Protests in Haringey and a revitalised civic society | Letters

Aditya Chakrabortty’s article on the political goings-on in Haringey was a welcome antidote to tales of Momentum manoeuvrings and the “hard” left (Haringey taken over by Momentum? It’s just locals taking back control, 12 December). The rightwing media has been very successful in persuading us that the modern Labour party is led by rabid Leninists. If Jeremy Corbyn is to win the next election, he must rebut this perception as explicitly as he can.

The present shadow cabinet is doing a good job, but Corbyn should act quickly to make it much more representative of the party. If we want to hear a Labour voice effectively opposing Brexit, we turn to Chuka Umunna or Heidi Alexander; for home affairs we listen to Yvette Cooper; on far-right undercover shenanigans, Ben Bradshaw. To see May wrong-footed we watch and admire Ed Miliband. A good start to the new year would be for Corbyn to bring colleagues of this stature into his shadow cabinet. Were he to do so, he would greatly strengthen his grip on parliament, lead a genuinely authoritative opposition and, at the same time, show that he leads a broad, unified and collegiate Labour party.
David Curtis
Solihull, West Midlands

• Aditya Chakrabortty highlights widespread press distortions about Labour. He rightly says that the revolt against the current Haringey cabinet is/was disgust at the attempt to steamroll through a contract privatising public assets and housing through the Haringey Development Vehicle (HDV), not about a conspiracy concerning Jeremy Corbyn. Last week’s selection meeting of three local councillors against a shortlist of six people was a model of democracy, tightly chaired so that no one overran, the 100-plus members present voting on each stage of the proceedings and the final votes scutinised by an external member of the Electoral Reform Society. Next May we will have fine candidates in the local election who are passionate about fairer policies and, yes, housing will be central.
Alison Watson
London

• I’m a member of the Labour party who reads the Guardian. I do not read the Times, the Evening Standard or the Sun. My fear of Momentum comes from my experiences of its members: complying by party rules only when it suits them, handing out slates at meetings and conducting a discourse defined by its finger-jabbing certainty. While democracies may take numerous forms, accountability must be central to all of them. If Momentum’s candidate for the CLP of Watford (who was not selected by the democratically elected selection committee) is successful, then to whom is he accountable – his constituents or the loud minority that is Momentum? MPs should be accountable to their constituents, not excitable factions within their local party meetings. They should answer to the electorate, not a selectorate.
Gabriel Osborne
Bristol

• Haringey residents decided a while back that enough is enough, and the party politics simply reflects the widespread public wish for an end to Claire Kober’s misruling of Haringey council. One comfort from the Kober years is that the administration has unintentionally revitalised civic society – enthusing existing community groups and creating new ones in opposition to the council’s policies. Hundreds of people at meetings, regularly packed public galleries at council meetings and thousands on marches. That energy and passion for social improvement will serve the borough well as truth and reconciliation comes to Haringey, alongside a process of healing and improving the area. If Kober went now, the repair job could start before May 2018.
Martin Ball
London

• Anger at Haringey’s plans to sell off municipal assets to a multinational property developer with no guarantees of protection for social housing goes way beyond the HDV scheme. This week the cabinet voted to shut Osborne Grove nursing home, the last remaining public provision in the borough for the frail elderly and others with complex needs. In 2011, the council closed down five residential homes and five day centres. In 2015 it shut another residential home and four more day centres, but pledged to maintain Osborne Grove as a flagship rehabilitation service, offering a model of integrated health and social care. In fact, over the past two years it has allowed the service to deteriorate, imposing an embargo on new referrals and then using a series of critical reports by the Care Quality Commission inspectorate to justify closure.

A recent report by Which found that Haringey was “one of the worst areas for good quality care” in the country. More than 40% of its provision was deemed as “inadequate” or “requiring improvement”. Faced with protests by families affected by social care cuts, carers, unions and local campaigners, council leaders have always put up the barricades and called in the private security guards. Come May 2018, they will have to face their electorate and stand to account for the wholesale destruction of vital local services.
Mary Langan
Save Autism Services Haringey

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