because he hadn't been allowed to work and earn money. When I was in office, I had managed to stave them off several times.
So winning does matter.
If I may mention again our forthcoming manifesto, it will be directed at local issues, and I will be encouraging people to let me know their views on it.
As for the drains and windows aspect of a councillor's work, I believe that Karen Alexander and I were reasonably effective at being "good neighbours on steroids" which is what all good councillors aspire to be.
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Spurred on by the opportunities social media was starting to offer and filled with idealistic enthusiasm, back in 2010 I put a lot of effort trying to get things focussed on the people who were standing as candidates in the local elections and not the parties (www.harringayonline.com/page/local-elections-2010-home-page).
Liz and I even recorded a series of video presentations/interviews with the candidates. Whilst a minority of people may have found our coverage interesting, I think unless there's a pressing reason to do otherwise, people generally give little thought to the local issues concerned in local elections and use national party 'brand values' as a proxy for making a local voting decision.
I imagine that there's a host a date that can be dug through to verify this.
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Indeed I remember those interviews, Hugh, and I enjoyed doing mine.
You are, of course, right in saying that national party brand values influence local voting, and I can't really complain too much because anyone looking at some of my 2006 leaflets might think that my opponent was George W. Bush.
Still, anyone who stands locally really ought to try to try to focus largely on the local issues which the election is actually about. Because local issues are becoming ever more important, this may happen without prompting. If it does not, then no doubt the necessary nudge will come from the readers of this website.
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Well as you're a libdem seeking to displace a Labour candidate I can offer you a manifesto:
Traffic, traffic traffic (although the liberty in libdem is possibly the liberty to pollute versus the liberty to enjoy your home without being poisoned).
Middle class taxes that actually mostly hit the poor because they're stuck in houses they bought when they were giving them away and can't even maintain a garden.
Anti-strong and stable. More opposition councillors to keep the council from being too homogeneous (although the Labour party appear to be able to do that all by themselves).
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At the time I thought the short videos you and Liz Ixer made and posted were a positive experiment aimed at extending local democracy. I said so at the time and still think it.
And it was not just that my wife Zena Brabazon was a candidate and appeared in one of the videos. As I recall, your offer was made to any party's candidates, and the same standard questions were asked. (Have I remembered that right?) So it was possible to compare and contrast.
Other people did something very similar for General Election candidates. I remember watching a video interview with Sheik Thompson who stood as an independent against David Lammy MP.
Hugh I think you and Liz were somewhat disappointed at the time by the response to these, especially given the work you put in.
But maybe you were a little ahead of the curve? Use of video in campaigns etc is now far more common.
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