We need a more democratic council

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on October 1, 2016 at 15:20

"Alan Stanton.. come, come..  you certainly do know what the Labour left thinks..  It would be shocking if you didn't."

Be shocked then. I tell you what I hear and see and read from my limited vantage point in Tottenham. I explain that I don't see something called the "Labour Left" which you appear to think has a monolithic collective view. You tell me - in effect - that I'm not being truthful. That my comment to you is a put-down.
I'm not sure where we go from there. Perhaps in Berlin; or when you visit the UK; you regularly meet wise people who are superbly well informed and have an overview of what the hell is going on in the Labour Party. A party which has more than doubled its membership and is still growing. Which elects a leader who is actually a socialist.
I don't have any such wise informants. Oh yes, there are any number of people in the media who claim to know everything. Sometimes I can even finish reading their articles. Although I rarely watch more than a few minutes of their silly claptrap (literally) on TV. Maybe some of what they say isn't completely untrue. But almost none of it fits what I see and the people I meet.

As for your comment about Tottenham electing anyone with a Labour rosette, I suspect that may not be true for much longer. The days of low turnouts and tribal voting came to an end in Scotland. For many reasons, I hope that in future Noah Tucker and all other candidates will have to work very much harder for every vote.

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Permalink Reply by Shirley Hart on September 30, 2016 at 23:32

Oh? Why?

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Permalink Reply by andy h on October 1, 2016 at 10:21

Whether he's Momentum or Tory light makes no difference to me.
He's going to be our councilor because he's The labour candidate, that's it, election over, It's already deicided.
Might be nice if the Labour Party actually came out and did some canvassing tho. I've seen more blue moons in the last 25 years than labour candidates.
All the other parties candidates over that time have come round and all ( of all persuasions ) have been lovely.
I've offen wondered if the labour candidates have had seriously bad breath or BO so the apparatchiks keep them locked in a cupboard till after the coronation.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on October 1, 2016 at 1:01

We have a democracy, it's just that voters can't be bothered to use it - that's what's wrong. Almost no Cllr gets elected with more than 50% of the vote, so by definition most of us are not represented - as we can't be bothered to do anything about it, we're lucky that the Council isn't far more arrogant than they appear to you to be.

I defy any org in their position not be be paternalistic. Their reaction must be to see themselves as guardians of the borough against any fickle, troublesome noise-makers (who don't speak for the majority). The Council is almost obliged to make sure this or that vocal bunch don't get their way because no special interest group can act for the majority.  If all it took was a bit of puff to get the Council to do what you wanted, chaos would result, policy impossible!

The absence of mandate means that the only people who can decide what the majority would want if they were to express a view are the Council themselves, so they do.

How to get out of this hole?  Do what Podemos did in Spain - use open source software to get people voting frequently on a whole range of issues - basically reboot democracy into a modern, granular form.

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