Thread by @Andrewwood17

Tower Hamlets often fills me with despair never more so then now
In a secret meeting Labour Cllrs vote to have a referendum next May between 2 choices:
Leader and Cabinet - rejected 10 years ago 60:40%
Directly elected Mayor
But clear that fear of Lutfur Rahman return has
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https://twitter.com/RachaelBurford/status/1326083472625111040

pushed Labour to try and get rid of the directly elected Mayor
So next years referendum will be a fight between Lutfur Rahman supporters in favour of the elected Mayor & Labour to get rid of it
Those of us who want better governance will get squeezed out because other options
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available were ignored namely;
Committee system - which Newham Labour Cllrs recently chose as their referendum option
Hybrid systems
It is not even clear which form of Leader and Cabinet model will be on offer - leader elected for 4 years or every year?
TH Labour are repeating
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the same mistakes that the government are making over Brexit, short term party political considerations and secrecy trump a clear sighted analysis assisted by independent experts to weigh up all of the different options, with a campaign of education & public debate in advance
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I am not saying that Committee system is perfect, none of the options are or even that this is the wrong referendum choice but how this decision was made was deeply flawed
A rushed decision, made without any policy papers I suspect, in secret, no public debate, no education
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But you do have to wonder why Newham Cllrs after a much better process of public engagement chose a different referendum choice
Committee v directly elected Mayor
I should also say Hybrid system also has a lot of positives where you have a single leader but not all powerful
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I assume John Biggs will stand as a Cllr in May 2022 & then become leader
So in effect little practical change except that Labour Cllrs will decide who the leader is and not voters
The flaws are still the same, one person in charge of everything with the power of patronage
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What happened in Enfield show that in some respects that the Leader and Cabinet model can be less democratic & less honest then the directly elected Mayor model
So Labour should also worry about the disruption this will cause internally as well if Cllrs get to pick the leader
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If you think you as a voter should have some involvement in this process or that the Labour group should at least have the courtesy of ask you in advance about what you think about the 4 options then please sign this petition
change.org/towerhamletsma…
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