The Barnet Eye round up - Council Leader Mike Freer Exclusive Interview

Just to remind you, you heard about it here first. Seem's like everyone agrees with me now. My favourite comment on the subject was the 4th letter down here from Patrick MacNamee.

The Hendon Times has started putting it's letters on line again. Here's one which I agree with.

One thing I've noticed is the recent trend of continually announcing the same news repackaged. Here's a prime example. I'm sure I've heard all this before.

One last thing. It seems that the LEADER LISTENS blog has gone rather quiet? Seems a shame that all that Taxpayer's cash is being wasted supporting it. There were 3 blogs on it in March. One was by Matthew Offord writing about a meeting in December. One was plugging his "One handed Bloggers" podcast. The third was a googly on the council loosing a star in the latest review. Well now we know !

In an unexpected turn of events, Mike marched into the Bridge Tavern this evening as I was finishing my Guinness. He confessed that I was the only person he trusted in Barnet and he wanted to set the record straight.

He demanded that I interview him and he gives the full dirt on One Handed Bloggers, The BNP, Brian Saliger, Iceland, Leo Boland, Future Shape, Matthew Offord and Plasma screen TV's. He also makes a stunning admission about Underhill and David Miller. In this no holds barred interview, he only stipulated one precondition. That I publish it on THIS WEBSITE. Enjoy - you'll be shocked and stunned - I was.

David Cameron's Neil Kinnock moment?

David Cameron, the new Neil Kinnock?











Believe it or not, one of my best friends is a quite senior member of a South London Conservative Party. We regularly go for a beer & a curry and have many a fine discussion about all manner of issues. During our last evening of merriment the subject of David Cameron's election chances came up. His assessment? Camerons biggest worry is having a Neil Kinnock moment. Some of you will remember that in the run up to the 1992 election, it was generally accepted that Kinnock would beat John Major. The Tories had made a hash of the economy and Kinnock was riding high at the polls.

Kinnock decided that he'd have a pre election victory rally at Sheffield (no it wasn't called that, but that is how it looked). All of a sudden, he looked smug, complacent and out of touch. I saw this report on Sky News and wondered whether Cameron's Kinnock moment had arrived.

The report says :-

Speaking on GMTV, the Conservative leader said he believed Ms Smith had "questions to answer" about her reported claim of at least £116,000 in second home allowances on her Redditch family home while listing a London flat she shares with her sister as her main home.

But asked if she should resign following the revelations at the weekend, he said: "I do not think this individual thing is the issue."

I was amazed that Cameron said this. He has a fantastic opportunity to sort the system out, clean up parliament and make the politicians behave in the way the man on the street expects. Now if Mr Smith wants to watch porn while his wife is away, who cares? But to be subsided by the taxpayer is a different matter. His wife is the Home Secretary. She runs the legal system. She's paid a kings ransom to do the job. The least she should do is check her expenses. I had a mate who went to prison because he was caught fiddling the dole for a few quid. How can she sit in judgement when she's been up to it herself. My friend got a very harsh (considering the amount which was very small) sentence as he was trained as an accountant. The judge said that in his position he should have known better.

I don't want to see Mr or Mrs Smith go to prison. Having said that, Cameron has given the impression that he doesn't care about low level fiddling. Not only that but he's in effect saying that while it's wrong for dole cheats to fiddle a couple of quid, it's OK for politicians.

Most worryingly, for a man who wants to become the next Prime Minister, he's shown lousy political judgement. In football terms, he's missed an open goal from 2 yards out. I've no idea whether this will be Camerons Kinnock moment, but from where I am sitting he didn't look like Prime Minister material today. With both Brown and Cameron looking like indecisive ditherers, the public may well choose to be safe and stick with the indecisive ditherer they know, just like they did with John Major.

Jacqui Smiths Expenses

I'm not going to go into the rights and wrongs of Jacqui Smiths expenses. It is plain to everyone that her attitude stinks. All I will say is this. If the political classes want to restore the trust of the public, they should file their expense accounts on a public domain so we can see exactly what they are claiming to the last penny. It is reported that David Cameron told the members of the public that he wouldn't touch the story, but that they should go to the Daily Mail. Cameron has missed a great opportunity to take the high ground. If he proposes a new era of honesty and openness, he'd have been onto a winner.

If he becomes PM, how long before his cowardice now comes back to haunt him?