I'm glad we've got a Conservative Prime Minister !

Hold the front page. Barnet Lib Dem Candidate Rog T says he's glad David Cameron won the election. Has hell frozen over? I'm starting to think it must have. If you were on the 07:47 train from Mill Hill to central London yesterday morning you'd have seen a strange sight. You'd have seen a grown man crying. Why? Well I was reading the Guardians coverage of the Bloody Sunday enquiry. First I read the piece by Simon Winchester, who was a witness to the  killings. Then I read the apology given by David Cameron to the Commons. Finally I read Bernadette Devlins comments, detailing how she hit Reginald Maudling when he lied to the house. It all got a bit too much.

I'm not normally a particularly emotional person, but we need more MP's like Devlin. She hit Maudling because she knew for a fact he was a liar and he was getting away with a monstrous act. If only every MP who behaved so badly got a punch in the face in the chamber, maybe things really would change. Sadly the commons was not televised then so the moment is not preserved for posterity.

Why am I suddenly glad that we have a Conservative Prime Minister. Because the Tories and the Unionists are joined at the hip. The fact that it is a Tory Prime Minister who finally has to own up to the truth about the most shameful British action in my lifetime is worth all of the pain and hardship that they'll inflict on us. Cameron said

The Government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of our armed forces and for that, on behalf of the Government  - and indeed our country - I am deeply sorry.

It is forgotten by many that the protest was organised by the Civil Rights Association. The killings effectively ended this organisation and gave wings to the brutal Provisional IRA. Nothing the CRA was asking for was unreasonable. By murdering people, a far worse scenario erupted. The past can't be undone, but as far as I am concerned only a Conservative Prime Minister could effectively apologise for the crimes of another Conservative Government.

In many ways I'm a Bastard of mixed race. Although I cheer the English football team and proudly wear the flag of St George, I'm equally proud of my Irish Ancestry, of my Cousin Kevin Barry who was an early IRA martyr (for the record, I'm even prouder of my Dad who was an Aussie Immigrant who flew Wellington Bombers for the RAF 40 squadron (commemerated here on the Australian War Memorial Web Site)).

I passionately believe that we need to rectify the tragic errors of the past, acknowledge our mistakes, but also remind ourselves of the enormous good this country has done for the world. Mr Cameron and his apology have helped. It would have meant nothing to me had it come from Gordon Brown, for reasons I can't explain and can't fathom.

Some things are more important than ecomomics, money and politics. That is why I think the Bloody Sunday enquiry was money well spent. We can never be a society where inconvenient truth is hidden away. That's why I write a blog.

Peadophile Priests, MP's expenses, Barnet Council

A few people who read the blog have commented to me that despite often mentioning the fact that I'm a Roman Catholic, I've not written a single line about Peadophile priests or the abuse in Ireland. They've asked if I have a policy of ignoring the failings of the church, some have suggested darker motives. First, I'll explain why I mention I'm a Catholic, albiet a rather unholy one. I think that it's important to state interests if we have one. If I write about football, I say I support Manchester City. That way any United fans understand any bias. If I write about politics, I state I'm a Labour member, albiet a very lazy & inactive one. If I write about morality, I think it's only fair to say that I belong to a faith. Sometimes my views clash with those of the church (eg Birth control). It may on occasion open me to charges of hypocricy, where people say "How can you support the church if....". If I didn't state my interest, then you the reader would be unaware and that would be dishonest. In my eyes, that is worse.

Which takes us on to the issue of Peadophile priests. I've met good priests & I've met bad priests. The best ones have been inspirational, the worst - anything but. The one thing I've not had personal experience of are sexual advances from one. As such it is not an issue that has touched me personally. On top of that, some of the priests I've met have been extremely positive influences. As such, I've felt that putting the boot into the priesthood would not be fair or constructive, given that I believe that the bad ones are a tiny minority.

Having read some of the recent coverage of the situation in Ireland, I've come to realise that there is something seriously wrong with the institution of the Catholic Church. Whilst around the globe, individual priests are doing great work, the powers that be have systematically covered up endemic child abuse. Priests who should be in prison, have been moved from parish to parish. The church has used it's moral authority to silence parents. Abused children have been made to feel "responsible" for the dreadful abuse and have been permenantly damaged. As details emerge in Ireland, it has reached a point where it could destroy the church. The comments of bishops has displayed a terrible, head in the sand approach. There can be only one approach which will regain the confidence of the congregation. The files must be opened, the abusers must go to prison. Those who conspired in the cover up must be prosecuted. The church is unique in having the means to accomodate these paedophiles when they are realeased from prison. They should be sent to remote, sealed monastries, with big warning signs saying Paedpohile priest home. There they can while away their lives praying for gods forgiveness, on humdrum diets. Just to be completely clear about this, they'd be sent there after their release. Preferrably these monastries should be on remote islands, with no internet access. I'd not be unhappy for non priest paedophiles to join them. If they are truly sorry for their sins, they'd accept this without complaint. If the church did this, then maybe they would eventually recover the trust of the congregation. I was struck reading this by the words of a friend of mine who used to be the governor of the Maze prison during the troubles. I asked him about his view of Paedophiles and whether they could be reformed. His words were "In my experience, they only stop abusing when they are physically incapable of it or when they die".

