Do we have a budding new 'Brian Coleman' in Barnet?

We all have our own ideas of how we conduct ourselves in private and in public. We all have to make choices every day about what we say and why we say it. It may or may not surprise readers of this blog to hear that I believe the vast majority of politicians on all sides in Barnet are honest and decent people. Most of them are sensible and say things with a degree of sense and proportion.Of course there are exceptions, most notably disgraced former Tory Mayor Brian Coleman. Brian has made a career of insulting and assaulting people. This ultimately lead to his total disgrace and downfall. Following his conviction for assault of a woman in the High Street in Finchley, he was kicked out of the Conservative Party and has few friends left. As has been documented here, he has no sense of contrition and no self awareness as to just how much of an embarrassment to his former Tory friends he has become.

Yesterday there was a well attended march through North Finchley to support the Barnet library service. Sadly there was also an incident of vandalism in central London of a war memorial. Now it may surprise you to know that at one point, when Brian Coleman was a key member of the Barnet Council Tory administration, there was a proposal objecting to the idea of adding names of local heroes who have fallen in conflict since WWII to local war memorials. I was absolutely disgusted. I immediately wrote this blog http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/barnet-council-sticks-to-fingers-up-at.html and started a successful campaign to have our war memorials updated and preserved. I sught assurances that the local Tories would reverse this disgusting policy. When the Royal British Legion backed me, the Tories panicked and gave way, releasing the funds to ensure the Council did the decent thing. Sadly loudmouth Coleman was one of the fiercest objectors to the proposal to honour brave men and women. So imagine my disgust when he posted the following tweet yesterday

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 15h15 hours ago

What sort of people deface war memorials? sort who go on anti austerity/save the libraries/stop the evictions/defend public services marches

He clearly forgot that he was part of an administration with the most disgusting and objectionable policy to fallen soldiers that one can imagine. His administrations policy was in many ways as objectionable as the defacing of the memorial in London, as it actually sought to exclude people who had sacrificed theire lives for our freedom.

Now you may wonder why I care so much about war memorials? The answer is that my Dad was a WWII  bomber pilot, flying Wellington bombers in North Africa and Italy for 40 Sqaudron of the RAF. He flew 40 operational missions, was shot down and taken POW over Bucharest on the 40th, seeing his best friend and rear gunner killed in the process. I was raised on stories of wartime bravery and I see any attack on the memory of the people who fought for Britain as a direct attack on my Father and his brave comrades. Whatever you may think of me, I can assure you that my father was the finest, bravest man it has ever been my honour to meet.

Sadly though in Barnet, some people are truly beyond the pale and say the most despicable things to score cheap political points. I thought that with the departure of Coleman, we'd seen the back of such vile loudmouths from mainstream politics. Sadly it appears I was wrong. A new pretender to the role of Barnets most unpleasant Tory has stepped up. Meet Myles Longfield, a Tory activist from Finchley and Golders Green. Following the defacing of the war memorial, Myles thought it would be funny to try and use this to insult me on Twitter. He posted this comment

11. Myles Longfield ‏@myleslongfield 16h16 hours ago

    
    

    @Barneteye @rozgab @Finchleytories @Offord4Hendon @Freer4FGG perhaps you should condone this

    
    

    

    Peter Thompson @TheRedRag
    

    This poor starving socialist found the money to buy spray paint to sniff and deface war memorial to the women of UK.

    View conversation 0 retweets 0 favorites
    

Can you imagine my disgust at the suggestion, that I would condone such a despicable action?

I immediately replied

1. Rog T ‏@Barneteye 16h16 hours ago

   @myleslongfield @rozgab @Finchleytories @Offord4Hendon @Freer4FGG Myles, my father was an RAF bomber pilot. I think this is sick

   0 retweets 0 favorites
   

2. Rog T ‏@Barneteye 16h16 hours ago

   @myleslongfield @rozgab @Finchleytories @Offord4Hendon @Freer4FGG and I really think you shouldn't be propogating it as it is offensive

   0 retweets 0 favorites
   

2. Myles Longfield ‏@myleslongfield 16h16 hours ago

   @Barneteye @rozgab @Finchleytories @Offord4Hendon @Freer4FGG good. Finally some sense

   0 retweets 0 favorites
   

2. Rog T ‏@Barneteye 16h16 hours ago

   @myleslongfield @rozgab @Finchleytories @Offord4Hendon @Freer4FGG I really can't believe you are using that to score points, please remove

 Now I foolishly imagined that Myles would recognise that he'd been rather foolish in his post. At times we all do silly things and post things on twitter (and in blogs) that we come to bitterly regret. I know I have. I assumed that Myles would also realise that his comment was out of order. When he failed to remove the tweet or even respond I realised it was necessary to try and make him understand that his actions were unacceptable.



