Barnet Eye official Xmas Poll - results

The people of Barnet have spoken. Our end of year poll has closed and of those people that participated, 5% believe in the Tooth Fairy, another five percent believe in Father Christmas, even more amazingly five percent believe that Barnet will save £120 million by outsourcing council run services to Capita.

Back in 2009, Councillor Brian Coleman gave testimony to the Standards Committeee where he claimed "all of the Barnet councillors" read the Barnet Eye. Assuming Brian Coleman was telling the truth, that means that less than half the eleven mebers of the cabinet actually believe the savings will materialise.

What was clear was that 83% of the people who responded think "Barnet Council is run by a bunch of schmucks who will be taken to the cleaners" which is a pretty resounding result.

One of Councillor Robert Rams mates tweeted that only a few people had taken part in the survey. Well 92 people more took part than took part in any official Barnet Council consultation. The questions were clear and unambiguous. Twio years ago we ran a more serious poll on this website. 33% of readers claimed they would vote Conservative. They were the second largest group of respondents. At the time I was surprised, but it has become clear that many local Tories are disenchanted with the local party. Many trust this blog for information more than official sources.

I am constantly surprised when the most unlikely people stop me and tell me they read the blog. It is clear that One Barnet is divisive. Many people of all parties think the council are naive and haven't done their homework properly. One elderly local Conservative, who reads the blog gave me a good telling off. They said the wording of the poll was too inflammatory. I should have asked questions which would elicit a more serious response as he felt local Tories would not want to give legitimacy to a poll which was merely poking fun at the local party.  I had intended the poll to be "a bit of fun", but he is right. We should have a proper poll which gives people an  opportunity to express opinions in a proper manner. His view was that such a poll would have got a far greater response. I do take the views of the readers of this blog seriously and so I am considering a way to do this.

I was also asked whether I was considering running for Council. If I am to do this, I believe I will need to decide by March this year. I am still undecided.