Reading this coverage, I realised how much there was in common with the scandal regarding MP's expenses. Again, there are some MP's who do a great job and do not abuse the expenses. There are probably many MP's named in the Telegraph, who never dreamed before they entered Parliament that they'd behave like this. The reason they got embroiled was because they thought that there would never be any public scrutiny of their claims. A culture sprung up where the worst that could happen was that they'd get their claim knocked back. As such, many people were corrupted and encouraged in bad behaviour. They felt as if they were untouchable. Like the priesthood, they were wrong. Like the priesthood, they have lost public trust. Like the priesthood, radical measures are required to regain the trust of the public.

This leads us back to Barnet. As discussed above, the problems with priests and MP's have come about because matters were hushed up, discussed in private. Deals were done, problems coveredup. Where did it end up? In ruins. At Barnet Council, there have been repeated financial problems. These did not start under Mike Freer's regime. When Mike was in opposition, he was a keen advocate of scrutiny. Mike was a deadly inquisitor. Alison Moore, the leader of the Labour group once told me that being on the end of a Mike Freer inquisition was the most unpleasant moment of her political career. She admitted Mike Freer was a great opposition councillor. Her comments reminded me of John Prescott MP. In opposition, he was a fearsome opponent. If a train crashed, he'd turn up in his hard hat, berating the government. When it came to running the show, a different set of skills were required.

If you want good clean administration, you need open access to documents and good scrutiny. The best people to do this in the political arena are the opposition. Deals made behind closed doors, unminuted, undocumented and unscrutinised are bound to be flawed. In Barnet Council chambre, whilst discussing the Iceland debacle, the Lib Dems asked for the minutes of the meetings between council officials and Mike Freer, then head of the resource committee. Were these forthcoming? In fact the Lib Dems were criticsed by the Conservatives for putting pressure on council officers. As a result, the scrutiny committee and the people who pay taxes, ie us, are still unaware of how and why decisions are made.

As with the paedophile priests in Ireland and the MP's expenses, why are any of these decisions not being exposed to public scrutiny. This is the only way to ensure public confidence in the process. There is no earthly reason why the taxpayer shouldn't know why the Council decided to invest money in a certain way. I suspect that if councillors and officials knew that their decisions would be open to public examination, they'd be a bit more careful.

One thought for our Conservative councillors - where was "Freedom of Information" pioneered? In the worlds most successful economy - the USA.

No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs

When my Grandfather came over from Dublin, that was a common sign to see at some of the "Better" boarding houses around London. Have you ever heard the term INNA or Irish Need Not Apply? Again common for the "higher class" jobs. Then there are the jokes. "Heard the one about the paddy who was so thick he thought......". But it's alright isn't it because good old thick Mick can take a joke? What about the scene in the Commitments where Jimmy Rabbitte says "The Irish are the niggers of Europe and the Dubliners are the Niggers of Ireland". You don't remember that bit? You probably wouldn't unless you read the book, they changed it to "Blacks" for the film. Just a bit too harsh for a nice family film.


But us plastic paddies and you real ones can't get upset about all of this, oh no. You see, if you get upset you've got a chip on your shoulder. Now if you are a well balanced plastic paddy like me, you have a chip on both your shoulders. So I'm 1/4 Irish - how Irish do I feel? Well I used to share a pint or two of Guinness every night with my mum. I go to Church. I go and see the Pogues every year at Brixton Academy? How Irish is that?

I'll tell you how Irish I am. I'm Irish enough to feel proud of my ancestry. I'm Irish enough to have read about the Celtic Church and how that was the intellectual hotbed of Christian thinking, when freedom of thought was the trademark of a Celtic Christian. I'm Irish enough to know about the famine. I'm Irish enough to know about the struggle for freedom. I'm Irish enough to know about my mum's cousin, Kevin Barry, who was executed by the British government at 18 years old.

I'm Irish enough to know that when the British politicians start saying that the Irish are British, there is something bad afoot. There was a BNP - That's BRITISH National Party broadcast on TV today. In it the BNP leader included the Irish in the "British Family". I'm Irish enough for this to ruin my evening. I know all about the contempt with which the British Aristocracy hold the Irish in. I've seen Irish friends racially abused for their nationality. Probably the only acceptable form of racism is against Irish Travellers.

