Barnet Council - David Camerons Militant Tendency moment

Do you remember militant tendency in Liverpool in the 1980's. A group of renegade councillors took over the party. Ordinary Labour members, people of conscience, were targetted, forced out and humiliated. Seemingly super left wing policies were implemented, but in reality these were just "jobs for the boys" posts, providing nice cushy numbers for party cadres. Councillors such as Derek Hatton lived the high life at the taxpayers expense, using the system to the maximum. Tony Blair won middle England by showing that he had the balls to deal with the hard left. It was surgically removed (along with most of the rest of the left).

Move forward to 2010 in Barnet. There is a new Militant Tendency. This time it's not hard left but the parasitic right. Ordinary Tory councillors such as Dan Hope were deselected to allow cadres in and set the stage for the Mike Freer/Brian Coleman coup in 2006 against then Leader Brian Salinger.Now we are really seeing the chickens coming home to roost. Just as Militant in Liverpool set out to destroy well respected sensible working class socialists, the Tory Parasitic Tendency have started the same sort of repulsive action against the sensible right in Barnet. When Councillor Kate Salinger opposed the huge increases for Tory councillors, she was stripped of all responsibility in a vile dressing down. In the Barnet Tories house blog, a cabinet member was reported as saying the following about Salinger

"already a marginal figure and her actions have ostracised her entirely and she is now history"

If I'd written an article about militant tendency and used that in the context of how they treated normal Labour members, you wouldn't have been surprised would you? Another aspect of the Barnet regime is the "Future Shape" project. Liverpool Council launched many hard left initiatives which were designed merely to provide jobs for party cadres. Future Shape is Barnet Councils five year plan to ensure that all opponents of the regime are surgically removed at every level of the council. I suspect it is the cadre system under another name, but wheras in Labour cadres are "loyalists to the regime", the cadres in Barnet will be fat corporations and their directors who can provide "generous support" (or maybe free dinners) to the local Tory Party bigwigs.

The question for all members of the Tory Party is this. At what stage to you treat this cancer? Do you follow the example of the Labour party and wait until it's too late, so that the secondaries (Tony Blair/Peter Mandelson) can come along and gobble you up? If I was David Cameron, I'd take action now. If he really is a firm decisive leader, he will get on the phone to Lynne Hillan and tell her to go. He will get on the phone to Boris and tell him to sack Brian Coleman as the head of the LFEPA. He will put out a statement saying that any Conservative Councillors which put greed and personal before the interests of the people of Barnet wll be harshly despatched. He should write to all Barnet Conservative Councillors and remind them of their duty to the people of Barnet and tell them to elect  a new Leader, one who can restore the respect of the people of Barnet.

We are all in for a torrid time in the next five years. This Government is going to make huge cuts to the public sector and this will cause job losses across the economy. Two out of three seats in Barnet are marginals and flipped from Labour to Tory, one by only 106 votes. If there was an election in Hendon today, Matthew Offord would lose because of this trousering. Former Labour MP Andrew Dismore has been quick off the mark - http://www.dismore4hendon.com/conservative-council-pay-rises - to start a petition against the rise. Mr Dismore believes that the Coalition government will fail within six months and he'll be back in his job. There are already rumours of hard right Tory unrest.
I can guarantee that if this happens, Dismore will win in Hendon following the stories from Barnet this week. As to Finchley and Mike Freer. That will be harder to call, but Freer knows it is a massive problem which is why he's come out strongly against the increase.

So the question is this. Does David Cameron have the balls to squash this cancer of parasitism and troughing in Barnet now or will he just sit back and let it spread. There are two reasons Labour lost the last election. The words Gordon and Brown. He's gone. They will have David Milliband at the next election and will be up for the fight. There are over 700 schools affected and this will have an enormous effect in the marginals. There are several in Barnet.

There are three sound reasons why David Cameron must act now

1) Because Barnet Councillors are undermining his personal authority and making him look stupid
2) Because it is good politics and may save him two marginal seats
3) Because it is the right thing to do

And Mr Cameron would do well to remember this. Tony Blair massively enhanced his personal reputation by dealing with such elements in the Labour Party.

By the way, I can see from my stats that someone who lives at Mr Camerons house reads this blog. If you are reading Dave, there is one more thing I'd like you to do, as a special favour to me and everyone else with a conscience in Barnet. Please give Councillor Kate Salinger an OBE at the first possible opportunity. I believe that of all of the Tory Councillors in the UK this morning there is no one who is more deserving, has shown more courage and decency and no one who deserves it more. She is the only thing in Barnet which says the local party is not completely beyond redemption in its current form.