After I'd answered all of the questions (I must say that the young lady is a credit to her mum and her school), I asked my friend how she was getting on. I've known he since my days at Orange Hill School. At school she was a popular, attractive and intelligent girl. When she left school she started a successful career and was soon on a decent wage. She had a daughter bought a house and was earning £45,000 a year. Then she developed a debiltating chronic degenerative illness. She has been on benefit for the last few years, unable to work and struggling to bring up her daughter. She has a close local network of friends and family who help out with childcare and needs the help of friends.
As she is well organised and sensible, she was managing Ok. That was until this government got in. I didn't know, but for people such as her on disability benefit with a mortgage, the government used to pay 2/3rds of the mortgage interest. At a stroke, this was cut to 1/3rd. Can you imagine how this affects someone living with chronic illness and trying to raise a daughter? As we discussed it she said "Did you know that Free school dinners no longer exist in Barnet?" I queried this. I know of familys who get them. No they don't, she said. Barnet give an allowance of £1.80 a day. At the Wren Academy, the average cost of a meal is £3.50 a day. That is a shortfall of £1.70. Now to you and me that may seem like nothing, but to someone on a tightly balanced budget, it is a fortune. Her daughter is a diligent student. Wheras treats from granny for most children are CD's or chocolates, for her it is printer ink cartridges to do her homework. In all my friend has a £45 a week budget gap. She has had this since October. She spoke to the Council. They said "Sell your house and move". If only it were that simple, her daughter is studying GCSE's and will be for the next year and a half. Wren Academy follows a fairly unique syllabus, so she her education would be completely disrupted if she moved. She will also be cut off from her support network of family and friends.
As my friend told me this, I mused upon the various tribulations of the disabled in Barnet. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe Barnet have secretly embarked on a program of ethnically cleansing the disabled and downtrodden from the Borough. Every spiteful cut demoralises people more. Eventually they will be driven out, to cheaper parts of the country. The sickening thing about this is that Barnet is one of the richest areas of the country. The disabled are being sacrificed to keep property taxes low for the well off.
Do you really want want the local authority to drive all of the ill, disabled, handicapped out? Is that the sort of society you want to be a part of. My friend is quite happy to move, once her daughter has completed her education. In the meantime, she is absolutely stuffed and in a state of despair.
I helped filmmaker Charles Honderick make a film called A Tale of Two Barnets to give people such as my friend a voice. Please support the film and come and see it at one of the showings. The full details are on the Film website.
http://ataleoftwobarnets.yolasite.com/
Two contrasting wings of the modernising Conservative Party (broad church and all that)...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/conservative_strategy_guru_aligns_himself_with_hampstead_liberal_1_1238810
Danny is Newsnight-friendly, having unexpectedly failed to stop one of "Blair's babes" in Harrow West in 1997. Apparently Brian is a "Conservative Strategy Guru". Many people may think he is more likely to regenerate an image of "the nasty party".
I expect Brian will be re-elected. Many people will vote for Boris, and make no distinction about other Conservative candidates.
I disagree: in the last four years Brian Coleman has created his own nemesis by upsetting too many sections of the community. This 'strategy guru' (oh dear me) has alienated every motorist in Barnet with the new parking charges, every pedestrian with the obsessive removal of traffic calming and now even pelican crossings, every park user, and every tax payer who heard about the Tories. self awarded pay rise. He appears to be only canvassing in Camden, but this part of the constituency is not as important in terms of votes. Boris has not exactly helped, by insulting every Irish born or descended resident in the largest Irish community in England. Roll on May 3rd.
ReplyDeleteoops forgot to add to the roll of disaffected Tory voters every shopkeeper and small business owner in every towncentre in the borough, many of whom have seen up to 40% of their trade vanish down the drain, thanks to the parking catastrophe, courtesy of Brian Coleman. Like you say, a masterful strategy - on behalf of Andrew Dismore.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite right to point out that Brian Coleman has pissed off a lot of people during his current term of office (don’t forget to add the rise in infant funeral costs to his list of misdemeanours), but unpopular politicians have often been returned to power. You say Coleman is not campaigning in Barnet. Well where is Andrew Dismore?
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding the swing against Labour at the last General Election, Dismore lost a seat he could and should have held.
I agree with baarnett that Coleman will retain his GLA seat. Not only that, but in another famous DCMD prediction, I believe he will use the victory to evict Richard ‘Nice But Feeble’ Cornelius from the leadership of the council.
And if you are correct, DCMD, then that will presumably also see a leg up for Robot Trams?
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