Does Mike Freer dream of Electric Sheep?

Empathy with our fellow human beings.

If you've seen the classic Sci Fi film Blade Runner, based on the classic novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", by Phillip K.Dick, you will know that the only way to tell a human from a top of the range Android is the Voigt-Kampff test, which distinguishes humans from androids based on their empathetic response.

I was reminded of this when I watched the Barnet Cabinet debate the catastrophic policy of abolishing residential wardens at Whetstone on Monday. It would be reassuring to find that Freer's total lack of empathy with his fellow man could be so easily explained. Did he not feel ashamed and embarrassed at the sight of a couple of hundred pensioners protesting outside his office at his headline policy? Didn't he see the old dears in wheelchairs, painfully sitting through the long meeting. As he proclaimed "Well if you don't like our policies you can vote us out in 2010" didn't he just feel a little bit ashamed?

The cabinet of Barnet Council voted unanimously to ditch the wardens, well not quite. Matthew Offord didn't vote, he'd found some excuse not to show up. I suspect that Matthew's rather cowardly non appearance had more to do with the fact that he can now honestly tell voters "I didn't vote for it" than anything else. A rather typical human response that - Cowardice.

I have a theory about Barnet Council and the way it's run. The one way to ensure that people are loyal is to pay them more than they are worth. That way they have to protect you to protect themselves. If you ensure that they have cushy jobs with tellies on their desks, top salaries and generous allowances, they will protect you. If you throw in jollies travelling first class to the USA and the South of France, people know they have much to lose if you are ousted and a more austere regime takes over. Barnet Councillors have rejected an independent scheme of deciding the level of renumeration. One Councillor, Brian Coleman gets over £100,000 in allowances for a string of part time posts. Cabinet jobs in Barnet are well paid. These are in the gift of the man at the top, Mike Freer. If you are a cabinet member, standing up to Mike Freer could cost you very dear.

It's all about looking after those people who can be useful. How do you pay for this generosity? By shafting the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. Those least able to organise themselves and fight back. I suspect that some in Barnet Council know they are wrong. After the meeting a pensioner told me that they had spoken with Councillor Andrew Harper who admitted this to them. Councillor Harper told them that he was working quietly behind the scenes to scupper the proposal and that things were going to happen over the next few months which would allay their fears. I have to tell you that the pensioner in question told me that having heard the "staged debate", they would no longer believe a word any Tory told them. This person was previously a life long Tory. I asked if I could use their name, but they replied "They run the place I live in, I'm worried that they'll have it in for me if I go public"

Is Councillor Harper working behind the scenes to sort the mess out? Duncan MacDonald says in his blog that the two Tory councillors in High Barnet don't support the policy. Vicki Morris of the Barnet Community Campaign emailed all of the Tory Councillors to ask their opinion of the policy. Not one responded. Does this sound as if they really want it to happen?

I've no idea whether Mike Freer dreams of Electric Sheep. I'm pretty sure he dreams of being an MP. I'm also pretty sure he's only doing this to show that he's a "tough leader". Thing is, I don't think that beating up the elderly is a sign of toughness, it's a sign of a cowardly bully. If he was tough, he could save the same amount of money, if not more by cutting the allowances of Councillors, sacking political advisors and getting rid of the expensive consultants working on future shape. He could get rid of the tellies from the senior offices desks and give them to the sheltered accomodation tenants. He could cut the waste and the jollys.

Mike Freer is not a rogue andriod, like the villains in Blade runner. He's something far more dangerous, at least he is if you are a frail resident of Barnet Council's sheltered accomodation.