So we had the following DM exchange on Twitter. I think such things are best said in private. Here is the exchange. my comments are in italics

*** Start of DM session ***

Myles, please tell me the email of the person in your association I send the official complaint to. To suggest I'd condone the desecration of a war memorial when my Dad was a Flt Lt in the RAF in WWII is simply beyond the pale. I am serious about this

16h 16 hours ago

BTW my Father was a member of Hendon Conservative Association until his death in 1987 and my mother was a personal Friend of Lady Thatcher

16h 16 hours ago

Stop ranting and fabricating stuff from nothing.

16h 16 hours ago

What. send the email now

16h 16 hours ago

Like I said degenerates need an education in history and I don't condone it

Now crack on getting drunk with your socialists whom go out hurting my friends and the GREAT country we happen to reside in

16h 16 hours ago

So you are refusing to send the email addess?

16h 16 hours ago

What are you cracking on about? Email address????

Are you mentally stable?

16h 16 hours ago

End of conversation.

16h 16 hours ago

Toddles

16h 16 hours ago

I trust you don't mind me disclosing this exchange to your party officials

16h 16 hours ago

 

I'm confident they'll be bored as I am hearing from a leftie troll who has made it his life work to discredit us

Feel free to do what you like

*** End of DM session ***
I do not disclose private conversations without consent, as you can see, Myles has given consent to disclose.

I have emailed the address on the Finchley Conservatives website as I intend to make an official complaint. I happen to think Myles is a very silly young man. I don't want him to be thrown out of the association or have any action taken. I do however hope an old grey haired wise man in the party will take him to one side and explain that his actions were inappropriate and suggest he learn some courtesy and manners.

When I revisited the files I keep on important campaigns, I found a note detailing a conversation with Hugh Rayner after the original war memorials campaign. I'd spoken to Hugh and he'd complimented me on bringing the issue to public attention. Hugh said that he would personally ensure that preservation of war memorials was made a priority. He acknowledged that this was an issue where this blog had demonstrated its value. He assured me that the issue was one of council officers getting it wrong and councillors missing the detail. Hugh's response was a very dignified one in the circumstances and it is one of the reasons that he is one of the Tory councillors who I get on quite well with. On reflection, I when I reread Myles comments this morning after calming down, I was struck by the Colemanesque nature of them.

Here is what Myles Longfields profile on twitter says about him

Myles Longfield

@myleslongfield  

Conservative ~ Luxury Hotels ~ History and Politics. Charmain @NorthCentralCF. Views are my own.

London

finchleyconservatives.org.uk

Joined December 2011 

 

 

So it is clear that he is associating his tweets with his association. Having got rid of one Brian Coleman, do they really want a "mini me" Coleman to replace him. I sincerely hope common sense prevails. 

Free food and drink for Barnets Homeless courtesy of Mike Freer MP

If you know of any homeless people who could use a nice warm place to have a bit of food and a snooze in the warm for a couple of hours, then check the Future Shape Leaks website for a fantastic special offer :-

http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2010/11/free-food-and-drink-for-barnets.html

No booking required, just turn up and munch away. I hear Mike Freer MP will also be explaining relaxation techniques to those of you who are suffering from insomnia. 

Your local Conservative Candidates - obstructing progress

There is a rather interesting picture on the Hendon Conservatives website, which aptly sums up the attitude of our local Conservative candidates to the rest of society. I would post the picture here, but every time I've used a picture from their website, they've threatened to sue me for breach of copyright (you would think they'd be pleased to get their picture in the Barnet Eye).

Please click on this link (if you get a 404 error they've moved it so check the link to the main page above)
http://www.hendonconservatives.org/index.php?sectionid=3&pagenumber=170

You will see that our two local Conservative candidates are having their picture taken at the The Shree Swaminarayan Temple in Golders Green charity mile event. What struck me was the fact that they've jumped into the middle of  the route of the Shree Muktajeevan Pipe Band. You can clearly see that they are actually getting in the way of the band as they are trying to march and play. The thunderous look on the faces of the pipe band says everything you need to know about what they think of these two chancers and their selfish attempt to grab a photo opportunity.

