Sorry Barry, us loudmouths don't want a megaphone, we just want reasonable answers to reasonable questions

 I have to say that I was more than disappointed to hear the answer of the new Leader of Barnet Council,  Barry Rawlings to a question I sent into BBC Radio London's Eddie Nestor show, who was being interviewed. Eddie asked for questions.  Eddie posted this tweet

Our #MeetTheLeader series is back

First up is new Labour leader of Barnet Cllr Barry Rawlings

If you have a question
📩 Email Eddie@bbc.co.uk

📻Listen live https://t.co/5wxIKa6FEI @EddieNestorMBE | @BarryJohnRawlin | @BarnetCouncil

⤵️More on Barnet with @susana_mendonca pic.twitter.com/jesTrnNAhq

— BBC Radio London (@BBCRadioLondon) July 6, 2022

I sent this in.

Hi Eddie, I'd like to book a question with Barry Rawlings for the show on Wednesday. In 2018, the then Conservative administration changed the rules regarding questions from the public at council meetings, imposing strict limits on what could be asked and how many questions could be asked, making proper public scrutiny almost impossible. Barry was highly critical of this and lead everyone to believe that a Labour administration would change the rules. They have not done this. Can Barry explain why he's gone back on his word and whether this is due to a desire to restrict scrutiny whilst the Capita one Barnet contract is being reviewed. Regards Rog

I'll post a link back to the interview, which was quite interesting. However, I was deeply disappointed with Barry's answer. He said that he doesn't want to "Give a megaphone to those with already loud voices".  Yes, I have a loud voice, I don't need a megaphone. The reason I sent my question to Eddie was because I had a chat with Mr Reasonable, AKA John Dix about raising the issue of Barnet Labour not changing the rules back. We were discussing whether to go public about the fact that Barry in opposition promised to remove the restrictions on public questions at meetings and has changed his mind. This is what John said.

Part of me was also tempted to leave it till September but they will have to discuss the Capita contracts by September and I am worried the delay on the gagging rules is to keep us out of the scrutiny/debate that will take place.  

I felt I had to ask the question. John is 100% spot on. The meetings where the Capita contract is being discussed are massively important to Barnet's residents and residents should be given the opportunity to have their say.  Barry has heard me ask hundreds of questions over the last fourteen years, I'd like to think he recognised the fact that every single one was the result of hours of reading council papers and doing homework. Yes I'm not a shrinking violet, a loudmouth, but I had liked to think that people recognised that I was serious and that my questions were the result of proper research. 

At the election count Barry suggested that I should not give up on scrutiny, when it was clear that Labour had won. I assumed that the first move would be to remove the Tory restrictions, so I could carry on as Barry suggested. Barry said on the show that he was putting together a People's Assembly, so people in Barnet could have a voice. As someone who is interested in the council and knows how it works, I know it would be far less effective for actual scrutiny purposes. It is committees where decisions are made. When there are technical issues or gaping holes in policies, it is the commitee where this can be rectified. I can recall dozens of instances of the Tories listening to questions and making small tweaks that lead to bad policies being changed and stupid ideas dropped. It resulted in the Metpro scandal being exposed. It resulted in the Mapledown respite changes being dropped. This was all prior to the 2018 rule changes. Former Tory Audit Committee chair Hugh Rayner, personally thanked myself and John Dix on many occasions for raising issues and he fixed them. This may have been a drop in the ocean, but it did make a material difference to how the Borough operated.

After the rule changes, I rarely bothered asking, unless there was a slam dunk issue. I developed a reasonable relationship with a couple of Tory Councillors. I realised that I couldn't ask questions, so I'd email them and they'd do the dirty work if they accepted my arguments. It was only when they didn't I'd bother showing up.  The problem with this was that there was no public accountability or recognition that the council wasn't putting its papers together properly. It gave Dan Thomas, the former Tory leader, the figleaf that his councillors were doing their job, when they weren't.

As to Barry's assertion that a Peoples Assembly will fix the problem, People's assemblies are good at setting direction and strategy, they are not good at allowing residents to forensically challenge specific defects in council papers. I suspect that they will provide a far better forum for a loudmouth like me to spout ideological nonsense and waffle for hours than when specific questions are required on specific issues in relation to specific policies.

