This government may well end my blogging career!

The insspiration for starting to write blogs about politics, for me, was that I thought that the Tories running Barnet Council were useless, but the vast majority of people were unaware of this. Furthermore, I realised that there was no proper press coverage exposing just how bad they were. I spent a decade scrutinising council papers, doing my best to alert people to the mistakes the council were planning to make, trying to rustle up support locally to oppose the stupid policies that anyone who bothered to look, knew would cost Barnet residents a small fortune. Despite this blog clocking up nearly 4 million hits, not enough people listened to the warnings. The Tories won the Council elections in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and introduced the devastating scheme that became known as One Barnet. When they were finally booted out in 2022, they left a devastated and demoralised council that was struggling to provide basic services. There period in charge had been so bad that OFSTED made them bring in Essex Council to sort out their educational services. 

Labour won a landslide in 2022, but took over a council in such chaos that even the most competent of administrations would have struggled, and no one would ever accuse Barnet Labour of being particulary competent. I have found it rather difficult to write blogs condemning Labours ineptitdue, as I realise that they have been bequeathed a shit sandwich and I don't envy them. Some of the things they are doing are really stupid, such as bidding for the 'London Borough of Culture' when the Borough doesn't even have an established music venue and the local music festivals, such as the East Barnet Festival are struggling to survive. My view is that they'd have been better off giving the festival money, than the expensive consultants engaged to make the bid. Compared to the mistakes of the last Tory administration, it is small beer. Some of the things they tried to do, such as ending after school respite care for the parents of heavily disabled children at Mapledown Special School were plain inhuman. To the extent that it was blocked by a revolt by formerly loyal Tory Councillors (all of whom were deselected). 

I keep an eye on Barnet Council, but I don't have the time or inclination to snipe at small stupidities. I am sure that sooner or later, the Tories will find a blogger to do that for them. As for National government, I've not really blogged too much about them. Not so much because I have no opinions, but because there was coverage and it was far better than I could offer. I broke this rule as chaos enveloped the Government as Boris Johnson rose to power. The reason for this was a I had a source at the heart of his government (a source that has now run dry). The source was not sympathetic to my viewpoint, but it suited them to get information in the public domain. It also suited me to highlight the splits in the Tories. 

I assumed that Boris Johnson was an abberation, an outlier, a bumbling populist maverick, who the Tories chose to get their electoral fortunes back on track after the shambles that was Theresa May's reign. When Boris was elected in 2019, I thought that he was lucky to have been elected at a time when the economy was generally sound. I doubted that Boris could bugger it up too much. I also assumed that the Labour party was done for a generation. The Corbyn era had destroyed it's credibility in the country. As Boris had a massive majority, I thought he'd give us a couple of years of bonkers Tory ideolgical policies, then a couple of years of retrenchment, to strengthen the Tories electoral position, in time for an election last year that he'd romp home in. The pandemic put paid to that. 

Within a year, it was clear that Boris was toast. What came next shcoked even me. The Liz Truss debacle. To see a hard right Tory skewered by the free markets she espoused would have been hilarious, if it hadn't cost me a fortune in higher taxes and interest rates. When Rishi Sunak replaced her, I assumed we'd get a sensible, pragmatic and rather boring leader, who would get the countries finances back on track.  Last week, we found that the UK is yet again in recession. The man I thought would be a competent, if undynamic, manager turned out to simply be a man out of his depth. It is now clear that he appeared to be a good chancellor because Boris was his boss. His chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who does at least have an air of competence, has been doing his best to face off the Liz Truss faction of the Tory party, seeking tax cuts the country can't afford. Hunt reminds me of the adage "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king". 

Then there is Sir Keir Starmer. Anyone who doesn't recognise the achievement of making Labour appear electable does not understand politics. Starmer has made a whole career of saying nothing and having no opinions. He's been leader for nearly four years and I have no idea who he really is. He seems to have taken the Tony Blair playbook and removed the messianic zeal that Blair brought to the table. What will Starmer be like, if he makes it to be Prime Minister. At one point, I would have said "He can't be any worse than  what went before", but I thought that after Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss and in their own way, each has been a downgrade. 

