Vote for Somebody else !!!!!

All of our Tory bloggers seem to have got themselves in a real tizzy. Such esteemed commentators as James Cleverly and Iain Dale are prostituting themselves by giving instructions on how to vote for themselves in a blog of the year show.

I really don't do it to win prizes, if you've got five minutes spare, sign the sheltered housing petition in the sidebar. If you feel the need to vote for a political blog, vote for www.notthebarnettimes.blogspot.com. I hate awards of all kinds. I don't like the Oscars, I don't like the Brits (although I'm glad that Amy Winehouse & Kate Nash won as they are customers of the studio, on the basis that if someone has to).

Who will I be voting for? Paul Evans who runs the LocalDemocracy.org blog. I quite like the thought of all the Tory bloggers having to sit through his five hour acceptance speech. He He He !

Heads in the sand as Boris exposes Camerons Conservatives

Cowards. That's what I hate more than anything. Most of the problems of Great Britain today could be solved if our leaders had a little bit of backbone and were prepared to take tough decisions. In less than a year's time, we have an election. What choice will we have? Gordon Brown or David Cameron. We know plenty about Gordon Brown, but what do we know about David Cameron and his Conservatives? Well the most powerful Conservative in the Country is Boris Johnson. I'd like to say I'm shocked about the revelations of the last few days, which have exposed his regime as being completely incompetent and useless. The trouble is I'm not. Even worse than that, I happen to know that David Cameron is not shocked either. David Cameron always saw a Boris candidacy as extremely risky, Cameron always knew that sooner or later Boris would show himself to be unfit for office. Cameron's plan was to hope that Boris would fail after the next general election. Boris was a risk worth taking at the time. When he was selected, Cameron thought he stood no chance of beating Livingstone, so he was happy to let Boris have a go. As Gordon Brown's credibility waned, Cameron suddenly realised that Boris may actually get in. He was lumbered with him and he knew it. All he could do was cross his fingers and hope.

Well Boris has been in for just over a year. He's lost 3 deputy mayors and one senior advisor. The saga surrounding the latest casualty is the most appalling scandal I can recall in British Politics. It's not the fact that a Middle aged man started an affair with a girl young enough to be his daughter that bothers me, good luck to him. It is the fact that Boris knew that Ian Clement was unfit to have a corporate credit card in August 2008. I run a successful company and if one of my employees showed themselves as unfit to have a credit card, I would sack them. It is all about trust. How can Boris have thought that Clement was unfit to have a credit card, but fit to be a Deputy Mayor. Not only that, but it seems that knowing he had form for this, Boris still signed his expenses off. He didn't bother to even check. Sir Simon Milton admitted this today. In most firms, if you break the rules, you will be put under the microscope. Your expenses get special attention. If Boris had believe this to be a mistake, he should have let Clement know in no uncertain terms that he'd personally check and would sack him if he found he was lying or he broke the rules again. Clements actions expose Boris as a weak leader with no credibility.

During the Mayoral Campaign, Boris promised a cleaner, more transparent regime. He promised an end to cronyism and he promised that all unnecessary waste would be rooted out. I thought I'd check the rest of his team. This is what I found. If you are a Tory, look away now.

Alex Crowley

Political Adviser to the Mayor

Prior to being appointed, Alex led the team that developed policy and produced the manifestos for Boris Johnson's Mayoral campaign. He has also previously worked at the Greater London Authority, working for Conservative members of the London Assembly, advising on political matters and transport policy.

Appointed: 22 September 2008 to the end of the Mayor’s term of office in 2012
Status: Mayoral appointment
Summary of role: To provide advice to the Mayor on issues relating to his manifesto and to act as principle liaison between the Mayors office and key contacts in London.
Salary: £77,063

This is your money. Is this really the best way for Boris to be spending £77,063 per annum. Over his four year term, that is more than a quarter of a million pounds on someone to help him with his manifesto !!!!! If you don't believe me click here - http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/team/advisors.jsp

Lets examine a couple of his directors :-

Directors

Richard Blakeway

Director of Housing

Richard Blakeway spent seven years working in the House of Commons, including for the Conservative Party's policy review and then as housing advisor to Boris Johnson during his Mayoral campaign. In 2004 he helped launch and edit the International Development Magazine circulated to over 100 countries. Richard is a Young Ambassador for the Samaritans and Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts. He is also a member of the Homes and Communities Agency's London Board.