I'm happy to make a deal with Barry. If he wants me to refrain from asking questions, I'll retire from going to meetings completely, so long as he changes the rules and allows people like John to ask questions, if thats what he really wants. Many people in Barnet fought for years for a change of regime and to oppose the policies of the Conservative regime. We genuinely believed that things would be better. I'm used to being called names by Leaders of Barnet Council, I don't take it personally, but I really expected a little better. 

The reality is that I'm in it for the long haul. I don't ask questions for the benefit of the two other bloggers sat in the public gallery at Council meetings. I do it because I want the London Borough of Barnet to be the best place possible for people like me and you who live here. I had rather hoped that this was recognised.

There is one good thing that came out of this. It gives me a chance to play one of my favourite tracks by the Ramones. Enjoy!

Barnet Council website is not working - another Capita failure

 IF you need to do anything on the Barnet Council website today, which involves entering a postcode, you will be out of luck. Their website is unable to process postcodes. Needless to say, this means that the switchboard is probably also overloaded. Once again a system run by Capita is not working. 

I suggest that if you are trying to pay a bill, you take a screen shot of this page. If you cannot because they can't take your payment, then this may come in rather useful if they try and impose penalties or take court action. It is beyond me why Barnet Council simply can't admit that their relationship with Capita hasn't worked and has delivered appalling service to the Barnet Council taxpayer. 

Fellow blogger Mr Reasonable has exposed just how expensive this failure has been. I've almost run out of ways to describe how rubbish the whole One Barnet outsourcing project has been. Sadly Capita have not run out of ways to demonstrate that the Barnet Bloggers were right about Capita all along.

"Why do I bother" - The bloggers of Barnet and the Barnet Council effect

 Last night I attended the Barnet Council Financial Performance and Contracts Committee, chaired by Councillor Peter Zinkin. I'd submitted two questions. In the good old days, you'd get the responses in a timely fashion to allow you to compose a sensible follow up, if your question was not answered. Yesterday, I was forwarded the responses at 16.12. This was a bit inconvenient, as I had a meeting with the Sacred Heart Church Finance committee at 6pm, the committee started at 7pm, I was working until 5pm and had to walk dogs and eat dinner. As a result, I didn't see the responses until I arrived at the meeting. To make matters even more interesting, I was in such a rush getting from Mill Hill to Hendon for the meeting, I dropped my key getting in the car. I spent ten minutes looking for it, then left my phone in the car when I arrived, so I couldn't tweet the meeting or video it. To say I wasn't overly happy when I arrived is a mild understatement. 

I arrived to see Mr Reasonable there. Barnet has a few bloggers. He's the only blogger I've seen at the Town Hall for a while. It used to be that whenever I went there'd be a bevvy of them, especially for any meeting discussing Capita. I thought I'd just do a quick recap on our fine bloggers, so anyone reasonably new to  Barnet would have an idea who I'm talking about.  I was the first of the bunch, but all have been around for well over a decade and our work has been recognised by everyone from the Guardian to former Tory Local Govt minister Eric Pickles, who commended our work.

 If you consider each blogger as a newspaper, I'd probably be The Daily Star, Mrs Angry would be the Daily Mail, Mr Mustard would be Packaging News and Mr Reasonable would be The FT. When I say this I don't mean that any of the bloggers have sympathies with the publications, but in content terms and what we cover, I am very eclectic and being a bit thick, like the Star don't use long words to demonstrate my intellect. I like to put the boot in, but also to cover football, music and all manner of other irrelevence.

Mrs Angry is very much a 'sensible mid market' paper that loves a sensationalist scoop, but decries anyone else who has the nerve to beat her to it. She loves a good old long word, here's a classic Mrs Angry sentence, where I'd say "Lets sling out the Tories in May", she would say "Roll on May: it's time to clear out the Augean stables, and rid ourselves of the rotten stench hanging around this Tory council and their collaborators. " Her work is pretty damn good, but a bit too wordy for plebs like me! Mrs Angry seems to have semi retired, only knocking out the occasional blog when the mood takes her, which is a crying shame as she does rather wind up a few councillors who thorughly deserve it. 

Mr Mustard started blogging about Barnet Council, but now mostly concentrates on parking issues, he's become very niche and probably is far better for it. He's also moved beyond the boundaries of the Borough, his latest blog being about the parking in Hillingdon. If Parking tickets are your thing, his blog is brilliant. He does other stuff, but mostly transport and roads related these days. 

