A clarification - Why I do not engage with Mrs Angry AKA Theresa Musgrove & The Broken Barnet Blog

Most of the time, I enjoy blogging. Very occasionally, I find it sickening. Today is one such time. Yesterday, when I posted a blog celebrating fifteen years of this blog and a little potted history, I was feeling very happy and nostaligic. Then I started getting messages drawing my attentiont to a tweet by Mrs Angry AKA Theresa Musgrove. This is what it says.

As well as this, she left a comment on the blog which I felt was highly inaccurate, offensive and possibly slanderous. I did not publish it, as I would in effect be slandering myself in the process. In my blog yesterday about the 15 years of blogging, I did not mention Ms Musgrove. I would not presume to tell her what to publish, but clearly she decided that she has a right to tell me what I can and can't publish. Normally, I would let this go, but the truth of the matter is she is being completely dishonest. She is 100% aware of why I do not engage with her and why I have not for several years. She has tweeted jibes in my direction previously, which I have ignored. It is clear that this will not stop.

Ms Musgrove blocked me in December 2019, following a spat on Twitter, where she claimed that the Lib Dems were supporting the Tories in Mill Hill. She tweeted that I was 'harrassing her' and suggested that I wouldn't stop. I don't really wish to comment more, however, I will share the following email exchange from March 2020, which I think makes 100% clear why I have not enagegd with her and why what she is tweeting and posting is, in my opinion dishonest and highly misleading. 

I've redacted the names of certain individuals and emails for privacy. I suggest reading from the bottom up for the italics, to read in sequence. 

Theresa Musgrove 

To: ROGER TICHBORNE

 22/03/20 12:27

 WHAT??????? I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING whatsoever about this and I feel physically sick reading what you have just said. Please ignore the bollox about no contact - I am happy to state in writing that I have not made any complaint, do not consider a disagreement about political matters to be a police matter, and am happy to have contact with you. Please tell me the name of the officer at Colindale - I want to get to the bottom of this. How could someone else make a complaint about me being 'harrassed', without me being contacted for my views, or notified? None of this makes sense. I feel at the point of explosion, to discover ******** is capable of doing something like this - assuming it was him. Just this morning I have told him where to get off, and published an edited version of a tweet about ******* ******, one of two I spotted last week and which were reported. I have kept screenshots. I am literally shaking with fury. 

On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 12:09 PM ROGER TICHBORNE wrote: 

Dear Theresa I hope you and the family keep well/survive etc. Following on from your tweet claiming that I was harassing you, I received a telephone call from an Officer at Colindale, advising me that a complaint had been made that I was subjecting you to a campaign of harassment, siting that tweet as evidence. My assumption was that the complaint was made by **** ******* in retaliation for a complaint I had made about him, ********* ****** also has made a similar complaint against him. The police stated that by posting that tweet, you were asking for me to formally cease all contact and any further contact would be reportable and a criminal offence. I was advised in the strongest terms possible that if I had any further contact with you on social media, by email, through third parties or in person that I was liable to a harassment order and arrest. Strictly speaking I should not be responding to this email. I am notifying you as a courtesy, as it appears that you may well have been unaware of this issue. Please do not contact me again, as I have no wish to have any further dealings with the Police on this matter. Regards Rog 

On Sunday, 22 March 2020, 10:55:37 GMT, Theresa Musgrove wrote:

I have unblocked you on twitter as it seems rather pointless to be childish at this awful time. Last night I had to warned ***** ********** about ******** as he left a comment about her daughter, who is a very pretty young dancer without work, and I could just see what he was up to - if you have seen that '******** ************' video on Youtube you will know why. But I see he is also setting himself up as some sort of 'official' point of information. I've tweeted at him to pack it in but of course he is relishing this chance to manipulate. I hope you and your family are well and coping with the current crisis. I'm on full Monty lockdown due to health issues for the foreseeable future, but happy enough at home so far.

For completeness, here is the tweet referred to. 

