Brian Coleman Conservative Membership - Local Tories exposed as total incompetents

The Barnet Eye has spent the last two days trying to get to the bottom of whether Brian Coleman is a member of the Finchley Conservatives or not. Following a tweet by Coleman saying he'd been let back in, we have been frantically trying to ascertain the truth. Usually trustworthy sources assurred us that he wasn't a member, whilst Mr Coleman was tweeting that he was.

When directly challenged by the Barnet Eye to produce evidence, he did. He tweeted a picture of his membership card.

Brian Coleman @BrianColeman251  ·  1h 1 hour ago

apologies please from @Barneteye with promise never to tweet about me again as for @rozgab you are just a silly boy



Having been assurred by various members of this association that Coleman wasn't a member, I was actually quite upset to have been mislead. So I tweeted to the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives and asked what was going on. They responded quickly on Twitter.

It appears (if you believe the letter) that when Coleman was expelled, he didn't cancel his standing order to the party. As a result, he was "automatically" issued a new 2015 membership card.

F&GGConservatives ‏@Finchleytories

The letter in full to @BrianColeman251 and his membership.



As far as the Barnet Eye is concerned this is anything but a plausable story. Firstly how can a membership card be sent to someone not on the membership list. Secondly, if this process is automatic, then presumably he'd have been sent a new card last year as well. There must be a list of current members with details of where cards are to be sent as address details are not passed with standing orders.

So it is pretty clear that Colemans name was never expunged from the list. It seems likely that as far as the branch were concerned, he was paying his dues and was a member all along. The explanation in the letter is simply not credible. It is not as if Coleman and his antics were a secret. Given the nature of his expulsion, one would have expected an efficient organisation to have procedures to ensure situations like this cannot happen.

As far as the Barnet Eye is concerned, the only reasonable explanation as to what has happened is that on the eve of an election, a rather embarrassing situation has come to light.The party have simply sent the letter and the cheque out as damage limitation.

If as they state Colemans standing order was never cancelled, why isn't the cheque for his 2014 subs as well? The situation is quite clear. If the Barnet Eye had not started asking questions, Brian Coleman would be paying his subs, be on the membership list and have a membership card for the Finchley and Golders Green Conservative party.

This begs a few questions.
1) Has Coleman been working for the party organisation & Mike Freers election campaign/
2) Has Coleman been attending meetings and fundraising events for the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives
3) Who is responsible for maintaining the Finchley and Golders Green membership register
4) Who issued Brian Coleman with a membership card and when was it issued
5) Did Mike Freer check with his membership secretary when Colemans claims came to light

It  appears that several senior local members of the party issued denials of his membership without actually bothering to check the situation. The Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives are currently campaigning to convince the electorate that they are capable of running the country.

This whole episode shows that they'd struggle to run the local whelk stall.