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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

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Apparently Strickland is toast but she's safe.

Oh sorry I see it says that she will be toppled as leader. Well yes of course, but can she be removed from her safe position as a Labour council candidate in Seven Sisters in next month's selections instead? I don't know how many people normally attend the Seven Sisters selection meetings but I bet there will be a lot more this time and that that happens all over the borough.

I think it will be standing room only that night...
I would be surprised if she was removed. In fact I think it’s quite unlikely
Dunno DTW. Since the last selection of candidates for the last local election there has been a big change in the Labour Party in Haringey, both in terms of the increase in number of members and the (crudely) Blairite/Corbynite split. As what is perhaps a foretaste of the broader mood, the selection for Haringey ward to fill a vacancy last year saw the selection and election of Zena Brabazon from a large number of potential candidates and I don't think Zena would describe herself as Blairite.
Cllr Kober has been able to assume that a majority of councillors in Haringey would be supporters of her and the cabinet's polices and direction for a number of years now but I think that selections this year will take away that certainty.

You are quite right Michael. Definitely not a Blairite.

I always hated it when people told me I would lose my socialist ideas when I got older, as though being a socialist was some sort of adolescent fad with the implication that I would see sense and become a Tory I suppose.  It never happened, and I am frankly ashamed that people of my generation  - who had the very best of the welfare state - are so quick to deny it to others. 

Zena

Zena Brabazon

Cllr, Harringay Ward

Removed as leader? No, that's likely. I think it's unlikely that she would be removed as a council candidate in Seven Sisters though.

I'm praying for a clean sweep to get these privateers off the Council.... May the Jezza be with you....

Hopefully there is the momentum to do this... ;)

I'm deeply ignorant and uninterested in the detail of these politics so I just go by gut feelings and general historical impressions, the main one being that I was always under the impression that Ms Kober's appointment as council leader in the first place, and her continued presence in that position, has always been largely cosmetic.  Thus, the prospect of her removal as leader doesn't impress.  The problem is the invisible power base that operates behind her which I have no idea about and which I suspect has only mutated slightly in decades.  Now if that boil could be lanced, it would be a different matter.  Of course I'm probably utterly mistaken.

The Cabinet system of local government gives huge powers to the Leader of the Council, many of which can be exercised without prior scrutiny by other council members. The previous committee structure gave some level of power to backbenchers as committee chairs but that has disappeared. In reality councils are now governed by The Leader and her/his Cabinet with most of the elected representatives watching from the sidelines.
Yes, there is always the danger than any leader and their cabinet, of whatever political colour, will adopt a dictatorial approach. I suppose it has to be down to how they can be held to account. That's why I loathe the Cabinet system. They can't unless they want to be.
I suppose the hope is that if a new leader is chosen by councillors to reflect a new political majority in the ruling party, these councillors will also have the numbers to deselect them if they ever veer away from the policy promises that got them elected in the first place.
All councillors are inexperienced when they first put their names on the ballot paper, even the ones who are in power now. But there are other backgrounds and skills people can bring in to politics when entering for the first time. Hopefully these will be the questions party members will be asking at selection meetings (I know I will be). Simply being on the left/right the spectrum isn't enough for me when they will be one of a group in charge of a budget that would put some flourishing companies to shame and when their choices will impact on the thousands who live in this borough.

Osbawn, where there is "Corbynist thinking" AKA Marxism, it doesn't matter how much experience one has. These sorts of "thinkers" are as inept and dangerous on day one as they are in year 40. Want proof?: Look no further than Bernie Sanders--Corbyn's USA counterpart--who has been the same since the 60s. Dangerous then; dangerous now. The only thing changed for Sanders is that at about age 40 he actually got a job. 

Like Corbyn, Sanders has all of the answers, even though if floated in the marketplace neither could manage an ice lollie stand without running it into the ground.

I appreciate the criticism of the development vehicle and it is true that in my sleep I could structure it better than Haringey has per what I've seen of its nuts and bolts. But at least there is the critical step of trying to actually create wealth rather than just taking it from someone else which is the entire "revenue" model the council operates under now. 

I personally don't care how this turns out. The two factions only differ in their approach in terms of who wastes our tax money the best and fastest. No party from Tory to Green/Republican to Democrat has any sense of fiscal propriety these days.

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