Appointed: 22 September 2008 to the end of the Mayor's term of office in 2012
Status: Mayoral appointment
Summary of role: To lead the political, strategic and operational framework for the development of the Mayor's statutory housing strategy and other housing and homelessness policies to help deliver the Mayor's housing responsibilities and plans.
Salary: £82,200

Anthony Browne

Policy Director

A former national journalist, Anthony Browne was Director of the leading think tank Policy Exchange, and has written reports on issues ranging from the NHS to housing, education, environment and welfare reform for several think tanks. Anthony has a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. He is married with two children and lives in north London.

Appointed: 6 October 2008 to the end of the Mayor’s term of office in 2012
Status: Mayoral appointment
Summary of role: To provide policy advice to the Mayor, and to research and develop new policies for London.
Salary: £127,784

Guto Harri

Director of Communications

Guto spent more than a decade as a political correspondent for BBC News. He was also posted by the Corporation to Rome and New York. He has presented some of the flagship programmes on Radio 4 and left the BBC to become senior Policy Advisor consultant for Fleishman Hillard before joining the Mayor's team.

Appointed: 12 May 2008 to the end of the Mayor's term of office in 2012
Status: Mayoral appointment
Summary of role: To advise the Mayor on matters relating to media and communications and to lead and direct media and communications strategy and policy development to support the priorities and objectives of the Mayor and GLA.
Salary: £127,784

There are a few more here, if you really wan't to check.

http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/team/directors.jsp

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I don't know about you, but I ask myself, what value do these people add to London? We are paying a fortune in salaries, but what are these people delivering? Why did Boris pick them? If you were planning to solve the problems of London, would you pick a highly paid team of journalists?

If I was picking a director of Housing would I pick someone who's main claim to fame is

In 2004 he helped launch and edit the International Development Magazine circulated to over 100 countries.

Which brings us back to David Cameron. He leads the Conservatives. He is trying to convince us that The Tories can fix all the problems Gordon Brown created. I ask you this. The evidence of what happens when the Tories get in is there. Boris is his flagship. Cameron knows that he has to keep quiet and hope that not too many people notice. This is why Cameron has said nothing about how Boris has dealt with it. That is why Tory bloggers such as Iain Dale have said nothing about Clement or his resignation.

It is because they are all too cowardly to admit that they campaigned for a man they knew was totally unsuitable for such an important job. Boris was elected fairly and squarely by London, so I accept that we have to put up with him. I can't accept that we have to pay for all his mates to lead the life of riley and I really think that if David Cameron is a proper leader he'll do something about it.

The horrible truth about Tories !!!!!!

They say that the most awful thing about Absynth is that if you drink enough of it you see the world as it really is and that is a horrible thing. Well I haven't been drinking Absynthe, but I've had a glass too many of red wine and an awful truth has dawned on me. Let me explain. I've left many messages on the Leader of Barnet Council, Mike Freer's blog - Leader Listens. He virtually never publishes them. He hides them so nobody can see them. He hopes that by doing this, everyone will think that he's popular. It isn't only my message either. Other people tell the same tale. As he's the highest profile Tory in Barnet, I've assumed that this is how all Tory politicians behave and there is a "central blogging control" which keeps all Tory bloggers on side.

Only one other local Tory councillor locally had a blog, Richard Weider, who recently emigrated. Now I left messages on Richards blog and up they popped. I thought "That Richard Weider is OK. He's brave enough to publish nasty comments". Then I left some comments on Roger Evans blog - Tory GLA leader. Roger put them up & I thought "He's OK, he puts comments up". Then I put some on his GLA colleague, James Cleverly's blog. James put them up "He must be OK as well". Then I left one on Tory West Harrow PPC Rachel Joyce's blog. She put it up and I thought "Rachel is OK". Today I posted a message mercilessly ribbing Bedford Tory MP, Nadine Dorries. Nadine put the comment up. I thought "Good old Nadine, she must be OK as well". Then I thought "Hang on I've also left messages on Iain Dale's blog, Don't call me Dave's blog, Guido's blog......." They are all Tories. They all posted the message. Then I thought "who doesn't post messages who is a Tory? It's back to that list of one - Mike Freer.

I've been under the impression that all Tories are a bunch of cowardly yellowbellies who don't post critical messages, when the evidence is actually quite the opposite. It just happens that the one Tory I first left comments on is completely unrepresentative. You see the horrible truth about Tories is that they are all rather keen on free speech and a bit of banter.

Well all except Mike Freer !

