Tuesday 8 October 2019

A little eductation for a 'Nice but dim' Barnet Tory councilors

There was a time, in the very dim, distant past, where Conservative Councillors in the London Borough of Barnet were sane, sober, sensible and rather dull. Blogs didn't exist at the time, but had they, the likes of myself, Mr Reasonable, Mrs Angry and Mr Mustard would have had thin pickings. Libraries were properly run, parks were well maintained and our old folk in sheltered accommodation were well looked after. A visit from the Mayor meant a sensible and sober soul showed up (although they weren't always quite as sober when they left, but they certainly were jovial souls). Then Mrs Thatcher came to power and the nature of the Conservative Party changed. The winds of change took rather a long time to blow through Barnet, but some time in the mid/late 1980's, they realised they had to 'get with the programme'. Against their better judgement, they decided that a bit of outsourcing would be prudent. The idea was that they could save some cash and cut a few household bills. The decision was taken to privatise the local rubbish collections.The majority of the Tory Councillors at the time were retired or semi retired small business owners, solicitors, accountants and the odd ex university lecturer. They had a bit of time on their hands and felt the need to put something back. I knew a few, most notably former Mayor Dennis Dippel, who lived near my mother in law and was a member of the Mill Hill Services Club. Many were friends of my father, who was a member of the Hendon North Conservative Association. They were generally good company. Men with a lifetime of experience. They would joke "when you get to know they ways of the world, you'll abandon your silly socialist ideas and become a Tory like the rest of us" assuring me that once I had all of my idealism beaten out of me by life, I'd join the rest of them in the Blue corner.

 In true Thatcherite style, the lowest bid won. When they saw the budget with the savings factored in, the jolly councillors of Barnet thought they'd done rather well. That was until the truth of what 'lowest bidder' really meant. Collections were randomly missed, residents cars were bashed and bin lorries sped off. People who'd always voted Tory suddenly thought 'hang on, this is a bit of a nightmare'. In Mill Hill, to almost universal amazement amongst Tories, a Lib Dem won a bye  election, albiet by a margin you can count on your fingers. The Tories announced 'This always happens at by-elections'. They were confident that in the 1994 council elections, normal service would be resumed, the people had made their point. Promises to 'sort things out' were given. Nothing much happened and things got worse for residents.

To the horror of these old school Tories, when the 1994 election came, they were booted out. Labour formed a coalition with the Lib Dems, who won all three seats in Mill Hill and Childs Hill. The first act was the 'inhousing' of refuse collection. A wise old Tory told me that "We deserved to be booted out after that fiasco, but Labour will fall apart by 1998 and we'll have to come back and sort the mess out". To their horror, the Lib/Lab pact won again. The Tories, by now booted out nationally as well decided that a Blairite makeover was needed. Out went the wise old men, in came a new breed. Brash and ideologically Thatcherite. They didn't have a majority, but they had plans. Mike Freer, Matthew Offord and Brian Coleman were at the vanguard. They didn't believe in taking prisoners and they knew what they wanted. In 2002, they won the council narrowly, almost to their own surprise as much as anyone else. The new Leader Victor Lyon was old school. His first act was a huge Council tax rise, to plug the hole in the finances that he claimed Labour and the Lib Dems had left. It was an astute piece of politics. Blame the opposition and set the finances on course so that by the time of the next election, the pain would be forgotten. By 2006, Lyon had gone, and been replaced by another old timer. This was Brian Salinger. Salinger was a competent administrator and was the last of the old school leaders. He won a stunning victory in 2006 and for his sins was immediately booted out by his own party. Coleman, Offord and Freer organised a palace coup, and a new  Thatcherite regime was ushered in. The lessons of 1994 had been learned. Do not muck about with refuse collection, but everything else was up for grabs. One Barnet/EasyCouncil/Future Shape, call it what you like, was ushered in. For those of us who like a good conspiracy theory, organisations such as BT Vital Vision and Common Purpose got their hooks into these rather dim new generation of councillors. Whereas the likes of Dippel had run a successful business, Freer was a mid level manager at Barclays, Offord was a researcher at the BBC and Coleman had organised a fleet of cars (I believe) for a hire company. Freer and Offord had their eyes on bigger fish and departed by the 2010 elections for jobs at the House of Commons. But the Tories had changed. No longer were successful businessmen with time on their hands sought. What the Tories now wanted was ideologically sound young Conservatives, with little life experience but a zeal for right wing politics.

