All posts in the topic Young Mayor For Newham: Democracy in action or more bread and circuses? (Short link)
Summary
- There are 12 posts — by 5 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Steven Clift at Sep 05 11:04 UTC
I heard tonight that there were 54 candidates that put themselves forward for
the young mayor elections. It seems this was a bit of shock at the Town Hall,
where it was expected that there would be a maximum of 12 to 15 candidates.
I understand that the solution will be that all 54 candidates will attend a
meeting this Saturday and they will choose the 12 or 15 who are to stand from
among themselves; it seems there will be a big-brother style elimination
process!
If it is true that there are 54 candidates, this means that 2700 young people
have taken the time to nominate those candidates. A minimum of 1950 will not be
able to vote for the candidate for whom they made a commitment to support.
The Mayor's office explained, in the Newham Recorder, why candidates for this
election could not stand for political parties, faith groups and community
organisations (and thereby contravening Article 11 of the European Convention
on Human Rights which guarantees the freedom of assembly and association)
claiming that the elections should be about passion and not politics (?).
If what I have been told is true, the whole thing has become nothing more than
a popularity contest - what can that possibly teach young people about
democracy?
This is a question that can be answered by those elected members and council
officers who scan this forum.
A young person who participated in the young mayor for Newham event (but was
unsuccessful in their bid to become one of the 15 candidates) has informed me
of what happened over the weekend.
It seems there were 56 original prospective candidates and these were whittled
down to 15. Of those final 15, 10 are from St Bonaventures and St Angela's
Ursuline: I was told that there was an element of collusion between the two
schools, which is understandable considering their close proximity etc. So
there is a good chance that the young mayor will be from one of these schools.
However (and this is news to me), there is a plan to have a youth council to
support the young mayor and this will consist of the 14 remaining candidates
who do not become Newham's young mayor. This youth council is to replace the
youth parliament - a democratic body made up of around 200 young people from
across the borough replaced with a self-selecting group of 14.
As a brief note on the youth parliament: while I was a Labour councillor it was
clear that the mayor was no great fan of this body. I asked one of his special
advisors (one who is now on the higher rate of special responsibility
allowance) why this was the case. I was told that the mayor had reservations
about the ethnic and gender mix of the youth parliament; apparently, there were
too many young black women on the parliament. I understand that young black
women will constitute over 50% of the new youth council.
In any event, it seems that even though the council is keen to prevent the
young mayor from representing a political party, community organisation or
faith group, the young people of Newham have established their own get-around
by organising in such a way as to ensure that a small group of friends and
associates get selected for office… where have I come across this before?
Good to see democracy in action in Newham!
Oh and I was told that our young friend Awais has successfully gone through to
the next round... well done!
Lets hope that the new Youth Council - who will replace the Youth
Parliament - will not be as vocal as the YP. Or else they won't last long
either!
I would be interested to know what consultation has taken place around
disbanding the Youth Parliament? Turkeys and Christmas come to mind.
if thats the case, then it makes a mockery of the whole process and it would be
insult to have this as the showpiece in the so-called "democracy week"
I would have to disagree with one of Mike's comments. The fact that there are
so many candidates from St Angela's and St Bons, just means that it will be
harder rather than easier for each of them to become mayor, as the school/area
will be divided.
The Youth Council, is, I believe just a way of consoling those who put in the
time and effort but don't quite go on to become the eventual mayor. I have
reason to believe, that the Youth Council will act as advisors to the mayor,
and that representatives from schools or young people's organisations will
report to the council on a monthly basis. On the actual day of the primary
election, the fact that a youth concil was to be set up did serve a purpose. It
prevented potential candidates from voting 'weakest link' style and eliminating
those who they thought were competition.
Awais,
My prediction is that you will be the Young Mayor for Newham.
I do not understand your logic with regard to how much harder it will be for
candidates from St, Angela's and St Bons to become the young mayor for Newham.
Statistically, there is a two in three probability that the young mayor will be
one of them; of course, it may well be the case that those two schools are that
unpopular with every other young person in the borough to the extent that,
regardless how good their candidates' individual manifestos may be, only young
people who know them will bother to vote for them. If that is so, it remains a
popularity contest.
It is a nonsense to suggest that anyone who "put in the time and effort" to
stand for the young mayor should be rewarded with an advisory post - even more
so when those that will make up the youth council are there as a result of a
"knockout" competition of those who submitted bona fide applications to stand:
applications that fulfilled the requirements put in place by the body
overseeing the election (namely the Council). If this process was to be
democratic (in the sense that we understand what it is to be democratic in this
country), then all of the candidates should be given the opportunity to fight
the election.