Disturbing Childhood memories

Occasionally the most innocent of questions can dredge up the most disturbing of memories. When we are children, we don't really understand the world, so we make up a scenario to fit the events that we see that offers some sort of rational explanation. In hindsight, when we become adults, we reassemble the jigsaw and realise that a series of coincidental occurrances lead us to concoct a completely ridiculous fantasy and in basic terms, we got it wrong. I guess that those of us who never get over building these fantastical fantasies end up invading Iraq because God told them to, but generally most of us take a more rational approach.

A recent blog I did answered the 2o questions as posed on Top Tory blogger Iain Dale's blog.
One of the questions was "First Girlfriend/Boyfriend". I must confess, I wasn't completely honest in my answer. For some quite unfathomable reason, I deliberately gave the wrong answer. The reason? Total embarrassment. Even worse, there really wasn't anything to be embarrassed about. The truth is that although the answer is true in as much as I detailed a first stolen kiss, it wasn't true in relation to my first girlfriend. In the late 1960's I was a very successful child actor/model. I starred in many TV adverts, the most notable being a Heinz Baked Beans advert which won an award at the Cannes International festival for best directed Advert. I suspect it may have been the first Heinz Beanz Ad. if you are interested it was the "We can't go on holiday without the beans mum" ad. I was the kid with the holdall.

I got the job because at the screen test I was the only six year old who would eat a plate of cold baked beans. I can vividly recall hearing all of the other kids screaming as their parents tried to force them to eat. I knew what had to be done, so I did it with a smile. The director was rather surprised at my reaction. He asked "You enjoyed that, do you like cold beans". I shot back "No, I like proper food, I was acting". Job done.

In the course of shooting an advert you are at the location for two or three days. If you were good, like me, you got 3 guinnieas an hour, which in 1967 was a small fortune. My acting career payed for my first guitar, so it served me well. Anyway I digress, as I was saying, the shoots were very long and very boring. On one shoot, there was a very pretty girl around my age called Emily. I'd not been interested in girls till I met Emily. Generally the kids were left to their own devices, the crews did their stuff, the mums/ chaperones chatted and in the course of the three days you were busy for possibly 2 or three hours. Emily was my co-star, my little sister in the script. She was at acting school and had dreams of a career as an actress. I was at the local Primary. We hit it off straight away. By the time we'd finished the shoot, we'd mapped the whole of our life together. We'd come up with a winning concept for a blockbuster film, in which we'd star. The idea was simple. There were films for girls, with romance & ponies, there will films for boys with cars and guns and baddies. We'd make films with all of it, so both girls & boys would like them. We sort of used the idea of Thunderbirds where you had Lady Penelopie for the girls & The Tracy's for the boys, but with real actors. She'd run a pony camp and I'd drive an E-Type jag with machine guns & missiles on it. Sound's great?

Not only that, but we'd planned our entire life together. Now as we were only kids, a key part of this was waiting to grow up, but we'd decided that would not be a problem as we didn't want to go out with anyone else. Now my biggest problem was that I had 5 elder siblings who I knew would tease me mercilessly and ruin everything if they found out. As we'd agreed a "no secrets" policy, I let her know my fears. She understood and said "Thats Ok because when we are 16 we'll be famous and so we can get together". We agreed that until then we'd keep our friendship a secret and only discuss it on film shoots when we were in private. It made it even more exciting.

Anyway, when the shoot finished, off I went home. I felt truly happy and contented for the first time, as I knew my life was going to be great. How could it fail? Now this is where things got strange. When I got home, I was listening to the radio in my bedroom. I'd never really listened to songs, but this strange tune suddenly came on. This disturbed me greatly.

I wasn't really listening at first, but when I heard the chorus, I was deeply disturbed

There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for May
See Emily play

I realised that I had lost my mind. I had realised that all I could think about was Emily and all I wanted to do was play with her. I had to find out who the song was by. A week or so later, it came on & I asked my older sister Val. She said "That's Pink Floyd. They are into drugs, drug addicts like them". The thing was, I loved the song. It made me feel happy. The trouble was that as soon as it finished, I became racked with guilt. I worried that I was a drug addict (rather strange really as was about 7 and didn't know what drugs were). I asked my eldest brother Laurie, about Pink Floyd. He started to tell me about psychedelia & UFO's.