Let me give a little bit of advice to all political wannabees. Don't spoil the show chaps. The drummer on the left is having to march out of line to avoid the candidate for Finchley and Golders Green and the drummer on the right is having to move to avoid the photographer. Why they didn't have the sense or good manners to stand at the side and have their picture taken as the band passed by is beyond me.

As ever these two are obstructing progress in the borough. Council Leader is well rid of these two from the Barnet Council Cabinet. Sad really.

Picture : The Shree Muktajeevan Pipe Band successfully dodge politicians seeking photo opportunities outside the palace of Westminster (sadly it's harder in Barnet).

Overheard in a Finchley newsagent

One of my best friends was buying a newspaper in a shop in Finchely recently. Another customer bowled in and asked for a lottery ticket. The prospective lucky winner then said to the newsagent "You promised me I'd win last week".  The newsagent responded "You should know by now, never to trust a Labour supporter".

So who do you think this customer was who believes it when he's told that he's bought the winning lottery ticket? Well I couldn't possibly say, but I'll give you a little hint. He used to get paid a responsibility allowance of several thousand pounds to manage the resources of Barnet Council and he's known to like a punt, especially with other people's cash. Let's hope he wins this week, so he can retire and spare us all the benefit of his expertise.

Future Shape - The biggest Brownite in Barnet

If you were a Tory Candidate standing in a highly marginal seat, standing against a hideously unpopular Labour Governement, who would be the last person you would think, you would want to endorse you?

Well it seems that the Candidate for Finchley and Golders Green thinks that a thumbs up from Gordon Brown and the Labour Party is just what he needs to win - check this link on his website :-

http://www.finchleyconservatives.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34:futureshape&catid=2:news&Itemid=2


So there you have it. Gordon Browns goverrnment thinks that Future Shape is marvellous and the Tories say he's bankrupted the country. The former leader of Barnet Council thinks Future Shape is Marvellous and he's gambled all the reserves in Icelandic banks (taking an £18 million hit with your cash). It's a shame that Don't Call Me Dave, Barnets most sensible Tory has retired from blogging as I'd love to hear what he has to say about this "ringing endorsement".

I wonder if David Cameron will be campaigning on the fact that his policies have been endorsed by the Labour party as well? Not unless he's bonkers I would guess. I wonder what Conservative Central  Headquarters office will make of all of this? ( I wonder how long they'll leave this page up. They usually remove their cock ups pretty quickly when I point them out). Is it a new policy - "Our policies must be great because Gordon likes them".

Sometimes it's great writing a blog in Barnet. You don't have to do much to amuse the readers, you just post links to the Finchley Conservatives website and they shoot their own foot off.

**** Update at 8am ****
The Finchley Conservatives changed the name of the web page link on their site so the above link didn't work. Rather odd behaviour really, leaving the page there but making it so anyone visiting from the blog wouldn't find it. If they pull the stunt again, visit http://www.finchleyconservatives.com/ and see if it's still the top story in the sidebar on the right of the page. They either think it's a good story or not? You think they'd be glad of the publicity (I've updated the above link and will monitor).

Stalinism at the Finchley Conservatives - it would break Lady Thatchers heart

Some people are just plain ungrateful. Whilst looking at a few local websites yesterday, I happened to notice that the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives were running a poll on their website. Sadly as that particular websites primary use is to cure insomnia, their poll had only had 12 people casting a vote. Now as the Barnet eye gets thousands of hits I thought I'd help them out. I carefully checked the page to see if "only Conservatives need apply". Nope, in true democratic style anyone could vote. The two questions which interested me were "which party will you vote for" and "who would be the best Prime Minister". Now even before I publicised it, taking into account the person who set it up had probably voted, The Tories were not winning on either count for the popular public vote. As a good neighbourly act, I posted a little blog asking all of my thousands of readers to take a little trip over and vote.

Now as you may recall, David Cameron made a direct appeal to Lib Dem voters to check out the Conservatives and their policies. You would think that in light of this, the local Conservatives would be over the moon at a Local Lib Dem Council candidate urging readers of his blog to visit the Conservatives website and cast votes in their polls. You would think that they'd think their website was so superbly marvellous that Lib dems would instantly see the light and jump on the "Cam Train".

