Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Legal funding to fight Prevention of Harassment Letter over St Ann's Labour Fraud
I've decided that I am going to go ahead with the legal fight.
Bindmans have estimated that their initial advice on the Prevention of Harassment Letter will be up to £1,500. Funds are needed in advance, before Bindmans can start work. If anyone wants to contribute, Bindmans’ bank details are:
National Westminster Bank plc
Sort Code: 60 12 14
Client Account No: 30366658
When transferring funds, please use the reference JS McMullan.
I intend to fully recover costs and will be donating your money to St Mungos unless you tell me you'd like it back if I win.
I estimate that I'll have to put up £500 of my own money and then a further few thousand if Bindmans go ahead.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, fraud, labour, st ann's labour, stanns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lydia R on
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"I was thinking more of council officers actually, but now you mention it............."
Which only goes to prove how far ahead of the game I am.
Lydia Rivlin: Conservative Party candidate for Harringay.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Touché!
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Permalink Reply by Cllr Emina Ibrahim on
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Sorry John your quite right it was addressed to Clive as it's in reply to his post. But as Clive refuses to address me by my name on other threads I am unintentionally starting to return the courtesy.
Emine IbrahimLabour Party Candidate (Harringay Ward)
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I agree with you Clive (that the most important attributes should be neutrality and competence) but I do think there is also the desire to want to work for local authorities that share views similar to your own, especially at a senior level. Someone who, say for instance, feels that planning polices should favour commercial development, is probably going to gravitate toward an authority with those policies. If you feel Kensington and Chelsea's policies most closely match your own, you're probably not going to be that keen to work for Hackney or vice versa.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Michael, for me, one of our Borough's most outstanding public servants was the former Director of Corporate Resources, who commissioned the first of the three Walklate Reports. It took intestineal fortitude for her to do this but she was compelled by the scale of the losses. It was an investigation into the development of the licence to Firoka (the disastrous sale attempt of AP by the Majority Group).
This innocent-sounding title led to big ramifications, including (following my Complaint) a third investigation and published report that is worth reading. I would also pay tribute to the Council's prosecuting laywer at the Hearing. Cllr Adje was Found guilty of bringing the Council into direpute and was suspended for four months. Despite this, he was re-selected by his Party (which speaks volumes).
That case and exposure was wholly exceptional (and would never have come to light but for High Court action brought by the two founder members of the Save Ally Pally campaign).
What worries me is the oft-remarked tendency to a 'one-party' state in the Borough.
It's like one or two regimes elsewhere in the world that may at first win by democratic means. However, once in power they then adopt a winner-takes all approach and govern almost exclusively in their own interests. We've had it for four decades now. It isn't really a mystery as to why this Borough has one of the highest Rates and yet one of the highest rates-of-complaint in London. Is part of the reason not continuous one-party rule?
The interesting question for me is, why did Mr Dillon feel the need to make his disclaimer (above) at all? I suggest that it is a clue as to the prevalence and significance of membership of the Labour Party amongst senior council officials. As a former Deputy Leader, Mr Dillon might be expected to know more about these matters than many. I believe that in his book, he was trying to explain the phenomenon of poor performance.
Is it possible that some council staff (though absolutely not all) – as in the one-party big totalitarian states of the 20th century – are party members not necessarily out of conviction, but out of a hope that membership might convey career advantage, coupled with the expectation that the dominant regime was unlikely to change?
Disclosure:
I am a prospective councillor candidate
Highgate Ward | Liberal Democrat Party
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Hi Clive
In 1950 the rights and freedoms listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were used to form the basis of the European Convention of Human Rights – an international treaty aimed at protecting human rights in Europe. It was drafted by the Council of Europe and all member states are party to it.
The Human Rights Act 1998 is the main piece of law that protects human rights in the UK and allows people enforce their rights guaranteed by the Convention in the UK. It places public authorities – including the government, state schools, hospitals and social services – under an obligation to treat everyone in the UK with fairness, equality, dignity, respect and autonomy.
Why is this relevant to your post about Local Government Officers?
ARTICLE 11 -Freedom of assembly and association
- Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
- No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This Article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the State.
The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 introduced the principle of 'politically restricted posts' and restricting the political activities (not party membership) of local authority employees in certain roles and above certain grades. Please also note that local authority staff are not defined in the UK as members of the Civil Service. Please do some more reading Clive or just ping an email to someone in your party and get a briefing.