Given my Australian/Irish background, I've always felt more comfortable in the company of immigrants of all shades than with self styled "British Patriots". Strangley I've usually found immigrants often to be more patriotic. My Dad was proud to be a Commonwealth Citizen. The BNP talked in their broadcast about the sacrifice of the British - again they airbrushed out the contribution of the Commonwealth soldiers & the Imperial Army.

My Dad flew a Wellington on 40 missions for the RAF over enemy territory. On his 40th mission, the last in his tour of duty, he was shot down over Romania. His best Friend and rear Gunner was killed - his name Flying Officer Andrew Murphy. Any guesses as to his ancestry?

Britain has moved on. These days it's only the poor old doggies that don't get into guest houses. To any Irishmen tempted to Vote BNP in the Euro elections I say this. If the blacks get banned, who will be next? If you need reminding get the DVD of the commitments out, it's a great film for a Friday Night !

Stalinism at the Barnet Tory Bugle

The Edgware and Mill Hill Times. My local paper. I used to look forward to it popping through the door on a Thursday. In the 70's & 80's, back when Dennis Signy was the editor, it used to be a great local paper. It used to win awards. Being a muso, I especially liked the local music scene coverage. There was a column called, among other things, "Pop Round the Corner". I can still name the writers. Kevin Black - a gregarious Scot who used to write great reviews of my band, The False Dots (without ever turning up). Then there was Joy Bentley. I suspect she didn't much like the False Dots, but she still wrote nice things. Then there was the superstar - Clarence Mitchell. He went on to ITN and was last heard of working as PR consultant for Madeleine McCann's parents. Clarence actually used to turn up. He was also a very nice bloke.

There was also a guy called Bill Montgomery, who was the Barnet Council reporter. He would attend the most boring of meetings and find something to make it seem interesting. He'd make & break the careers of up and coming politicos with a well placed wry observation.

Fast forward to 2009. The paper has morphed into the Barnet Tory Bugle. I detailed this in a blog recently. Whilst the paper is happy to run overtly racist and anti Irish articles and letters, hagiographic peans to promenant local Barnet Cabinet members and verbatim Barnet press releases, it doesn't put letters from opponents of policies such as sheltered housing warden cuts on it's website. Strangely the Barnet Press is full of such letters.

For those of you with an interest in 20th Century history, you will recall that in Stalinist Russia, once someone fell foul of the regime, they became a non person. Artists would carefully airbrush every trace of them out of pictures. References in books would be removed. In short they would cease to exist. Well it seems that following my criticism of the Bugle, they've airbrushed me out. As you may recall, I used to write a blog for the Times, until their in house psychic deemed that at some point in the future, I may get them into trouble. My services were dispensed with, but the blogs remained. I put a link at the side here, so that if anyone was interested they could have a look. For my audacity to criticise them, they've zapped me, if you click the link, you'll see I've gone. Now you may think that this is just a tidy up, but Mike Freer's blog, which ended around the same time is still there. I'll tell you a funny story about Freer stopping his blog. He announced it at a council meeting. I mentioned this in a blog and a reporter from the Times emailed me to prove the allegation. I immediately emailed back with a link to the written answers, posted a week before on Barnets website. I've spoken to David Miller, author of Barnet Council Watch about the Times on a number of occasions and he says they are always moaning that he beats them to stories. I've also noticed that many stories are nicked, with no ackowledgement from the Tory Troll website.

I don't know if you've noticed how thin the Times has got recently. I suspect that this is due to advertisers deserting it. The Press meantime seems to get fatter by the week. I suspect that this is due to the more balanced coverage. I find it rather sad, to see the paper deteriorate by the week. One final twist of the knife from the Times to me. I typed my name "Tichborne" into the Times search engine, to see if any of my 61 blogs had escaped the cull. I found 3. The top one was

The Tragedy of Lady Thatcher - a personal view

This details my sympathy for the Thatcher family on a personal level, coping with their mums dementure.

The second was

The Big Match - Councillor Brian Gordon meets his nemesis !!!!!

Detailing how a local Tory Councillor had done an OK job chairing the Hendon Residents association meeting.

The Third was

Great Expectations (the male view) Part 2 - What's in a name?

Detailing my experiences naming my kids.

In short, anyone looking for my blogs would probably conclude I was a Tory childcare expert. Oh well, catch them while you can, I'm sure they'll be gone soon.

Well how does it feel to be Stalin'd??? In the words of the Rolling Stones

Who reads yesterdays papers, who wants yesterdays news
Who reads yesterdays papers, no one in the world.