Mr Reasonable is the man who really get stuck into the detail. Whereas I skim the council papers and if I see something juicy leaping out, I blog it, John reads them properly and when he blogs, it is full of detail. His brain works in a different way to mine. He often picks things out that I've missed completely. His latest blog about how Brighton Marina is costing Barnet Ratepayers a fortune is typical. I read the report and missed the detail completely. I was not alone, it seems our Tory councillors also missed this detail. It seems that they miss most of what he blogs about.

Anyway, I digress, last night I arrived to meet Mr Reasonable. He looked more irritated than usual. I had taken a chance. I'd not read the answers, so I may have had a wasted journey. If they'd given me a complete and sensible answer, it would have been a wasted journey. When I read the responses, I was not suprised. Perhaps the most irritating thing about Barnet Council meetings is that they rarely actually answer the question. This was no exception. The nub of the first question was "Please clarify in plain English, what this means in financial terms to Barnet Taxpayers." The response did no such thing. I did get an apology, that to paraphrase was along the lines "Sorry you are too thick to understand what we were saying". In my second question, I asked whether the failure to inspect restaurants had resulted in an increase in the number of cases of food poisoning. The answer was "No". I asked for some evidence, as this was not provided. I was told that this would be forthcoming. We shall see.

As for Mr Reasonable. Whilst I'm thick and don't understand words of more than four letters, he does. How did he feel about the responses to his questions? Well this was what he tweeted.

Not sure why I bother going to council meetings. I raised serious questions about call answering, a service Capita are due to retain. They couldn't meet the target to answer 80% of calls in 20 secs so increased it 60 secs then to 120 secs & still can't meet target. pic.twitter.com/JMv5Y6caMl

— Mr Reasonable (@ReasonableNB) March 14, 2022

It seems that it is not only thicko's who are exasperated by Barnet Council. It has been crystal clear for a long time that Barnet Council hate the bloggers and take great delight in providing waffly non answers to infuriate us. Oh how jolly it all is. To once again quote Mrs Angry's flowery prose Roll on May: it's time to clear out the Augean stables, and rid ourselves of the rotten stench hanging around this Tory council and their collaborators.

At last - Barnet Tories admits that it got the Capita Contract wrong

 Ok, first a confession. I know nasty Barnet bloggers are not meant to say things like this, but I'm starting to like Peter Zinkin, chair of the Barnet Finance, Performance and Contracts committee. I've dealt with quite a few Barnet Tories over the years. Some, such as Mike Freer, Dan Thomas, Brian Coleman, Robert Rams and Reuben Thompstone are aloof, condescending and lack respect for the public. Some are ok, pleasant, treat the public with respect and you can have a chat with them after as normal human beings. I'd include Brian and Kate Salinger, Richard Cornelius, John Hart, Hugh Rayner and Sachin Rajput in this list. It's nothing to do with their personal politics, its just an observation as to how they treat the public in their role as a councillor. I have to add Peter Zinkin to the second list. Unlike John Hart, I've not had a cheeky pint in the Bridge, swapping jokes, but he takes his job seriously and is respectful to the public as committee chair. Myself and John Dix asked questions of the committee and I have to confess, both John and I got straight and candid answers to several questions. 

I asked two questions, on agenda items 7 (Capita Contract) and 8 (Chief Financial Officers report). The way the committee works, is that they provide a written answer and then you get the chance to ask a question on the agenda item. A maximum of two question are permitted and the questions can be no more than 100 words long. At the meeting, you are allowed to ask a follow up question if you are not satisfied. There used to be no limit, with just a 30 minute time limit on the questions. 

I was first up and I thought I'd push my luck a bit. As I detailed in this blog, I was very upset at the late publication of the reports. This meant that it was impossible to properly review them, One report missed the deadline for questions altogether. It is unacceptable. I started by stating that I thought it was unacceptable and that the council should have a mechanism for dealing with questions when reports are late. Strictly speaking, this question was out of order, but Councillor Zinkin not only accepted the observation, but agreed with the Labour group leader Barry Rawlings that this should be raised with the Constitution committee so that a proper mechanism for dealing with this scenario could be introduced. 

