Today on the Hendon Times website an article popped up backing Mark Shooter for Leadership.Rather interestingly it has a right old pop at "Mr Nice" - ie Richard Cornelius, msaying he had a leading role in the existing regime, without even mentioning that Andrew Harper was the Deputy Leader (and de facto Leader for most of the period). The comments about Cornelius are most unfair, given that Harper is hardly mentioned.
Whilst I have no problem with a local paper publicly backing one candidate, it is clear that the treatment of Richard Cornelius is blatantly unfair. To quote :-
Richard Cornelius has been the only cabinet member to publicly be sceptical at Council meetings regarding many of the bonkers policies of the Council. There is no way that Harper as Deputy Leader can be let off so lightly, when a comment such as this has been made. I am not like the Barnet Tories, who used to demand anything I wrote on the Times website was taken down, when I wrote a blog there. I say leave it up and let the world see just how the Harper team are using every trick in the book to discredit Richard Cornelius.Whilst I have no problem with a local paper publicly backing one candidate, it is clear that the treatment of Richard Cornelius is blatantly unfair. To quote :-
Cornelius is coloured by his leading role in the present regime and his disinterest in looking into the gross misconduct of the Council and its senior officers. I have had no contact with Andrew Harper but I fear the same applies to him.
As to the Times supporting Mark Shooter, if this is the tactics Shooter supporters are deploying, then it is all the more clear that only Richard Cornelius has the integrity to bring Barnet Council together after the Metpro fiasco. I suspect that this story on the Times shows that the Harper and Shooter Teams are collaborating to knock Cornelius out in the first round.
I have this question for the Tory Councillors voting on Sunday. Please show us you have some integrity and vote for Richard Cornelius on Sunday
3 comments:
This is not an article, of course, and the Times is not backing Shooter: it is a blog. And I think you have a rosy tinted view of Cornelius: he may have asked a couple of questions at meetings - so what - he has done nothing more effective. I have been present at a meeting where he argued against the greater involvment of the public in council processes and another time ventured the opinion that many people thrive on a background of poverty. Harper and he are both associated with the One Barnet crap, whether they like it or not. Vote with your conscience,gentlemen, if you disagree with something, like Kate Salinger, the only Tory councillor to show any integrity over the Allowancegate scandal. This leaves us with Shooter, who strikes me as a decent man, but an unknown quantity, of course. I wouldn't endorse any Tory candidate, they can all go to hell in a handcart, as far as I am concerned, but Harper and Cornelius would be given priority on the cart if I was pushing it.
The article is on their website and under their editorial control. I know the rules, as I used to write a blog on there. The article contravenes section 5 of their blogging code. I was also told I couldn't support political campaigns on the blog, criticise the leader of the Council Mike Freer or comment on internal issues within the Tory group or the personalities involved.
They've changed the rules for his. The comment that RC ignored gross misconduct is potentially libellous and would have been immediately removed if I had written it. Read my two first Blogspot posts if you want to know what you can and can't say, as well as the first post on DCMD's blog.
I was told that everything is under editorial control and subject to PCC rules. The reason for our parting of the ways was because "The Times cannot be seen to be attacking Barnet Council in this manner".
Comprende?
oy, don't comprende me pal: I know you still are cross with the Times for what happened, but that was then and this is now: they did you a favour by pushing you to do your own thing.
If Harper is elected he will push through with One Barnet: if he does, then it will blow up in his face. Trouble is, it's not really about him and his glorious career, it's going to have a devastating impact on every resident in this area.
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