Stalinism at the Barnet Tory Bugle

The Edgware and Mill Hill Times. My local paper. I used to look forward to it popping through the door on a Thursday. In the 70's & 80's, back when Dennis Signy was the editor, it used to be a great local paper. It used to win awards. Being a muso, I especially liked the local music scene coverage. There was a column called, among other things, "Pop Round the Corner". I can still name the writers. Kevin Black - a gregarious Scot who used to write great reviews of my band, The False Dots (without ever turning up). Then there was Joy Bentley. I suspect she didn't much like the False Dots, but she still wrote nice things. Then there was the superstar - Clarence Mitchell. He went on to ITN and was last heard of working as PR consultant for Madeleine McCann's parents. Clarence actually used to turn up. He was also a very nice bloke.

There was also a guy called Bill Montgomery, who was the Barnet Council reporter. He would attend the most boring of meetings and find something to make it seem interesting. He'd make & break the careers of up and coming politicos with a well placed wry observation.

Fast forward to 2009. The paper has morphed into the Barnet Tory Bugle. I detailed this in a blog recently. Whilst the paper is happy to run overtly racist and anti Irish articles and letters, hagiographic peans to promenant local Barnet Cabinet members and verbatim Barnet press releases, it doesn't put letters from opponents of policies such as sheltered housing warden cuts on it's website. Strangely the Barnet Press is full of such letters.

For those of you with an interest in 20th Century history, you will recall that in Stalinist Russia, once someone fell foul of the regime, they became a non person. Artists would carefully airbrush every trace of them out of pictures. References in books would be removed. In short they would cease to exist. Well it seems that following my criticism of the Bugle, they've airbrushed me out. As you may recall, I used to write a blog for the Times, until their in house psychic deemed that at some point in the future, I may get them into trouble. My services were dispensed with, but the blogs remained. I put a link at the side here, so that if anyone was interested they could have a look. For my audacity to criticise them, they've zapped me, if you click the link, you'll see I've gone. Now you may think that this is just a tidy up, but Mike Freer's blog, which ended around the same time is still there. I'll tell you a funny story about Freer stopping his blog. He announced it at a council meeting. I mentioned this in a blog and a reporter from the Times emailed me to prove the allegation. I immediately emailed back with a link to the written answers, posted a week before on Barnets website. I've spoken to David Miller, author of Barnet Council Watch about the Times on a number of occasions and he says they are always moaning that he beats them to stories. I've also noticed that many stories are nicked, with no ackowledgement from the Tory Troll website.

I don't know if you've noticed how thin the Times has got recently. I suspect that this is due to advertisers deserting it. The Press meantime seems to get fatter by the week. I suspect that this is due to the more balanced coverage. I find it rather sad, to see the paper deteriorate by the week. One final twist of the knife from the Times to me. I typed my name "Tichborne" into the Times search engine, to see if any of my 61 blogs had escaped the cull. I found 3. The top one was

The Tragedy of Lady Thatcher - a personal view

This details my sympathy for the Thatcher family on a personal level, coping with their mums dementure.

The second was

The Big Match - Councillor Brian Gordon meets his nemesis !!!!!

Detailing how a local Tory Councillor had done an OK job chairing the Hendon Residents association meeting.

The Third was

Great Expectations (the male view) Part 2 - What's in a name?

Detailing my experiences naming my kids.

In short, anyone looking for my blogs would probably conclude I was a Tory childcare expert. Oh well, catch them while you can, I'm sure they'll be gone soon.

Well how does it feel to be Stalin'd??? In the words of the Rolling Stones

Who reads yesterdays papers, who wants yesterdays news
Who reads yesterdays papers, no one in the world.

I've no pretentions to be Shakespeare or Dickens, I find it rather funny.