Sadly, as we've often said here, the local Conservatives have rather Stalinist tendencies. In Stalins time in the Soviet Union, elections were held. Everyone had to vote but there was only one candidate, so Uncle Joe always got the "right answer". In those days, the great Conservative Prime Minister, Winston Churchill used to deride this anti-democratic behaviour. He was a stalwart fighter of rigged polls, bogus elections and dodgy practices. He knew democracy was the way. A former MP for Finchley, Lady Thatcher, lead the fight against the USSR and played a major role in transforming the country into a democracy. As the most famous person, let alone politician ever to be associated with Finchley, Thatcher hated rigged polls with a passion.

Cut forward to the Finchley Conservatives in the year 2010. What happened when their little poll, which didn't say "Only Conservatives need vote" started to receive a popular vote from the readers of the Barnet Eye (many of whom happen to be Conservatives). They removed the poll from their website. What does this tell us about the Finchely Conservatives? Are the current mob the true successors to that champion of democracy, Lady Thatcher? Do they have the backbone for a fight for their principles? One would rather hope that having put their polls up, they'd have at least sent an email around to their activists and tried to rally to the cause. I wonder what David Cameron and the Conservative Central Headquarters would make of this cowardice? It is a sad indictment of the level of support in a key marginal,which David Cameron visited not too long ago.

Lady Thatcher had a way of describing cowardly opponents who used to scurry away when she waved her handbag at them "Too Frit" she pronounced. I rather hope that she hasn't been looking too closely at what her Tory successors have been up to. I wouldn't want to upset the poor old dear, it would break her heart.

Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives - Your chance to vote !

******** Update at 17:11 **********
Those meany beany spoilsports at the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives have removed the polls from their website, so the link below no longer works. I wonder why? Hee Hee Hee
******** End of Update ************

Are you bored? Fancy a laugh? Why not nip over to the Finchley Conservatives website and vote in one of their polls? 
http://www.finchleyconservatives.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=11

The results so far are quite interesting (as of 13:40 today)

Who will you vote for at the next General Election?

Conservative - 5 - 38.5%
Labour - 4 - 30.8%
Liberal Democrat - 4  - 30.8%
Green - 0 0%
Other - 0 0%
Won't Vote  - 0 0%

So out of the 13 people who visited the page, (given that whoever set it up is probably a Tory so we'll knock their vote off), you have to say that a dead heat between all Tories, Labour and Lib Dems, is not exactly a vote of confidence
The next question is even more interesting. Who will make the best prime minister
Who will make a better Prime Minister?


David Cameron - 4 - 36.4%
Nick Clegg - 4  - 36.4%
Gordon Brown - 3 - 27.3%


Again, knocking off the vote of the person who set up the poll, Nick Clegg is currently in the lead. Sadly there is no question as to who would be best MP for Finchley. Anyway, please visit the site and cast your vote. I'm sure it will get even more interesting. I'm sure the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives would love to hear from you

Isn't Finchley lucky?

"Former Finchley MP, Margaret Thatcher defined what Conservatism was in the 1980's and 1990's. Finchley PPC Mike Freer is one of a new band of forward looking Conservative politicians who will define what being a Conservative is in the 21st Century".

So the new definition of a Conservative is a Us*l*ss Tw*t is it? In the words of the Jolly Green Giant "Ho Ho Ho". I'm sure Tories everywhere will be chuffed by this revelation.

A one handed blogger

In amongst all of the hubris concerning Barnet Council Leader Mike Freer's comments referring to his opponents as "One Handeded Bloggers" a point which initially completely escaped me. I've got a friend who is an amputee and he pointed out that Freer's comments were extremely disrespectful to the disabled. I did a quick Google of "One Handed Blogger" and the top hit was this site - http://www.onehandedblogger.com/ - Unlike Mike Freer's Leaderlistens.com, this site is a rather inspiring blog, detailing the efforts and achievements of the author in overcoming his disability. As I've said before regarding Mike Freer's comments, I think they show extremely poor judgement and poor taste. One of the main functions of figures in public life is to behave with dignity and to set an example for others to follow. Of all the examples I've seen recently, that I may choose to follow, the "One Armed Blogger" is possibly the finest and he certainly shouldn't be denigrated in this fashion.

It strikes me that Mike Freer has very little empathy with people generally if he can make such comments. I get the impression that he has a complete lack of respect for everyone apart from his close circle of friends. One such example of this can be found at his website - http://www.finchleyconservatives.com/photo-gallery.html - if you go down and right click on the second image of Mike Freer at Golders Green Swaminaryan Temple and select the "Save as" option, it displays the name of the file as saved on Mike's website.

