Tag Archives: haringey council

Opinion: Lib Dems Must oppose Labour’s ideological cuts in 2012

By David Thorpe | Published 22nd December 2011 - 2:56 pm

If I were a cleverer person than I am, I would try to create a joke with a punch line to fit the following set-up: What’s the difference between a cut in government spending and an ideological cut in government spending?

That I’m not clever enough to create a pithy punch line is of no consequence, as it is no laughing matter.

Labour have sometimes tried to trail the line that the coalition’s cuts are avoidable, that there are the product of ideology rather than necessity.

This line lacked some credence because even as they …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alistair darling, deficit, ed balls, ed miliband, george osborne, vince cable | 22 Comments

Mother left 10 children starving and lice-ridden in same borough where Baby P and Victoria died

By Mark Pack | Published 27th April 2011 - 8:55 am

That’s the Evening Standard headline about the latest tragedy in the London Borough of Haringey, home already to two of the most shocking and notorious failures in child protection in recent years:

A mother has been jailed for the abuse of 10 children in her care in Haringey, the borough at the centre of the Baby P scandal.

She left the children starving, smelly, crawling with head lice and covered in ingrained dirt.

One child was so hungry that when a foster carer fed her she pressed the milk bottle hard against her mouth, leaving a red mark. The skin beneath her

…

Posted in News | Also tagged baby p, victoria climbié | 3 Comments

Council website spending put under scrutiny

By Mark Pack | Published 16th August 2010 - 1:13 pm

Today’s Telegraph has a piece looking at the large sums being spent by many councils on new or revamped websites.

In itself, an expensive website is not necessarily a poor use of funds as good, popular sites often also save costs (e.g. by reducing the number of phonecalls the council has to handle). As a result, Medway Council – one of those picked out in the article – may have a good case for spending £250,000 in revamping its site given that the last major revamp was in 2003. In the last seven years the internet has changed significantly as have …

Posted in Local government, News, Online politics | Also tagged daily telegraph, medway council | 4 Comments

Baby P whistleblower stands as councillor

By Mark Pack | Published 28th March 2010 - 7:15 pm

From the Evening Standard:

The whistleblower who warned that Haringey social services were failing to protect children just six months before the death of Baby P is to stand for election there as a Liberal Democrat councillor.

Former social worker Nevres Kemal, above, who will contest the Noel Park ward, said she will try to rid the council of a culture of “lying, deception and cover-ups”.

Best of luck Nevres.

Posted in Local government, News | Also tagged baby p, nevres kemal | Leave a comment

Clause 81 of the New Roads and Street Act 1991 is your friend

By Mark Pack | Published 8th February 2010 - 12:20 pm

You may have been following some of my travails trying to get repairs made to some of those telephone, broadband, traffic light etc boxes which appear on many pavements.

Although my own local council (Islington) is very good at dealing with them either directly themselves or passing on to the relevant company and ensuring the work is done, other councils, including Haringey and Westminster, are far less so.

Haringey in theory also gets the job done if a member of the public reports a problem to them, but in practice I’ve often found problems of things going wrong or being forgotten.

Worst of …

Posted in Local government | Also tagged islington council, westminster council | 3 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 24 January 2010

By Mark Pack | Published 24th January 2010 - 9:00 am

It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for one of Microsoft’s best adverts (no, really) and the bicycle lane of the week but first the news.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Really interesting health discussion: Sandy Walkington doesn’t got for hyperbole in his description of a public meeting addressed by Norman Lamb but do read through to the end – which has an excellent account of the problems facing anyone trying to come up with policy for the NHS.
Snow joke: Residents demand grit bins as Labour stop debate: Haringey councillor Richard Wilson is on the case to get more grit bins so residents can do more to take care of their own streets during future snow falls. Haringey Labour’s response? Waffle. (Words rather than food, that is.)

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

‘Sarah’s Law’ sex offender alert scheme may be expanded

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alexis rowell, ichiro ozawa, japan, microsoft, NHS, norman lamb, richard wilson, sandy walkington | 1 Comment

Haringey ‘gagged’ council chief with six-figure payoff

By Mark Pack | Published 11th November 2009 - 7:52 pm

The Evening Standard reports:

Haringey council was facing fresh criticism today over a secret six-figure payoff it made to one of its senior officials.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was allegedly given the payment to stop an embarrassing “revelation” about Labour councillor Charles Adje becoming public at an employment tribunal.

The council is facing calls to explain the deal.

Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone, called on chief executive Ita O’Donovan to “clarify” the reasons for it.

She said: “There is a big question mark over how Haringey uses gagging orders and prefers cover-up to openness. There

…

Posted in Local government, Opposition watch | Also tagged charles adje, ita o'donovan, lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

Haringey Labour increase their allowances by stealth

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd May 2009 - 5:32 pm

A quick quiz for you. One of the Haringey local newspapers, The Hornsey Journal, had this story on 14 May:

Under fire councillors opt to take pay freeze
The recession is about to hit councillors in the pocket, after both Haringey Labour and Liberal Democrat parties decided NOT to take a pay rise …

Councillor Claire Kober, Leader of the Labour-controlled council, said, “… This move will mean any savings can go straight into providing essential services for the people of Haringey.”

