Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Labour Party Selection Fraud in St Ann's
After it was discovered at the St Ann's Labour Party selection candidate selection meeting that there were people present and voting who should not have been, I came home from the pub (where I'd heard about it) and wrote this article. It has subsequently been edited by site admins to remove the names of people who were embarrassed or in the final case where a journalist said it was potentially libellous. Well here I will attempt to summarise what we have subsequently found out and hopefully take people's attention away from my original appalling rant.
Back in May (The Ward AGM):
- The St Ann's Ward AGM was convened on Thursday the 23rd of May instead of the usual first Wednesday of June by the then Ward Secretary, Barbara Blake.
- Protests were made by members about this but they were rebuffed by the Ward Chairman.
- At this meeting The current Ward Secretary resigned and there was bloc voting to decide the new Ward Secretary.
- A person in the bloc opposing John Blake turned up late and was prevented from voting despite there being nothing about this in the Labour Party rules.
- John Blake was elected Ward Secretary by one vote.
The Selection Meeting:
- The meeting was run by The Secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party , and Steve Hart from Hornsey & Wood Green.
- A candidate who arrived early noticed the five members arrive with Ali Gul Ozbek, sensed that something was up and mentioned it to Barbara Blake. When the other candidate seemed unhelpful they mentioned it to Steve Hart. Then the candidate went looking for the five people but was barred from entering the room (3o minutes before the selection) by the Ward Secretary.
- By the time one member I have spoken to arrived, the five members were seated at the back of the room. Four men and one woman (who works in Ali Ozbek's Pharmacy).
- A blonde woman turned up before anyone had started speaking but was barred from entering the room by the Ward Secretary, despite remonstrating with him.
- Barbara Blake won in the first round (to select a female candidate) against Zena Brabazon and Emine Ibrahim by two votes. It was 11/1/14. Everybody voted.
- It is alleged that one candidate knew the questions in advance and had prepared answers.
- At the appropriate point in the meeting the secretary asked if everyone was OK with the others in the room and everybody laughed.
- There were various factions voting together in the room; the five new members, Charles Adje's family, Zena and David's people and the Ward Secretary's people.
- In the final round Ali Ozbek and Peter Morton were selected, beating Zena by one vote.
- Ali is a local chemist and businessman on Green Lanes who seemed very passionate about what should be done with St Ann's and spoke eloquently about the need to reduce business rates. He is also a property developer.
- At the time Peter worked as head of press for the Labour Party.
- Barbara is a trade union official and ex Ward Secretary.
After the Selection Meeting
- A fellow councillor calls David to commiserate with him.
- David Browne and Zena Brabazon did some investigation using the St Ann's Labour Party membership list and the electoral roll.
- They discovered that nineteen new members signed up that year did not actually live in St Ann's and that they had either given Green Lanes business addresses when they signed up or claimed addresses in the ward.
- Not one of these new members, many of whom were recruited on the 8th of July gave an address in the ward at which they are eligible to vote, which is required by party rules.
- Five of these members were "eligible" to vote because they signed up before the cut off date of the 30th of April, however they should have been barred from voting because they do not actually live in the ward.
- Zena and David wrote to their local Labour Party officials who sent their evidence on to the London Labour Party.
- Nobody can tell me for sure where Ali Ozbek lives but he claims an address in Finsbury Park Avenue.
- Ali Ozbek has donated money to the Labour Party.
- According to a twitter exchange with a Labour councillor in another ward, the membership list should have been gone through before the meeting by the person running it to make sure this kind of thing did not happen, it was certainly done in their ward.
- When one of the five members who voted was called at his home his partner informed the caller that he had been in Turkey for a while and was not due back yet.
- In Harringay several new Labour Party members were registered using Green Lanes business addresses but not before the cut off date.
- Barbara Blake has told local traders that it is OK to register as a member in the Labour Party from a business address (it is definitely not) and the Tottenham Membership Secretary has expressed a similar view in a meeting, only to be corrected.
