Monday 6 June 2011

Barnet Council Leadership Election : Is Boris backing Shooter?

I have been deluged with calls & other info regarding the Barnet Council Leadership election. A source in NLBP tells me the officers are supremely confident that Andrew Harper will walk it. Given their track record, one can only wonder what that really means. Perhaps a more interesting source of information came from a good contact at County Hall. When the Barnet Bugle twittered that Brian Coleman was supporting Mark Shooter, I was rather puzzled. What deal could have been done here? Perhaps I should have been quicker off the mark? In the words of Mrs Merton "What could Boris Johnson possibly see in millionaire Mark Shooter?" Yes, that's right, there is a Mayoral election next year. Boris is on the look out for influential backers for his bid. Who would he rather see running Barnet? A pauper or someone who is minted? Especially if that person owes him a favour or two? Boris has been wondering exactly how he can shore up the Tory vote in Barnet and Camden, with a bonkers Tory council and Brian Coleman as candidate. Brian Coleman may not be Shooters biggest fan, but an endebted Shooter splashing his cash for the Brian and Boris show is a powerful political aphrodisiac.

Boris can't be seen to intervene, but he knows how to find the G-spot of the Tory party and push their buttons. A wink in Shooters direction is a powerful weapon. Word on the street has it that in return for pulling a few strings in Barnet, Boris wants the following in return :-

a) Some wonga towards his campaign next year
b) Full and unequivocable backing for Brian Coleman in his GLA bid
c) A bit of gratuitous Union bashing, which Boris has a whole team waiting to assist with, and Coleman as the mentor.

If Shooter gives these commitments, then he will walk it. Brian Coleman, yet again set to be the kingmaker, knows that Unison in Barnet is his only credible adversary (apart from a few bloggers, who he can't really do too much about). I am told that Coleman believes that a castrated Unison will make the council a far more "malliable" organisation. He has form as leader of LFEPA. This leaves UNISON stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Harper will go flat out for OneBarnet outsourcing, Shooter will go flat out to clobber the Unions. Word reaches the Barnet Eye that the Unions are quietly hoping for a Richard Cornelius victory as the "best of a bad world" candidate.

I'm starting to come around to the opinion that of the three, Councillor Richard Cornelius is the best of a bad bunch. If Harper is the choice of an executive, responsible for disaster after disaster and planning the OneBarnet fiasco's next stage, he simply has to go. If Shooter is simply going to be a Union bashing sock puppet for Brian Coleman, who is a union bashing sock puppet for Boris, then lord help us. At least Cornelius is his own man. He seems like a decent sort of a chap to me. I daresay he needs my endorsement like a hole in the head, but if our Tory Councillors care about anything beyond their own pockets, maybe they should seriously consider backing him

1 comment:

Jaybird said...

That would be Richard Cornelius, the man who told the constitutional review committee that making it easier for the public to ask questions at meetings would reduce his "status as a member" and who helped Harper push through a raft of wholly undemocratic changes?