I wish Ms Musgrove no harm. I have no idea who made the complaint or why. I've learned that speculating is unwise. The scenario I suggested as an assumption above was to give her an honourable way out, if she'd done something rash in an agitated moment and was regretful, although it would not surprise me if that was what happened either given the individual in question, however my assumption was that if she genuinely had not made the report and was upset, she would clear the matter up with the Police, explain that it was malicious and get them to contact me stating that the matter was closed. 

If it was me, I would have been on the phone to the police immediately and gotten written confirmation, which I'd have posted through her door.  This has, to date not happened. Instead, I get tweets directed at me, claiming I am being "uncomradely" for blocking her (when as she admits in the above email), she blocked me and abusive comments posted on my blog.  This does not seem to me to be the actions of someone who genuinely was 'physically sick' when they 'found out' about this complaint.

It is unfortunate. I am not asking anyone to take sides.  She s a perfectly good blogger and played a big role in the Barnet blogging scene. You may feel her comments are justified and valid. That is your perogative, but I have no wish at all to engage with this person. All I really want to do is to ignore her and for her to do the same. I spoke to one of my legal advisors before posting this. In the circumstances, it is reasonable for me to clarify this, in light of these comments. I am sick of people asking me as to why I am being so beastly to her. Whatever you think of what I've said, now you know why. 

This will be the end of the matter as far as I am concerned. 

Where have all of the bloggers gone? And why Barnet still needs them

 There are times when I wonder if it's all worth the effort. Writing this blog takes a huge amount of effort, it is time consuming and can be very emotionally disturbing. Over the years, there have been important victories, many times I've been retrospectively proven right, the One Barnet outsourcing project being a prime example, but there is little satisfaction just being shown your right as you stare at the wreckage from a preventable car crash of a scheme. 

At one point, there were seven bloggers active in Barnet. There was this blog, Don't call me Dave, who was the former chair of the Chipping Tories, who'd realised before anyone else that they'd collectively gone bonkers, there was Dan Hope, another Chipping Tory who fell foul of the lunkheads who took over. It seems strange that Barnet blogging was mainly a Tory activity originally, with disaffected Tories putting the boot into their former mates. Sadly Dan Hope passed away and David Miller (AKA Don't call me Dave) moved to Brexitville (AKA Essex) and lost interest in Barnet. Trades Union activist Vikki Morris joined the fun and wrote an excellent blog, until she moved to the Midlands. Next to join in the fun was John Dix, AKA Mr Reasonable. John still writes excellent blogs, mostly about the mess that is CAPITA. John manages about one blog a month and they are worth a look. 

The next blog to start was one which sadly I am prevented from referring to. The writer of that blog started legal proceedings against me in 2019 as they objected to some of my comments on Twitter. I was advised to block them and not refer to them and cease all contact as a remedy to their complaint. About six months later they asked to resume contact, I asked for them to formally confirm in writing that the allegations they made were unfounded, which my legal advisor stated was necessary to resume contact, otherwise I could find myself in a difficult situation. They stated they would do this.  I then heard nothing. I still haven't apart from the odd jibe on twitter, people sometimes ask about, when they see them.  It is unfortunate, but I really can't say it bothers me. If, as they claimed, they have no issue with me, as they seem to tell people when asked, then putting this in writing would have happened long ago, if they were really bothered, wouldn't it? 

The next blog was the Mr Mustard blog. This is still active, but focusses on parking disputes rather than the workings of Barnet council mostly. 

