An important question for every Barnet Citizen - Do you want a free dinner with Brian Coleman

As you know, the Barnet Eye is run by humourless lefties. As such we never, ever allow any whiff of humour into the blog and every single full stop is written in line with the principles of Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx. As such I'm sure you'll realise that there is no hint of irony whatsoever in this particular blog entry. As such, I thought I'd have a little competition and a little poll, which judging from the results of the Robert Rams poll, is likely to prove most popular. Anyway first the competition. For once this has a really fantastic prize. I am prepared to pay for dinner for the lucky winner, with the Barnet Tory of your choice at the restaurant of your choice in Mill Hill. The only condition is that the said Tory has to agree to come along with you. I will email them when the poll closes with full details of the offer. I'll pay for any starter, main course, side dish and pudding for both of you + the cost of one bottle of wine under £25. What an offer. Given that our local Tories are known to be partial to a nice free dinner, I'm sure they will be only too keen to participate. If they don't, feel free to give them a piece of your mind. Anyway what do you have to do to win? It's simple, you simply have to add a comment saying which Barnet Tory you'd like to spend the evening with, why you've chosen them and which fine Mill Hill restaurant you'd like to go to. Don't worry, I will keep well clear, so if you fancy a canoodle with Coleman over a curry or some rumpy with Ramsbottom over a roast, you won't have me around to spoil the party. So fire away.

Anyway, on to our poll. A local Tory said I'm always nasty and horrible about them. Here's proof that nothing could be further from the truth. Which other blogger has offered them such a fantastic chance. This is open to Councillors as well, so if Graham Old says "I'd like dinner at the Good Earth with Lynne Hillan, so I can Brown Nose her in the hope of a promotion", he might just win. I will be the sole arbitor and anyone who says "I'd like Dinner with Brian Coleman at the Chinese Medical clinic so they can stick acupuncture needles in his eyes" will be disqualified and if it's rude or contains anything illegal I'll delete it.

On to our poll. As the Barnet Eye editorial team contemplated this marvellous prize, we pondered the question of which Barnet Tory we'd least like to spend an evening having dinner with. Now after much deliberation we came to our decision, which we'll detail below, but we thought we'd give you the chance to vote from our selection. Anyway here's a few candidates and our bad dinner partner rating (10/10 means rubbish dinner companion, 0/10 means marvellous company). These are our candidates, for the poll

Councillor John Hart - 1/10 - Unlike most Barnet Tories, John can be quite funny (if you don't do PC). He also is rather fond of a tipple, so unlike most of them, you would probably get good value for money from John (especially if you are a leggy blonde).


Councillor Hugh Rayner - 2/10 - Hugh likes to think of himself as a racontour. He enjoys a tipple and likes a good joke (he must, he voted for Lynne Hillan in the Leadership contest).


Councillor Lynne Hillan - 3/10 - Now this rating may surprise you. The Barnet Eye has it on good authority that once the doors are closed, the curtains are drawn and the bottle of plonk has been opened, Lynne is by no means the stuffy haridan that some leftie bloggers like to portray her as.


Councillor Brian Coleman  - 5/10 - Now I bet you were thinking the Barnet Eye would put our Bwian as the last choice. Not a bit of it. We bear no grudge against Bwian, having taken him to the cleaners in our standards case, where he had to pay a huge legal bill. I can think of nothing better than spending an evening hearing how he ever thought he'd win.


Councillor Robert Rams - 8/10 - The man voted a twat by the Barnet Eye readers. Unlike his mentor, Brian Coleman, I can't really think of too many reasons why I'd want to spend an evening in his company. Certainly not his wit or his intellect. There is always the chance that if enough alcohol was poured down his neck, he might spill an indiscretion or two about Coleman, which would be good blogging material.

And the winner - The Tory Councillor which the Barnet Eye would least Like to spend and evening with is........