The "Corruption in Haringey Labour" article.
- After I wrote the original article, in which I also made some allegations against Claire Kober, the only phone call to site admins was to remove the Secretary of the St Ann's Labour party's name from the discussion.
- There was a lot of comment on the original thread and as of Saturday the 12th of October it appears to have been viewed more than 7000 times, although I dispute that as a useful metric (I think the actual figure is much lower).
- After some badgering it was picked up by an overworked Stephen Moore at the Tottenham Journal, here.
Trying to get a re-run
- I have pushed the councillor who commiserated David on his loss on Twitter to join calls asking for a re-run of the election but they have resolutely refused, to the point where it's all a bit weird and "la la la, I can't hear you".
- As it stands the London Labour Party have agreed that the five people were not eligible to vote but they say that this was not picked up before or during the meeting so the result stands. Their investigation consisted of speaking to the Ward Secretary and Steve Hart. Steve Hart lied because someone did speak to him before the meeting.
- The London Labour Party have the attendance list and will not release it, presumably because it shows that people were not identified correctly and that at least two of the five were imposters.
- Appeals to the NEC have all been rebuffed, even with the full acknowledgement of what went on.
The Labour doorstep in Harringay
- The St Ann's Labour Party have a great deal of trouble getting members to help them out with canvassing. A photograph has been tweeted showing more than 20 people out in Harringay Ward above the same session in St Ann's, with just two.
- When David Lammy, after a lot of badgering apparently, stepped out in St Ann's for the Labour doorstep he was met by a picket of local men calling on him not to support the St Ann's fraudsters. As I understand it he will not be going out with them again.
The Police are involved
- On Monday the 10th of February Haringey MPS made a visit to me on behalf of the secretary of the St Ann's Labour Party and his partner.
- It was alleged that I had called him filth on Twitter (which I have not, that was someone else) and that I said "I know I'm hassling you but...". I was served with a Notice of Harassment Letter which will now appear in extended CRB checks.
*An individual has asked that their name be replaced with their function in this post on the grounds that they are not seeking public office. This has been done.
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour, st ann's labour, stanns
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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I have decided not to vote labour it saddens me but I think we need to flush out the the current blockage.
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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Coincidentally the Radio 4 Woman's Hour / 15 minute serial is about cyberstalking this week. This is Tuesday's episode, available for a week - the second half has some handy listings of all the laws re stalking. Craven, it's called.
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Permalink Reply by Keith Waterhouse on
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As predicted, John is now a living martyr thanks to the poorly run and feckless St Anns Ward Labour Party. He has more and more support as they try to muzzle him. Bad choices seem to be the only ones that Labour can make; as a working class person I cannot believe what is going on but feel its repurcussions as I unfortunately live in St Anns Ward. Let me know where to send the money for your legal fees pot John as I would love to contribute.
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Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on
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John, you shoudl check out this case
R (on the application of T) v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [201...
Eseentialy a woman (T) was served with a prevention of harrassment notice and took it all the way to court of appeal and it was expunged.
Bindmans were the solicitor here. Might be worth contacting them for advice when you collect all the money? I am happy to put in 25 quid. They do a lot of human rights/right to protest/activism/police judicial review work.
http://www.bindmans.com/what-we-do/view/human-rights
There is an overview of the case (more readable) http://choptheknot.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/harassment-warning-noti...
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Thanks Elle, so far Bindmans are my solicitors too. I expect to hear back from them this afternoon and as the money seems to be coming from the community I will get them to include Phil K as well.
Very, very grateful for all the indications of financial support.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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LIKE you TBD, I was surprised and concerned about the development of police involvement.
As a layman, to me this appears as a misuse, it not an abuse, of legislation that was intended to deal with stalkers (and terrorists?). Legislation, BTW, from the previous government. In this instance, the use appears to impinge on one of our most basic civil liberties, i.e. free speech.
