Friday 18 February 2011

Why Barnet is leading the way in protests against the cuts

I get rung up all the time these days by TV companies and researchers wanting to find out about the protest movement in Barnet, what Barnet Council are up to, what I think of the protests etc. This blog is proving to be a rich source of material for  people doing documentaries, putting news items together. I was asked a really interesting question today - "Why has sleepy old Barnet, become such a hot bed of activism at the leading edge of protest against the cuts". The answer was simple. Whilst many other Boroughs are being hit by cuts, the people of Barnet have been under the cosh of Tory stupidity for many years now. Whilst the 2002-2006 period was one where residents suffered huge tax increases and bonkers schemes, such as Brian Colemans war on roadhumps, Mike Freer took over as leader in 2006 and declared war on everyone. The Future Shape program was launched, to privatise the whole council and a bunch of useless lackey placemen were given cabinet jobs, with a brief to slash costs without regard for the consequences.

As a result we had Lynne Hillan (then in charge of adult social care) declaring war on the residents of sheltered housing, with her plan to abolish the wardens. Sadly, in the rush, they broke the law and had to back down. All sorts of other stupid ideas were floated. The one good thing was that sane people on both left and right, recognised this. Blogs started springing up, groups started getting together and people started talking to each other. As a result, Barnet was prepared. Everyone else is catching up.

I have a massive file of national TV and Press coverage of Barnet local politics. Totally unprecedented. Compare it to Harrow, Camden or Brent and you'll see we have about three times more coverage than our neighbours put together. Let me list just a few recent firsts for Barnet

* Save the Libraries campaign. When I started the campaign last September in Barnet, no one was organising. It is now a massive national campaign (a model of local organic growth). I don't wish to claim much credit, but the seed was planted here on this blog. We've got over 6,000 signatures and the online total topped 1,000 this week. It just keeps growing

* Barnet against the Cuts rally. With a slate of speakers and The Foundations leading the music line up, we made national TV news. The Tories were  horribly shaken by the depth of the support.

* Campaign against CPZ charges. This campaign is a sign of the spread of unrest to normal Tory heartlands. Brian Coleman has rudely dismissed the complaints as "The chattering classes of Garden Suburb, upset because they have to fork out for their nannies". Given that Garden Suburb is a Tory ward, with the deputy leader of the Council as one of it's representatives, a truly amazing attack.

* Unprecedented resident action at the Cabinet Budget meeting. All sections of society were represented. The allotted 30 minutes of questions was exceeded and uproar ensued. The Tory Council Cabinet managed to insult everyone. Council Leader Lynne Hillan was duly dispatched to give a face saving interview with the Hendon Times today, in which she claimed she had "empathy with residents". Anyone who attended the meeting will know this is complete rubbish. She was rude, arrogant and hostile to all and sundry. She was far more aggressive towards the nicer and more well mannered residents. She was actually quite polite to me.

The Barnet Eye is in the process of making a documentary of our own about Barnet and its politics. I have received some interest in my concept. We are going to make a documentary rather like this blog. It will be  across between Father Ted, Trigger Happy TV, Question Time and Morecombe and Wise. We also have a great soundtrack by some of Barnets very best bands. I am looking for a Brian Coleman lookalike, and I will pay £50 for a mornings filming. We will launch the film at a special gala launch Party, just as soon as it's ready. One of the advantages of having your own studio is the fact that you can do these things.

4 comments:

Don't Call Me Dave said...

For £50 plus a few canapés, I am sure Brian Coleman will be willing to play himself.

baarnett said...

That's funny, I immediately clicked to write a comment, and DCMD had already written exactly what I was going to say!

(Well, I would have left out the canapes, because I can't do accented letters. Show-off.)

Or you could film it as Wallace and Gromit animation ("That's enough bullshit and money-grabbing for now, Gromit. Let's have some cheese!")

Mrs Angry said...

yeah, trust DCMD to have his French letters in tip top order eh?

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Mme Fâché est jalouse, peut-être?