Your gripe seems to be that your party feels that officers favour the Labour party – ultimately the Labour party should be the representation of working people in parliament and local authority so we should be representing the interests of all workers as it’s our founding principle. However if you wish to gain ground on that as party perhaps reading and respecting the legislation which governs their employment may be start. What was suggested in the post by John Mcmullan and which you confirm in your public posts is that the Liberal Democrats are conducting a witch hunt of staff and potentially contravening their human rights not only Article 11 but Article 9 (Freedom of thought, conscience and religion) Article 10 (Freedom of expression)
Emine Ibrahim
The Labour Party Candidate (Harringay Ward)
Declaration of Interest – I am a full time Trade Union official for Local Government Staff in another authority. I have declared this on Facebook, Twitter and at the hustings I participated in on 13th May 2014. I am declaring here as it is relevant to the post
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Clive, you keep repeating the same quote from Denis Dillon as if it somehow provided clinching proof of your extremely unpleasant slurs on Haringey staff and - as far as I can tell - unevidenced assertion of the "prevalence and significance of membership of the Labour Party amongst senior council officials".
All and any member of the staff of all and every local council is entitled to join a political party. At a senior level their political activities are clearly and legally restricted. You've had this explained to you several times.
I've also told you that in sixteen years as a councillor I have never asked any council officer if they belonged to a political party and if so which one. Such a question would have been outrageous.
The same applies to several years before that when, as a school governor I was involved in appointments of staff. The only time I recall finding out someone at a school where I was a governor was in the Labour Party was when a teacher at that school happened to move into the ward I represent.
Frankly I'd be astonished if your fellow Liberal Democrats were supporting your views. Civil liberties was a proud tradition of the Liberal Party. The LibDems I know honour that tradition.
On 22 March I suggested that if you wanted to know the views of Denis Dillon and Brian Fanning you could easily contact them - especially Denis who works in London. Did you do that? Or were you afraid they might not agree with you?
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Alan this is impressive, even magnificent, faux-indignation on behalf of your party, but its not about civil liberties, as you well know.
It's about searching for reasons for the chronic poor performance of the Labour-run council over 40 years. It's also about trying to serve residents better. I do not believe there is sufficient recognition of conflict of interest.
You do not comment on why you thought Mr Dillon – who may know better than either of us – why he chose to write that clause. Your position seems to be, yes Mr Dillon is correct and so what?
We have the unusual combination of a council with amongst the highest Rates and amongst the highest level of Complaints.Is it someone's else's fault, or could it be the fact there's been a single party in power for four decades?
Residents still deserve better.
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Not faux indignation, Clive. It's real anger and deep disappointment that you don't appear to understand and respect civil liberties and civil rights.
Perhaps you're in the wrong political Party?
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Clive, I have no idea of the level of membership of any political party amongst staff working for Harringey or any other local authority. I don't think it's any of my business nor yours frankly. One thing I do know is that in any local authority the vast majority of staff are low paid people who do the non-sexy yet essential stuff like sorting out housing benefit, issuing library books and arranging home care. I doubt their career ambitions go beyond their next rather meager payslip.
The most senior appointments are made by councillor appointment panels advised by HR (and sometimes a council legal bod I think) and this happens in local authorities be they red, green, blue or yellow. The rest of us get interviewed by a harassed manager who is desperate to get someone's arse on the chair to pick up the work they and colleagues have been carrying.
If you get in (and I think you may well do) I'm afraid that you will see that for almost all staff, Haringey is just a way to earn and living and not a terribly exciting or intrigue filled one at that.
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Thanks for that sensible, common sense and neutral comment. I imagined Clive said:
"Michael, that's fascinating. I've never thought of it that way. Together with your other comments about people who work for local councils, you've really made me think and look at things in a different way."
Then I woke up.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I have seen an email from the T/Supt investigating the Harassment Notices issued to Phil K and myself saying that he is aware that there is still tweeting going on about "this matter" and could he ask that any commentary be put on hold until he has completed his investigations as it is only complicating matters (I thought that they had to do the investigation BEFORE they issued the notice). No timeframe for these investigations is given but he does say he's asked "other parties" to do the same.
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