Ten Reasons to vote for Ameet Jogia, your Conservative candidate in Hendon

 It seems that there have been a plethora of videos from former Lib Dems in Hendon, urging people to vote for David Pinto-Duschinsky. the Labour candidate. I am horrified by such videos. Here is the worst example, by former candidate Alisdair Hill.

I simply cannot understand how on earth anyone could possibly post such a horrible piece of cinematography. I mean, if you are going to try and grab your two minutes of fame, you should at least get some exciting theme music and some sexy action shots. If Alisdair was photographed falling down a Tory pothole or not being arrested for shoplifting because there are no police, that would be fine, but come on, filming a video standing in your hall, with a couple of cheap Woolworths pictures from 1987 on the wall behind you is not going to convince anyone! I had been planning to tactically vote for David Pinto-Duschinsky, as I really want to see the back of this awful Tory government, however after seeing this horrible video, I've been totally put off and will be voting for our CONSERVATIVE candidate Ameet Jogia.

There are ten excellent reasons to vote for Ameet Jogia, the Tory candidate.

1. The Cheese shop pledge.  Back in 2010, the then Tory candidate Matthew Offord promised the residents of Mill Hill a cheese shop if he was elected. Sadly after fourteen years, no cheese shop materialised. However, I believe that Ameet Jogia is made of sterner stuff. As I love cheese, I simply can't wait. Since Matthew Offord won in 2010, many shops on Mill Hill Broadway have closed and are now lying derelict. There are plenty of opportunities for a cheesemonger! If Mr Jogia knocks on your door, ask him if he's committed to revitalising The Broadway and bringing is a cheese shop.

2. Repairing our roads. Mr Jogia has stated in his leaflet that "it is important for local businesses to have the best possible roads for transportation". I can't argue with that. Clearly he has a far better plan than his predecessor Matthew Offord, who in the last fourteen years has presided over the complete disintegration of Barnet's roads. I am not quite sure why Mr Jogia thinks only local businesses need decent roads, but I for one am pleased that he's on the case.

3. Keeping Bus fares low. In his leaflet, Mr Jogia states "Giving local leaders the funding to keep bus fares low" is a key pledge. Given that his predecessor Matthew Offord had slated Sadiq Khan for freezing bus fares, this is a welcome change and a wonderful reason to vote for Mr Jogia.

4. Immigration. Mr Jogia states that Rishi Sunak's plan is working and voting for him will deliver "controlled immigration". I do love an optimist!

5. Ameet was born in Edgware and has lived locally all of his life! His leaflet makes this proud boast. I was also born in Edgware General and have lived locally all of my life (apart from six months in Stockholm in 1981). This clearly means that he is  wonderful and deserves my vote. Maybe I should stand, as I'm older than him and have lived here far longer, so I'm even better qualified.

6. Lower mortgage rates. This is a wonderful pledge. As I've still got seven years of my mortgage left and my payments have trebled under Rishi Sunak, this is a wonderful commitment. Me being an uninformed idiot, I thought the Bank of England set interest rates, but if Mr Jogia will lower them, then he's the man for me!

7. More Police! Now this is a wonderful pledge. Since David Cameron decimated police budgets in 2010, Mill Hill. A quick look at the local crime map shows just how dangerous it is to live in Mill Hill.

After 14 years of this, it is wonderful that Mr Jogia is going to fix things. 

8. A commitment to net zero. As regular readers will know, I am a big fan of net zero. I was interested to see that his strategy involves "letting households keep their gas boilers for as long as they work". Now this does require translation. What he is actually saying is that no one will be allowed to have a new gas boiler, once their old one packs up. It is a shame that his proof reader didn't make this a bit clearer as this is a key part of meeting net zero requirements.

9. Ameet loves local businesses. How do I know? He said so! Here's what he said on Facebook "Mill Hill is an amazing part of our community, with amazing local businesses." So amazing that he said it twice in one sentence! He clearly wasn't taught by Miss O'Donovan at St Vincents, where you'd get hit on the knuckles with a ruler for doing such things. Anyone who defies Miss O'Donovan is fine by me! Having explained why Alisdair Hill's video turned me to Ameet, I thought I'd check out his latest video. Sadly, it is even more boring that Alisdair's. It really doesn't bring out the fun side of Ameet and his mates in the Conservatives. But hey ho, at least no cheap pics from Woolies! (you may notice that Ameet claims he was born in Hendon. In his leaflet he says he was born in Edgware, I wish he'd make his mind up).