I have to admit, I was surprised. It is rare for anything a blogger says in Council to be accepted, but it was most welcome. I realised that I might not have quite as frustrating evening as I expected. Next up, I asked a question about the Capita contract extension. I read the final sentance of the answer out. "As stated in the report, the financial and commercial elements are complex and further work is required to ensure that any recommendations are based on a sound understanding of the cost and budget position." 

I aked  whether the Barnet client side organisation was "too thin". For those unfamiliar with council speak, this means that there are not enough qualified people montoring Capita. Councillor Zinkin shocked me with his answer. He admitted that big mistakes were made in 2014 when the contract was set up and yes, the Council team was too thin to do its job, meaning that Capita had got away with murder (not his words). Of course, now everything was fine and dandy and the fact that the deadline for renewing the contract had been missed was nothing to do with lack of resources and the fact that it wouldn't be done until after the election (something I'd suggested was a time bomb for the incoming adinistration) was purely because they were doing such a good job. Councillor Zinkin suggested that he was surprised I could make the "Time Bomb" accusation and that this was most unfair. I replied that they've known the timescales since the contract was signed and had plenty of time. I am not sure whether the fact that renewal has been pushed until after the election is a happy coincidence or a clever political ploy by The Tories. All I know is that it is very handy for them. It would be nice if Labour state that the delay will give a chance to do a proper review and being services in house if this will save money. I don't expect this to happen. 

We moved on to Item 8, the CFO's report. It gave me a chance to raise the fact that a single question of less than 100 words makes scrutiny impossible. I admitted I'd misunderstood the wording of the report, but pointed out that the late submission meant there was little time to read the report and cross reference with other reports, as Councillor Zinkin suggested. I stated that the report should give details of costs of slippages. Councillor Zinkin suggested that this info was detailed elsewhere. He also made the offer of the opportunity to go through the reports with a Council Officer. I will be contacting Mr Reasonable to see if he would participate. To be honest, his input would be invaluable and would massively improve scrutiny. In all my time attending meetings, this was the first time such an offer has been made and it is hopefully a sign that after a decade of hostility to the public, we are entering a new era. It will be very interesting to see how this progresses, whoever wins.

Next up, we had Mr Reasonable with three questions. He started by informing Councillor Zinkin that he agreed with me. Project slippage had inherent costs. These needed to be accounted for. John works on large infrastructure projects and understands that interest and finance costs need to be monitored if things are slipping, which they clearly are.

He'd done one of his usual insightful blogs on Monday, detailing how Capita were not providing value for money to Barnet residents. His first question, on the Capita report was a simple one. Would the Barnet Tories please stop making claims about savings, when they are unprepared to provide any evidence to back these claims up. I'm not sure whether Councillor Zinkin agreed or just sympathised. I've listened a couple of times and I'm not entirely sure.

The next two questions concerned the Brent Cross West station development. I had a chat with John before the meeting about this. We share a view that it is right and proper that a station is built. We also have no problem that the council is helping to finance it. His problem (and I agree 100%) is that the council is funding it, taking 100% of the risk, but will share the profits (if any ever arrive) with the developers of Brent Cross. This is absolutely bonkers. When the project was conceived, the world was different, people actually used trains to go to their office every day. I suspect that whatever happens, it will be a long time before such things happen and there is a healthy income stream. However, if the UK is to deal with the challenges of climate change, we need to maximise public transport usage. This means projects like this. John was keen to see the risk properly assessed and included in the council's accounts. There was a degree of acknowledgement that this was a good point. We will see if it is actually actions these.

I stayed for the Capita report. Labour asked for disclosure of various figures, so the public could be informed going into the elections. A vote was held and the Tories rejected the proposal on the chair's casting vote. There was also a dispute when a Labour Councillor read an FoI response that named and shamed a council officer. Councillor Zinkin was enraged. He stated that he did not want councillors demonising officers in his committee. Labour Leader Barry Rawlings (who since I last saw him has grown a huge beard and looks like Santa Clause, without a red suite though) stated that as it was an FOI repsonse, it was in the public domain. I often think the Council would be a better place without political parties. Most of the councillors are reasonable human beings. They are forced to put their hands up all of the time to pass motions they disagree with. You can always tell when they are doing this as they refuse to make eye contact. I'm not sure what they really think they are achieving (beyond preservation of jobs and allowances for themselves). I find it frustration. The council would work so much better if it was open and transparent. This happens in the USA where all public contracts are fully published. I don't buy the concept of confidentiality in commercial contracts. I'd like to see it all published. That way competetors would know where they went wrong and try and be more competetive. I understand that many aspects of what the council do (social work, etc) should be private, but there is no excuse for hiding how money is spent. 

