Planet Earth to the Barnet Tory Bugle (sorry the Barnet Times)

There is a rumour in the Barnet Blogosphere that the Barnet Times is changing its name (well there is now I've started it). It is changing its name to "The Barnet Whores Drawers". The reason? Stories go up and down so regularly on its website that us poor bloggers can't keep up. What usually happens is this. A senior Barnet Tory does something stupid. One of the journalistic team faithfully writes up the story. The story duly appears on the website. The bloggers of Barnet  (through years of bitter experience) see the story and save it, and start working on their blogs. The senior members of Barnet Council get their google alert  (The taxpayer pays for a google alerts service so all of the egomaniacs get a ping every time their name appears in a web story). The senior Torys read the story and scream in true Kenneth Williams Carry on Style "Infamy, Infamy, They've all got it in for me!". They then ring up Rachel Sharp, editor of the Barnet Times and tell her "Listen Lovely, your job is to write stories about how marvellous Barnets Tories are, if you don't rewrite it immediately and punish your naughty underling, dire consequences will occur" (or words to that effect). The editor then calls in the poor naughty whippersnapper and dispenses a B*ll*cking and instructions to "make it nicer about our friends" (or words to that effect). The story disappears and another one reemerges, suitably and Stalinisticly rewritten.

Where Mike Freer was reported that he considered Nick Walkleys comments "cack handed and clumsy", the story suddenly becomes "Mike Freer has done a marvellous job and Nick Walkley thinks he's great" (or words to that effect). You'll be pleased to note that the naughty journalists finally seem to have got the message. All traces of independence and objectiveness have now been erased. This can be demonstrated in the latest story about the Leadership race for Barnet - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/4765621.More_cabinet_members_speak_on_council_leadership_race/. This was written by Sarah Cosgrove, who was one of the chief residents of the Barnet Times naughty corner last week. I suppose poor old Sarah didn't want to spend Xmas down at the on the Bad Girl step, so she had to toe the line. The story is full of sickening quotes from brown-nosing lickspittles such as Councillor Andrew Harper about Mike Freers disasterous reign (do they really believe this tripe or do they just think we're stupid).

“In my view Mike has been a terrific leader of the council. He has been inspirational and visionary, also enabling.I personally particularly appreciate the way that he's encouraged and supported me and enabled me to do my job and he displays the same qualities with others.”

Try this one from Councillor Daniel Thomas

“In my time working with him I've always been impressed at how knowledgeable he was, and of his grasp of the facts, knowledge of Barnet and all the issues our residents faced.”

 How anyone could let these crass comments pass without at least asking a few questions? I'd have asked Harper this "When you say he supported you and enabled you to do your job, do you mean by offering huge allowances?" As to Thomas, I'd have said "When you talk about Freers knowledge of the issues Residents face, do you mean the ones he created by not doing his job properly,d espite his £3,000 responsibility allowance, such as the Icelandic Bank fiasco or the Aerodrome Road cock up". Of course, if I was Sarah Cosgrove and I had to pay my bills, I may be a bit more circumspect. I daresay she knows that there isn't much point writing a story if it will be immediately pulled. I've not spoken to her about this, but having had similar treatment when I wrote a blog there, I understand her problem. I was told that all mention of Mike Freer was off limits. They pulled my blog because "They were worried about what I might write in the future"

Well I have a message for Rachel Sharp who is now the editor of the paper. The sole function of a proper local paper is to tell the truth as best you can and inform your readers as best you can. Over the years, I've spoken to all of the journalists who work for you and I think they are a good team. I run a business and I support my staff through thick and thin when they do their job. That way I get the best out of them. I believe that one of the reasons that Barnets Tories have been so incredibly useless is because the local press has "gone easy" on them. I am fully aware of how Barnet Council uses its advertising budget as a tool. I'd suggest you remind them that Alison Moore and Jack Cohen would find this rather interesting.

As for Barnets Tories. Let me explain to you what your attempts to use Stalinist media manipulation have actually done. You lent on the Times to pull my blogs. As a direct result (read his first blog), David Miller (aka Don't Call Me Dave) who used to be a local Tory bigwig, started his Not The Barnet Times Blog. That has done you more damage than anything. When you finally got your wish and got my blog dropped, I set up the Barnet Eye. When I had access to Martini (The Times management system) I could see how many hits I used to get on my blog. I now get ten times as many. Given that the blog is about Barnet, I suspect that most of these people are local voters. I believe that David gets a similar number. Stalinism doesn't work in Barnet.

Update  **** As I was writing this blog, yet another Freerite justification appeared on The Times website, this time for his palace coup, less than a week after the last Council elections.  Here's  a choice quote from the article. .

AS his time as leader of Barnet Council comes to an end, Councillor Mike Freer admits the way he took on the post was “necessary” to nullify discontent in the party.

I don't suppose that the wider electorate that voted for Salinger really mattered. Here's a choice quote from Mike Freer, it rather reminded my of Stalins justification of the purges of 1930

"At the time the group had been through a period of turbulence, a lot of members were unhappy. And the way these things are dealt with are never comfortable but sometimes they are necessary."

Is a bloke who talks like this, manipulates the press like this, really a suitable candidate as a Tory MP? I'm always wary of people who think the needs of a small cabal of party members is more important than the wider electorate. Rather interesting to see the Times paying it's staff overtime to big up Freer.