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The rather odd chap, holding himself in a rather unbecoming manner (which brings to mind the old proverb "man with hand in pocket feels cocky all day") is Barnet Tory Councillor, Daniel Thomas (I wonder if his middle name is "John").
Mr Thomas is the Barnet Councillor responsible for organising a public consultation into the Tories proposed budget cuts. Would you be utterly flabbergasted if I told you that
Johnny boy Councillor Daniel Thomas, didn't do a very good job of this. Guess how many people expressed an interest in going along to have Barnet Council completely ride roughsod over their views (like they did in the Sheltered Housing Consultation, where 85% of respondents said they disagreed with the councils plans, only to be completely ignored).
I'll tell you how many - four people. What happened next?
Johnny Boy Councillor Daniel Thomas announced that the process was a great success and nobody wanted to come because they all think the local Tories are marvellous and totally agreed with his bonkers plans to waste money. Now you probably think I'm making this up (as if) - Well I read it in the Edgware press so it must be true - Here's the link :-
http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=40099&headline=Public%20meeting%20over%20cuts%20is%20cancelled%
Nowyou may ask how I can be so sure that the good people of Barnet are not as happy with
Johnny Boy Councillor Daniel Thomas as he makes out? Well, I've been conducting my own little bit of consultation. I've been collecting signatures for a petition against the planned Tory Library cuts. We now have over 3,500 signatures. Most of these are on paper copies, but over 400 are on the on line version. If you haven't signed it, please do. This has beebn acheived with NO COVERAGE WHATSOEVER from the local press. They have ignored the library petition, despite the fact that it has now received twice the number of signatures that the ALLOWANCEGATE petition received, which they backed to the hilt.
I know the local papers are aware of the petition. The Press sent a photographer to East Barnet, but never ran the story. The Times check my blog every day (I can see the stats) and usually publish the best bits a couple of weeks later. How sad is it that they let
Johnny Boy Councillor Daniel Thomas spout cobblers unchallenged, but won't print a word about the biggest campaign in Barnet right now?
If you haven't signed the Library petition, please do now. Email your friends, twitter it. Facebook it.
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39319/sign.html
It is rather sad that people have given up on Barnet Council and their consultations. It is however completely understandable. What sickens me most though is the fact that a couple of local Tories have criticised students for smashing up their headquarters last week, whilst condoning the wanton destruction of Barnets library service, which is far more valuable to most of the people who pay their allowances. I think destruction of any building is deplorable, be it a library or a Tory head office. Sadly our local Tories only care if this sort of Vandalism affects them.
2 comments:
Yes, well, as you didn't mention,your fellow bloggers, Mr Reasonable and I, together represented 50% of Cllr Thomas's one to one substitute consultation (see our respective blogs if you want to read what happened). I think this is an interesting new development: just think, in future, a Tory councillor will phone every resident in the borough to ask in depth their opinion of council policies, and then totally disregard them. This is progress, surely - much better to have your opinion ignored on a personal basis?
Thomas mentioned that on the night previous to the cancelled meeting they had quietly held another one: an event involving the resurrected Citizens Panel. I was told at a Residents Forum that this Panel had been dropped due to the expense, but then given a verbal response that they had just remembered it was in fact going to be used again. Peculiar. Especially as I was a member of this panel but seem to have dropped off the mailing list and was not invited to the mysterious budget Panel meeting.
In other words, an open meeting which risked the possibility of free debate and embarrassement to the Tory administration was cancelled (could have been rescheduled, by the way, couldn't it?) and replaced by a meeting where the invited guests were chosen by an unknown process. This is democracy in action, in the London Borough of Barnet. Marvellous.
I've been doing the rounds of the Barnet blogs, and just read about a consultation by Coventry council, about the future of the city (I've no idea who controls the council) carried out with IBM. It is here.
A Coventry council statement called "Inform, Consult and Involve" is the most interesting. At the bottom of page 2, there is a scale.
At the left-hand end, there is "INFORM (least empowering)", where I would place Barnet. At the right-hand end, there is "INVOLVE (most empowering)", which where I would place, say, Windsor and Maidenhead (Roger's favourite open council), and presumably Coventry.
The middle bit of the scale is called "CONSULT", which is about as far along the line any of the clowns in power would ever dream of going.
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