First Capital Connect - Daylight robbery

Just to make a rotten day even worse. As if it wasn't bad enough that First Capital Connect cost me half a days income by not running a train service from Mill Hill this morning, they are now robbing me of £20 for travelling on their trains. My crime? I left a weekly season ticket at home. Their excuse for this robbery? It was the third time I'd done it in a 12 month period.

The mere fact that I'd produced a copy of the ticket on each occasion didn't matter. I'd also complied with the terms of an act of Parliament by offering to purchase a ticket (mostly to save this hassle and aggravation).

I've attached a copy of a letter from the "Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service" so you can have a read. How Independent is this appeals service?  If you look at the bottom you will see that is says "London and South Eastern Railways Limited t/a IPFAS". Who operates Blackfriars Station?

I'd not noticed this before. I'd naively thought that the IPFAS was an INDEPENDANT panel with the best interests of the passenger at heart. As you can see, it is a branch of one of these dreaded TOC's - Train Operating Companys. It is just a mask for a Limited Company seeking to maximise it's profits.

If anyone out there knows how to overturn this scandalous example of Daylight robbery, please EMAIL ME BY CLICKING HERE.

Just for the avoidance of doubt, lets clear up a few issues :-

Did FCC lose any money by me forgetting my ticket? No
Did I produce a copy for the "IPFAS"? Yes
Could someone else have borrowed it that day? No, it has a photocard and my photocard no printed on the ticket. I'd just left it at home
Why had I forgotten it twice in the last 12 months previously? Well actually I've had a rather stressfull time. My wife's mum died of lung cancer and I've really not been myself, but hey who cares about that.

My gripes?
1. The IFPAS isn't an independent appeals panel. It is a subsidiary of a rail company
2. It offends natural justice to fine people who have bought a ticket and are forgetful
3. First Capital Connect have all my details on their computer. They could have checked that I'd bought a ticket. They didn't
4. There is no higher authority to appeal to. This whole system is outside of the courts & English law.
5. This undermines the Railways act, which is an act of Parliament that says all you have to do is offer to pay the fare, unless there is a deliberate attempt to defraud the railway

No wonder Moir Lockhear,MD of FCC got a payrise in the middle of a recession

Has Guido lost his Mojo?????

Was just having a peek at the Guido Fawkes Blog. In amongst all the ads for Pizza's and betfair, I started reading, but got distracted by an advert on the radio for Stannah chair lifts or something. It suddenly hit me that maybe it's becoming rather formulaic, corporate and dull? It's rather like Punk rock, when it became successful, it became part of the establishment. I rather like blogs when they are edgy  & saying something a bit different. Bet's on how long before he's writing the Telegraph diary -Heh, Heh, Heh.

I always quite liked the blog (don't agree with it, but found it funny) as I have some sort of affinity with Guy Fawkes as one of my ancestors - Chidiok Tichborne - was part of the Babington Plot and got Hung drawn and quartered for his trouble - us Tichbornes have got a long history of being troublemakers.

I just hope I give up before I lose my Mojo (and I'm sure many Barnet Councillors will hope that is some time soon) !!!!

First Capital Connect = First Capital Incompetence

Strange as it may seem, people have to go to work. Many people who live in Mill Hill use First Capital Connect's Thameslink service to do this. We'll usually they do, but they won't be this morning, because there were no trains. Why were there no trains? Because they don't employ enough drivers to run the service. It seems that normally drivers do overtime to cover the holes left by the companies inability to get enough staff, but the company has pissed the drivers off so much that they are not cooperating.

As a result, the live departure board looks like this. If you want to find out how much "Compensation" Mr Moir Lockhead, the bloke who runs First Capital Connect gets for being totally unable to organise a piss up in a brewery, let alone run a train service - CLICK HERE. What will the rest of us get for having to suffer the terrible service that this incompetent plonker inflicts on us?

Why have we had a Labour Government for 12  1/2 years, with a massive majority for the whiole period and yet we still have these private cowboy companies, running the show on a shoestring to maximise their profits. The reason Labour will lose the next election is because they had the chance to sort this sort of rubbish out and they haven't.

If I was David Cameron, I'd make it a manifesto pledge to impose huge fines on directors of companies such as First Capital Connect, who fail to provide a basic service to the general public and exploit their monopoly to make huge wads of cash. How hard is it to say "we have this many services, we need this many drivers". Train Operating companies should have it as part of their franchise that they employ enough drivers to run the service.

Doing anything this Friday?

If you're not up to anything on Friday 13th, come down to the Claddagh Ring in Hendon. Barnet Unison have organised an evening of entertainments. There's some great music and it's only £2.00 to get in. We've put together a good old variety night with something for everyone and a great headline band

The Line up :-


Timeline featuring Alan Warner from the Foundations (hits from '60's & 70's)


Seanachie Og - The finest Irish band in London


The False Dots ( my band playing Fast and Furious).


