Twatman Robert Rams attacks Mike Freer MP

I was amazed to read an attack by Councillor Robert Rams (voted a twat by readers of the Barnet Eye last year) on his former boss at Barnet Council - Mike Freer MP. Of course, being a Twat, it is highly likely that Robert Rams didn't actually realise what he was saying or doing. Today Ramsbottom wrote this blog :-


http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/who-is-professor-dexter-whitfield/

Let me quote the key passage from Ramsbums blog :-

He (Professor Dexter Whitfield) is now the Director of the European Services Strategy Unithttp://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/contact/. It is from here he has been paid by the Barnet unions to write these reports. But it is interesting that whatever he writes, he always comes to the same conclusion, that outsourcing is a bad idea, ignoring the savings that have been achieved. But would we expect him to write anything else? So in conclusion, he appears to be an anti-outsourcing activist, so it is hard to understand how his reports can be described as an independent critique of our One Barnet process. I would suggest to the Unions that they save their members’ hard earned money and spend it somewhere else!

Well what Mr Sheepsjacksie Rams neglects to mention is that it wasn't the unions who brought Dexter Whitfield in or paid his bills. It was none other than the then Barnet Council Leader Mike Freer. He made a ground breaking decision to pay for the Unions to hire their own consultant (Prof Whitfield) to cast a critical eye over the proposals. Mike Freer told the Barnet Unison Leader, John Burgess, that criticism of the process from an independent source would improve the process. He put his money where his mouth was and the first four reports were paid for by the Barnet Taxpayer on the command of Mike Freer.

I spoke to John Burgess this evening concerning Robert Rams comments. He stated that when Mike Freer first told him about the One Barnet program (then called Future Shape), he insisted that the Unions were a vital part of the process. He suggested getting Dexter Whitfield in to show Burgess his good faith as a partner. He told John that whilst they would probably disagree on many of the ideas, it was vital that the process involved all the stakeholders in Barnet. This was why the name was changed to One Barnet. Mike Freer always insisted to John Burgess that OneBarnet was not "all about outsourcing" but about transforming and modernising Barnet Council, with the help and agreement of the workforce.

In the near two years since Freer left to persue his personal ambition to become an MP, the One Barnet program has changed. It has become a program solely about outsourcing. Whilst the Unions were tasked to come up with suggested efficiencies and competetive in house bids, the joint Leaders of the Council, Lynne Hillan and Andrew Harper have gone back on their commitments and promises to John Burgess, to consider in house bids if they were competetive. Councillor Rams, who is charged with implementing many "One Barnet" programs has not even to read properly the critique's provided by Professor Whitfield. He has never supplier a sensible response to any of his comments. Now he seeks to dismiss someone who is an eminent professor and has spent years studying the subject in a vicious and ill informed blog (based on casual reading of a couple of internet articles).

I spoke to John Burgess and he informed me that he was shocked that a cabinet member of Barnet Council should choose to behave in such a way. John said "I've worked with four Conservative Leaders at Barnet and although we've had our differences, I've never seen them attack the reputation of an independent advisor, who was initially brought in by the Council, in terms such as these".

Whilst Robert Rams may think he's a clever little twat chappie for attacking Professor Whitfield, he clealry hasn't thought this through. Does he really think anyone with any credibility will want to work for Barnet Council, if Cabinet members are going to harangue them and belittle their reputation, should they spell out a few home truths? Does he think Councillors will get decent advice, if experts know that they will be insulted in this way.

The most telling point about Rams attack against Whitfield is that at no point does Rams identify a single error in Whitfields analysis of Barnet Council's One Barnet program.  He cannot find a single criticism of Whitfields reports to demonstrate why he may be wrong. All he does is attack the reputation of the man. This is the second time in two days that a serious and intelligent critic of Barnet Council has been harshly attacked in this way. Yesterday it was the campaigner against the CPZ price hike, David Attfield.

The evidence is there for all to see. Rams is quite happy to slag off the Unions for spending their money on the services of Professor Dexter Whitfield. As it was the Barnet Taxpayers money, generously provided by Mike Freer MP  which started the ball rolling, it is quite clear that Rams also thinks Mike Freer has wasted cash big time. Sadly he's too cowardly to tell the people of Barnet the whole truth or to attract the ire of his boss. It is telling that Robert Rams is the GLA bag carrier of Brian "Gordon Brown Stealthtaxman" Coleman, who has made a career of attacking the reputations of all who cross him. It seems Robert "Sheepsjacksie" Ramsbottom is ready to step out of the (rather portly) shadow of his mentoe