Tit-bits – whip it good

Hackney’s ruling Greens do not have a whip. They have a convener. Entirely different thing.

At full council, Labour’s Cllr Lucas asked the mayor whether the Green group has a whip. The mayor passed the question to deputy group leader Cllr Ülgen Semerci, who said the Greens don’t go in for whipping, which “relies on coercion and discipline”. Instead, Cllr George Sheldon Grün handles “cross-party discussions before full council sessions” and the other bits of council business that need a whip. He also draws the special responsibility allowance that the council’s paperwork calls, er, the whip’s.

The difference, it turns out, is pastoral care. Green members are supported “as people serving their communities in high-stress jobs rather than simply utilising them for their votes.” Cllr Semerci kindly offered to show Labour how it’s done.

Lucas suggested this sounded “a bit hypocritical”. Semerci replied that the Greens do not, in fact, have a whip. Someone may want to pass that on to Cllr Sheldon Grün, whose page on the council website lists him as Majority Group Whip.