Councillor Graham Old - 10/10 - unlike the lot above, he really has no redeeming features whatsoever. He's the man who declared Kate Salinger as his hero, but let her be stripped of all her priveliges for her principled stand against the allowance rise. He has no backbone whatsoever and his support for Hillan in the 19/18 Leadership vote is the reason why Barnet Council still has Hillan at the Helm. A man who used the whole sorry debacle as a means to further his own career in the Barnet Tory Party. Whatever catastrophys befall Barnet Council from now on under Hillans awful leadership are the fault of this man, more than any, as he knew full well she had to go and he bottled it. I rang up my favourite Tory Councillor and asked if he could name a single redeeming feature of Graham Old. His response "erm, I'll have to think about that". He's still thinking.

Anyway, it's your turn now -vote away

Allowancegate : We name the guilty MEN of Barnet

As promised, we are looking more closely at the press coverage of the Allowancegate Scandal in this weeks Barnet Press newspaper. At the last Council election in May, the people of Barnet Elected 11 new Tory Councillors. Rather strangely for a party in the year 2010, all of these Councillors were male (can't the Tories replace high Calibre women who've left such as Fiona Bulmer and Jane Ellison). They all shared one other feature. None of them possess a backbone. Apart from the Salingers, who publicly disassociated themselves from the rise, all of the Tory Councillors share some guilt for this awful decision, but these 11 hold a special share of the blame.Why? because there are eleven of them with no baggage. Of all the councillors, this group should be most in touch with the man in the street (although as not a single girlie amongst them, clearly not the women of Barnet). They should be at the stage of learning the ropes, getting their feet under the desk.

So why did they vote for the rise? Well we'll never know because the lilley livered chickens won't tell us.As the press reports, they were all unavailable for comment. That says it all. You may say that these guys couldn't have changed anything. Well that is untrue. If they had have voted with the opposition, the motion would have fallen.

Their names are there, along with their pictures - the Guilty men. They veer from the risible Graham Old "Kate Salinger is my hero, but I'm too cowardly to actually back her" to the conniving Barry Evangeli "Well if she's going to make a stand, I'll 'ave 'er job". My special favourite at the moment is Daniel "Imber" Seal. Apparently good old "Imber" was asked about it recently. His response "If we didn't give people like Lynne Hillan a decent wage, they'd leave and get  a better job somewhere else".

Well my Dear Imber, pray tell. Where is this better job. She's been at the council for how many years on far less money???? Has she left for a better job ???? We all know about the last better job she had. She was the managing Director of Ashurst Direct Marketing Ltd. My Dearest Imber, do you know what happened next? Well Ashurst Direct Marketing Ltd went bust owing it's creditors a small fortune. So my Dearest "Imber", here's an offer. Why don't you write a guest blog explaining what Talent Councillor Lynne Hillan brings to the Council to justify her allowance. Tell us why, if you ran a company (as I do) you'd employ Hillan. As ever guest blog rules apply. No editing and no comment on the blog from me. Prove to the people of Barnet that you are not quite as dumb  (literally) as you make out.

My thanks to the Barnet Press for their valuable role in the war against these spongers. Thanks to their article, everyone in the Borough now knows who these lackies are, what they look like and just how completely gutless they really are.

Allowancegate latest : grim reading for Barnet Tory Party

The Barnet Tory Party are conducting something akin to the charge of the light brigade, but with all of the honour and courage removed. This weeks BARNET PRESS is starting to plop down onto peoples doorsteps and if you thought last weeks copy made bad reading for the Tories, check what they are saying today  - Here's the online version -

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&pnum=&refresh=F0a23X1gr4T1&EID=9d4d6537-ad1c-4af9-8156-58268b8878bc&skip=

I will be reproducing a few of the choice moments over the next few days, but the here's the Highlights :-

Page 4  - 3/4 page article on Hillan -"She lives on another planet"
Page 5 - 1/2 page story about the gutless new intake  -Evangeli, Shooter, Old, Khatri et all. The cowards refused to comment
Page 8 - Editorial & Letters -  another scathing editorial and a hatful of letters.

We await the Times tomorrow.