The problem as a blogger is that justs pouting negative opinions is perhaps the least interesting thing that it is possible to read. Someone recently asked why I am 'not covering politics anymore'. If you look at this year, this is not entirely true. This year, I've posted four politics related blogs, four more than the rest of the Barnet bloggers have written about politics etc (Mr Mustard has kept up his output of parking related blogs). But I've never blogged for the sake of it. The things I write about are things I find interesting and that others may as well. This blog has given me an extraordinary platform, the thousands of hits I get are a privilege that I appreciate. I don't take the people who read it for granted, but I also feel a responsibility to write blogs that have something to say that you won't read anywhere else. The things that interest me currently are music, the environment, Football (especially grassroots football), Barnet transport issues and the silly things that make life liveable. I find it almost impossible to find anything interesting to write about local or national politics. The biggest problem with this government is that you can write a blog and a week later, it is completely out of date as they've lurched into another crisis. 

I must add one thing about Barnet politics. Prior to the election, several Barnet Labour Councillors were very friendly with me and we'd have nice chats occasionally. They don't want to know now. One recently got themself into a spot of bother, having made some rather unwise comments on Twitter. Two years ago, I'd have spoken up for them, when the inevitable nasty comments came from the likes of disgraced Tory Brian Coleman. Having realised that they viewed me as a 'useful idiot' when Labour were seeking power in Barnet and now they are in they have no use of me, I was not in the least inclined to chip in and say "Hang on, this is a bit out of order coming from someone convicted of assault". It seems to me that Labour think that they've got the Hendon and Finchley Parliamentary seats sown up and so want to keep 'loose cannon bloggers' at arms length. I am quite happy to leave them to it, as it means I can get on with stuff I enjoy. I am not sure whether Rishi and Barnet Labour have effectively cured me of my urge to blog about politics, but writing about other things is far more fun.

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Talking of which, my band, The False Dots are doing a gig on Sat 23rd March at the Beehive in Bow. Check out our trailer for it! Tickets: bit.ly/42qVHCN

Common sense breaks out in the Conservative Party

Last Monday, I challenged real Conservatives to stand up and be counted, in the face of a divisive and unpopular budget, giving tax cuts to the mega rich and running up the national debt. To my surprise, I was inundated with private messages agreeing with me, from all manner of Conservatives and predicting that the abolition of the top rate tax cut would not see it through to the party conference. The final blow was the sight of Michael Gove and Grant Schapps publicly stating that they did not support the cut. 

My contacts do not move in such esteemed circles, but they do hear the rumours. They also hear what ordinary members are saying and it isn't good. It is easy to forget that Truss was getting plaudits for the energy assistance scheme. The abolition of the top rate tax cut may have bought her some time, but it won't have answered any of the questions about her judgement or whether Kwarteng is fit to be chancellor. There is a feeling in the party that the mechanism for changing leaders simply isn't working. Not only did it drag on for far too long, it delivered a result that the parties MP's are less than happy with. The Labour Party went down the route of letting the members pick the leader and got Jeremy Corbyn. We all know what happened at the election. Corbyn was an ideolically driven socialist purist, it appears that Truss is the right wing version. The Tories pride themselves on dealing with such problems before elections, rather than after them.

One of the Tories I spoke to said that, whilst they'd given up on actually winning the next election, there isn't an MP who wants to lose their seat. Having said that, there is also a view that an outright Starmer majority is the least worst evil. A coalition with the Lib Dems would almost definitely deliver PR and if the SNP come to the table, it could break up the UK. 

Being the Barnet Eye, we like to take a look at the local picture.  Theresa Villiers does not do Twitter. Her Facebook page says nothing. Heaven only knows her views on the matter. As for Matthew Offord, nothing at all from him on his Twitter, Facebook or website. I guess that anyone who knows Matthew Offord will not be too surprised.. 

