The Barnet Council : The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

They fell into my carefully laid trap!

You may notice (until I decide to put another one on) a little poll at the side of the blog, with suggested menu's you might wish to serve up for the Barnet Council cabinet.

Now the fact that 8 people wanted the rather tasty & delicious one and as was pointed out to me I didn't offer a Kosher option, we can fairly safely say that the cabinet must all be reading my blog !

Well if nothing else, that shows they have some good taste. Now I've got their attention, I thought I'd analyse how they are doing. Lets face it we all benefit from some 360 degree feedback. As a lover of a good western, I thought we'd have a look at some of their keynote policies and classify them as good, bad or ugly.

Sorry to anyone who was hoping for a rating of their looks, suffice to say that I don't think any of them really float my boat (and I'm sure they are equally grateful of that fact).

The Good. Barnet generally provides a good standard of education to its children (despite it's current difficulties in finding enough places). It is no coincidence that the cabinet member for education is Fiona Bulmer, who isn't a publicity junkie and just gets on with the job. The in house bin collection team also do a fine job.

The Bad. Well a few to chose from, but the top of the list must be the resource committee's decision to lose millions of pounds in Iceland. Councillor Mike Freer holds the resource portfolio. His colleagues have found a novel way to get shot of him and are hoping he becomes MP for Finchley, so they can get rid of him without having yet another coup. There is also the multi million cock up at Aerodrome Road, put together by the Candidate for Hendon, Matthew Offord. He's rather cunningly trying to pass the blame on to Andrew Harper who was given the portfolio when Matthew realised that the project was starting to resemble Brigit Bardot sunbathing.

The Ugly. Only one contender here. Lynn Hillans scheme to sack the vast majority of sheltered housing wardens. These caring staff provide vital support for the old, infirm, disabled and other vulnerable people. The crazy thing is that wardens allow them to live independently, so the savings will soon disappear when the support for these people goes. People will lose independence and costs will rocket. The ugliest thing is the fact that Lynn Hillan moved her mum to a flat where the wardens are being retained.

It's quite strange really, it seems that the more quietly Councillors go about their business, the better a job they do. Do you think it's because the quiet ones are more interested in doing the job than promoting themselves so they go up the political ladder? Just a thought.