Barnet Eye News Round up

Greetings, greetings to one and all. Great news, last night I took a phone call from Brian Coleman and he offered me a non job at Barnet Council paying £150,000 a year, if I agreed to only say nice things about him between now and the GLA election and then told me it would go up to £200,000 a year if I said Andrew Dismore smells of poo. Then I woke up and found it was all a horrible dream, caused by eating too much cheese and drinking too much red wine. So no £200,000 a year, no comfy non job, and no compromising of my principles. Ain't life a bitch, guess I'll just have to keep knocking out them blogs then.

So why you may wonder, was the issue of Brian Coleman & the GLA elections troubling me. I've been hacking through the backlog of emails from my holidays and I found this, which was revealed as part of an FOI response. It is an email sent by Brian Coleman, in response to a resident asking about the Obscene increases in CPZ charges (click on the images for a more readable version).

As you can see, Councillor Brian Coleman responds to a perfectly reasonable query about the Obscene raise in CPZ parking charges, by ridiculing his constituents use of the word Obscene, in relation to the price hike. Now if like me (yup, I live in a CPZ) you are subjected to this huge hike in prices and you are lumbered with it, you'd probably think it was "Obscene". However, if like Brian Coleman, you receive a free parking permit, because you are a Councillor, you probably wouldn't have a clue what the poor chap was on about. Or mayby, like Coleman, you wouldn't give a shit, because you are alright jack.

And why was I think of Andrew Dismore? Well yesterday the Labour Party were out in force in Mill Hill Broadway. A brief conversation with one of the campaigners in an Andrew Dismore T-shirt revealed that they were getting a rather good response. What were the topics people were interested in? Nationally, protecting the NHS. Locally - I was told that many local people have been impressed with Andrew Dismore's stance on the proposed Free School in Daws Lane. People have also woken up to the fact that Coleman is MR CPZ rise. They are also none too impressed with his sneaky attempt to abolish Pay and Display. At the last GLA elections, Nicky Gavron (the Labour candidate) was invisible in Barnet. Andrew Dismore is anything but invisible. I suspect that Brian Coleman may well be £53,439 out of pocket come May next year.

What else has been going on. Well there is yet another great new Barnet website, protesting at the stupidty of Barnet Council. As ever we are more than happy to give them a plug. Please check out the Daily Friern, the new site for the Friern Barnet Library campaign - http://paper.li/friernblibrary/1308604551 - at this blog we always give new bloggers in Barnet a plug. There are plenty of other great blogs in the sidebar. If you haven't checked them out, please have a nose around.

On the subject of Barnet Council & the industrial action, there is a great article by Kate Belgrave - http://www.katebelgrave.com/2011/09/barnet-strikes/ - Kate is a freelance investigative journalist who is a passionate supporter of the underrepresented in society. Well worth a read.

For all Barnet Eye readers who are Hogwarts and about to return for the new term, Network rail have moved the Hogwarts platform at Kings Cross - 9 3/4.

You can find details of it's new home at the Londonist - http://londonist.com/2011/09/hogwarts-pupils-confounded-by-moving-platform-at-kings-cross.php - I hope this helps the young wizards of Barnet to get  to school on time.

And on to this :-

I was shocked to see this picture on the First Capital Connect website. For a second, I thought it was the new uniforms for their revenue protection officers (Ticket inspectors in plain English). Happily for those of us partial to bunking the fair (an activity the Barnet Eye would never condone), it isn't . The chaps in the picture are part of the celebrations surrounding the naming of a First Capital Connect train as "Elstree Studios" - Full story here - http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/news/2011/full-steam-ahead-elstree-film-studios-and-film-capital-connect/ - Maybe Councillor Brian Coleman would like to collaborate with the Barnet Eye and First Capital Connect and get a train named "Mill Hill Music Complex". This could celebrate some of the fine international artists such as Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, who started their musical career rehearsing in Mill Hill. The offer is there.

Anyway, enjoy your Sunday. I'm off down to Iceland to get a pot noodle for lunch. Having spent all of my cash (and some) on our family holiday, that's all we can afford. That £200,000 a year would have come in mightily handy this month !!!!