I recorded the question time for posterity. If you are interested in these discussions, there are some rather interesting points in there. The Barnet Eye was the first blog to video a Council meeting. Sadly, since the demise of Dan Hope, people don't bother so much. It is a shame, as we really should care. The decisions made in Council affect how much tax you pay, how well your roads are fixed, how your children's schools are run, whether stations are built, how you will be treated in social care if you need it. I could go on. Councillors get paid a minimum of over £10,000 a year to attend these meetings. You pay that, surely you should care what they do?

One interesting thing. As I was leaving, I was approached by the Council officer who was the author of one of the late reports. They explained that the report was ready on time, they take great pride in getting reports produced promptly, but was withheld as it was also relevant to another meeting and was released after this meeting had been held. They were at pains to insist that nothing was untoward. I take that very much at face value, but as the council agreed, in such circumstances, there should be a formal process for delaying the deadline for questions.

A blog you should read about how much we are paying Capita for their services

If you are a citizen of Barnet and you've ever wondered whether Barnet Council are being efficiently run, I would strongly recommend that you read John Dix's Reasonable New Barnet Blog. Mr Dix has put together a very detailed blog detailing the difference between what we were told Barnet would be paying Capita and what we actually are paying. Mr Dix does a blinding job of exposing just how the taxpayers of Barnet are being taken to the cleaners and reminding us of how the Conservative administration of Barnet have done everything possible to hamper anyone from shining a light on what is going on. Please have a look.

Mr Reasonable: Just what we pay Capita - How they billed £555 million to one council 

Mr Dix sums up by saying

To all of this you may say "So What?" My concern is the lack of transparency about so much of the goings on in Barnet, something they have been making even more difficult as the years go by. We are gagged at meetings, and the amount of information they used to produce has been reduced. For example, Barnet used to produce a quarterly, one page summary of the benefits the Capita contract had generated (Benefits Realisation). When I started asking questions about the numbers, Barnet's response was to stop publishing it. I used to analyse the senior council staff salaries from data they published. One day they just stopped publishing it. I never published staff member names even though it was available only ever their title. Now we haven't a clue other than for the top handful of staff. Even worse they removed years of historical salary data that had already been published.  

I do this because someone has to try and hold the council to account!

Reading Mr Dix's blog and final comment, it is great to see ordinary citizens holding the council to account. Why didn't someone think of that sooner!

Is Capita working for the London Borough of Barnet?

I really must draw your attention to Mr Reasonables latest blog concerning how the contract with Capita is functioning.

He starts with the following two paragraph

I have been continuing to keep an eye on Barnet's finances during this very difficult time but as lockdown eases I thought to was a good time to start digging a bit deeper into Barnet's finances again, especially as the annual inspection of the accounts is coming up in August.

Click for a readable view of the figures

In terms of the monthly supplier payments it looks like Capita continue to benefit from their contract with Barnet. In June they were paid £12.5 million and this brings the total paid to Capita on the Barnet contract to a whisker under £500 million. When I mention this figure to some people they laugh as they simply don't believe that one council could pay so much money to one company but that is the reality of Capita in Barnet. The table below gives you the detail -----> Click here to read the full article

Mr Reasonable, AKA John Dix has been tracking the contract since it was first conceived. He is someone who's day job involves working with such contracts. As you can see from the figures, Barnet Taxpayers are paying far more than we were lead to believe. As Barnet are contractually tied to Capita, there is no scope for cuts, any cuts will come from other areas. With the Covid19 crisis, council budgets are under pressure as never before. I detect a certain world weariness in John's blog, like John the Baptist, a lone voice of reason in a wilderness of insanity. We really should be challenging our councillors on this matter. I have refrained from council bashing during the crisis. They have more important things to do than worry about bloggers, but these figures are truly alarming. The cuts will hurt the most vulnerable people in Barnet, deprived children, the sick, the elderly and the disabled. The one area that will not suffer is the shareholders of Capita. I don't believe Barnets councillors are bad people or evil, but they really need to do something about this mess. They cannot bury their hands.

