Wednesday 5 May 2010

Are Hackney unions ready for the last stand?

The Governor of the Bank of England believes "whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be".

So Hackney's next generation of politicians will probably face an elongated economic disaster and the mounting hatred of council employees and everyone else in the borough.

But when the cuts come will they be properly scrutinised? That could depend on the state of Unison and whether the "witchunt" of four London reps - including Brian Debus - trade union activist, Hackney Unison Branch Chair is as serious as some reports make out? The four even won the support of the Daily Mail. But will the dispute, at a critical time, result in regular members suffering?

LAST QUESTION:

I know that the Mayor of Hackney will have a bigger impact on my everyday life than my MP. But the reason I aim to change the habit of a life time and vote for the first time is the existence of Denny De La Haye's direct digital democracy campaign.

De La Haye has killed-off some of my usual excuses for not voting and if I don't vote for someone this time I'll have to accept it's because I'm lazy.

I wish I'd asked other candidates if they'd adopt his technology if he doesn't win.

In this Blood and Property interview he was asked: Would you set up your system anyway and make it available to whoever does become MP - if it's not you?

Denny de la Haye: Yes, absolutely. I intend to continue setting up the system and make it available to every MP and PPC in the country. The difference is that I (and perhaps some other independents, over time) will agree to be bound by the polls - whereas any party MP is ultimately bound by their party whip.

Any way, the decision that I will vote is as far as I've got. I'll probably vote for Denny but I'm not sure it's a good idea (As Dave Hill points out on his Clapton Pond blog: "The temptation to vote for anyone who's shaking things up a bit is rather large.")

In fact it feels irresponsible to be voting on things I don't know about, with just a few hours to go. Does that bring me back to square one and not voting? I don't think so.

2 comments:

  1. I'm really glad that my campaign encouraged you to vote - did you do so in the end?

    As you no doubt saw, I didn't do very well in the election - but that's new ideas for you. I'll keep plugging away at building the system and hopefully have a more concrete demonstration to build a campaign around next time.

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  2. I made up more than 1% of your vote! I hope you and the other independents are going to stick around. I don't have anything against Labour (they got some votes out of me) but I don't think a majority like that is healthy - some original thinking about how to scrutinise council might be needed.

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