Barnet Council Election Result - Every Party got what they really deserved in the end

 So Barnet Council is now a hung council. The Tories and Labour are tied on 31 seats each and one Green councillor holds the balance of power. I foresaw Labour losing control, but not in the way they have! I thought the Tories would win, but I also felt that no party deserved victory. All parties clearly thought Mill Hill Ward was as done deal for the Tories and none bothered to do any work. I have no idea what it was like in marginal wards. The truth is that we had 20 years of Tory misrule in Barnet, followed by four years of incompetence from Labour. Neither party has given a stuff about residents. I hav e my reservations about The Green Party, but at least they have a clear position on many issues and are not afraid to upset people, which is actually something politicians should be prepared to do. In many parts of Barnet, their stance on Israel and Palestine is deeply unpopular with the Jewish community. That doesn't mean that the Greens should not make their case. I believe that what they have to say is legal and just because it upsets people doesn't mean they shouldn't say it. I feel the same way about much of what Reform says about immigration. If you disagree with a party, work to defeat them and use rational argument rather than bans. 

The Greens did work in their target wards and their share of the vote in Barnet was far more than 1 out of 63 councillors. That is the trouble with our voting system and our council system. It has contrived to deliver a result where the most powerful single councillor is from a party with one seat but maybe 15% of the vote. Lib Dem and Reform voters have no representation at all. Tories and Labour have around 49% of the councillors with around 25-30% of the vote. It is utterly ridiculous that we have 62 nodding dog councillors towing the party line. and one who can call all the shots. I hate Reforms policies but it is not democratic to deny their voters representation due to an outdated and arcane system.

As far as I am concerned, every party got what they deserved in the end. Labour lost control, for four rotten years and a lousy campaign. The Tories didn't get back in after 20 years of misrule. The Greens got a seat because they had a strategy for their target seats and it worked. Reform had no strategy and nothing to offer Barnet so they got nothing. My party, The Lib Dems hardly bothered to do anything and got nothing. I didn't stand this time, as I am chairman of The Mill Hill Services Club and felt it was a conflict of interest. I didn't support the Mill Hill Residents Association candidates for the same reason. The Association is not political. If they'd have won, they would have potentially held the balance of power and deciced whether Mill Hill had a Tory or Labour adminstration and you can't get any more political than that. 

Have a nice weekend. I'm done with local politics for a while now. 

Make sure you vote today in the Barnet Council Elections

 Please make sure you cast your vote today. It will be very close in Mill Hill and many other wards in the Borough of Barnet. If you don't, please don't complain when you pay more tax, your bins aren't emptied, your road has potholes, your street lights don't work, your pavements are not fixed and your social care package doesn't take care of you.

The most important thing you can do this week

 If you regularly read my blog, that probably means that you give a s*** about our community. If you give a s*** about our community, I'm sure you'll know there is an election on Thursday. Have you made your mind up who you are voting for? More to the point, have you decided what you are voting for?

About fifteen years ago, having been a Labour supporter, I had a mini crisis. I realised that I was treating voting like supporting a football team. If your team starts playing badly and has a rubbish manager, you stick by them. However, if you support a political party and the manager is rubbish and the team don't earn their keep, it is more than a sob in the beer on a Saturday night. People suffer and the country goes downhill. I realised that I was supporting a party that had ceased to represent my views. The only redeeming feature was that they were a bit better than the opposition. Then I looked at issues like the Iraq war, the treatment of refugees in Sangatte and the fact that they had allowed the banks to crash the economy through deregulation and I sadly concluded I could no longer support them. I'm not asking you to agree with my choices and decisions, just explaining why I stopped supporting the Labour party.

I vowed that in future, I'd give my support to the party I had the best chance of delivering what I wanted to see a government or council do. Someone asked me if this meant I could ever support the Conservative Party. I thought long and hard and I realised that yes, in some circumstances I might. If it was a choice between them and the BNP I would. I hope I never have to make such a choice, but many people in France, who would never support a figure like Macron in normal times did just that. It is a grown up and sensible decision.