I am curious as to the level at which (a) the complaint was approved within the Labour Party; and (b) the decision was taken to serve a Prevention of Harassment letter within the Metropolitan Police Service (I suspect it would be unfair to criticise the visiting officers). For it seems to be a misjudgement by both.
I thought such things happened in Putin's Russia.
The reverberations and tremors of St Ann's are likely to continue.
I'm glad you enjoyed your trip to Aotearoa, TBD and I understand that the earth moved for you Down Under. Would you care to share with HOLers the details of your experience?
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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According to my reading of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals (Recommended by Ed Miliband) John McMullan and Phil K. are officially on the side of the people against the establishment. I've sent the email below to Haringey councillors----- Original Message -----From: Alan StantonSent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 11:02 AMSubject: Appeal for Crowd-funding for legal costs. St Ann's ward selection.I'm writing to ask you to help crowd-fund the initial legal costs of two of the campaigners against the vote-rigging in the Labour Party's candidate selection in St Ann's ward. In case you haven't yet seen it, there's a new twist in the selection scandal. Which you can read about on Harringay Online website. Start here:.Two of the Harringay Online members, John McMullan and Phil K. have had complaints made about them for so-called harassment through posts on Twitter. The police have been to see them and served a "Notice of Harassment Letter". As many of you will know, this is a relatively new area of law developed to try to deal with cases of what's been called "cyberbullying" where the worry uppermost in people's minds is those cases where children and young people were victims. There have also been the recent cases where serious physical threats were made online against prominent women..This is an issue where the CPS, the judges, and the police are working out the consequences - intended and unintended - of trying to prevent the malicious use of social media in this way. However, the CPS Guidance also stresses the importance of defending freedom of speech and free expression and the possible "chilling effect" if the test for what constitutes harassment is set too low..In this particular instance it appears to me - you may disagree of course - that the law is being used to stifle freedom of expression and grassroots political activism about a very important issue. Potentially it could be used far more widely. How many photos, or emails, or tweets do residents send about a bad landlord, a blocked drain, or a poor council decision which blights their home or business, before they become not just labelled as "vexatious", but subject to a police complaint for "harassment"? As the CPS Guidance makes clear, there's also a danger of wasting police time with the sheer volume - millions of messages/emails/tweets etc - sent out..As you'll see from Harringay Online, people have already pledged several hundred pounds. If you'd like to join in this crowd-funding" you can post a "pledge" on that website and you'll be contacted later. Or just email me. I'll let people know the arrangements set up for the money..Incidentally I was fascinated to see that in his Hugo Young Lecture, Ed Miliband praised the U.S. community organiser Saul Alinsky and suggested him as a model for People Power. As a few of you will know, Zena worked for several years in Boston as a community organiser and took courses on Alinsky methods. Her copy of "Rules for Radicals" is turning brown. But dipping into it this morning, I came across this:"The role of the organiser is to manoeuvre and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a 'dangerous enemy'. The word 'enemy' is sufficient to put the organiser on the side of the people.".It would be a travesty if laws designed to protect young people especially from cyberbullying; and others from threats of extreme violence should now be used by the establishment to gag dissent.AlanP.S. Link to Crowdfunding on Wikipedia
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On the general issue, can some Twitter-savvy person please explain whether or not I've got this right?
- If I don't want to get tweets from someone Twitter lets me block them. So I won't see their tweets to me.
- If I don't "follow" someone on Twitter their tweets don't appear on my page.
From time to time I'm told that X or Y have said something unpleasant about me on Twitter, and what do I think of this? My answer is that I don't think anything because I don't read their Twitter page; and don't follow them. And if they kept tweeting me directly I could block them.
Have I got that right?
Plainly someone could still send me a Direct Message or email pointing out that I've written inaccurate or unfair things about them, and please would I correct it. That's a different matter, which I would take seriously.
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