In the last 24 hours, we are proud to have printed 2 very different guest blogs. I am very pleased and proud that over 1,000 people have looked at these. Both blogs, in their own way will help people. The first by PC Stewart Satchell gives useful and highly practical advice on steps to avoid burglary. I urge everyone to read this. The second by Linda Edwards, a family carer, details a horror story which she has encountered in dealing with Adult Social Services at Barnet Council. When I started this blog, I never dreamed I'd get a thousand hits a day or that anyone else would see this blog as a vehicle to get such important messages and stories over. I believe that this blog and the other blogs in Barnet have changed the Barnet for the better. My statistics tell me that there is a huge interest in what happens in Barnet which is untapped by the mainstream press. The principles which guide this blog are justice, honesty, decency and transparency. We stand up for the little guy, the single mums being monstered by an unjust system, ordinary residents slapped with huge and arbitary bills, council workers living in fear of losing their jobs, bloggers who are "investigated" by secret and covert departments within the Council.
Today I received an email from a former Barnet Council employee. Here is a snippet which shows just how sinister and dangerous these forces are :
Indeed, one of the more ridiculous tasks I had was to keep tabs on the Barnet bloggers, to try & ascertain future scandals & prepare for damage limitation...
Says it all really. A blog like this is enhanced and enriched by guest contributions. Whether they are from contributors like Linda and Stewart or whether it is emails such as this, where the author asked for me to keep their identity out of the public domain, they are all useful and necessary in their own way. Since I started the blog over 700 people have got in touch with us with genuine enquiries about the blog (not including circulars & spammers). We have decided to make it easier to submit a guest blog. Whether it will be published or not is my decision and if we don't I'll give you the reason. If something says something libellous or defamatory, we can't use it. The policy of the blog is to either accept or reject guest blogs, not request edits. There is now a link at the top of the sidebar for anyone wishing to contact the Barnet Eye for whatever reason. We welcome Guest Blogs and hope that you, the readers of the blog do as well.
Tbh, I would be amazed if any council's didn't have somebody in their communications team monitoring blogs. Montoring media is very much part of the 'reputation management' approach endemic in councils these days and blogs, especially local ones, are part of that.
ReplyDeleteNot all of that is bad of course, there can be some awful accusations made against councils and/or their employees but it does seem to have got a bit orwellian these days.
Nasty grocer's apostrophe there, apologies.
ReplyDelete"The principles which guide this blog are justice, honesty, decency and transparency."
ReplyDeleteWheras the principles that guide Barnet Cabinet and Senior Officers are...
allnottinghambasearebelongtous,
ReplyDeleteThere is history to this. Barnet denied having anyone being paid to monitor blogs in an FoI response recently. We've also seen various intimidatory tactics used against local bloggers by the Council, most recently an FOI revealed an attempt by Barnet to use the ICO to harrass a blogger (an attempt the ICO rebuffed).
Don't worry about the apostrophe. This is a dyslexic blog so I'd never notice