Barnet Eye Roundup - He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

First up, a trip to Don't Call Me Dave's Not The Barnet Times blog. It seems that he's caught the former Leader of the Tories at Barnet Council "bigging up" his CV. It seems that whilst many Tories had hoped he'd be the messiah, leading them to the promised land of low taxes, to quote Monty Pythons, the Life of Brian "He's not the Messaih, he's a Very Naughty Boy". It's a great clip. Any excuse !

The Guardian has also picked up on this story (3rd story down).

Thameslink Update - The No 10 petition to strip FCC of their petition now stands at 5,477 and is still rising. The Government isn't listening, my MP didn't go to the debate to discuss it, even though his constuency contains two stations. 3,372 messages posted on the I hate FCC website. The people are talking but no one is listening. Various MP's say they are "having meetings with FCC to improve things. This is not what people want. It is just self serving laziness.

The most shameful story this week is Lynne Hillans Barnet Tory Council announcing that they intend to reintroduce the attempts to get rid of Sheltered Housing, after the High Court deemed the previous attempt illegal. What makes me sick is the claim that they want to improve care for every elderly person, but they are sacking 3/4 of the wardens and introducing anew service where a decimated work force has to drive from location to location. You don't have to be a genius to figure out that a dedicated warden gets to know the residents and their needs, wheras a roaming service will be pot luck. On top of that residents will have to use a call centre to get hold of the warden. Lord help us if they need a warden when it snows.

Following reports that Barnet Council Future Shape includes a "superdatabase" so they can snoop on every aspect of our lives, and appoint a "gatekeeper" for our family if we cost the Council too much, I wrote to David Cameron to ask if this is official Tory Policy. As of now, he's not replied. Don't Call me Dave and I have a little bet about what (if anything) the reply will say. I'll keep you posted. I think that David Cameron and the Tories lack the bottle to reply. I won't say what DCMD thinks !

And finally, no day in Mill Hill would be complete without the daily cock up on Thameslink. This from their Journey Check website.

Line problem in the Radlett area.

Train services on all routes are being disrupted due to an operating incident in the Radlett area.
Engineers are working as fast as possible to restore services to normal. Delays of up to 20 minutes can be expected.

Message Received: 11:06:22 05/02/2010

Blessed are the bignoses.

I don't need much excuse to throw in a clip from my favourite comedy film, Monty Python's "The Life of Brian". Luckily Iain Dale (Tory Blogger and PPC) has given me just that. Today he posted this - http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2009/06/mandys-nose-just-got-bit-longer.html -

He drew attention to a few Porkies Peter Mandleson has been telling and suggested that this may have a Pinnochio like effect on Mandies nose (for those of you unfamiliar with the story, Wiki it). Immediately his blog started getting comments accusing Dale of anti Semitism for making a remark about the size of Mandies hooter. I am not an Iain Dale fan, thought he's been a bit cowardly with his blogging of late, especially with the Ian Clement story. That said, to accuse him of such a charge is clearly nonsense. It's like me howling anti Irish racism if someone calls me a boozer, because the Irish are supposed to like their drink, or accusing them of racism if they compliment our families athletic prowess, because we had Black ancestry several generations ago. It is nonsense.

I despise political correctness. I sometimes wonder if The Life of Brian would be made to day with all of it's un PC clips. What do you think?



I remember a rather devout Catholic relation telling me that I should be ashamed of myself, going to see such blasphemy. I retorted that I wasn't a follower of Brian, so it didn't offend me at all.

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?