Outsourcing of public sector contracts has sucked money out of the local economy and has not delivered betetr services. I co wrote a song about the dangers of outsourcing with my songwriting partner Allen Ashley - this affects you. You pay more tax and you have suffered from a decline in service quality. I cannot understand how anyone would not want our councillors to get on the case and get this mess sorted out.

.

Yet another scandal about to overwhelm Barnet Council

Over the last four years, the Barnet bloggers have uncovered scandal after scandal at Barnet Council yet Councillor Robert Rams, a Conservative Council regularly sneers at us bloggers. A classic example is on his latest blog. He says

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http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/private-v-public/#comments

I read with interest this evening that John Dix writes on his blog that,

“Conservative Councillors labour under the belief that all private companies are good and all public sector staff are bad”

http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lessons-barnet-need-to-learn-from-g4s.html?m=1

This is simply not true.

I can’t speak on behalf of all Conservative Councillors but this one believes in this tough economic times – better services for less money. Hence why the One Barnet project is looking at all our services and looking at better and cheaper ways of running our services.

The library service is a classic example of this.

By making changes to the way our service is run, moving Friern Barnet library and North Finchley library into the Arstdepot and letting the community run HGS library ( an offer which friern residents were given in Friary House) we are able to,

Spend more money on books
Put literacy at the heart of everything we do
Open our libraries longer
And make every primary school child a library member.

Other services will be outsourced and some will be merged with other boroughs – all to make the services better, cheaper and keep council tax down.

And our recycling service has been outsourced for years with out any problems!

But you will not read that on his blog!

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John Dix replied

If what you say is true why did Barnet Council expressly preclude an in house bid for the two massive outsourcing contracts? Without a public sector comparator how can residents be assured we are receiving best value? Given the massive costs of implementing the contract so far, the huge redundancy costs and the experiences of other public sector outsourcing contracts which have gone horribly wrong I remain extremely concerned that this outsourcing project will simply not deliver the objectives which I am sure all residents want, an effeicient and effectively run council. As you know Robert I have no idealogical problems against outsourcing. My issue is the scale and complexity of this contract without a pilot and which cannot be reversed should it go wrong.

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Earlier this week, Robert Rams had a go at me on his blog. Perhaps the most interesting point was that Rams criticises John Dix for not publishing facts he doesn't like on his blog, yet he failed to print my riposte to his comments. Rather oddly, Rams takes John Dix to task for a statement he made, yet completely fails to address the point. Nowhere in his blog does Rams state that public sector staff are the equal of private sector companies or that the public sector is better at providing some services than the private sector. 

For some rather strange reason, Mr Rams seems to think that giving the example of shutting two libraries and replacing them with one in a location which is less convenient for the majority of the users of the original libraries is an improvement. Mr Rams fails to state how many books were kept at the previous locations and how many will be available at the Arts Depot Library.

I visited the new Arts Depot libary on the day it opened and it had about 1/5th of the floorspace of the former Friern library. Is this an improvement?

But all of this is a little bit of a sideshow. Why has Mr Rams chosen now to have a go at Mr Dix. If I was going to attack any of the Barnet bloggers on the issue of honesty and credibility, John Dix is the last person I would start with. I happen to believe that all of the Barnet bloggers are honest, decent and intelligent people and write blogs out of a sense of public duty. I know first hand how much work goes into the blogs and how much of a personal commitment it takes. Unlike this blog, John Dix doesn't allow his personal prejudices and emotions dictate his agenda. John is thoughtful and intelligent in his writing and I suspect he chose the name "Mr Reasonable" for his blogging because he wanted to put some distance between his style and content and that of myself and perhaps some of the other Barnet bloggers (that is purely conjecture though, I've never actually asked him). 

Whilst it is well known that Robert Rams has a personal dislike of bloggers and has operated an agenda against them in his publicly funded role at the GLA since 2008 (Mr Rams boasted that he'd finished my blogging career in 2008, when he got the Hendon Times to shut my blog on the papers website down, following my campaign against an anti semitic video Barnet Council had posted on YouTube), it still surprised me to see his attack on John Dix. So why the attack? Why now?

Well sadly, the anyone who follows the Barnet blogs will know exactly why Mr Rams has chosen this moment to attack John Dix. You see a group of three Barnet bloggers (I am far too lazy to bother going) attended the Council offices, to exercise their statuatory right to inspect the books. There is a short period every year, where the law allows residents to check the accounts to see whether the council has spent our money wisely. The law says that members of the public can see anything they like and the council has a duty to cooperate as fully as they can. 