10. We All Love a Party! Labour are a complete bunch of misery guts. Whilst Labour were being misery guts bores and following the law during lockdown, the Tory were showing us how to party. Admittedly the rest of us were getting fined and arrested for such things, but what is the point of being in charge if you have to follow the same rules as the little people! My band The False Dots wrote a song called "We All love a Party" and I think that it would be an excellent soundtrack for the Tories, the perfect antidote to the bloke playing "Things can only get better". As every other Lib Dem seems to be making videos supporting Labour, here's my one for the Tories!  I've taken Ameet's rather dull video and made something everyone will enjoy!

You are welcome!

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Local News from Hendon?

 Being a Mill Hill resident, I was a bit puzzled to see a magazine called local news for Hendon. Mill Hill isn't Hendon, is it? Back in the day when we had proper local papers, we had the Hendon Times and The Mill Hill and Edgware Times.

Opening the magazine, I initially thought it was an Estate agent flogging their wares, when I saw this

On closer examination though, I realised that there wasn't actually any real news from Hendon. There was a lot of guff saying what a marvellous job the current government are doing and a few suggestions that the other lot might do a worse job.

Now I am not going to use this blog to make political points. I am quite sure that everyone who reads it is perfectly capable of making their own minds up.   What does mildly irritate me is the blatant attempt to disguise a political pamphlet as a local news magazine. Now I wouldn't mind so much is there was some genuine, proper local news in the magazine. Maybe a list of local dog shows, school fete's, exciting new restaurants opening up?

After scouring the magazine, I eventually found a note saying who the publisher was.  I am not a fan of this sort of thing. I am absolutely sure that Ameet Jogia, who the leaflet is promoting is a lovely chap. He is the local Conservative candidate. I am pretty sure he wants to do a marvellous job as MP, if he wins. I'd love to interview him and find out what he really thinks about local issues, because the sad truth here is that, despite a lovely OK! style magazine, I am none the wiser.

So what would I ask Ameet. Here are ten questions that concern me, as a Mill Hill resident.

1. Why does Mill Hill Broadway station still not have proper step free access to platforms 1-3? Technically there is step free access from platform 4, but trains don't usually stop at that platform and the wheelchair entrance is usually locked. A bridge with lifts should have been installed years ago, so people could use the entrance in Bunns Lane Car Park if they have mobility issues.  The current MP promised this in 2010 and fourteen years later has not delivered it.

2. What will you do to improve the ambience of Mill Hill Broadway? It is looking tired and there are many closed and derelict looking shops. The current MP promised Mill Hill Residents that he'd deliver a vibrant High Street, where people would "open up businesses like cheese shops". Sadly no cheese shop has been seen and the Broadway has gone to rack and ruin.

3. The M1 dissects Mill Hill. It brings noise and pollution. Most similar motorway in urban areas have proper sound baffling and measures to mitigate fumes. Mill Hill Broadway bus station has one of the worst air quality measurements, having been built under the M1 and having diesel powered buses sitting in it. What will be done to improve it?

4. Last year, I had to have an operation to treat aggressive prostate cancer. I went to see the Royal Free Oncology team to discuss radiotherapy. The procedure, which has seen me free of cancer after nine months, completely continent and with sexual function, was not available on the NHS, I had to go private. What will you do to ensure that the best treatments for men suffering from Prostate cancer and other cancers are available to all, not just people like me, who have workplace insurance?

5. For the last ten years, myself and many others have been campaigning to get the grade II listed building, The Railway Hotel, in Edgware reopened and renovated. It has become an eyesore. What practical measures will you take as MP to stop property developers doing such things?

6. My sister in law works as a teaching assistant at Mill Hill County High School. She was telling me that it is almost impossible for the school to recruit teachers on the low rates of pay that the government policies mean  they are able to afford. What will you do to improve teachers pay, to ensure our schools have the best teachers?

7. My Father and my mothers Father were both immigrants, who came to the UK to fight for liberty and justice. Our local immigrant communities including the Indian, Jewish, Italian, Caribbean, African and Eastern European  (to name a few) have vastly improved our local community.  What will you do to ensure that migrant are not demonised and their contributions are recognised?

8. I run a small business that supports over 25 jobs in Mill Hill. We operate in the music sector, which generates about £5 billion worth of revenue per annum for the UK economy. What support for the sector do you support? Specifically, what will you do to support grassroots music venues in the constituency of Hendon.

9. What will you be doing to clean up our local waterways, such as Folly Brook that are contaminated with raw sewage? Do you support stiff financial penalties for water companies that cause pollution and do you think the government has done enough to regulate sewage discharge by water companies.

10. The local Labour candidate is campaigning to save the Midwife led birthing unit at Edgware Hospital. My son was born there. Such units are very popular and are far cheaper to run than Maternity units and remove the workload of low risk births from hospitals, exposing women to less risk of MRSA etc. What is your view of this closure and why do you think the government is making such false economies?