Doors open 8.30pm


A night to celebrate the our great and diverse City at it's best.

Here's a clip of Al with the Foundations from 1967 !!!!


A chance to see a genuine superstar and a great guitarist on your dorrstep (Al that is, not me)


Come down, say hello, have a drink - it'll be a great night. Bar till 2am with DJ Jack Funk playing Old Skool Vinyl (Bands 8.30 - 11ish). A great chance to meet everyone from the Barnet Community Campaign.

Would we be so compliant if we really knew what was going on with our money?

By David Howard,

For years Barnet Town Hall has been  showing signs of old age, doors creaking like old knees. Lights dim like fading eyesight and debates inaudible like failing hearing . Mere mortals reluctantly accept that these are the inevitable signs of old age.

Fortunately buildings can respond to tender loving care and be restored to meet the needs of the next generation .  There has been rapid progress in improved light fittings that give out more light with lower running costs and are still in keeping with the ambience of their surroundings.  Sound amplification  systems have also moved forward  so it is possible to have good quality all round sound without large ugly speakers and huge desk mounted microphones.

Why is it therefore that when Barnet takes on such  project it fails dismally?

The ground floor has the air of a transient hotel lobby due for a refit instead of the headquarters of the Council striving to be the tiger economy of North London. The power base of a traditionalist Mayor and thrusting Leader

The lights in  the council chamber and especially the meeting rooms has not improved and strains the eyes as one tries to read the 902 pages of the Brent Cross planning application.

As for the sound enhancement it is a disaster.  The portable microphones are battery operated and clearly run down during the meeting so they have to be changed.  Either the battery capacity is too small or they have not been recharged prior to the meeting.   Not that it really matters as even when they are supposed to be working  it is not possible to hear in the public areas.  It could be that the council bought good equipment and installed it on the cheap or they did not commission it correctly to save money.

Ah but they did not save money.  According to the report on the action taken under delegated powers by an officer (28/02/09) the lowest quotation that was accepted for the Microphone system was £111,768 plus VAT.  It is not clear what the final cost of the amplification installation turned out to be.   But we do know that the overall works cost for the town hall refurbishment which was estimated to be about £1,000,000 finished up at about £1,500,000 .   We should be grateful it was only a 50% overspend.  It could have been an over 300% increase as with the Aerodrome Road bridges disaster which went from £3,000,000 to over £11,000,000.

The people responsible for these financial horrors are the same people who will oversee the Future Shape outsourcing programme  If they can overspend £8,500,000 on a £4,000,000 budget think what they will be able to do with a £200,000,000 budget.  They think how lucky they are that there are over 350,000 people to pay the increased Council Tax needed to make up these shortfalls.  But I wonder do we want to pay for these overspend especially as the end product is either worse or at best little better than what was there before?
Would we be so compliant if we really knew what was going on with our money?
From Dai,  a worried ratepayer or if you prefer Do call me David

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David Howard is the head of The Save New Barnet Campaign and a trustee of the New Barnet Community Association. Thanks to David for a very interesting article

Barnet Eye always welcomes contributions from guest writers. If you have something suitable for The Barnet Eye click HERE to EMAIL me.

Gordon Brown and The Sun - a dyslexic viewpoint

I haven't felt too sorry for Gordon Brown over any of the problems he's had with the press.  That was until yesterday when the story broke in The Sun over his virtually illiterate letter to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. You see, I read Mr Browns reply (as best I could) and I thought - there for the grace of god go I. I've no desire to be Prime Minister, so it's one problem I'm not going to have, but as a dyslexic educated in the 60's and 70's I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of harsh criticism when you've done your best, purely for appalling spelling, awful grammar and dismal punctuation.

I was hit with a ruler on more than one occasion by teachers for "deliberately" spelling words incorrectly. I'm sure that Gordon Brown decided that a hand written letter from the Prime Minister would be far more appreciated than a stock word processed letter with his signature. I've no idea whether he's dyslexic, but his letter has a few of the hallmarks. He's clearly an intelligent man, but like me his brain clearly has a problem with names and words. It isn't helped by appalling handwriting, but I doubt a non dyslexic with his education and job would spell in that manner.

