Mrs Angry yesterday got her knickers in a bit of a twist about Barnets most beloved Councillor, the veneareable Brian Coleman. Mrs Angry has written a fairly long and angry post (http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/brian-coleman-how-to-be-badly-behaved.html) and is clearly deeply distressed that the great and good of the Barnet Conservatives continue to indulge our Brian. Her post can be summed up in one sentence "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy" to quote our friends at Monty python in "The Life of Brian"
We here at the Barnet Eye take a rather more relaxed view of "Our Brian" these days. Whilst he remains on the Tory benches, he can make trouble for them and remind us all of their view of the rest of us plebs. He demonstrates the complete lack of leadership in the local Conservative party and his awful misogynistic behaviour has the potential to explode at any time.
In 2014, there will be a council election. This is likely to be held with the backdrop of massive cuts, economic turmoil and huge Tory unpopularity. Add to the mix our Brian and his toxic personality and we could end up seeing a near Tory wipeout in Barnet. When I say near, I don't mean total because there is one ward where, due to the demographic, the Tories will always hang on. That ward? Brian Colemans Totteridge ward. The delicious irony is that whilst his awful behaviour will in effect shaft all of his more sensible, if rather cowardly colleagues, he will hang on.
Perhaps the funniest thing will be when Coleman gets re elected, to be one of a handful of Tories still on the Council, he will doubtless tell those he shafted "You should have been more like me, I'm still here and you've been sacked". Even better than that, he will hang around like a fly blown salmon on the shores of the River Clyde, ignored even by the starving urban foxes, to remind us all exactly why we dumped the Conservatives.
Last night I attended a meeting with one of the more sensible Tories, Councillor David Longstaff. On Saturday I had a meeting with another two - Councillors Hart and Khatri. All of these chaps are quite sensible and pragmatic. They will also be out of a job in May 2014, for no better reason than they didn't have the guts to chuck "Our Brian" out of the party.
I sincerely hope they don't sack him. I do hope justice is done with regards to the incident with Helen Michael, but even if it goes badly wrong for Brian, it would be such a shame if the Tories actually had the guts to dump him. Without "Our Brian" around to constantly remind us just how horrible the Conservatives are, we may forget and forgive.
No, I agree, in fact: one expects Coleman to misbehave - he can't help it. One might expect the Tories to do something about it, however, if only for their own survival. They probably won't because a. they are so stupid and b. they are so cowardly. I believe they should, but I hope they do not, because the longer he is around to damage their electoral chances, the better.
ReplyDeleteI think you are wrong Rog.
ReplyDeleteIf the Tories fail to deslect Coleman, I think Brian Coleman will lose Totteridge ward for them.
I will most certainly assist him in this endeavour.