Mike Freer, rather bizarely tweeted this today. Is it irony, parody or delusion? I really can't tell

pic.twitter.com/QQ3vWWouUf

— Mike Freer (@MikeFreer_) October 3, 2022

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The Conservative party does seem to be awakening from it's Boris induced trance, where anything goes. I have started to wonder whether Boris was a master hypnotist and someone has clicked their fingers, with the party realising they are now naked to the elements as Boris runs off laughing to the bank. There seems to be some sort of debate going as to actually taking decisions in the interest of the economy rather than narrow vested interests. There does seem to be the green shoots of sanity returning. 

As for the Labour party and the rest of the opposition. The Tories have another two years to sort themselves out. Given that we've seen how long two weeks can be, I'd take nothing for granted. The Tories might have got through another six leaders by then and found someone who is actually popular and competent. 

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Brian Coleman endorses his successor Anne Clarke as Prime Minister material!

It's not often that this blog agrees with former Mayor of Barnet and former GLA member Brian Coleman. However, we've never denied that he has brilliant (if sometimes feral) political instincts and is a great strategic judge of character of politicians. This was demonstrated by his take down of Boris Johnson when he was campaigning to be leader (which of course he won). Brian rightly predicted that Boris would be a disaster and correctly identified all of the character traits that would eventually lead to the undoing of Boris (and possibly the Conservatives). 

Over the last six months, Brian Coleman has been labelling his succsessor Anne Clarke, who is on the GLA member for Barnet and Camden (Brian was the GLA rep 2002-2014 until his bad behaviour saw voters tire of his behaviour and a 20,000 majority became a 20,000 loss), as "The Cricklewood housewife".

There's me just to the left of the Cricklewood Housewife !

— Brian Coleman (@BrianColeman251) November 22, 2021

Many had assumed (me included) that this was simply a misogynistic jibe, directed at Anne to undermine her. However, anyone who knows Brian knows that he's a man who studies political history and understands the nuances of Tory politics better than anyone. They will also know that he is a massive fan of Margaret Thatcher (the feeling was not mutual, according to my mum, who knew Maggie and had been urged by her to stand for Parliament in the 1970's, when the two worked together for a local charity. Maggie told my mum Parliament was full of useless men and it needed more competent women, even though my Mum would have stood for Labour). 

Over the weekend, I was discussing Brian's jibe with a friend and he said "You know that isn't an insult from Brian, it is a recognition of talent". I thought he was taking the mickey, so he said "If you don't believe me, google 'Finchley Housewife' " . This morning my wife reminded me of the conversation, so I did a quick google. 

The first article to pop up was from the Times in 2004. When I read it I was astounded.  The article states:

I first filmed her in 1975 when she challenged Ted Heath for the Tory leadership. Heath’s people dismissed her as the Finchley housewife, and Heath himself claimed she wanted to turn the Tories into a “middle-class preservation society”.

I raised this charge with her and asked whether she, seen as being a middle-class woman from the south, could win back lost Tory votes in the industrial north. “But it wasn’t I who lost those votes,” she replied. “It was Mr Heath. And he is a middle-class Conservative gentleman from the south of England.”

When I read this, I realised there was no way Brian would use the term 'housewife' as a cheap put down. He worshipped Thatcher and despised Heath. Brian Coleman, better than anyone, knew Thatcher drew strength from the jibe. When I saw his tweet, I originally thought he was simply being a plonker. When I read the article, I realised he was startstruck and the tweet was the best compliment he could pay Anne. I suspect that secretly, he may even had voted for her in the GLA elections (although of course he'd deny it). 

Anne is a friend and although we are members of different parties, I rate her. It hadn't occur to me that Brian rated her even more highly than I di and see's her as the first Labour female Prime Minister. He's not a man who would not be aware of Maggie's nickname from the Heathites. As he's not become a Heathite, it can only be the highest compliment Brian could pay a female opponent.  

Maybe it's taken a pandemic for me and Brian to see eye to eye on something!

