Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Local Election 2026
Final list of candidates now published (scroll down a bit for the links to each ward)
https://haringey.gov.uk/council-elections/elections-voting/local-el...
Tags for Forum Posts: 2026, Local, candidates, election
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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OUR current electoral system is distorting.
There may be keen competition for voter support in tight or marginal Wards and electors often respond to this.
However there is less need to vote in the "safe" Wards. In those electorates, this applies to both supporters and opponents of the Party in power.
For example, one safe Ward of Labour base-support is West Green.
In the 2022 election in West Green, Ruling Group candidates received nearly three quarters of the voter support. However, this support was on a turnout of a little over one fifth of eligible voters.
West Green is the extreme example of elector-alienation.
However, the simple average turnout for Labour is less than a third of electors. Here are the turnouts in the Wards won in 2022 by the Ruling Group ~
% TURNOUT in Labour Wards
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44%. Stroud Green
40% Hornsey
37% Bounds Green
37% Harringay
31% St Ann's
30% Hermitage & Gardens
30% White Hart Lane
30% Woodside
28% Seven Sisters
28% Tottenham Central
27% Noel Park (Ward of the Leader)
27% South Tottenham
27% Tottenham Hale
26% Northumberland Park
25% Bruce Castle
21% West Green
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31% Average turnout in 100% Labour-held Wards
Source (E&OE; descending order; percentages rounded)
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Permalink Reply by Eric Easter
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Yes! I want a councillor who will fix that pothole on Warham that gets deeper every day. I don't give a monkey's what they think about the Arab vs Israeli stuff, whether they like men dressing up as women or whether they think we have too many illegal immigrants.
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I know the one you mean! It's outside number 99 Warham Rd. I navigate it daily but it's likely to be causing damage to the cars of hundreds of unsuspecting drivers who hit it every day. Potentially deadly to an inattentive delivery bike rider - and that's the majority of them.
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Maybe it's not so bad after all. Every pothole has a silver lining...
And no, for the hard of thinking, I am not serious. It does need to be fixed and yes I have reported it.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton
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Eric Easter, have you ever considered taking occasional photos of the pothole as it "gets deeper every day". Years ago I did so for many months; especially for those which seemed dangerous.
I think you would find putting them on the websites Flickr, or Fix My Street will speed repair.
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Jamie Harper. Thank you for your interest in how I intend to vote.
I won't vote for any Far Right candidate standing for the Council in my ward.
It's highly unlikely I'd vote for a Conservative Party candidate.
(Maybe if they were personally endorsed by Peter Oborne.)Yes I would in any case refuse to vote for anyone who supports or approves of genocide, apartheid, or child murder.. That's one of my reasons for wanting to speak to them.
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I'm curious about what people calling for the introduction of a 'none of the above' option expect it to achieve.
Would more people take the time to turn up and vote?
What do they think would happen if that option received the most votes? Do they think a benign higher power or the much referenced 'they' would step in and rerun the election with 'better' candidates?
No, it would just mean that the candidates with the second most votes would get in.
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Would more people take the time to turn up and vote?
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Quite possibly. And at negligible extra cost, it's surely worth a try?
I see NoTa as a possible intermediate step to a fairer electoral system.
The number of Spoilt Ballot Papers are always recorded, but the salient feature of democracy in Haringey, is the low level of voter-turnout in Labour's Wards.
The chance of endorsing None Of The Above might encourage Parties to improve the calibre of candidates even further, so as to restrain voter support for None of the Above.
In Labour's Ward with the lowest turnout—West Green—the winners were elected with the support of only 16% of those on the electoral roll. Sixteen per cent only. i.e. 21% x 74%.
Currently, West Green Ward supplies two Members of the council's sole decision-making body, the Cabinet.
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It's not just the low calibre of candidates that results in low turnout. I suspect it is more to do with education, wealth and level of buy-in to the system in which we live.
The declining rates of voter turnout per ward you listed above broadly correlate with the declining levels of education, wealth and societal buy-in as you move from west to east.
The better educated generally have more stable and higher incomes, as you know. They also generally have a better understanding of the democratic process so they can more easily discern a quality candidate who has the potential to get things done from the others and they expect the process to work in their interests. They have higher levels of home ownership which gives them greater housing stability and an incentive to see improvements in the area in which they live. Therefore, they have higher levels of interest in the process and more incentives to turnout and vote.
The further east you go in the Borough, people are generally less well educated, have lower incomes and lower rates of home ownership (more transient). Therefore, the levels of interest, awareness and understanding of the process are lower in the east and they have less incentive to turn out. The system does not work for them and they don't care. They're too busy working.
Yes, there are multiple exceptions to this. I'm sure you can point to a chap living in a council flat in Highgate with no formal education who doesn't care a bit about politics or a Oxbridge educated SPAD living in a bedsit in Tottenham Hale with his surgeon wife from Whereverstan who run community college classes in Marxist theory but generally this is true.
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ERIC, the level of alienation or disaffection in Labour Wards is on average running at two thirds of the Electoral Roll.
In West Green Ward in the 2022 election, the absence of engagement was four out of every five registered electors.
If like me you see low turnout as a long-term problem, then what in your view is a practical step or steps that could help rectify this?
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Nah, I understand he is from New Zealand.
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