I get my wife to fill in all the forms I have to send off. I always get them wrong. Is it because I'm lazy or not careful? No. It's because if your brain tells you that's how it should be, that's how it should be. Ok you say, surely Gordon Brown should have a civil servant to read it before it's sent? Well hang on, it's supposed to be a private letter of condolence. What would the Sun say if it found out that "Gordon Brown is dyslexic and needs to pay a civil servant to read all his private letters". I say shame on The Sun for using a private matter for such horrible political ends. This whole issue is about trying to belittle Gordon Brown. I'd like to see whether The Sun feels it's inappropriate to use peoples disabilities against them? If it does then it is breaking the law. Let's just have a look at a few famous people, who've made a huge difference to their country :-

Winston Churchill - Alchoholic & Manic depressive
Franklyn D. Roosevelt - Virtual cripple.
Joan of Arc - Schizophrenic

All national icons, in the eyes of many, national saviours. Lord save us from becoming a nation where only the perfect are allowed to succeed. What message does it send to all of those kids out there struggling with dyslexia - "Keep your heads down, don't be too successful, because you've got an achillies heel that your enemies can destroy you with" - before I started writing this blog, I never wrote anything (apart from song lyrics) after I left school. When the Barnet Times asked me to write I blog, I was actually rather nervous about the concept. When I found people wanted to read it I was truly amazed. What I found was that people didn't care about the appalling use of English. They liked the fact that I was saying things no one else seemed to want to say. As a result others started having their say as well. Just as they say "don't judge a book by it's cover" I'd say don't judge anything by the handwriting or the spelling. What is the person trying to say? I wish I had the elegant prose of a Wilfred Owen, the wit of William Shakespeare or the dry humour of Stephen Fry. I haven't, but people still read the blog and get what I have to say (hopefully).  That's why I just can't stand by and say nothing about the crucifixion of Gordon Brown for his letter. I hope that this clobbers the Sun and  it's circulation figures. I think that the editor should be truly ashamed. I'm not going to criticise the mother of the soldier. She clearly has been deeply scarred and holds Brown responsible. She's just hitting back in any way she can. The Sun however are exploiting this to sell newspapers and it makes me sick.

There are plenty of reasons to have a go at Gordon Brown. His inability to write a letter of condolence is not one of them.

Is this Freer's vision of the future? ... Budget Barnet run like Ryanair!

By Bill Kelly,

Is this Freer's vision of the future? ... Budget  Barnet run like Ryanair! If so that could account for my kitchen. Let me start at the begining....

About 2 years ago the government brought in a decent homes program. where social housing was to be modernised to a decent standard. I'm not talking Luxury.. but decent.

I moved into sheltered housing in June 2008 from a private resident. The kitchen of my new home was not touched under the decent homes program because the previous tenant did not want it done. Fair enough, 

The tenant decided to move back home abroad a few months later,  and my small flat lay empty..

Did Barnet homes move in to do the Kitchen?.....No way

I took up the tenancy...and after a few months was asked if I would like my Kitchen done...Oooh!  yes Please,

The sink unit had a slight tilt allowing the water from the draining board to run away from the sink onto the work top.

In April this year, I was informed by the chairman of our resident association, that he had been informed by Barnet homes that they had finished the program, and my Kitchen would not be upgraded.

In May, the Heating company did their yearly safety check of the boiler, and informed me that while the system had passed the safety checks. It should have been replaced ages ago because he could only give it an efficiency rating of 1 (the lowest ) that he could give it,

I have to turn the boiler thermostat on No.6 the highest setting.. The Radiator settings are also set to the highest setting, to get even a slight benefit of warmth.

The boiler by the way is  held together by gaffer tape. and to operate the divergence valve ( hot water only or heating and hot water ) you have to get down on hands and knees to turn the orange handle.

duly rang Barnet homes to complain about the sink unit and boiler....

No response despite a number of calls.

Fast forward to July 15th 2009 a plumber arrived... to fit new taps to Sink..

he walked into Kitchen and walked away again muttering, " I'm not fitting new taps to that sink Unit, It needs replacing,"

After a couple of months complaining by myself and the Warden, workman turned up mid September to replace Sink Unit

They say "every picture tells its own story... well  here are a few photo's after the new Sink Unit had been fitted and the "Workman"?? had gone...need I say any more......Yes....I was better off with the old one.
 

More Phone calls by me...( Ignored )....Phone messages to barnet homes left by the Warden....( Ignored )..... 3 weeks later a Inspector arrived to check the work..and was appalled at the work (or so he said )

Also in his opinion, I was being penalised, because the previous tenant did not want the work done. (I ask you, where's the money gone? )

They did come back to fix the plinth at the bottom of the sink Unit,
The tiles remain broken and need replacing, I have already suffered one cut hand.

Two weeks ago 21st Oct. I had yet another inspection, with the usual promise of keeping me informed....since then nothing....

I'm glad I am in the Autumn of my life, if this is the shape of things to come..

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The Barnet Eye is always pleased to publish contributions from guest writers. Just CLICK HERE to email me your story - Thanks to Bill Kelly for this truly awful insight into life under Barnet Homes.