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Why Barnet Politics needs to change

 There is an election in May 2022 for Barnet Council. In 2018, the make up of the Council swung sharply to the Conservatives. Barnet was the no 1 target for Labour in London, as the Tories had a majority of one. To the surprise of many, not me I may add, it swung the other way. The Tories now have a massive majority. Wards such as West Hendon that had never been Conservative switched. A Labour activist confided in me recently that they see no realistic prospect of Labour winning the Council and other councils will be higher priority targets. I was quite shocked to hear this, as I believe that the Tories could be ejected from the Council if the opposition got its act together and did what an effective local campaign should do and target the issues. It would also see some sort of progressive Alliance. I've long been of the opinion that Labour, The Lib Dems and the Greens should come to some sort of arrangement where they do not split the vote in winnable seats. 

Many wards in Barnet have three Councillors. To avoid the fratricidal leeching of each others votes, I would propose that the Opposition party best placed to win stands two candidates, with the other two parties taking turns to pick the third seat. This would give all parties a chance to see the true level of support they might have. In Mill Hill, this may be complicated. Labour has never had a seat. The Lib Dems had three councillors between 1994 and 2006 and two between 2006 and 2010. It has been Tory since, with Labour finishing a distant second in 2014 and 2018 and Lib Dems finishing third. I would suggest that Labour stand one candidate, here as at least the Lib Dems have a track record of actually winning. In Hale, where the Lib Dems have not won, Labour could stand two and the Greens stand one. I believe in this situation, Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens stand a chance of winning seats. I would not be in favour of a formal coalition pact in advance of the election, but I would suggest that opposition parties state that they are giving real democracy a shout. 

Instead of a coalition, I'd like a local charter that all progressive parties sign up to.

1. An end to mass outsourcing, One Barnet and Capita running the council.

2. A strong commitment to the Green Belt and Environmental issues.

3. An end to the use of dangerous Glycophosphate herbicides.

4. A commitment to modal shift to public transport in Barnet, with support for green transport schemes.

5. An end to developers being able to select and rent their own planning officers in the Council.

6. A commitment to local high streets.

7. Stronger penalities for fly tippers.

8. An end to self certification by contractors of pot hole repairs and a scheme of proper inspection of repairs before invoices are paid.

9. Proper protection for listed buildings, pubs and community resources in Barnet.

10. More say for local people in local democracy, with removal of restrictions on public questions at council meetings, which were brought in over the last few years by the Conservatives to weaken democratic oversight.

I know that these proposals will be unpopular with all manner of hard line ideologues, but every sane person I know thinks Barnet Council would be a better place if Green and Lib Dem voters were given a realistic chance of seeing a councillor elected and shaping policy. The current Labour hegemony on second place serves no one. I've done the maths and such an arrangement would deliver more seats and would remove the Tories vice like grip on Barnet. It is the only way any of the policies I listed will ever come to fruition.

An insight into Edgware and the difficult underside of its politics

 As I've now been adopted as the official candidate for the by election in Edgware, I thought I'd give some background regarding my decision. Up until the Council election in 2018, I would not have taken this decision. Between 2014-18, Edgware was represented by three Conservative councillors. Joan Scannell MBE, Helena Hart and Brian Gordon. Joan is a personal friend of mine and a member of the Mill Hill Music Festival committee. Although she has a rather different take on politics to myself, she was a solid local councillor. She was hard working and locally highly respected. Often, when there were contentious local issues, we'd have off the record conversations. These wouldn't be "dishing the dirt" sessions on colleagues, just sensible grown up discussions on matters that affected residents. For example Joan was aware of my concerns regarding the Railway Hotel and kept me informed of her efforts. 

Sadly, in the run up to the 2018 elections, a whole swathe of good, solid, old school Conservative councillors were unceremoniously given the boot by the local Tories. They were replaced with ones more to the liking of Councillor Daniel Thomas, who was then working to oust the then Leader Richard Cornelius. Joan was very upset at her treatment in the selection process. Edgware is considered an ultra safe seat for the Conservatives. Along side Joan, another veteran and highly respected Edgware councillor Helena Hart also stood down. Both were strong councillors, with a good knowledge of Edgware and of Barnet politics. They were replaced by Sarah Wardle and Linda Freedman. As expected, they won easily in the Council election. Whilst it is good to get fresh bood into the Council, having two new, inexperienced councillors in a ward, with limited associations with the area, is not always the best way to start.

