Claire Kober has resigned as leader of Haringey council in a move that will be cheered by the large number of residents and campaigners who were working to block the ‘HDV‘ project she championed to transfer large numbers of council houses into public-private ownership without guaranteed social housing to replace them.
As have some other pro-HDV councillors in the borough who have been deselected or have chosen not to stand, Ms Kober has lashed out at the ‘sexism’ and ‘bullying’ of supposedly ‘Corbynista’ anti-HDV campaigners – and at the decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to ‘intervene’.
In fact, the NEC’s ‘intervention’ was a request to pause and an offer to mediate – an offer which Ms Kober rejected.
Ms Kober also attacked the ‘ideological dogma’ of opponents of her housing plan – but well-known journalist and local anti-HDV campaigner Aditya Chakrabortty had a very different take on events:
In his final tweet, Chakrabortty linked to a video in which he debated the HDV with the council’s housing lead – and the latter failed to acknowledge the absence of a social housing promise in the plan. The SKWAWKBOX published that video with subtitles at the time, so here’s that version:
A local female Labour activist was infuriated by Ms Kober’s claim of sexism and bullying, telling the SKWAWKBOX:
It’s good she is gone, but I get so frustrated when people claim they’ve been bullied for being x or y when in reality what has happened is they have been told that the consensus is not with them on a political matter.
It devalues the experiences of people who have suffered. Claire has made zero arguments to demonstrate that she has been bullied because she is female, merely makes an allegation of bullying and states her gender. I find it deeply unpleasant and disingenuous.
Whatever Ms Kober’s reasons for resigning, residents, housing activists and many local Labour members will be celebrating what Chakrabortty calls ‘the single biggest victory for housing campaigners’.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
According to centrists in the Labour Party, anyone who challenges corporatist corruption of councils is a sexist bully and anyone who challenges Israel for being an apartheid state is an anti-semite.
These people are completely unhinged.
We need a plan in place, this is going to become a flagship now with a lot of media scrutiny!
Corbyn HIMSELF said they would use compulsory purchase, LETS GET THIS MOVING. Free up the empty houses owned by the rentier leeches and do it NOW.
LETS GROW SOME BALLS AND SHOW WHAT CAN BE DONE.
The BBC’s coverage on R4 The World at One was so biased that it was misleading
Skwawkbox mentioned the other day that the Guardian’s new deputy political editor was pro-HDV. Will this person cause Chakrabortty any problems, I wonder?
He must be feeling a little exposed as it is as the number of proper journalists at the paper dwindle around him…
Hard to imagine any innocent or honourable motive for a Labour councillor wanting to hand over council housing stock to private enterprise & make tenants homeless.
Expect it from Tories – they’re guaranteed to be on the make but a Labour councillor?
May she rot in hell.
This is an important victory for ordinary people. This denial over the track record of Lendlease has to stop. Affordable housing is NOT social housing and councillors, Labour or otherwise need to stop blurring the lines between the two. Lendlease don’t do guaranteed quotas on even affordable housing, let alone social housing. They hide behind secret viability assessments over which councils claim to have no power.
Why do councils do business with them? Because poor people in low cost housing does not deliver as much council tax as more valuable,housing replacing it. Add to that the increased density that comes with these developments. Councils need more money for sure, but seling off the homes of those on low incomes is not the way to go about it. Instead, councils should be lobbying government to remove the cap on borrowing so they can build the homes themselves.
I also have no time for anyone who cries foul when the opposition wins through.
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/11/12/excl-tottenham-exec-refers-self-to-nec-over-kober-anomalies/
Has this investigation concluded, or is she jumping before being pushed. Now that the protection racket backing the blairites on the NEC has been broken up.
“HOORAY”, A return to democracy, no more Toryism!
Slowly,but surely, we the ;people will have the last word when it comes to our “LIVES”!
Not to those who don’t listen to reason or rhyme, namely, Haringey Leader Korber and those who agree with her principles and dogma!
“POWER TO THE PEOPLE”!
We put them there, we deselect them!
To those, who think they can do as they please while they have power, better think again!