So, do you think that Labour voted through changes that resulted in the council’s allowances bill:

a) Staying the same, or
b) Increasing by £44,751 (7%)?

I’ll …

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Opposition watch | Also tagged baby p, claire kober | 2 Comments

Baby P’s death “could and should” have been stopped

By Mark Pack | Published 2nd May 2009 - 12:33 am

The awful news about the second case of child abuse involving someone Haringey Council was meant to be protecting – with the conviction of the boyfriend of Baby P’s mother for raping a two-year old – has rather pushed to one side the publication of the second Serious Case Review into Baby P’s death.

The original Serious Case Review concluded that essentially nothing too significant was done wrong by those involved in protecting Baby P, but was rapidly discredited once its finding were publicised. This new review paints a very different picture, including the key conclusion that the death of Baby

…

Posted in News | Also tagged baby p, david lammy, lynne featherstone, sharon shoesmith | Leave a comment

If the leader of the free world only needs a small TV…

By Mark Pack | Published 29th April 2009 - 2:52 pm

Seeing this photo of Barack Obama’s small TV reminded me of this story about the size of the TV installed in the office of the then Labour leader of Haringey Council. I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why the leader of a council needs a much bigger TV than the leader of the free world

Posted in Humour, Opposition watch | Leave a comment

Mainstream media catches up with concerns over Haringey Chief Exec Ita O’Donovan

By Mark Pack | Published 13th March 2009 - 7:55 am

Evening Standard, 12 March 2009:

The head of the council at the centre of the Baby P scandal faces questions today over a series of other child protection failures.

Haringey chief executive Ita O’Donovan has held senior positions at three councils that were condemned for failing children so seriously that the Government was forced to intervene.

Dr O’Donovan has worked in authorities embroiled in some of the country’s most shocking child deaths. She has said she considered resigning over the Baby P tragedy but decided the council needed stability.

She was in charge of Stoke-on-Trent council when 15-year-old Gareth Myatt choked and died

…

Posted in Local government, News | Also tagged baby p, ita o'donovan | Leave a comment

New edition of Liberator

By The Liberator Collective | Published 16th February 2009 - 8:20 am

The latest edition of Liberator magazine has just landed on subscribers’ doormats. Here’s a preview of the contents:

• ‘Commentary’ editorial praises Nick Clegg for making some bold statements in recent weeks. It concludes: “His recent statements on Gaza, the euro and the City are morally right, clear and distinctive. The party needs more statements like this and less of the PR twaddle.”

• The insider gossip column ‘Radical Bulletin’.

• Our lead article ‘Peace from Gaza’s wreck?’ is written by Jonathan Fryer. He argues that Israel’s real friends must admit that the Middle East conflict cannot have

…

Posted in News | Also tagged liberator magazine | Leave a comment

Opinion: Civil liberties in a modern context

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Published 2nd February 2009 - 12:41 pm

What does an innocent person have to fear?” That’s one of the most common arguments rolled out time and time again to justify chipping away at our freedoms. If you’re innocent why should you be worried if the government can do X, knows Y or stops Z?

The counter-arguments tend to be a mix of principle and pragmatism. Principled arguments around issues such as rights that we have as humans and the restrictions there should be on what governments can do. Pragmatic arguments such as the costs (e.g. spend money on ID cards or on police?), practicalities (e.g. what odds that …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged baby p, civil liberties, lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

Wards Corner: another u-turn from Boris Johnson

By Mark Pack | Published 12th December 2008 - 3:31 pm

Wards Corner in Tottenham is the site of one of those markets, deeply rooted in the local community and highly distinctive, that add so much to its surrounding area. This gem of a market, with a strong Latin American flavour, is not that well known, and as a result the plans to demolish it haven’t got as wide regional attention as they would have for its more famous cousins around London. (You can, though. watch a BBC TV report here.)

However, that may now change with a dramatic u-turn from London Mayor Boris Johnson, dropping his previous support for opponents …

Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged boris johnson, tfl | 5 Comments

Old habits linger on at Haringey Council as Labour block Baby P debate

By Mark Pack | Published 6th December 2008 - 8:42 pm

This morning’s newspapers brought the news that the head of Ofsted is accusing Haringey Council of misleading her inspectors:

Ofsted’s assessment of local authorities’ children’s services last year consisted of a checklist of the information managers had to provide to demonstrate, among other things, that they had adequate social workers and were assessing children promptly. Managers in Haringey misled Ofsted by providing inaccurate data, the chief inspector said.

Tactics used by the council included claims that managers had assessed children promptly when the files revealed that those assessments were in fact incomplete. The same files showed that such assessments of children

…

Posted in News | Also tagged baby p, lynne featherstone | 3 Comments

Tag Archives: haringey council

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