The opposition parties have spotted an opportunity. The Labour party have realised that this is THE ISSUE in Barnet. They have online links to all sorts of petitions - Check Here


http://www.labourforbarnet.co.uk/

The Lib Dems have also devoted their website to fighting this issue - Click Here


http://www.barnetlibdems.org.uk/

Rather sadly, there is only one major party in Barnet which doesn't seem to mind (or at least have been a bit slow off the mark, if we are being charitable) - Barnet Green Party have so far said nothing. Come on guys, this is a cross community campaign. Either you are against the rise or you're not. According to your website 20,000 people in Barnet voted for you, so please at the very minimum let us know where you stand on this.

http://www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk/

I would be amazed if the vast majority of voters of all Parties didn't object to this rise. I'd love to see a Tories against the rise campaign. We can stop this if we all pull together. This blog is doing it's bit. The local papers are doing there bit (in a way I've not seen for years) and the main opposition parties are doing there bit. Let's keep those letters rolling in and those petitions going. Please can all of the major parties update their websites, email their members and keep the pressure up.

Sooner or later the penny has to drop with the backbench Tory councillors- doesn't it?

Barnet Tories : The Good, The Bad and The Ugly !!!!!!

I was heartened to see that the "conscience" of the Conservative Party is still alive and well in the general membership. It seems that while all of their councillors (bar Kate Salinger) lack backbone, the wider membership is not afraid to speak it's mind. The Hendon Times reports that the Chairman of Hendon Conservatives, Adrian Murray-Leonard has branded Hillan and co "greedy vultures" following their decision to award themselves huge payrises at a time of national belt tightening. Read all about what Mr Murray-Leonard had to say here :-

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8297992.Conservative_association_member_brands_party_colleagues__greedy_vultures__over_allowance_hike/?ref=mr

It seems to me that we can divide the Barnet Tories up into three Groups when it comes to the issue of awarding  yourself huge payrises -

The Good -
Kate Salinger (who was the only Tory Councillor to abstain and got ritually humiliated for her trouble)
Mike Freer MP and Matthew Offord MP (both criticised the increase)
David Miller (former chairman of Chipping Barnet Conservatives)
Adrian Murray-Leonard (Chairman of Hendon Conservatives)
Every single Barnet Conservative I've spoken to who isn't a Barnet Councillor (and the many who've privately emailed me to express disgust)

The Bad
Council Leader Lynne Hillan who has shown herself to be a complete hypocrite on the issue
Councillor Graham Old who despite knowing Kate Salinger was right lacked the backbone to stand up for her
Councillor Barry Evangeli who used the opportunity to snaffle an allowance, when Kate Salinger lost a committee chairmanship
Councillor Hugh Rayner who was distributing a very brown nosed press release saying that the increase was a good idea, completely ignoring what could have been done with the money had it not been spent lining the pocket of the cabinet
The rest of the motley crew of Barnet Tory Councillors who gutlessly voted for something they know to be morally wrong

And the Ugly

Hard working Councillor Brian Coleman who trousers between £114,000 and £121,000 from the public purse (depending who you believe) and claims he spends 100 hours a week beavering away at his desk.

And last but by no means least

Well if it ain't old Tessie Viler than a blocked drain Villiers. The only Barnet MP to think it's a spiffing idea for her mates to line her pocket. Of course given that she' rather partial to a little bit of troughing herself it's hardly surprising is it.

Sadly all the troughing seems to be taking its toll !!!!!

Oh, by the way, let me share a little snippet of gossip with you. Apparently Mike Freer MP has been telling his friends that he's rather enjoying the experience of not being beholden to certain friends of his at Barnet Council - this is my interpretation of his exact words - I'm sure you get the gist.

Has Graham Old found he's grown testicles?

What is this? The blogs of Barnet were awash with reports that Graham Old publicly stated that Councillor Kate Salinger was "his hero" at the Finchley Residents forum last night. We can but imagine how this went down with his chum Brian Coleman. I was preparing a "Graham Old - the human jellyfish" special to highlight his absence of backbone. Could it be that he has however sprouted testicles and belatedly decided to show that he cares about more than lining his pocket. Mrs Angry does a fine write up of the Finchley residents forum - http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2010/07/funny-thing-happened-on-way-to-forum.html - if you want the full story. I wasn't there.