Hendon constituency deserves better than Ameet Jogia

Ameet Jogia

Over the last few weeks, I've seen an ever increasing number of communications from the Conservative candidate for Hendon, Ameet Jogia. I have a few MP's over the years. For many years, we had a sensible and rather decent Conservative in the shape of John Gorst. Gorst was pro business and a good constituency MP. He was replaced in 1997 by Labour's Andrew Dismore. Dismore was a hard working MP. I was not keen on him, as I felt he was a slippery individual, who admitted that when he campaigned to replace Gorst in 1997, promising to retain Edgware General Hospital, he knew that a Labour government would close it anyway. He was replaced in 2010 by Conservative Matthew Offord, who won by 103 votes. Offord built up a decent majority over the next few elections. Offord put a lot of work into cultivating conservative religious voters who opposed things such as same sex marriage. Whilst Gorst and Dismore were hard working MP's in the constituency, Offord is largely invisible most of the time. I was not disappointed to see him stand down. 

Ameet Jogia struck me as an odd choice. He's a councillor in Tory councillor Harrow. I'd never heard of him before he was selected. I felt he was probably the weakest of the three choices on offer. He has done nothing to dispel that view. From what I've seen, he is an uber NIMBY. He has campaigned against McDonalds opening in Mill Hill. Given that MP's have no role in planning I found this rather bizarre. Apparently McDonalds are hotbeds of crime and anti social behaviour, if you believe his leaflets. He has also campaigned heavily against the Hendon Hub and the Edgware Broadwalk redevelopment. Not having been involved in Barnet politics until he was selected, he is either unaware that both schemes were dreamed up when the Tories ran Barnet. He is putting the boot into Labour, who simply carried on the policies of the previous Tory adminstration. Either Jogia doesn't know the history of the various schemes, which is rather poor from a candidate, or he's deliberately misleading people about the policies of the local Tories. Neither is particularly good.

I had a look at Jogia's website to see what he had to say about other issues. I was not impressed. On "investment in local businesses" he says "Our investment in local businesses will also protect local businesses and jobs from rising prices and jobs from rising costs and a changing high street in an effort to ensure that our community shops in Edgware, Mill Hill, Hendon, and Burnt Oak remain on our high streets and encourage residents to shop local." This is highly misleading. The Tories announced a massive rise in the minimum wage, which will add huge costs to local businesses. Whilst I support the idea of paying decent wages, many companies are on their knees, due to high energy prices. Adding more costs to business is going to close many companies. 

Regular readers will know that this blog champions environmental policies. On these Jogia says "It is widely accepted that bad air is a huge risk to health, that’s why over the last 13 years the UK has become a world leader in becoming one of the most carbon-neutral countries in the world.

However, we mustn't push on with the net zero agenda at the risk of hard-working people who cannot afford to pay the price for other countries, such as China, polluting our planet. That’s why I am fervently against the ULEZ expansion in London." This shows a man who wants to face both ways at the same time. He accepts that poor air quality is bad for health, but refuses to do anything to address it. Whilst I was against the ULEZ expansion, it is now simply too late to reverse it. Most people have already got rid of polluting cars in London.

On the issue of policing, he demonstrates that he doesn't know our local area. He says "The Mayor has hiked up his precept this year but we are still seeing our residents in places like Brockley Hill having to pay for security because the Mayor is failing to protect our towns and suburbs." Whilst it is very touching that our candidate cares about voters in Brockley Hill, it is not in the constituency of Hendon, it isn't even in the Borough of Barnet. 

On the issue of transport, he again shows his lack of local knowledge. He claims "If we want to put people on public transport we first need to build the infrastructure to enable this. To get from Mill Hill to Chipping Barnet via car is a 15 min journey but to use public transport it is nearly an hour long." Clearly not a bus user. I regularly get the 384 bus from Mill Hill to Barnet to watch Hadley FC. It takes 10 minutes from the top of my road (Glendor Gardens stop). I will be getting that tonight. 

On education he says "We want to deliver new skills for local children to give them the best possible start in life and with a record £123,093,515 funding for Hendon schools, we are funding schools at their highest levels in history." What he doesn't say is that due to high inflation, every school in Barnet is struggling to balance their books. I am the chair of a charity that funds a local school. I see the challenges at the coalface. It is all very well talking about rebuilding schools, but if they can't afford to pay experienced teachers, then the school will be in crisis.

I have taken the above quotes from his website -www.jogia.uk/ourplan

In my opinion, Hendon deserves better than this. There are many big challenges facing us locally and nationally. Having an MP who seems to have no positive policies, doesn't know the Borough and thinks the way to win is to say all things to all people is a recipe for disaster. If you want to know just how vacuous he is, if you click his "My Plan" page on his website, you don't get a plan, you get a questionaire - www.jogia.uk/form/hendonmyplan - It sums him up. His plan is to tell you anything that you want to hear, so you'll get his vote.