But that is not the choice facing us on Thursday. On Thursday, we are voting in the Council elections. Unlike most Council elections, this one may influence national politics. A huge swing against the Conservatives is likely to trigger a leadership change, as Tory MP's panic. Reading the runes, I believe most Tories are simply debating the best time to knife Boris and who may replace him. A certain lack of enthusiasm for the other options is the biggest obstacle to "Operaton put down Big Dog". 

But lets put all of that aside. You are voting for a local council. A vote for your MP, makes little difference to your daily life. A vote for different parties in Barnet Council would have a huge impact. The Tories have been in power for twenty years. They have a track record. Who would you trust to tell you how they've done? The man who I'd most trust to pass an impartial opinion is Mr John Dix, AKA Mr Reasonable. John is Independent. He write a blog that presents the facts, based on the councils own reports. He is well respected by all. I have suggested that he should be co-opted on to the Barnet Council Audit Committee. Almost a dozen local Tory Councillors have told me that privately they agree. But it will never happen under the current administration. 

John has written an 'end of term report on the Conservatives administration. Please read this before you vote. 

https://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2022/05/please-read-this-before-you-vote.html

John finishes off by saying "So when you are thinking about which way to vote on Thursday, ask yourself if you want another four years of the same or whether you think there is a better way to run Barnet. Whatever way you vote just please make sure you use your vote, as it will be the only way to show your views and to get politicians to listen for the next four years."

There are plenty of things wrong with the Council, many will be extremely difficult to fix. Some not so difficult. As a candidate for the Lib Dems in Mill Hill, who have a very real chance of winning on Thursday, people ask me what we'd do differently. There are many things, but I thought I'd give an example of one thing that's been raised on the doorstep. I laid out our plan to sort out the plague of potholes

Whether or not you agree with me or my approach, please make sure your decision is informed and based on the facts. If like me, you think the Barnet Conservatives have failed the Borough, use the opportunity to enact change. If you've read Mr Reasonable's blog and still conclude they've done a marvellous job, then by all means, reward them with your vote. 

Please though, could you do one thing for me? I don't ask too much. Just make sure any friends and neighbours who may have mentioned that they are undecided have the opportunity to read John Dix's blog before they vote. I'd love anyone who wants to see change in Mill Hill giving me their support. If you do, for the next four years you will have a constant commentary on what the Council is up to. I believe in openness and transparancy and having written this blog for 14 years, I will not stop if I get elected. I will make sure Barnet Council taxpayers know what is going on and why decisions have been made. For me, it would be a privelige and I will seek to repay the faith of everyone who has supported me. 

Barnet Council Elections 2014 - The harsh truth for the Barnet Labour Party

First, the Barnet Eye wishes to send congratulations to Richard Cornelius, the Leader of the Barnet Conservative Party and the Leader of Barnet Council for the next four years, or at least until his colleagues decide to knife him in the back, which is what the Tories usually do after a successful election in Barnet. Whilst many of his scheming rivals will be seeking to "pin the blame" on Mr Cornelius for all manner of disasters (real and imaginary) in their campaign, he has pulled off a stunning victory. The electoral tides are flowing strongly against the Tories, and washed away Hammersmith and Fulham and Croydon Tory administrations. For Barnet to hang on is a truly astounding achievement. I believe this to be almost entirely down to Mr Cornelius. This may strike many as a strange thing to say, but I think he is an excellent player of political poker. He had a rotten hand and has had setback after setback since being leader. The greatest of these was the misfortune to have a certain Brian Coleman in his cabinet when he took over. The many sins of Mr Coleman are well documented, but like all great poker players, Mr Cornelius turned Colemans many cock ups to his advantage. When Coleman assualted Helen Michael and was forced out of the Tories by had office, following local ditherings, Cornelius adopted the "nothing to do with us mate" attitude to every toxic policy Coleman had introduced. He had a scapegoat and boy did he know how to exploit it.