All of a sudden, I realised the awful truth. Emily was an Alien! That was why she was so different to all the other girls, that was why she was so pretty. That was why I'd lost my mind. Her strange power had transformed me into an Alien controlled Zombie! The worst thing was that all I wanted to be was a zombie, listening to Pink Floyd, playing with Emily. Worse still, I couldn't validate my theory with my siblings as I knew they'd start the "Roger's got a Girlfriend" wind up and humiliate me. I developed a mad interest in astronomy. I bought a telescope. This was a cover to look for Emily's UFO. I was obsessed with this whole scenario for about four or five years, but never told anyone. WhenI was 14 I discovered punk rock and was finally completely cured.

There are a few hangovers. Apart from "See Emily Play" I loathe and detest Pink Floyd. I had this strange belief that Syd Barrett had been knobbled to stop him telling me the truth. I also found their later albums strangely bland and lacking in references to interesting things.

Another rather strange thing is I have an extreme dislike of zombie films. I have this urge to yell at the telly "That's not how it really is"

I also think that combined with my dyslexia, this had a massively detrimental effect on my education as I was far more interested in my fantasy world than anything else.

I never saw Emily again. My mum developed cancer in 1970 and that was the end of my acting career. I'd completely put all of this into a little compartment in my mind labelled childhood fantasy until I did Iain Dale's question, shut the door and locked it. It has made me ask myself one question. I wonder if my children have any such bizarre ideas?

How Conservative are you?

I saw this test on Tory Iain Dale's blog and thought it may amuse the readers of the Barnet Eye. I scored 328/400 which rates me as extremely progressive (higher scores are less Conservative). I suggest you substitute UK for America where relevant. I'd be interested to hear your scores, please post a comment. I'd be especially interested if any of our councillors took the test to see their scores - The average Yank is 209.5 - reasonably Conservative. Iain Dale scored 187

Take the How Conservative are you test Here

Barnet Eye weekly round up

A few blogs to check out (or not ***)
There is a great blog on Barnet Council Watch today about Leo Boland's leaving do,a sking the question - who is paying? Is it the Mayor or is it the Taxpayer?

Another thing which will interest the statto's out there is the Iain Dale blog talking about how many hits he's been getting. Iain is probably the number one Tory blogger and he's pretty established (Given that I've only been on Blogspot since October and the blog is mostly about Barnet and London, I must say I'm certainly pleased wih my number of hits).

Tory Troll does a great blog on Brian Coleman's latest round of excesses. It's a fairly left leaning blog.

GLA Tory Roger Evans CITY HALL blog has an interesting round up of business at GLA members question time.

*** Probably the most revolting Blog entry I've seen this week was BNP blogger Simon Darby. Avoid this with food). He has a load of pictures of a World War II themed fund raising event. The irony of the fact that the whole point of the second world war was to defeat Nazi and Fascist ideology seems to have missed the BNP. I know quite a few vets and none of them support the BNP. The ones I know would find this shameful and disgusting. My dear old dad who was a bomber pilot would have probably thrown a Mills bomb in there had he still been around.

Lastly a blog I usually give a wide berth to, but I thought it deserved a comment. Guido Fawkes comments on the Jonah like effect his visits have to sporting teams. Now I would have thought that as a Scotsman, this would soon be picked up on in his Bonny homeland and the more England games he goes to the more votes he'll get. I suspect that this may be the reason for the resurgence of Labour in SNP seats.

Anyway I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and have a great week.

P.S - I thought I'd just mention a slight change of policy. I used to studiously avoid linking to BNP supporting sites, but I've come to the conclusion that the more people see what the numpties are really like, the better. I trust anyone reading this blog to be intelligent enough to form their own views. The more I see of their blogs, the more delusional it seems they are.

Is Iain Dale taking himself too seriously?

Probably the best known Tory Blogger is Iain Dale. Whenever I feel like having some fun I just have a look at his blog and pick out a numpty who's left a silly comment and then have a bit of banter with them. It's quite a good place to get a feel for what other blogs are doing. Despite his right wing leanings, he generally is pretty good humoured. It seems that Derek (AKA "Dolly") Draper has rather got under his skin. I saw this posted on Iain's site today :-

Apologies for the lack of links to Draper's site, but he ain't getting any linklove until he apologises for saying that I condone racism. I also won't appear on a public platform with him until he does so, so to all those lobbying companies and media organisations who keep phoning and emailing me asking me to be interviewed or to appear on panel with him, please don't bother. The answer's no.

No idea whether Iain reads this, but my advice - don't take yourself so seriously, or you're doomed. Don't cut off your nose mate, you're spiting your face !!!!!