Boris support for Brian Coleman is starting to bite back

Has Boris made a big tactical blunder by agreeing to appear with Brian Coleman at an election rally tomorrow night. I spoke to a friend last night and he gave me a stark illustration of how Brian Coleman is seriously affecting the core Conservative vote in Barnet.The pay and display changes have been universally rejected by the local business community. Yesterday I bumped into a friend who is a staunch Conservative. He runs a small business with his wife and is a member of the local business community, having run a successful business with his wife for 25 years. He's also an active member of the local Jewish community. He attended Orange Hill Senior High School with me many years ago and has never been afraid to speak his mind. He told me -

This parking business is a direct attack on the local business community. Coleman has behaved in a disgusting manner and clearly doesn't give a shit about small businesses. The local business community have been the backbone of the local Conservatives for many years. Whether it be fundraising or delivering leaflet, we've always supported the party. Now we find that this counts for nothing. We have been attacked and no one in the local party seems to care. I've never voted anything other than Conservative. I could never vote Lib Dem or Labour and I hate Ken Livingstone, but as Boris has chosen to stand on a platform with Coleman, I will be staying at home this time. Even if the parking changes were reversed tomorrow, it would change nothing. As soon as the election is out of the way, they'll put them back. I can't trust Coleman and until he is gone, the Conservative party will have to do without my vote. I'm not the only one. The whole community is up in arms.

If any local Conservative MP's, Councillors or other party activists are reading this, I suggest that they take themselves down to any of our High Streets and have a word with local shopkeepers. The above statement has been edited. There were plenty of words starting with F's and C's that I took out. If the local Conservatives think that they can impose policies which cut peoples incomes, in challenging eeconomic times, without there being a price to pay, then they really are even more useless than we thought.

In May, if Boris Johnson finds he has lost the Mayoralty in a tight race, I wonder if he will look back on the day he took a platform with Brian Coleman in the London Borough of Barnet as the day he lost it?