Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Lydia taking the leap--I'm a Tory now!
Hello Harringay,
A few weeks ago a good friend in the Conservatives asked me to run under their banner in the local elections and I didn't laugh right in his face.
My original excursion into politics was in 2001, when I joined the Conservatives because I was so angry about the Victoria Climbie thing but then I left them in 2005 because:
a) I got fed up of politics and
b) I got fed up of the Conservatives (mind you I was just as fed up of the other lot).
When, a few weeks ago, I was invited back to the treadmill, I wasn't any better disposed to the political life but there is so much sh*t going on in this borough that I decided I couldn't ignore it any more. I don't fit that well into a Party mold but seeing as the Conservatives are the only group really serious about opposition in this borough and seeing as I am an Angry Old Woman, I decided that *someone* has to do something. Don't talk to me about the LibDems. The place for nodding dogs is in the back of the car, not in the Council chamber.
*If you want to follow me on Twitter, the address is <@LoveHarringay>
*If you want to get in touch with me by phone, leave a message with Tottenham Conservatives on 020 8374 6305. I'll get back to you. Or email loveharringay@gmail.com.
*If you want to discuss political theory, ring the LSE.
And from now on, you can be as suspicious as you want about anything I say.
btw:
I and my two running-mates, Sean Rivers and Massimo Rossini (NB--Rivers, Rivlin & Rossini make The Three Rs, which all good Conservatives support) will be putting out a leaflet soon.
The local party have agreed to let us write up our own stuff, so we are actually going to be working hard on it, ourselves. At least take a look when it lands on your doormat.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Sharon in 2010 one of the Labour candidates had a very close relationship with the incumbent Labour councillor in Harringay. When I outed this relationship I was accused (behind the scenes as ever) of being a homophobe. The problem was that this person was hoping to get votes from his own ethnic group who were apparently homophobic. Gina uses her ethnicity to get votes, I have not seen evidence of Emine doing this and I don't expect her to but it's relevant.
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Permalink Reply by 1rk254kmc0kqw on
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I can empathise with Emina on this one. Putting politics aside, I can see why Emina feels offended by O.A.E's comment.
We can debate and debate about politics all we like but including someone's parent's country of origin is totally unnecessary.
We all live in Britain (LONDON even!) as a cohesive society so differentiating people by their parent's origins does not benefit anyone. It is quite offensive to be honest.
O.A.E, if you feel that you have to divide and differentiate, divide and differentiate by political party if you have to.
If you look into this, I'm sure that whether you are a Green, Labour, Lib Dem, UKIP, TUSC or Conservative etc: we can all agree that making comments on someone's family ethnic origin is uncalled for.
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Permalink Reply by Cllr Emina Ibrahim on
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Lydia - Aphrodites Isle is a reference to Cyprus my self and Gina are both Cypriots. Our origins are not relevant to this debate. OAE I am more than happy for you to ridicule my politics but please do not refer to my parents country of origin.
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Emina, I'm afraid there just ain't no poetry in your soul. See you at the wake in the wee small hours of May 23.
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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1. I didn't see that thing about Aphrodite's Isle
2. I did not refer to your parents' country of origin--how DARE you accuse me of that?
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Lydia wasn't the one who made the remark.
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I want to make clear here and now that I made no reference to anyone's ethnicity. I never have and never will. I did not accuse Jerry of that--the words came from Emina.
Like making fun of someone's name, referring to ethnicity is a breach of manners and absolutely useless in forwarding an argument.
However for the benefit of OAE, I have to point out that the default resort of the Labour Party when losing an argument is to start slinging accusations of racism around. It doesn't matter even if it is aimed at the wrong person -- it is the standard shut-up and people are frightened of defending anyone so accused for fear of being tarred with the same brush.
For the record, I am Jewish. My husband was born in Baghdad. My daughter-in-law is a Jamaican. My writing partner on many scripts is Gujarati. Anyone going even near the subject of racism in relation to me is completely out of his/her mind.
And I defend OAE because I know he was being playful rather than vicious. Emina, you may perhaps chide OAE in a private message telling him that you are hurt by that line of comment but bringing this up as if it were a huge issue -- I have to say that it does look very much as if you are taking your own sensitivities (to which you are entitled) and perverting them to use as tools to deflect the political argument.
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Can I be clear Lydia that I at no point accused you of making the remark. You asked me why I found OAE's comment offensive and I answered you directly explaining. I simply presumed that you did not know that Cyprus is refered to as the Aphrodite's Island hence your question. I do not and should not need to defend myself on this issue.
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I missed the "OAE" when I read your message so I thought you had addressed this to me.
I apologise very sincerely to you, Emina, for my haste and the misunderstanding that arose from it. Please forgive me.
However, I stand by my subsequent comment about the hair-trigger reaction especially amongst members of the Labour Party to start accusing people of racism, or implying it, or suggesting it, or insinuating it into a conversation to muddy the issue.
Please do not taint this forum--which is interesting and lively--with that sort of stuff. As I said before, if you think someone is going too far, it would be far better, more reasonable, and ultimately more useful, to try a private message first.
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That's the disadvantage with this discussion format. It causes many misunderstandings. I would personally prefer a more straightforward system where comments are organised in a chronological order of the time they were published.
Lydia, thank you for posting this intriguing discussion!
Although I receive hundreds of emails on this, it makes a fantastic read.
Perhaps there could be a public meeting in St Ann's/ Harringay discussing local politics before the elections. Sort of like a BBC Question Time with a panel.
I would not be able to make it but perhaps someone could run the politics-related event at somewhere like Chestnuts Primary School. And it can be professionally recorded to store on Harringay Online.
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Phil K. The governments policies on the NHS relates directly to the vulnerable position of our local hospital, The Whittington.
Lydia, I would have liked a more considered response on the governments attacks on the NHS, both local and national, not rambling anecdotes about horse riding etc, and how you saved St Anns hospital single handed. "..I led a group of protesters straight into the committee room where the unit’s fate would be decided and when told that it was a closed meeting, barged through the security guards and the door and told them they would have to carry me out, and the others following. I am rather small—they could probably have bowled me out—but I think they were frightened of breaking something and they let us stay. It was a small victory but Mario said it did sort of change their tune on the number of beds they were going to provide elsewhere. I was with the SSA for some time until I got fed up of Mario shouting at people. I very well understood he was angry but I couldn’t handle his tactics. I have to say this again as in another posting—aggression may appear to work in the short term but in the end it is counter-productive. Well, unless you’re Genghis Khan, I suppose. I think he probably did all right being aggressive. Not sure I would have liked being in his skin, though."
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