Guest Blog - The Barnet Eye is too nice to the Leader of Barnet Council by John Sullivan

By John Sullivan,

Roger (Rog T -- The Barnet Eye) your comments on Councillor Rams do you credit, he is insisting he was at Mill Hill Library when it is abundantly clear he was not , and if he was as he insists let him produce the footage to prove he was there.

His distortions of your comments add further to his lack of credibility and his inability to speak the truth, and  questions whether he is a fit and proper person to hold public office.

Like most Barnet Tory councillors Rams appears to thinks he is only there to represent the haves and appears to be convinced that everybody with a few bob or votes Tory, hates the poor the vulnerable the disabled and the unemployed. To the likes of him and your mate Cornelius ( sorry but he is equally guilty )  and the bully boy Coleman no doubt  a council house is an asset. However  to the tenant of that council house it is a home where they bring up their children where all their memories both good and bad and ugly reside, where they until now have been allowed to reside until death in some dignity.

For Rams and co to crow about the fact elderly people will be evicted from what they consider to be there home in the future and no doubt dumped in a noisy flat somewhere, again no doubt  where the suitability of which will not be a consideration is truly sick. It is truly despicable it exposes Rams for the complete inhuman little rat he comes across to me as, which was exposed by his behaviour at the council meeting on Tuesday in the clip shown on your blog.

If the One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble is such a good idea why did neither Rams or any of his motley crew attend the One Barnet Conference last Saturday to challenge the experts such as Andy Mudd from APSE who are offering viable alternatives to make his or their case. A company respected by councils of all political colours across the country, but denigrated by the apparently brain-dead Rams on twitter. Or listen to the words of warning and wisdom from Professor  Dexter Whitfield or local resident John Dix  both of whom have forgotten more about outsourcing and commissioning than Rams and his motley crew will ever understand,  and they care about Barnet residents  John is a Barnet resident . Unlike the highly paid consultants recommending this One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble , who have their own agenda.

For Rams to hide on twitter advertising his contempt for the council house tenants and for experts in the field of outsourcing and commissioning , indeed all the public services in Barnet exposes him and his group for what they are. Spineless Ideologues  driven by ideology dogma and greed , with an inbuilt contempt and hatred for the poor the vulnerable the weak and the disabled. Rams and co can hold these people in contempt for as long as they wish, however they will never enjoy the level of contempt for them that they hold for him and his crew, a contempt that is growing by the hour. The recent election results show that the people of Barnet are waking up to the incompetence of Rams and the whole Barnet council. They are slowly but surely waking up to the fact that their interests are not best protected by the One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble. As the Brunswick Park result showed, that was leafleted by Baps to bring to the attention of the Brunswick Park residents  the risks of the One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble.

It is time the likes of Rams, Cornelius, Coleman, Davey and the rest of that motley crew started representing the best interests of all of the people of Barnet , rather than the vested interests of big companies that wish to privatise our public services for profit.

Cllr Cornelius claimed in The Press last week " at no time will there be any loss of democratic control ", which is utter nonsense, these commissioning contracts will be for a minimum of 10 years making interference by councillors practically impossible. Coupled with the fact a part of the commissioning  programme includes dispensing with in house experts and workers, making demands of the private companies a futile exercise. He says " any alternative budgeting would mean draconian cuts in services "  which is blatantly untrue. He refuses to consider or even acknowledge the alternatives being presented by APSE and Professor Whitfield, which to say the least is bordering on blatant lies. He says " three quarters of all our cuts will be from doing things smarter" ," Our responsibility is to the taxpayer ".

As we know the majority of the weak the sick the vulnerable the disabled the infirm and the unemployed are not taxpayers much as they would like to be, but at least Cornelius is being honest when he says he does not represent as councillor Coleman would describe them " THESE PEOPLE ".

He implies that the private companies  are 75% more efficient than in house services which is complete and utter nonsense, as he would have learned had he taken the time and trouble to attend the Baps conference last Saturday. Furthermore the recent experiences of Barnet council outsourcing proves beyond any reasonable doubt that Outsourcing or even worse Commissioning of public services has nowhere near proven to be 75 % more efficient that in house services . Therefore on the basis of the facts and figures Cornelius is misleading the people of Barnet on these three points along with his fellow supporters of the One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble ". The question that bothers me is, " why " why are they lying to us, what is in it for them, "why" are they spending millions of pounds on consultants to privatise public services, when those millions could be spent on improving in house services and there levels of efficiency.

The One Barnet programme is as has been stated by outsourcing consultant and Barnet resident John Dix and others  "A ONE  BILLION POUND GAMBLE " and the people of Barnet along with Cornelius and his motley crew need to wake up to that fact, and stop this lunacy before it is to late.

 Barnet Alliance for Public Services have had little time to prepare their forthcoming  "Our Barnet" not " One Barnet " torch parade on Saturday week the 21st July, But no matter the turnout at such short notice, it will help to focus the attention of the residents of Barnet onto this " One Billion Pound Gamble " with their public services, and I hope all those who have taken the time to read this article will join us on the march and encourage their family and friends to do so.

Once again thanks Roger for exposing yet another dodgy Tory Barnet councillor in the form of Rams, but are you sure you are still on the right side of things by continuing to be nice to  Cornelius, after his misleading comments to The Press last week ?, and I am advised also  to the courageous Helen Michaels ?

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John Sullivan is a carer and a Barnet Resident. The Barnet Eye is always happy to carry guest blogs (unlike certain other local blogs Robert), even when they criticise us. Please submit via the link in the side bar. Guest blogs are posted without editorial comment.