Why do the Barnet Conservatives need to tell porkies to win arguments

Exposing the porkies of the Barneconservatives.com website - my attention was drawn to this article today. In all the excitement, I'd completely missed it. Anyway here is what they say and here is the truth. As I made the video and the Conservatives are calling me a liar, I suppose I am honour bound to respond

http://www.barnetconservatives.com/blog/2014/5/13/fact-check-how-true-are-claims-in-recent-anti-tory-election.html

Here's what they say, with my comments in red italics

Fact check: How true are claims in recent 'anti-Tory' election video?

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 5:33PM

Yesterday twitter was saturated with spam tweets from Barnet's 'anti-Tory' alliance activists promoting the video they clearly hope will encourage people not to vote Conservative on May 22nd. Using hashtags #May22 #VoteABC (Abbreviation of BAPS' 'vote Anyone but Conservative' election slogan they repeatedly and robotically reproduced parts of the lyrics of the Roger Tichborne produced and published 'movie'.

Below is a sample of the twitter storm stirred up by the 'anti-Tory' alliance including BAPS, Barnet TUC, Mr John James Sullivan, Mrs Barbara Jacobson (BAPS' supremo) and Mr Ron Cohen (BAPS' publicity Officer)

(As the video does not contain a non party campaigner election imprint we have been advised not to place a link or promote it on our website by legal advisors)

The movie claims that the Council has lied but how true are the claims made in their election video? Fact check set too tast. Let's go through the lyrics.

Claim one - 00:04 Richard Cornelius, "The man who signed the contract"

Fact check: No, he didn't…

 

This is a blatent lie. Barnet Council released a picture of him signing the contract, which we had some fun with in this blog http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/richard-cornelius-signs-one-barnet.html 

 

Why do they now deny it? This is a whopper (apologies to burger king)

 

 

Claim two - 00:10 'In Barnet Capita have taken control…'

Fact check - The Council is run by Councillors. One venture is pure outsourcing but the second is a joint venture. Many services are still run directly by the Council.

 

This is pure spin by the Barnet Conservatives. Huge swathes of council services and the decisions to how they are run are made by Capita. Even planning is now under the control of Capita. Several Tory councillors have told me that they are disturbed by the removal of democratic control.

 

Claim three - 00:13 Pictures of a coffin 'Death of Democracy'

Fact check - We're in the middle of a lively election where Labour are keen to win. Why would they bother if there was no point? What is the obsession with coffins, death and death imagery btw?

 

Labour were keen to win because they believed they could do a better job than the Tories. They believed they could make a difference. 

 

Claim four - 01:16 'The contract was hidden'

Fact check - The huge contract was published, with some redactions, by the Council. This was welcomed by the 'anti-Tory' bloggers who regard is as very useful.

 

This again is spin. The contract was only published after it was signed. When the decisions were being made it was well and truly hidden, even councillors were only allowed to see it under strict supervision and for a very limited time. This is completely anti democratic.

 

Claim five - 01.21 The contracts were 'unread by the Council before they chose to sign'

Fact check - On one hand the Council is lambasted for spending so much on lawyers to go through the contracts with a fine tooth comb now the same people accuse them of not reading it. Many Councillors including prominent Labour ones, didn't read the whole legalese document.

 

Again the BarnetConservatives are spinning. We expect our councillors to read important documents before they sign them. They did not read the contract. 

 

 

Claim six - 01:54 OneBarnet 'has lead to widespread discontent'

Fact check - The 'anti-Tory' alliance of Barnet Alliance for Public Services backed by the Trades Unions can scarcely pull together a protest of more than 100 people out of 300,000 in Barnet on this matter. Not even the Labour Party are committed to scrapping OneBarnet or not delivering more outsourcing.

 

This is yet another sad bit of spin by the Barnet Conservatives. Over 500 people in Barnet watched screenings of Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble. Over 400 attended a march in the snow against the protest on a bitterly cold day in 2013 from Finchley Central to Friern Barnet. There have been many large demonstrations, a fact overlooked by this rather dodgy website.

 

Claim seven - 02:01 'No questions are allowed in Capitaville'

Fact check - Pure doublespeak? BAPS activists and bloggers regularly ask hundreds of public questions at Council meetings and get detailed responses. They then get to ask further supplementary questions taking up 30 minutes at Committee meetings.

 

Again this is spin. The Tory administration specifically banned discussion of One Barnet at local Neighbourhood forum meetings, In a democracy, discussion should not be banned. 

 

Claim eight - 02:27 The disabled are a 'market place commodity' seen as a source of profit

Fact check - Pretty distasteful claim of hard working carers. So where do the millions and millions of pounds spent supporting the vulnerable go?

 

FACT -  Barnet Council set up Your Choice Barnet as a private company to run care for the disabled. I may be a fool but I thought the reason for setting up a company was to make a profit. Your Choice Barnet has no "not for profit" covenants in it. I suppose the Barnetonservatives could claim that it makes a loss, but this is purely down to their incompetence when they set it up.