Brian Coleman or Susette Palmer - Who would you trust more?

Susette Palmer writes on her blog today about the Barnet Future Shape proposal (Click HERE for the full text - it is worth reading. I'm not a LibDem but this is probably the most sensible thing I've seen written about Future Shape by any Barnet Councillor.


Here's what Susette has to say :-

Basically I became a Councillor to organise and oversee Council Services as they affect the residents of this Borough and to help the residents of my ward with Council related problems, which even this report admits will become ‘more complex’ i.e.harder to get done. I did not become a councillor to outsource services and develop strategic documents.

Councillors outside the Cabinet , including the Tory majority backbenchers, are increasingly sidelined and prevented from having any effect in discussing policy as it is made. The Cabinet system imposed on us by central government , particularly as it is now applied in Barnet, removes all real checks and balances on the formation of policy. Council meetings are a farce with the opposition not even being told what resolutions we are going to discuss until the meeting starts. This is totally childish.

This ‘Future of the Council’report appears to want leave the Council with virtually no in-house services and an overload of ‘consulting with other ‘partners’ and to make our efforts to help our constituents ever more difficult.

I don't know Susette, but having seen her in action in Council meetings and read this, she seems to be someone who's opinion I trusted. She seems to care.

Lets compare and contrast this with how Brian Coleman talks about his opponents.

Talking about Lynne Featherstone calling the Fire Brigade when she thought her boiler may explode, the chair of the London Fire and emergency planning authority said to the Daily Telegraph (click HERE for full article) :-

"You don't call the fire brigade - you switch your boiler off and call a plumber the next day. It costs £250 per hour for a call out and I look forward to receiving a cheque from Lynne Featherstone. She has shown herself to be completely dizzy, she advertised the fact she is dizzy on her blog, which is even more stupid. Airheads and airlocks are obviously not unrelated. She can't tell the difference between an airlock and a major catastrophe." He later added "Would a man have called the fire brigade? I don't know."

Patronising, sexist and insulting. Given that the Fire Brigade said she'd done the right thing, it is a classic case of cheap and petty point political point scoring.

Have any local Tories come out to criticise Brian Coleman. Has he been censured by his Leader, Mike Freer? No. He carries on at Barnet receiving huge allowances for his various cabinet roles and other posts. Mike Freer clearly thinks that this man's judgement is sound.

So I ask you this. Who would you trust more to organise Barnet's community Safety and Community engagement - Brian Coleman or Susette Palmer?