Within a few months of being elected, Linda Freedman was suspended from the Conservative group, when several tweets were uncovered that appeared to be of an Islamaphobic nature, as reported by The Independent. I stated my objection to her comments at the time. Interestingly, the Local Conservatives did initially take the complaint seriously. Councillor Gabriel Rozenberg recognised the divisive nature of the tweets and raised the matter. Interestingly it is Councillor Rozenberg, not Councillor Freedman who is no longer a member of the Conservative group. Councillor Freedman quietly had the whip reinstated, without any explanation of the decision, as reported by the Jewish News. The Muslim news also reported on the story. 

As someone who totally rejects racism in all its forms, I can only say that I was horrified that there was no explanation, not even a public apology or explanation. I know several members of the local Muslim communuty who live in Edgware and were horrified. They include local business owners and the chair of a Mosque. All of them have worked to improve community relations and all previoulsy voted Conservative, believing the Conservatives to be the best party for hard working, aspirational businessmen. When the by election was announced, all asked me to stand and to raise the issue of Islamaphobia in the local Conservative party. Whilst the candidate standing against me is a sensible and decent chap, who I think would find such behaviour abhorrent, he is the official candidate of a party that has turned a blind eye to this issue locally. 

Whilst the local Conservative party are keen to bury this issue, many local people cannot believe that nothing at all was done about it. I have an excellent relationship with people across the spectrum. I have supported and assisted many events organised by the Mill Hill Synagogue and are proud to be associated with them. I have nothing but praise for the work of Rabbi and his team. The Mill Hill Music Festival are proud to feature a Klezmer night as part of our programme of events. I also have worked closely with local Mosques, including installing a sound system for the Horn of West Africa Mosque in Colindale. In 2018, as part of my work for the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish council, I helped to organise a multi faith service of recollection for Mr Vijay Patel, a local shopkeeper who was tragically killed in an incident in his Mill Hill shop. I believe that it is of paramount importance for councillors to be able to reach out to all parts of the communty, but while such issues as Islamaphobia are swept under the carpet, how can communities trust them. I do not believe that the residents of Edware would feel comfortable with elected representatives, who get large allowances, but hold views than the vast majority of people would find abhorrent.

I passionately believe that we cannot turn a blind eye to these issues. That is why I joined Rock Against Racism back at Orange Hill School in 1978. It is why the Mill Hill Music Festival programme I help put together has included Klezmer, Dhol Drummers (Traditional Indian music), Reggae, Irish music. We need to build communities, appreciate and share in the good things of each others community. It is hard to do that when a section of the community seems to be viewed with suspicion by it's elected councillors.  There is never an excuse for such things.

Labour Councillor defects to Tories

Congratulations to Cllr Sodha on becoming Barnets newest Tory Councillor following her defecton from the Barnet Labour Party. The Barnet Eye believes this to be a very positive move for the London Borough of Barnet as in our opinion, this has raised the average IQ of both the Barnet Labour and Conservative groups.

Rather amusingly, when I tweeted this earlier, Ex Tory Councillor Dan Hope posted the following tweet.

@Barneteye @_MrMustard @yankel42 Only you could write a logic defying tweet like that!
— Barnet Bugle (@barnetbugle) January 22, 2014

Luckily for Dopey Dan, Mr Mustard rode in to his rescue and gave him a lesson in elementary maths ! If Dan needs a good maths tutor, we can recommend a very good one, who helped our son pass his SATS when he was at primary school.

To be fair to the Tories ( I am in a very good mood), they probably have the two Councillors with the highest IQ's in the council. John Hart and Sury Khatri are extremely intelligent and well qualified gentlemen and always good value for a private conversation. I suppose you can conclude from this, that one or two of the others, haven't impressed me, to draw my conclusion about the average. (Dan if you require an explanation of this statement, I suggest you ask Mr Mustard privately and spare yourself the embarrassment of another daft public tweet).

Sadly I couldn't make the BAPS meeting tonight. A guest blog would be most welcome if anyone did attend.