Another unhappy momento of the regime Cornelius inherited was Councillor Robert Rams and his extremely unpopular closure of Friern Barnet library. Whilst Richard Cornelius has shown he doesn't have the Cojones to sack useless colleagues, he does know how to make sure they get the blame for unpopular policies and he gets off scott free. So he was quite happy for Rams to get the flack for the library closure. When Occupy reopened the library, Cornelius realised he had a golden opportunity to save his own bacon. The library was allowed to reopen as a glorified book club (no trained librarians, no access to the Barnet Library system). It costs bugger all to run and it allowed the Tories to claim that "Unlike Labour in Brent, no libraries shut in Barnet". This was a supreme deal of cards from a skilled operator. In one blow he'd lanced a very septic boil. Cornelius knew Rams would take the flack for the decision and he'd take the credit for the reversal. Job done.

The third great coup that Cornelius pulled off was to run a virtual non campaign in Barnet. Whilst I originally felt that this was suicide, I realised over the last week that in fact it was a complete piece of political genius. The Tories have achieved nothing in four years. Every major initiative they've done has been a complete cock up. They have nothing to boast about, so why not say nothing? I criticised the wraparound that they put on the Press newspaper, as this was clearly something only a blogger looking for fault would read. After I wrote the blog criticising it, I realised that it may well have been a masterstroke. Cornelius was clearly getting pressure to spend the war chest and this silenced the critics in his own party. I am sure he put the most geekish complaining nerds to work designing it, to ensure no one would read it and no one would think about their mistakes. You see Cornelius knows that Tory voters turn up. All he has to do is to try and keep the lid on the discontent on the other side and they'll win.

They say great leaders need to be lucky. Richard Cornelius is extremely lucky in many ways. Coleman getting himself arrested was a gift from the Gods. It took this poisonous man out of the tory party and into oblivion. That was not his greatest piece of fortune. That was to have as his opponents, a Labour party lead by Alison Moore. The Barnet Eye has been covering Barnet politics for the last six years and nothing could be clearer than the fact that Alison Moore is the most ineffective and useless leader that Labour could possibly have. She has had numerous chances to destroy the Barnet Tories, but every single time has fluffed it. I first witnessed this before the previous election, when the then Tory Leader of Barnet, now MP Mike Freer was on the racks over the Icelandic investments.

There was an emergency debate. Lib Dem Councillors Jack Cohen and Wayne Casey had skewered Freer and he was ready to be barbequed by Moore. She stepped up and blew it. The public gallery was full of bloggers and residents and our jaws dropped at her inept response. Since that day, she has continually missed political open goals. The Tories should have been finished off for Metpro, the CPZ parking fiasco, Your Choice Barnet bailout. Each of these major scandals would have been used by a competent opposition leader to destroy the party in charge. In each case Labour meekly rolled over and let the Cornelius administration off the hook. Then there was One Barnet. The Barnet Labour Party could have stopped this in its tracks. Local Trades Unions and Bloggers had dug up enough evidence to proove that the whole scheme was a disaster waiting to happen. Labour did nothing and said nothing. They never came out and opposed the scheme and never said they'd reverse it. Had they done the hard graft that myself and fellow bloggers put in and asked all the questions, pointed out all of the problems and demanded a proper, open and transparent discussion of the issues, there would be no One Barnet or Capita contract now.  In short, the Barnet Labour Party, four the last four years have been a failed opposition.

Then there was the Labour Campaign. My fellow semi retired Tory Blogger, 'Don't Call Me Dave' Miller has summed up their cock ups in full here - http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2014/05/snatching-defeat-from-jaws-of-victory.html - he couldn't be more spot on. The Labour attempt to unseat the Lib Dems in Childs Hill was stupid, spiteful and self defeating. Everyone in Barnet knows the Lib Dems would jump into bed with Labour as they did in 1994-2002. Labour diverted vital resources from Hale Ward to Childs Hill in this ridiculous attempt to shaft the Lib Dems. Everyone I know in Barnet, from Trades Unions, BAPS and even  many Labour members told Moore to leave well alone. Had Labour put the effort into Hale, they  would have won the three seats instead of the one they took. It is also likely the Lib Dems would have taken the other two Childs Hill seats as the Labour effort simply split the anti Tory vote. Everyone in who follows Barnet Politics knows Jack Cohen is a huge assett to Barnet Council. Despite a total collapse of the Lib Dems everywhere else in Barnet, he kept his seat in face of an onslaught from the Greens, the Tories and Labour.