Kit Malthouse needs to get himself a Willy !!!!!!

Margaret Thatcher once said that "everyone should have a Willy" You may think that this is a rather curious remark for the first female Prime Minister to make, but she was referring to her right hand man - William Whitelaw.What Lady Thatcher was actually saying was that Whitelaw was a steady hand, a voice of experience and reason. A man who's judgement could be trusted. Whenever she was tempted to act rashly, lash out in a knee jerk reaction, she would discuss it with Whitlelaw and he'd persuade her to temper her reaction.

So why do I think that Boris Johnson's Deputy Mayor, Kit Malthouse could do with a Willy? Well today there are not one, but two blogs on the Tory Troll blog, which suggest to me that a bit of calm, sensible advice over a nice cup of tea may be of use to Mr Malthouse.

First he is proposing that "all breeds of bull terriers" are summarily ceased in the United Kingdom. he want's to follow the draconian legislation enacted in Ontario, where all of these dogs are forced by law to be castrated. Any non compliance and the poor little doggies are taken of and put down. As the owner of a dog for many years, I know and any sensible dog owner will know that it isn't the dogs, it's the owners which make them aggressive. Sensible owners will generally neuter overly aggressive dogs. I'm all for a law which bans people from keeping dogs who are unfit owners, but to commit ethnic cleansing on the doggy population of London is a horrible concept. Mr Malthouse hasn't twigged that many Tory voters like dogs and this would be a massive vote loser at the election.

Just to make matters worse it seems that someone, shall we say, very, or even extremely close to Mr Malthouse has been leaving messages on the Tory Troll website.These "anonymous" messages are always rather supportive of Mr Malthouse. It's well worth clicking on the link to read the full story.

Now I wonder. If Mr Malthouse actually did have a Willy, what would his Willy say to him about these. I suspect Kit's Willy may have this message about his genocide for Dogs idea

"Kit, this is your Willy talking. Have a nice cup of tea. Sit down, relax, think it through. Many old dears who like the Tory party, like doggies even more. If you bring in your "gas chambres for doggies" idea, we'll loose thousands of ardent supporters, just when we need them most. If you want to deal with dangerous dogs, target the problem - bad owners - who no one will vote Labour to save".

And what would Kit's Willy advise him to do about his "rather close associates" leaving messages on nasty bloggers sites, using anonymous ID's?

"Kit, this is your Willy talking, have a nice digestive biscuit with that cup of tea. These Leftie bloggers are nasty people. They know all the nasty tricks of the internet and they love trying to catch honest, decent, upright people such as your good self out. If you see something you don't like, ignore it. Getting your "friends and very close associates" to post messages will only make you look rather silly."

Now as ever, being a dyslexic, I ran this by my good Lady to tell me if I'd made any terrible typo's. She tells me that Willy Whitelaw is actually a Willie !!!!!! She informs me that a Willy is a part of your anatomy !!!!! Even so, if I was Kit, I'd start listening to my Willy as I suggested, rather than talking through that other rather naughty bit of his anatomy, as he seems to be doing in his "gas the doggies" scheme. We wouldn't want him to end up looking like that even ruder bit of anatomy which Lady Thatcher had and Willie Whitelaw didn't, would we?

Mike Freer : We've got nothing to hide (except your comments)

Leader of Barnet Council Mike Freer says on his latest "Leader Listens" blog

I trust publishing these figures here will demonstrate to critics and cynics, and to you, that Barnet has nothing to hide.

 Strange really that he chooses to hide the comment I left?

Rog T

Posted November 7, 2009 at 11:03 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation. Mike,
Please can you share with us exactly what this £417.20 in “Entertainment” was. I presume it wasn’t for a troupe of dancing girls to entertain you prior to your last cabinet meeting?

Dulce et Decorum est

I thought I'd write something for the memory of those who fought and died, giving their lives for causes good and bad. I just hope I never have the bloody and brutal inspiration which made Wilfred Owen the finest poet (in my opinion) that these Isles have ever produced. Have we learned anything from the sacrifices of people such as Wilfred Owen and the millions of others we never heard of ?
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Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

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As my father served in the RAF and lost many friends, I feel it is important to remember the sacrifice of those who died. I had intended writing a completely different blog, but being a Roman Catholic, I attended Mass this evening. Father Fergus Kelly gave a radically different sermon to that which we normally get. He briefly told us that his father served in the first world war.  He told us that when he was a small boy, he asked his father if he'd ever killed anyone. His father looked sad and said "Go on Fergus and play outside". He then read Wilfred Owens poem "Dulce et Decorum est". No commentary, no religious perspective, just Owens words, then he continued with the usual service. It rather moved me so I thought I'd share it with you.  I think it's a pretty universal message for people of all faiths or no faith at all.