The impression you give is that the concept of a youth council was floated on
the day of the "primary" to serve the purpose of preventing "potential
candidates from voting 'weakest link' style and eliminating those who they
thought were competition" - if that is so, it is outrageous. To put candidates
in the position where there is the potential for them to knock each other out
of the running isn't democratic; it's slap-stick and pantomime.
The entire primary election procedure did seem rushed and unprepared until the
actul weekend. I was told at 5pm the day before the 'scheduled' election
(Thursday 20th) that it was in fact cancelled. Even teachers who were in direct
contact with those resposible for the whole thing did not seem to know a lot.
The format for the primary election was simply the easiest way of organising
it, not the fairest.
Awais,
Thanks for giving us a clearer picture of the process that has taken place so
far.
I am extremely concerned that, as you state, the format for the "primary"
election was the easiest and not the fairest.
When I read your posting two questions immediately came to mind:
First, how can it be described as an election?
Second, easiest for who(m)?
This election for a young mayor is intended to be a centrepiece of the
forthcoming "Democracy Week". Should it not be carried out in a way that is
transparent and FAIR?
It defies belief that anyone can think it is acceptable for legitimate
candidates to sit in a room and decide among themselves who should stand in an
election because there are too many for the presiding body to deal with. It is
even more bizarre to suggest that all of the candidates who do manage to get on
to the slate but who fail to win should be reward with (unelelcted) positions.
Coming back to the Young Mayor, it has now been announced that Zuhayb Ahmed is
the young mayor and I am confident he will do well at his post.
I would like to again raise the point of the Newham Youth Parliament. Is it
plausible, or even likely that the entire Young Mayor scheme was devised by the
council simply to justify closing down NYP. Or, was the young mayor scheme
initiated to actually empower youth by providing a democratically elected (and
therefore more powerful) political body for them to utilise. In which case, the
closing down of a weak (for lack of a better word) organisation such as NYP is
actually a good thing.
Your views please
Awais,
You have my commiseration.
You cannot make comments like... "Or, was the young mayor scheme
initiated to actually empower youth by providing a democratically elected (and
therefore more powerful) political body for them to utilise." without
qualifying what you mean.
In what way was the Youth Parliament not democratic?
And, how in any sense of the word, can you claim that the selection process and
election for youth mayor (and his self-selected council) was democratic?
Furthermore, it is far too early to claim that this "mini-me" mayor will be any
more "powerful" than a representative Youth Parliament.
Let's see if the new Young Mayor has the brass neck to question the Mayor on
issues that concern the borough's youth.
For example, it has been announced that the Council (sorry, the council tax
payers) are buying in the services of more police to patrol our streets. It has
been inferred that these officers will be under the operational command of the
Town Hall - which means there will be some political control over police
officers. The Town Hall has had operational responsibility for the parks
constabulary. It is well known that the decision was made in 2002 to call the
parks constabulary the "community constabulary" (there is no legislation which
allows for this) and have them patrol the streets unlawfully. I have a list of
arrests made by the constabulary on the streets and most are legally dubious to
say the least.
I am aware of two young Asian lads who were allegedly stopped and searched by
parks constables outside the boundaries of the borough; both the alleged stops
and the searches were illegal.
I witnessed four young black boys (aged 10) grilled by three parks officers
(their names and addresses were taken down and they were asked from what
countries did their respective parents come from). As I walked past the
officers questioning the lads, I heard one officer say to a boy: "What do you
mean, you don't know your date of birth? So, you don't know how f---ing old you
are?". I wanted to intervene, but I thought that if I did I'd just be accused
of getting on my "anti-parks constabulary" hobby-horse. I stood by at some
distance and spoke to the boys after the officers had gone. The crime they had
committed was skimming stones across a pond (I put a FOIA request to the Town
Hall to see if this is a by-law offence; it isn't). I told the boys that the
officers should have given them a copy of the paperwork they filled out, or
they should have given the boys the address their parents could write to
requesting the paperwork. I told the boys that their parents should complain to
the Town hall; I have no idea if they did.
So, the question is, what confidence can we have that the Town Hall will deploy
real police officers in a more responsible way?
I would have thought this would be an issue that would interest a Young Mayor
acting as the voice of the borough's youth. If and when he does question the
Mayor on this, or some other equally contentious issue, the response he gets
will be the measure of how powerful or weak the post of Young Mayor for Newham
really is.
I notice that the propaganda site has waffle about a forthcoming election for a new Youth Mayor (what has the current incumbent actually done?). I guess the Town Hall will follow the same "selection" process as last time... a model the Labour Party would like to emulate. Any how, must be good news for the council officer on £35,000 who is charged with "assisting" the Youth Mayor; one more year of money for old rope. [http://newhamdoublethink.blogspot.com/]
Can someone track down a contact list of the initial Young Mayor candidates and
former YP members and invite them to join the forum? There is now reason we
need to discuss them remotely.
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org