The Barnet Bugle displays a nice picture of the Salingers meeting Eric Pickles, probably the most powerful (not so) coded message yet as to where the sympathy of the Tory cabinet lies  - http://www.barnetbugle.com/journal/2010/7/27/eric-pickles-meets-cllr-olds-great-heroine-and-her-hubby-at.html

I'm off to see what happens at the Hendon Forum. This is the third in the series of forums ( I like forums - I used to have an unhealthy obsession with a magazine of that name as a teenager)  - at the moment the score is 1-1 between the pusilanimous creeps (captained by Barry Evangeli) and the Oh my lord I've grown some nuts brigade (captained by Graham Old). Which way will crusty veteran John Hart swing? Watch this space.

Barnet Eye war on Spongers and parasites : Daily Express says warden cuts pay for allowance rises

It seems like we've started quite a bandwagon rolling here in Barnet. We welcome the Daily Express on board the war on spongers and parasites. They gave the whole of page 12 over to the cause today - http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/187698 -  The best bit of the article was this statement -

The council has also done away with full-time wardens at old people’s homes, instigating instead a system of roving wardens who cover the whole borough. Councillors defended the scheme by promoting it as pioneering and an efficient use of money.

But now it seems some of the money saved will simply be disappearing into councillors’ pockets instead. It is extraordinary that at a time of severe financial constraint a council which promotes itself as a super-efficient flagship authority can be awarding itself pay increases.

The Express is right to highlight the moral bankruptcy of a regime which punishes the old and vulnerable, whilst lining their own pockets. It is a sign of the depths which the Barnet Tories have sunk, when the two most sympathetic papers, the Telegraph and the Express lambast them. David Cameron cannot ignore the issue any longer.

The Guardian has also joined in with the war - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/davehillblog/2010/jul/19/london-barnet-conservative-councillors-allowances-rise-controversy - Dave Hill was one of the first to rally to the cause with a tweet last week. His more considered post today hits the nail on the head pretty well.

It is heartening to say that we had hits on the blog from both the Telegraph and the Express prior to their articles. I actually emailed Don't Call Me Dave on Friday to inform him of the hits and that the ball was rolling.

There is one feature of all of these articles and all of the comments they've attracted. A general disgust at the obscene level of troughing. I suspect that Brian Coleman is actually enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. He is gambling that David Cameron lacks the balls to do anything about it. Coleman  (reportedly) told a colleague that all of the bad press just increases his vote and makes him better known. I doubt it will have the same effect on colleagues who have marginal seats. I was informed Coleman was silenced in the months leading up to the Election. He was actually forbidden from canvasssing outside of Totteridge, according to informed sources.

There are some rather interesting letters being sent internally within the Conservative Party. Sadly I've been sworn to secrecy about the contents of these, but I suspect that Coleman & co may get a nasty shock some time soon. One thing which has heartened me is the fact that this awful display has united the people of Barnet. Life long Tories have privately emailed me. You would be amazed at some of the private correspondence I received.

There are a few emails I'd like to publish but can't. The Tory Councillor who voted for it "because it was recommended by a committee" is probably the best. Sadly if someone emails me in strictest confidence and has provided useful snippets in the past, I won't break their trust.  I am sorry to report that Councillor Graham Old hasn't responded to my request for the compelling reason he changed his mind and voted for the increase. I must therefore conclude that the reason is that he lacks moral fibre and can't justify it. I'm also sorry to report that Theresa Villiers has thus far refused to comment, lending weight to the rumour that she'd been lent on by Coleman and Hillan.

My message to all Barnet Councillors such as Graham Old. It isn't too late. Just call an emergency meeting and reverse the decision. Say you made a mistake and on reflection realised that the rise was inappropriate at the current time. That way the you'll kill the story. Sure us bloggers will crow, but you can say you have proven a willingness to listen and the story will die. As it stands it is likely to snowball and wash you away. Just remember what happened in Liverpool to the Labour vote after the Militant Tendency troughing was exposed?

You may think people have short memories. This isn't always the case, especially when the national press are involved. Oh yes, I'd like to remind Boris that whilst Coleman is his top crony at LFEPA, he's tarred with the same brush.