This picture of Mike Freer, the Swami (an important religious leader in Golders Green) and his assistants has the title "mikeandasians2". I've taken the trouble to save a screenshot so that you can see what I saw - if you double click on the picture you will see it in full detail. Now if I was saving a picture of a meeting with an important religious leader, I'd like to think I'd show him and his assistants rather more respect than just describing them as "asians2". To then put that picture up on a public website is stunningly disrespectful and rather incompetent. If you were wondering why I was saving this picture, earlier this month, I wrote a blog called "Religion in Barnet" about how local politicians seem to be using the various faiths in the Borough for their own ends. When I write blogs, I usually look for suitable pictures to make them more interesting. When I saw the title of this picture, it only reinforced what I was saying about politicians locally using religion as a way to garner a few extra votes.

At the very least, I would expect an explanation and an apology from Mike Freer to one handed bloggers and to the Swami of the Golders Green temple for these horrible insults. Maybe he can put the Leader Listens blog to some proper use for this apology.

*** Update 10:30 09/03/2009 - Just a quick note to show the Barnet Eye gets things done. NO apology yet, but at least he's changed the offensive filename for the Swami picture

Barnet Eye Round Up - Another victory for Rog T !!!!

Firstly lets deal with the victories. Lets take a visit to the Finchley Conservatives website. We've made mention here several times that Mike Freer has hijacked this site. Far from being a nice potted guide to the works of the Finchley Conservative association, it has morphed into the "Mike Freer" website. Now if it wasn't for the fact that Finchley was the constituency of Lady Thatcher, Great Britains first female Prime Minister, I might understand it. Not a picture in sight, just a single sentence on the homepage. Now if I was running the site, I'd have a page dedicated to this towering figure, but clearly Mike sees himself as a more important figure. If you click on his map of the constituency, you get a map of Barnet. It seems that our Mike has plans !!!! Now proof that Mike Freer is reading the Barnet Eye can be found on the Local Campaigns page. On Saturday I took Mike Freer to task for being lazy. I mentioned amongst other things that one of his local campaigns was a straight link to the Tory Central website with no comment. Another link didn't work. Fine evidence of his much vaunted hard work. Well it seems that unlike "Lazy Mike Freer", hard working Rog T gets results. These two rather embarrassing local campaigns have disappeared !!! It may not be much of a victory, but it shows that we're taken seriously by Mike.

Next, lets take ourselves off to the Barnet Council Press release Library. There is a truly bizarre release from Mr Freer.

A Burnt Oak park received some tender loving care yesterday as part of Barnet Council’s week of action in the ward.

Council ground maintenance teams spent a day at Watling Park off Watling Avenue, cutting back brambles, pruning hedges, tidying flowerbeds and picking up litter. The spruce up was part of the council’s second Clean, Green and Safe Week, in which council officers, along with partner organisations, tackle issues important to local residents such as crime, anti-social behaviour and health related matters.

Following October’s highly successful week of action in Child’s Hill, this week’s programme of events, running from 26 – 30 January, once again includes the removal of graffiti from hotspot areas and Barnet Police working with the council’s Priority Intervention Team (PIT) to remove abandoned vehicles from the ward.

As part of yesterday’s activities, pupils at Barnfield Primary School received a visit from the council’s Trading Standards team and London Fire Brigade, explaining the importance of not playing with fireworks and discussing how to take precautions against fire in the home.

Other events during the week will include the partnership-run mobile youth centres, the Rolling Bass and Rolling Bass Max buses, visiting several locations across the ward along with the handout of free door locks to vulnerable residents and fire safety checks within their homes.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Mike Freer said:

“The week of action in Burnt Oak is not only an opportunity for residents to partake in a number of organised activities but for residents to tell us what issues are important to them and what they would like to see improved in their community.

“Council officers will once again be out engaging with residents to build on the success seen in Childs Hill and ensure Barnet remains a clean, green and safe borough to live and work in.”

For more information on how to become involved in your area contact: Lorna.minney@barnet.gov.uk, tel: 0208 3597726 or visit www.barnet.gov.uk

Now I don't know about you, but I thought "cutting back brambles, pruning hedges, tidying flowerbeds and picking up litter" was what the council was supposed to do all the time in it's parks. If Mike Freer thinks that doing this is worthy of a press release, he's lost the plot. It's called Parks Maintenance and it is one of the many functions of the Council. I find it rather strange that the children of Burnt Oak are visited in February to tell them not to play with Fireworks. Surely November is the time for that? To quote Brian Coleman "Bonkers".