The 2010 election was easily won. The then leader Lynn Hillan sadly passed away with lung cancer. She was replaced, to almost universal shock, by Richard Cornelius. Cornelius was a strange hybrid of the old style small businessmen, but to the surprise of many, a strongly Thatcherite policy bent. The outsourcing program, championed by Freer, was implemented with a zeal few expected. New, young buck councillors were sought. As the 2014 election looked tight, Richard reigned in his reforming zeal and promised his young bucks that if they sat on their hands for this election, they would get their rewards in 2018, when things would be easier.

Much  to Richards surprise, things got worse under One Barnet. The Council's finances deteriorated.  Following the 2015 election, a white knight rode to the Tories rescue. He was a most unlikely hero. His name was Jeremy Corbyn and despite his demeanour as a lovable geography teacher, he scared the daylights out of a sizeable chunk of the local electorate. By 2018, the situation for the Barnet Tories looked impossible. The polls all said the Tories would be booted out. Those of us on the ground knew better. Every Tory leaflet mentioned Corbyn more than the candidates they were standing. On the doorstep, the message was banged home. Those of us canvassing soon realised that the polls were wrong. I told a disbelieving Susana Mendonca of the BBC that the Tories would win Hale Ward. She asked me "What do you know that the professional pollsters have missed". I replied that as I drunk in the Railway Tavern, I could see that all of the locals Corbyn needed to win, hated him. It didn't help that Labour ran an appalling campaign in Hale.

Furthermore, the Tories ran excellent campaigns in wards like West Hendon. There, given no chance, a team of young and highly motivated local Tories worked their socks off. The Labour councillors took their eyes off the ball.  The vote was a route. The Tories had the largest majority for a very long time. A whole swathe of new Tory Councillors came in. Some had replaced much loved, long standing councillors, who had been deselected. All of these had been rather effectively groomed by Richard Cornenelius's deputy Dan Thomas, who moved to replace Cornelius once the dust had settled. Once in power, Thomas sort to consolidate his power, by making changes to the way committees are run, removing many of the opportunities for resident oversight. Many of the new guard of councillors were uneasy, but none had the guts to stand up and say so.

But as the year grinds to an end, we see a few rather disturbing signs. Many of the new, young bucks, show rather alarming signs of being "nice but dim". The old school rarely put their heads above the parapet, except to open libraries and garden fetes. The new bunch, aided by Twitter, seem to think that the world is waiting for their wisdom. Sadly they don't think things through. Here are a few examples

Any sane Tory would not raise this matter. The XR protests have been going on for two days. The police have been under pressure ever since the Tory government hacked down their numbers in austerity cuts. Whilst it may be true that the Barnet police are under pressure due to the XR protests today, if you were burgled last week, who's fault was that if the Police didn't visit? The Tories have been in charge for nine years. I didn't see Nice but Dim Felix saying this when President Trump visited? The problem is the police have not got the numbers to do their jobs. London always has protests and you need the Met to have the resources to deal with it.

Then there is Roberto Weedon-Sanz, who is also a candidate for the GLA. Try this tweet for size.

I tweeted the following riposte. I couldn't believe the stupidity of the comment

Then we have Sarah Wardle. Why someone should be proud that burglary in the area where you run the council has risen, I cannot fathom.

Perhaps the sillies comment of all was from Linda Freedman, who insulted voters in an area where the Lib Dems have just announced a very strong candidate for the forthcoming general election.


Most of the sensible old guard have shuffled off to that Conservative Association in the sky, to play bridge, drink G&T's and talk about the good old days. I wonder what they make of this new generation of rather lightweight new councillors, who don't seem to realise that policy disasters are not something to boast about and the electorate does not enjoy being insulted?

It took the Tories three local elections to recover in Barnet, the last time they lost the plot. It seems to me that they are heading down a very similar road.

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