Two years ago, Barnet got a new blog! The young man who reported the 2016 Freedom pass scandal to me started his own blog. Have a look mrlimitless95.blogspot.com/

So that is the current state of Barnet blogging. It has very much run out of steam. It is understandable, it takes a lot of effort and is a thankless task. It requires a lot of work and when you lift stones up, you often find things you dont like. But this month, I've written two blogs about housing conditions. One for a vulnerable man in dangerous and sqaulid private housing and another about a young family in terrible conditions in a Barnet Homes property. I found writing both blogs very upsetting. However in both cases, things are being sorted out. If I've achieved nothing else this year, maybe I've helped a vulnerable man and a young family. I am rather hoping that shining a spotlight will encourage the council to take a wider look at how they manage both private and public owned housing in Barnet. I've long felt that Barnet is very lax in it's enforcement on all matters property related. I've also felt that they weren't interested in the conditions that the less well off members of our community live in. The new Labour administration has an opportunity to show they are different. I hope that the blogs I've written will help them in their assessment of the wider picture. The Tories were obsessed with regeneration and knocking everything down and rebuilding it. Much of this is not for people on low pay. This just makes matters worse. What we need is a proper social housing strategy. Blogs have a role in this. People contact me to write blogs when everything else fails. What is extraordinary is that once a blog appears, stuff gets done. I don't really want to do what councillors should do as casework. But when people are living in squalid conditions, what do you do? Whilst such things happen, we will still need people to write blogs about them.

"Why do I bother" - The bloggers of Barnet and the Barnet Council effect

 Last night I attended the Barnet Council Financial Performance and Contracts Committee, chaired by Councillor Peter Zinkin. I'd submitted two questions. In the good old days, you'd get the responses in a timely fashion to allow you to compose a sensible follow up, if your question was not answered. Yesterday, I was forwarded the responses at 16.12. This was a bit inconvenient, as I had a meeting with the Sacred Heart Church Finance committee at 6pm, the committee started at 7pm, I was working until 5pm and had to walk dogs and eat dinner. As a result, I didn't see the responses until I arrived at the meeting. To make matters even more interesting, I was in such a rush getting from Mill Hill to Hendon for the meeting, I dropped my key getting in the car. I spent ten minutes looking for it, then left my phone in the car when I arrived, so I couldn't tweet the meeting or video it. To say I wasn't overly happy when I arrived is a mild understatement. 

I arrived to see Mr Reasonable there. Barnet has a few bloggers. He's the only blogger I've seen at the Town Hall for a while. It used to be that whenever I went there'd be a bevvy of them, especially for any meeting discussing Capita. I thought I'd just do a quick recap on our fine bloggers, so anyone reasonably new to  Barnet would have an idea who I'm talking about.  I was the first of the bunch, but all have been around for well over a decade and our work has been recognised by everyone from the Guardian to former Tory Local Govt minister Eric Pickles, who commended our work.

 If you consider each blogger as a newspaper, I'd probably be The Daily Star, Mrs Angry would be the Daily Mail, Mr Mustard would be Packaging News and Mr Reasonable would be The FT. When I say this I don't mean that any of the bloggers have sympathies with the publications, but in content terms and what we cover, I am very eclectic and being a bit thick, like the Star don't use long words to demonstrate my intellect. I like to put the boot in, but also to cover football, music and all manner of other irrelevence.

Mrs Angry is very much a 'sensible mid market' paper that loves a sensationalist scoop, but decries anyone else who has the nerve to beat her to it. She loves a good old long word, here's a classic Mrs Angry sentence, where I'd say "Lets sling out the Tories in May", she would say "Roll on May: it's time to clear out the Augean stables, and rid ourselves of the rotten stench hanging around this Tory council and their collaborators. " Her work is pretty damn good, but a bit too wordy for plebs like me! Mrs Angry seems to have semi retired, only knocking out the occasional blog when the mood takes her, which is a crying shame as she does rather wind up a few councillors who thorughly deserve it. 

Mr Mustard started blogging about Barnet Council, but now mostly concentrates on parking issues, he's become very niche and probably is far better for it. He's also moved beyond the boundaries of the Borough, his latest blog being about the parking in Hillingdon. If Parking tickets are your thing, his blog is brilliant. He does other stuff, but mostly transport and roads related these days. 