I've no pretentions to be Shakespeare or Dickens, I find it rather funny.

Anti Irish Racism in Barnet - Update

At cabinet Questions Tomorrow, a member from the sensible wing of the Tory Party has tabled the following question. He received the following answer from the relevant cabinet member.

Q19 - Would you welcome the undertaking(as published in The Press January 29) of the then acting Borough Commander David Tucker that the Barnet Police will "deal robustly with anyone identified as having committed racist, anti-semitic or other crimes, whatever their alleged justification". Is not the councils close working relationship with the Police most important on this issue?

Answer :Yes, I am glad to say there is a real partnership working between this administration, The Metropolitan Police Authority under the excellent leadership of Boris Johnson and the voluntary sector not least the Community Sector Trust.

Well as regular readers of this blog will know, comments have been made in the press by a Barnet cabinet member, who's name escapes me. I recently had to complete a questionnaire for Barnet Council. It asked me to identify various people's racial groups. One of the groups were WIRT's = White IRish Travellers. Barnet recognises travellers as a distinct racial group.

As such they should not be subject to racist abuse and if they are surely David Tucker should investigate. Maybe someone should ask him why this policy doesn't apply to WIRT's unlike all of the other racial groups in Barnet.

What have the Irish ever done for us?

One of my favourite films is "The Life of Brian". Possibly my favourite scene is the one where the Popular front for the liberation of Palestine are discussing the effects of the Roman occupation.


Last night, as I bopped away to the great Northern Irish punk rock band, Stiff Little Fingers, in the esteemed company of former Manchester City manager and current England manager, Stuart Pearce at the Kentish Town Forum, I pondered the latest statement from one of Barnet Council's top Tory Councillors, who's name escapes me. It seems that a Tory "think tank" (is that rhyming slang) in Barnet have decided to amend Tory policy. Norman Tebbit said that people should get on their bike and look for work. In a deliberately racist policy change, there is now an exemption to this policy for those of Irish descent. One statement from the Tory "Policy Review And Targets" team on the subject says “This is a commuter who comes over from Ireland looking for work that should frankly stay put in Ireland.

Watching SLF bash out stormer after stormer, my mind wondered back to John Cleese question in that great scene. As the Irish are one group in society who it is still quite clearly OK to abuse in a racist fashion, I thought I'd apply the Romans test to them. What have the Irish ever done for us? Well here's my top 20 list (in no particular order).

1. Built the rail network - teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike
2. Built the road network - teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike again
3. Built most of the buildings in the coutry- teams of travelling navvies getting on their bike again
4. Invented Guinness
5. Invented Bushmills
6. The Pogues
7. Stiff Little Fingers
8. Staffed the NHS - nurses coming over from Ireland
9. Live Aid - Bob Geldolf's brainchild
10. The Irish Regiments of the British Army - who my Grandfather left Dublin to join to fight the Germans in 1914
11. The Irish Horse Racing Industry
12. Irish footballers such as George Best, Liam Brady, Stephen Ireland - I could go on forever !
13. Barry McGuigan
14. Dave Allen
15. Ryanair
16. Ernest Shackleton
17. Father Ted
18. Shorts Aircraft
19. George Boole (inventor of Boolean Algebra)
20. Francis Beaufort (inventor of the Beaufort scale)

This isn't a definative list. It's just the first 20 things that came to mind. If I'd bothered to Google I'd probably have a completely different list. These are just the things which I could think of that made my life better in some way shape or form.

I'm proud of my Irish ancestry. I'm proud of my Grandfather and his comrade's sacrifice in the First world war (and many other conflicts) for Great Britain and it's people. I never met my Grandad, he died in 1948, from the effects of being gassed in the trenches, from which he never recovered. My dad used to tell me a story about my Grandpa and how he dealt with Racist abuse.

Dad was having a drink with him (my dad was an Aussie Bomber Pilot) during the second world war. Grandpa was at the bar when an English Army officer barged in front of him at the bar. When my little old Grandpa objected, the officer said "Irish scum". My father was just about to intervene, when my Grandpa grabbed the officer and said "Listen sonny, I served in the trenches for the British Army, under British Officers such as your good self. One thing I can guarantee you is that if the IRA fought the British for one thousand years, they would never kill as many fine British soldiers as the officers corps of the British Army did in the trenches, now learn some manners and let an old man buy a drink in peace". The officer backed away in shame.

I've no time for any sort of racism myself. I'll always stand up for the guy who's getting a kicking. We all have a decision to make do we condemn or condone racism, bullying and victimisation. What side are you on?

My message to Tory "Policy Review And Targets" team - Where would we be without the Irish?