When Mr Mustard, Mr Reasonable and Mrs Angry turned up, they were taken to an office, offered no refreshment, given escorts to the toilet and when the documents appeared, the contents were heavily redacted with page after page crossed out. The bloggers found evidence that some of the contracts they requested to see were heavily redacted as "commercially sensitive" even though the companies who had the contracts had not asked for confidentiality. 

Furthermore, some of the requested documents did not appear at all. Given that the Council has a legal obligation to supply the information, we are now in a situation where there is a technical breach of the law. Anyone who follows these blogs, knows that Barnet Council is rather keen to involve the law in the most petty of disputes. Helen Michael has now had four visits from various police officers regarding a poster she and other traders displayed in their windows, concerning parking charges. She was reported by Nick Walkley, the Council CEO. We wonder whether Mr Walkley will report himself to the Police for failing to supply the bloggers with the information they were legally entitled to see.

So we have a situation where the council has failed (yet again) and the bloggers (yet again) find themselves asking why. Have the council obstructed the bloggers investigations purely to be awkward, or is there something they wish to hide? It is not beyond the wit of man to figure out that the bloggers asked for specific documents for a specific reason. I was not surprised to hear of the obstruction.

I do wonder about who actually advises the council in these matters. Have they not yet realised that the Barnet bloggers have excellent press contacts. As a result of this blog, I've been interviewed on the One Show, contributed to ITV Tonight, been interviewed on BBC London 94.9 and written articles for the Guardian newspaper. The bloggers also have excellent contacts with magazines such as Private Eye. I have no idea whether the council have figured out what is about to happens and sent Rams on a pre-emptive strike to try and undermine John Dix or whether Mr Rams has embarked on a half baked freelance mission. One thing I can assure all of my readers of is this. 

Whatever the reason, I would suggest that all that will happen is that Mr Rams will end up (yet again) looking  extremely stupid. On Friday, I attended Barnet Museum. The Londonist was recording it's weekly podcast and I was invited to participate. Before the recording started, Nick Quinten Woolf, the presenter had a chat about the museum and the threat of closure. He was bemused as to why Barnet Council should want to shut such a fantastic asset. During the course of the conversation, the name Robert Rams cropped up. 

When we were about to start the interview, Mr Woolf gave us a few guidelines. The final one was to "not mention Councillor Rams by name as I don't want a libel writ". It may (or may not) surprise you to know that the comment wasn't directed at me. It is pretty clear to me that, given the fact Rams has the job of press officer for the GLA on his CV, he really is pretty useless when it comes to dealing with the media. He has launched a tirade against John Dix, shortly before John Dix takes a major part in exposing a disgusting scandal at Barnet Council. I eagerly await Mr Rams attacks on Mrs Angry, Mr Mustard and Citizen Barnet. 

This issue is going to be a big story. It is not  a story the Barnet Eye has any role in, other than a bystander, it is a story for the other bloggers and a testament to their hard work. 

The Friday Roundup - 2/3/2012 - Salacious stories, lazy Tories and Jackanory

The Barnet Eye weekly Roundup

Welcome, one and all, to the Barnet Eye Friday roundup. There are two good news stories about Barnet in the Hendon/Barnet Times online edition today.

The first is the calling in of the decision to close Friern Barnet Library. This means that local Tory Councillors have recognised the worth of the library and the loss of amenity to local residents if it shuts. There is plenty of mileage left in this story, but at least it shows the council is starting to listen to residents. The Hendon Times covers the story here :-


http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/9565503.Campaigners__thrilled__library_closure_referred_back_to_Cabinet/

The second story is that Award winning film director, Ken Loach, has given a resounding thumbs up to A Tale of Two Barnets, the documentary film made by US Director Charles Honderick about Barnet.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9564591.Barnet_film_given_thumbs_up_by_Loach/

You can check out the film website here - http://ataleoftwobarnets.yolasite.com/ - You can see a rough cut of the Ken Loach interview on the Gallery page here - http://ataleoftwobarnets.yolasite.com/gallery-and-trailers.php - well worth a look.