Mr Reasonable is the man who really get stuck into the detail. Whereas I skim the council papers and if I see something juicy leaping out, I blog it, John reads them properly and when he blogs, it is full of detail. His brain works in a different way to mine. He often picks things out that I've missed completely. His latest blog about how Brighton Marina is costing Barnet Ratepayers a fortune is typical. I read the report and missed the detail completely. I was not alone, it seems our Tory councillors also missed this detail. It seems that they miss most of what he blogs about.

Anyway, I digress, last night I arrived to meet Mr Reasonable. He looked more irritated than usual. I had taken a chance. I'd not read the answers, so I may have had a wasted journey. If they'd given me a complete and sensible answer, it would have been a wasted journey. When I read the responses, I was not suprised. Perhaps the most irritating thing about Barnet Council meetings is that they rarely actually answer the question. This was no exception. The nub of the first question was "Please clarify in plain English, what this means in financial terms to Barnet Taxpayers." The response did no such thing. I did get an apology, that to paraphrase was along the lines "Sorry you are too thick to understand what we were saying". In my second question, I asked whether the failure to inspect restaurants had resulted in an increase in the number of cases of food poisoning. The answer was "No". I asked for some evidence, as this was not provided. I was told that this would be forthcoming. We shall see.

As for Mr Reasonable. Whilst I'm thick and don't understand words of more than four letters, he does. How did he feel about the responses to his questions? Well this was what he tweeted.

Not sure why I bother going to council meetings. I raised serious questions about call answering, a service Capita are due to retain. They couldn't meet the target to answer 80% of calls in 20 secs so increased it 60 secs then to 120 secs & still can't meet target. pic.twitter.com/JMv5Y6caMl

— Mr Reasonable (@ReasonableNB) March 14, 2022

It seems that it is not only thicko's who are exasperated by Barnet Council. It has been crystal clear for a long time that Barnet Council hate the bloggers and take great delight in providing waffly non answers to infuriate us. Oh how jolly it all is. To once again quote Mrs Angry's flowery prose Roll on May: it's time to clear out the Augean stables, and rid ourselves of the rotten stench hanging around this Tory council and their collaborators.

Why Barnet needs its bloggers

It is the 18th of Jan. I happened to notice that two of the other three Barnet bloggers of note have not posted a blog this year. It is not my job to criticise them and that is not the intention of this blog, but it did raise a mild feeling of alarm that maybe the Barnet blogosphere has run out of steam. Personally I've deliberately avoided writing too much about Barnet Council during the crisis. Usually my efforts are squarely aimed at getting people to make their views known to the council, but I have felt the council has bigger fish to fry right now. In the middle of a pandemic, they need to be focussed on public health. I am not an expert on the matter, but recently I have become concerned with some aspects of what Barnet are doing.

The health, safety and wellbeing of employees of Barnet Council, those in its care (such as people with special needs, the elderly and the vulnerable) and the residents and visitors to the Borough should be the primary concern. There are several observations that I feel compelled to make, as a local blogger who has a large local readership.

1. The safety of employees working in schools and nurseries. There is strong evidence that transmission in these environments locally fuelled the rise in cases in November and December. I have heard horror stories from people I know who work in the sector. As soon as it became clear that there was a risk to staff locally, these establishments should have been closed. 

2. Local parks have become extremely busy. Whilst people are outside, it is clear to me that people locally were not following the "exercise with one other person" rule. Social distancing of 2m was also not being observed. The parks are operated by the council. I noticed that the car parks next to the park were full yesterday. It is pretty clear that people were driving to the park to meet and chat to friends. Whilst I am not a killjoy, there is a pandemic. It seems to me that the sensible thing for Barnet Council to do would be to close the car parks. That would allow local people to use the facilities, but act as a deterrent to people who use the parks to socialise rather than exercise.

3. Barnet Unison have been lobying the council to get parking enforcement services suspended during lockdown. Whilst I am normally supportive of the initiatives of the local Unison branch, on this occasion I cannot agree with their policy. I have a local high street at the bottom of my road (Mill Hill Broadway). I am sorry to say that local residents park dangerously, selfishly and irresponsibly on a regular basis. Perfectly able bodies people park in disabled bays all the time. Double yellow lines are also parked on, causing blockages and making crossing the road dangerous, especially for small children who cannot see over the cars. If enforcement was suspended, my view is that this would increase this selfish behaviour, putting more people at risk and reducing further spaces for disabled shoppers.

