Saturday 24 May 2014

Maybe Tal Michael should have stayed in Islington?

Since i used to live in Camden  it still has some interest for  me  but nearby Islington  has always fascinated me.

According to The Guardian, "Islington is widely regarded as the spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia

Bur for years the Liberal Democrats have put up a strong challenge and as recent as eight years ago controlled the council

Labour however  won a landslide victory in Islington, wiping out the Lib Dems to claim every seat but one in the borough.

The Greens will now make up an opposition of one after Caroline Russell pipped Labour in Highbury East by a mere eight votes to take one of the three seats in the ward.
 
It was a catastrophic afternoon for the Lib Dems, who saw their share of the vote collapse. The party,who as I said  ran the Town Hall just eight years ago, slumped to last place in many wards. They narrowly missed out in their stronghold of Highbury East, however.
 
The Greens came second in many wards, and can now claim to be the second party in the borough.

If this reflects the next General Election the Liberal democrats  their have long challenged in the Islington South seat 

General Election 2010: Islington South and Finsbury[8][9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
LabourEmily Thornberry18,40742.3+2.4
Liberal DemocratBridget Fox14,83834.1-4.2
ConservativeAntonia Cox8,44919.4+4.6
GreenJames Humphreys7101.6-3.1
UKIPRose-Marie McDonald7011.6+0.1
English DemocratsJohn Dodds3010.7+0.7
Animals CountRichard Deboo1490.3+0.3
Majority3,5698.2
Turnout43,55564.4+10.8
Labour holdSwing+3.3

But now with no councilors in the seat they may have along wait before their challenge again.

Islington Council has been seen as training ground for future Labour MPs and  once included failed candidate for North Wales Crime commissioner and Ynys Mon flop Tal Michael

Still it's not good for democracy to see just one opposition councillor  on any council but ,Terry Stacy, the former Lib Dem leader, and former leader of the council, warning  that Islington will be the "North Korea" of London seems the words of a bitter man.

"What's going to happen is not good for democracy," he said.
"If it becomes all Labour, there will be no scrutiny. I did highlight a lot during my time as a councillor, I was the first to speak out against wasteful spending and I'm not going to be around to do that anymore.

"Islington is the North Korea of north London now. It is a one party state, there is no democracy, there will be no one to challenge Labour. For the long-term I plan to put my feet up and have a think about my future and what I'm going to do."

Still I wonder if Tal Michael regrets coming back to Wales to have a career in politics here but is time in Islington was not without controversy where he was forced to withdraw   allegations against a Labour candidate  fellow Labour candidate Liz  Davies who issue libel writs against three Islington councillors, Tal Michael, James Purnell and Phil Kelly, unless they retracted allegations that she had "incited violence" and barracked and heckled at an education committee meeting into the closure of a school playground.

So I wonder how popular he is was in the " spiritual home of Britain's left-wing intelligentsia".




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