Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Claire Kober is way better than Theresa May!
Our Prime Minister was hubristic enough to call an election, lose it and have to give a bung to a right wing religious group for support.
Our council leader is way better than that. She had a selection timeline forced upon her and tried many times to change it but came home in the end anyway with a fantastic, momentum busting, 64-19 win in Seven Sisters after her colleague Joe Goldberg stepped aside at the last minute.
Weirdly the local Labour party took in £700 on the door in lapsed membership fees from the local Orthodox community, 40 of whom had registered as families back in October 2016 paying the minimum amount and one year in advance. It was gushingly reported on Twitter by local Jonathan Pie wannabe Martin Ball that bleary eyed teenage girls had turned up with their fathers in a pious demonstration of democracy at its finest. There were apparently some grumbles about having to pay for another year but being a member is the important thing!
Well done Claire Kober! It must be amazing to come through all of this after the possible sword of deselection was waved over your head by Dave Hill Momentum.
A local wit asked me what you had done that was wrong and I said that "oh no, it was all within the rules, just not very classy". They said that would be a fitting epitaph for you.
Tags for Forum Posts: labour, selection, sevensisters, stanns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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I guess they have to keep the sign-in in records. For each person, tick that teller has witnessed Labour Party card, photo ID and proof of address. If many of the group were teenagers as per these accounts, how would they have each proved address? No council tax or gas bills for young ones. Letter from Dad to say they live here?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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There are young members of the Party, Pam. Who do indeed live at home with their parents. I am delighted that is the case.
Please let's now await a full Party investigation.
Which incidentally, did not happen four years ago after the St Ann's selection.
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Yes indeed, bring in the young ones, they will be better at tramping the streets and getting out the youth vote and may indeed want to join other young members on awaydays etc.
I asked this question about evidence at our training session and IIRC it would be up to each person to arrange an acceptable form of evidence before the meeting.
Similarly that members in arrears can clear their debt up to 30 minutes before the meeting.
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Permalink Reply by Xavier on
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Interesting article Pamish, looks like a sodality or cabal, or dare I say a 'fifth column'.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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The thirty odd percent of the population who have not been voting have not ALL been doing it out of apathy (although the Labour Party members of Seven Sister's could do with some strong coffee), some of them have been unhappy with the choice on offer. Not anymore.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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The matter has been referred to the national Labour Party. An email about this step has been sent to all member of the Tottenham Constituency Labour Party (CLP). Text below
Yesterday the Tottenham Executive Committee (EC) Officers held an emergency meeting due to a large number of concerns raised by members following the Seven Sisters shortlisting meeting and subsequent media and social media reports.
Upon reading the media claims, we felt the what is being suggested is of a serious nature and potentially breached the following Labour Party rules:
'Appendix 2.1a.iv
The party is, however, concerned that no individual or faction should recruit members improperly in order to seek to manipulate our democratic procedures.'
as well as:
'Appendix 2.1a.v
The health and democracy of the Party depends on the efforts and genuine participation of individuals who support the aims of the Party, wish to join the Party and get involved with our activities. The recruitment of large numbers of ‘paper members’, who have no wish to participate except at the behest of others in an attempt to manipulate Party processes, undermines our internal democracy and is unacceptable to the Party as a whole.'
Membership of a local Labour Party is the responsibility of the Executive Committee (EC) of a CLP.
Given the suggestions being made, we as EC Officers strongly believe that it is inappropriate for a CLP to investigate itself and have written to Iain McNicol (General Secretary); Ian Lavery (Chair of the Labour Party) and the NEC to request the matter (including ourselves) is externally investigated by the NEC.
We appreciate that this is an unusual step, but strongly believe you as members require a response and that response should be based on the matter being fully and objectively examined with all facts ascertained.
We believe an investigation is a neutral act which does not imply guilt or accuse any person(s) of wrong doing.
We believe requesting an external investigation is the most professional and robust way forward to ensure you have full confidence in the local government selection process and all concerns are responded to.
It is important for all parties that this matter has a conclusion.
We are very firm in our belief as EC Officers that we are elected by you as Tottenham Labour Members and are fully accountable to you as Tottenham Labour Members. Therefore, we hope you support our decision to refer ourselves for investigation.
We hope you also understand that we cannot at this stage confirm or deny any reports in the media of action that we may or may not have taken in regards to this matter in the last 12-18 months or answer any questions of that nature.
We will fully co-operate with the investigation if our request for one is met.
Kind Regards (EC Officers of Tottenham CLP)
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It could be that the result in Northumberand P[ark, which also returned its incumbents, should also be open to investigation. A large party of people unknown to other members arrived shepherded by one man who spoke to them as a group in Kurdish, refused to let anyone else speak to them, and 'advised' them how to vote.
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Has anyone complained Pam?
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This is the other half of the deal in Seven Sisters. There is one slot still up for grabs in Seven Sisters and there are two men on the ticket. One of those men will not make it to the meeting as he is out of the country so it will just go to the other man.
The other man is the one who shepherded the group of people in Northumberland Park and told them to vote for Sheila Peacock and Kaushika Amin, who are supporters of the HDV (list here). This was in return for Joe Goldberg stepping aside at the last minute in Seven Sisters so that he would get in there.
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I am being serious but it's not quite like that. You only usually need a small group of people at a selection meeting because it seems many local Labour members do not take their responsibilities seriously and attend selections.
So in Seven Sisters people were recruited by someone last October so that they could pay a year's membership in advance and then vote in the following year's selection meetings. This involved entire households. In October this year their memberships went into arrears. However 38 of them (including the bleary eyed teenagers alluded to) turned up on the night and just paid cash on the door to put their memberships right. These people all voted for Claire Kober, which is only obvious from the result, it's usually anonymous and you win by single digits.
In Northumberland Park about 5 people were shepherded into the selection meeting and their IDs and memberships checked out fine. There is absolutely no evidence that their memberships were paid for by somebody else.
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You're not allowed to be in another political party but yes, you only need a few of you. Another key is that they person you vote for has to go through a vetting process by some other Labour people. Previously this has been used to keep left wing candidates off the ticket in Haringey.
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