4. My cousin, who was in the care of Barnet council, died of Covid 19 related illness last week. I was under the impression that the address she lived at should be covid secure. It clearly wasn't. This tells me that Barnet Council has not done a proper risk assessment and is not enforcing covid protocols properly in care establishments. 

With the demise of local press, there is no one else to raise these concerns apart from local bloggers. I am not criticising people who have spent the last ten years or so working hard to raise these issues. I know just how draining and exhausting this is. What I am saying is that we need a new generation. We need to pass on the battern and we need new people with the energy to start doing the job. Barnet will need it's bloggers more than ever as the austerity which will follow Covid hits. Believe me, the credit crunch will seem like a luxury holiday compared to what is coming down the line. If you can write a few coherent sentences, you too can become a blogger, no experience necessary. We need you!

A joint statement from the Barnet Bloggers - Children at Risk: Time to take responsibility

“There are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children and their families in Barnet. Inspectors identified a legacy of widespread poor practice and ongoing systemic failures and services that neither adequately ensure the safety, nor promote the welfare of children and young people”. 

Ofsted Inspection Report on Barnet Children’s Service July 2017

Over nearly a decade of scrutiny by Barnet bloggers, we have investigated and reported the seemingly endless sequence of scandals, blunders, and political folly created by Barnet’s Conservative councillors. The incomprehensible tale of the MetPro fiasco, the disgraceful confiscation of travel passes for disabled residents, the cutting of vital respite care for children at Mapledown School, which cares for children with profound disabilities, the illegal CPZ parking charges, are only some of the many examples of administrative incompetence – and worse – that we have exposed and pursued.

In all this time, in response to all of these disastrous situations, not one Conservative member has taken responsibility for the failure in services to what are very often the most vulnerable members of our community.

No one could be more vulnerable than a child: especially a child in care, whose well being has become the responsibility of the local authority, standing as a corporate parent.

Yet now we see the emergence of a most damning report from OFSTED, one that slates the provision of care services in Barnet for such children: a report that should shame any local authority, and would – anywhere else but in Barnet.

“The vast majority of care planning is ineffective. There is a lack of focus on measuring progress for children or their outcomes. When there is no progress, this is not re-evaluated or escalated effectively. This leads to drift and delay. This is particularly stark for a significant number of children who are victims of chronic long-term neglect and emotional abuse, who do not have the impact of this risk recognised, responded to or reduced, despite spending long periods subject to child protection planning … ”.

“Young people who go missing from care receive a poor service, because social workers do not find out enough about the risks to them. This means that young people who go missing are not always kept safe enough from dangers, such as gangs or adults sexually exploiting them”.

In any circumstances where there has been proven wrongdoing, or a failure in standards, it is usually the case, in Barnet, that officers are held responsible, and those elected members tasked with the responsibility – and paid generous allowances for those duties –of overseeing the enforcement of their own policies remain distanced from the consequences of their actions. We believe that this is wrong, and that councillors should be held accountable.

In this case, we believe, the fault lies in a serious failure in leadership, oversight and scrutiny by the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee, chaired by Conservative councillor Reuben Thompstone.

The same committee was responsible for the Mapledown cuts – later reversed, after protests from parents, and a public outcry; and was also the instrument of approval for the devastating programme of cuts to our library service, presented to residents as mere ‘refurbishment’, but which has seen the closure of children’s libraries, and the removal of access for under sixteen year olds from any library operating the newly unstaffed hours.

It seems to us that under this Conservative administration, children are seen not as our most precious asset, but an easy target for cuts, and the lowering of standards meant to ensure their protection, and wellbeing.

