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From elected board to quango
• THE Sir Humphrey Applebys of the government and Islington Council must be quite self-satisfied now that the elected EC1 New Deal (EC1ND) board is shortly to be a selected quango without popular support and totally lacking in credibility.
Eight residents have been selected, making nine with the chairman for the life of the New Deal, Matthew Humphreys. Only two appear to be tenants.
Although the Sir Humphreys no doubt subscribe to democracy in theory, in practice it is a different matter, not fitting their day-to-day, hierarchical experience. (Sir Humphrey Appleby was, of course, the crafty permanent secretary in the TV series Yes, Minister.)
The council’s assistant director for regeneration, Stephen Mason, confused non-party EC1 New Deal elections with political party elections. Mr Mason has a powerful position as the representative to the board of what is called the accountable body, Islington Council.
Political parties field candidates no matter how hopeless their prospects in order to keep their flags flying. In non-party EC1ND elections, there was no point in standing against candidates known to be doing a good job.
An example of this was in the former area 1 (Finsbury estate) electorate where the Tenants’ Association chairwoman and secretary, Sharron Kelly and Sharon Hayward respectively, were unopposed for the very good reason that they are known to be efficient. Ms Hayward and another board member, Ben Mackmurdie, were thrown off the board after spurious code of conduct breach cases by the people selected for the new quango board.
Mr Mason seized on lack of nominations and low voting turnouts as signifying lack of interest. He and the government’s National Regeneration Unit’s neighbourhood renewal advisor, Joan Toovey, used this to get the board to vote for no elections.
This welcome nostrum was seized with alacrity as most on the board had no chance of re-election in any case after the St Luke’s Framework 295-flats debacle. The newly-energised community had risen up and formed the Finsbury Forum for self-protection.
A total of 18 stood at the last EC1ND elections, but there were only 15 nominated for the new quango. I nominated in order to observe the interview process. I was interviewed by Professor Humphreys and David Green, formerly of Cripplegate Foundation, advised by Ms Toovey, knowing full well there was no way I’d be selected. Critics are not welcome.
An appointee, Troy Gallagher, is famous locally for claiming to be a former president of the Oxford Union, in an EC1ND election. It is perhaps the world’s most famous debating society. It denied he had ever been president or even attended Oxford University.
So few residents acceptable to the ruling clique seem to have applied that six of the eight places had to be filled by six existing board members David Hyams, Owen Hart, Penny Seal and Rebecca Creswell as well as Ian Merriman and Mr Gallagher.
There were to be only four places for existing board members, of whom eight nominated. Nothing is known about the two residents selected, Jonathan Davey and Ben Phegan.
LEO CHAPMAN
Dufferin Street, EC1
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