As to the actual campaign themes Labour chose to work on. As mentioned above there were huge issues that they should have spent the last year ramming down the throats of the Labour core voters. These are the people who have to turn up to win you elections. Instead we got crass leaflets full of meaningless statistics. If I'd have been running the Labour campaign, I'd have spent six months dropping leaflets in wards like Hale, with details of all the car crash stories the Tories had generated in the last four years. The Metpro scandal demonstrated that they had no handle on the finances, yet only readers of the blogs are aware of the issue. Many people know there were "problems with parking" but few know that Barnet Council lost a court case brought by its own residents because the CPZ policy was illegal. This court case cost a fortune and that money could have been used to keep open the Mapledown School respite scheme.

Another major failure was that the Labour Party completely failed to use electronic media to get its message over. Many Tories believe that the local bloggers have been working with Labour to help them secure a victory. In actual fact the opposite is true. Local activists set up a meeting between the local Labour Leadership and the bloggers to see how we could  help their campaign. Guess what happened? The Labour leadership didn't bother to turn up. As I am sure you can guess, we were amazed. Strangely enough we are not egomaniacs, so we tried again. This time the Labour leadership turned up. We said "how can we help your campaign". Now bear in mind this blog gets 30,000 hits a month and has had over 1.3 million in total. I have written blogs every day. The bloggers have had three letters published in the last six weeks in local press and had numerous mentions. I even got a name check in the Guardian earlier in the week. What do you think the Labour Leadership's reply was? They said "Can you help knocking up voters on election day". In short, they just don't get it. They are stuck in the 1970's and they are totally unwilling to even engage with anyone they can't control.

The key wards in this election were Childs Hill and Hale. The local Labour leadership made a catastrophic decision to divert resources from Hale to Childs Hill. Given that Hale was winnable  (demonstrated by the fact they took 1 seat out of three), how could they have lost focus so badly. Well this was another huge blunder. The Barnet Eye happens to know that the local Labour Party believed that there would be two major press stories published, which would supposedly destroy the reputations of the the two Tories who actually won. The Barnet Eye has been well aware of these stories for some time. I was not surprised at all when the press decided to pass on them. Labour should not have relied on the whim of newspaper editors and legal departments to do their job for them. There was a belief in Labour that because Tom Davey, the Hale Tory incumbent, who was reelected had acted like a Berk on Facebook there would be a huge backlash against him. In actual fact Mr Davey scored more votes than his two colleagues. Whilst I think his comments on Facebook were stupid, it is clear that his voters were not in the least bothered. I suspect all of us have done or said things in the past we'd regret and that was the view of most Tory voters. I wouldn't have banked my campaign on facebook tittle tattle. I do however believe if they'd concentrated their fire on Mr Davey's record as a Tory Cabinet member, in a very poor regime they may have actually been successful.

The truth is that Alison Moore has to go, if Labour ever want to make progress in Barnet. They need an effective campaigner and an effective Leader. I'd personally like to see Kath McGuirk as she has personality and charisma. If Labour see last night as anything other than a massive missed opportunity and aculmination of four years of failure, then they are deluded.

And on to the minor Parties. I am delighted that Jack Cohen of the Lib Dems retained his seat. Jack deserved it. Anyone who has watched Barnet Council would not disagree. Elsewhere, those without a record of service suffered from the toxic brand which the Lib Dems have become. I had thought decent ex councillors such as Jeremy Davies and Duncan MacDonald may have done better, but the public were having none of it.

The Greens have proven that they have no mass appeal for the public in Barnet. I thought Poppy in Barnet was a great candidate. Poppy got less than 1,000 votes. It is time for the Greens to wake up and smell the coffee. All they do in Barnet is scupper the chances of other progressive candidates.

Then there is UKIP. They polled appallingly. Their campaign has been described as a car crash by one candidate. As this was their first attempt at local politics in Barnet, I suppose this was to be expected.