In 2014 Tory members approved a cost cutting restructuring of Family Services which has resulted in the use of agency social workers soaring from none in 2013, to £3.05 million per annum in 2016/17.

With the average agency social worker staying just 202 days, there has been a constant turnover of staff, and throughout this period, Children’s Services have been under constant pressure to meet the budget savings forecast.

We believe that pressure on budgets for local social workers responsible for ensuring the safety of young people has lead to the near destruction of the service, and a situation where there are simply not the resources to ensure vulnerable young people are given the life chances they deserve.

This cannot possibly be in the best interests of the children of this borough.

We therefore make the following suggestions:

1.     That there must be a full open, transparent, and independent public inquiry into what went wrong.

2.     This inquiry must include a forensic audit of all correspondence between the Conservative administration and officers, regarding Children’s Services, to ensure that political interference has not, and cannot in future, prejudice the standard of care.

3.     This inquiry should be concluded prior to May 2018, to allow the people of Barnet to pass their own judgement on the administration.

4.     We call for the resignation of the Councillor in charge of Children’s Services, Cllr Reuben Thompstone.

Signed,

Derek Dishman (http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/)

John Dix (http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/)

Theresa Musgrove (http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/)

Roger Tichborne (http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/)

---------------------------

Barnet Eye note:

This blog has been jointly written by the four Barnet bloggers in response to the recently released OFSTED report into Barnet Council childrens services.

Barnet Libraries Consultation: A Sham A Joint Letter from the Barnet Bloggers to the Leader of Barnet Council

Barnet Bloggers are appalled by reported plans to outsource libraries and make them available to commercial exploitation to companies such as Starbucks and Waterstones. The real purpose of proposals to cut and shut libraries in Barnet is now clear.

In April 2013, a High Court ruling found that Barnet Council had failed in its obligation properly to consult residents over the imposition of the whole scale privatisation of local public services, known then as ‘One Barnet’.

The Judicial Review which had reached this conclusion found that legal challenge had been brought too late, and therefore the two massive contracts with Capita, agreed by the Conservative administration, are now in place for a period of at least ten years.

After narrowly being returned to power the new administration has, as predicted, rushed ahead with new plans to outsource most of the remaining services, at the same time as launching plans to impose devastating cuts in budget.

As a result, we now face devastating plans to slash the funding of our library service by a staggering 60%, a disproportionate and punitive amount which is clearly agreed as a means of preparing the argument for yet another act of privatisation.

Councillors have been presented with a report with three equally damaging options for the future of Barnet Libraries, and residents encouraged to take part in what we believe to be a deeply flawed and subjective consultation process, one which an independent report has described as not fit for purpose:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/253017634/Topline-Findings-From-Research-Into-Barnet-Council-s-Library-Reforms

Topline Findings From Research Into Barnet Council's Library Reforms by MisterMustard

Now we are faced with new information which, if true, would suggest that far from learning the lessons of the Judicial Review, the authority’s latest consultation process, as well as being deliberately designed to minimise opposition to the three options, is itself a complete irrelevance, and that the outcome of the council’s consideration of the three options is already agreed in principle, if not in detail.

And if this is dialogue is typical of the way in which potential business partners negotiate with the authority, it would also raise serious and wider questions over the integrity of the procurement process in Barnet, past and present.

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/exclusive-so-others-can-get-cut-of.html

 

Whatever the opinions of residents, it seems that there will be closure and sale of library buildings, and the outsourcing of our library service, engineered so as to provide opportunities for commercial exploitation by private contractors.

Such an outcome would be simply unacceptable, and indeed would be an unlawful decision taken in complete disregard of the democratic process.

We ask Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of the Conservative administration, immediately to halt the discredited consultation currently in place, remove the library proposals from the budget cuts about to be imposed, and to launch an independent investigation into the alleged subversion of the due process of democratic engagement that should decide the governance of our borough, and hold the authority to account in a way that is fair, and transparent.

Derek Dishman

John Dix

Theresa Musgrove

Roger Tichborne