So there we are.  Barnet is still Tory for the time being, but they have no scope for errors or defections. If Hugh Rayner or Tom Davey fall under a bus (and I truly hope they don't), then we could have a very interesting by-election.

Well done to all candidates, successful and unsuccessful. Been there and know how much hard work it is.

Are UKIP really a political party?

An almighty row has broken out between the Hendon branch of UKIP and the Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS). BAPS has organised a public hustings meeting and asked representatives from the four main political parties (Labour, Lib Dems, Tories & Greens) to discuss local issues. The public will have a chance to grill the politicians in a question time format. On Monday the vice chair of UKIP, Adrian Murray-Leonard rang the Barnet Eye to ask why UKIP had not been invited. As we are not on the BAPS executive and were not on the organising committee, we didn't know and suggested Mr Murray-Leonard should speak to Barbara Jacobson who was acting as chair.

Mr Murray-Leonard was incensed that UKIP had not been organised, especially given his view that UKIP could surpass the Lib Dems in becoming the third most popular party in Barnet at the Euro Elections in May. It appears that Mr Murray-Leonard spoke to both Barbara Jacobson and Tirza Waisel of BAPS and was told that whilst UKIP would not be offered a place on the panel, they would be welcome to attend as members of the public. Mr Murray-Leonard responded by stating that this was unacceptable and that UKIP would attend en mass to ensure their point of view was put across.

Tirza Waisel contacted the Barnet Eye to explain why UKIP were not being invited. BAPS are specifically interested in Barnet Council and issues relating to public services. In the four years that BAPS has been in existence, UKIP have not once made a single intervention or participated in the debate on One Barnet or any local issue in any way shape or form. In the opinion of BAPS, on a local level, UKIP are not a political party, but a well organised pressure group, with a single aim of securing the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. They have no published policy on any Barnet related issue, therefore it is logical to conclude that they have nothing to offer for a public husting dealing with issues related to Barnet.

The Barnet Eye has covered Barnet politics for five and a half years and we can confirm that we are unaware of UKIP having any interest in Barnet politics. Given the huge debate over public services, we feel that it is rather late in the day for UKIP to start demanding a seat at the table, when they have left an empty chair for the debate for the last  four years. The reason that they want to participate in the hustings is to boost their campaign to win votes at the Euro elections, also taking place in May. In effect they appear to be looking to turn a debate which is designed to discuss issues of importance to local people regarding their local council, into a debate about the European elections, which is there raison d'etre.

The Barnet Eye has no doubt that supporters of UKIP feel very strongly about the issue of European membership. We also have no doubt that the party will poll a large number of votes, perhaps becoming the third most popular party in Barnet. That does not mean that UKIP are a political party in the true sense of the word. To qualify for that, they would need a local, national and international agenda. At a Borough level, they would have a full raft of policies, proposing a budget for Barnet and involving themselves in the debate on issues such as One Barnet. They would have participated in campaigns about NHS, Student Loans, protection of the Green Belt, Closure of Church Farm Museum etc. As far as the Barnet Eye is concerned, they haven't, therefore they should not expect to be able to pitch up at the hustings and expect a seat at the top table.

Should BAPS be organising a similar husting to discuss the Euro Elections, I would have far more sympathy with UKIP if they were excluded as they clearly have been raising this issue locally on a regular basis. The trouble with UKIP is that as far as I can see, they do not really know what they are. If they want to be a real political party, they need to have a manifesto for Barnet and participate in the debate. If they want to be a pressure group that stands at elections, then fine, but don't pretend to be something you are not. When it comes down to it, they have not done anything for local people in regards to the debate on Barnet Council, therefore they can't expect to be treated seriously, just because an election is in the offing and it suits them.

In the interests of fairness, we are offering Hendon UKIP the opportunity to submit a guest blog detailing their policies and activities in local Barnet issues. We will publish it on condition that it refers to these and not the European Union membership issue. If they can illustrate that the Barnet Eye is wrong and they have been active on local issues for the last four years, we will support their application for a seat on the panel. If, as I suspect, they cannot demonstrate that they have any interest in Barnet politics, then I'm afraid that on a local level, we will have to conclude they are not really a political party, but a pressure group dealing with EU membership.