And on to the Press group of newspapers. Their big story is the fact that Councillor Brian Coleman is YET AGAIN up before the standards committee. Yet again he has failed to treat people with respect and yet again he's been sending people insulting emails. This despite the Standards committee ordering him to have training, which he has not done, to learn how to write polite emails to taxpayers.

http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=7859&headline=Standards%20committee%20set%20to%20rule%20on%20councillor%E2%80%99s%20conduct

Perhaps the saddest story is that of Ryoji Ogi, 35, from Finchley, who was convicted of using a shoe camera to film up schoolgirls skirts. I took particular interest in this story, because a friend of mine apprehended a pervert doing this on a local bus last year. The person in question was filming girls of primary school age. I personally would like to see Mr Ogi get the harshest sentence possible for his crime. It is clearly pre-meditated and I believe it is a violation of innocent youngsters for the sickest form of personal sexual gratification. The longer Mr Ogi is kept away from vulnerable younsgters, the better.


http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/News.cfm?id=7798&headline=Shoe%20camera%20pervert%20guilty%20of%20filming%20up%20skirts

So on to the blogs of Barnet.

Broken Barnet has found yet another dodgy arrangement, a year after the Metpro Scandal and the assurance from Barnet council audit department that there were no other such contracts.

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2012/03/friday-joke-one-year-after-metpro.html

Mr Reasonable talks about the One Barnet project and the "preferred bidders" for it, BT and Capita Symonds. He notes the high quality of debate on items of huge financial importance.

http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2012/02/hello-bt-and-capita-what-barnet-expects.html

Citizen Barnet is also delighted with the news about Friern Barnet library. She reproduces in full the the letter of thanks from the Friern Library Campaign. This pays tribute to everybody's favourite Conservative Councillor, Kate Salinger. Kate is universally respected on all sides for her honesty and integrity and her willingness to engage with local people and groups, such as the library group. We need more councillors like her on all sides (Mrs Angry even pays tribute to her in the film A Tale of Two Barnets). Kate's integrity and high esteem has been recognised with her appointment as Deputy Mayor. Mill Hill Councillor, Brian Schama has got the job of Mayor. Brian beat me to the job of Councillor in the Mill Hill Council election, two years ago. He's a top bloke and I'm pleased at his selection. He's one of the good guys.

Labour Councillors, Barry Rawlings and Pauline Coakley-Webb are also mentioned.

http://citizenbarnet.blogspot.com/2012/03/real-lifeline-thrown-to-friern-barnet.html

I was also going to list the latest exciting story from the Barnet Bugle, Ex Councillor Daniel Hope's pro Barnet Tory blog, but lazy old Dan hasn't bothered to post anything since Theresa Villiers fell off her bike on January the 26th. Mind you, compared to Councillor Robert Rams, he's a workaholic - Sheepsjacksie hasn't posted to his blog since December the 22nd - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/ sadly, Councillor Ramsbottom would never make Jackanory with the standard of his prose and appreciation for the English Language - If you are interested in the Barnet Tory point of view, I'd suggest you follow Daniel on Twitter. His tweets are absolutely fascinating, here is this weeks finest example :-

https://twitter.com/#!/barnetbugle/statuses/175290871753871360

KFC in Muswell is no more! Don't rejoice just yet... it's now become "Kennedy Chicken".

Retweeted by The Barnet Bugle Ltd

And finally from our roundup, the best of the week. Mr Mustard exposes a Barnet Council secret paper. Sadly, the paper reveals nothing at all. As to why it's secret, I've no idea whatsoever, apart from the fact that Barnet Council has an overbearing secrey culture, which is to the detriment of a well run organisation.

http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-was-this-dpr-top-secret.html

Before I sign off, here is a call to arms for everyone in Barnet with a story to tell.  As someone who has seen first hand the power of guest bloggers, I can give testament to the value of telling your story. I subscribe to "Metropolitan Lines" the Guardians online newsletter for London. This arrives every Friday. They are asking for Londoners to contribute their stories. Metropolitan Lines is edited by Dave Hill, who has been a staunch supporter of this blog. - Here is what the Guardian want.

Coming up: special announcement
From Monday for two weeks the Guardian will be inviting its readers to participate in a unique crowdsourcing project about London and its forthcoming mayoral election. Each day at Comment is free and my London blog I'll be inviting you to contribute policy ideas to our very own Manifesto for a Model Mayor, which will be published in e-book form by the end of the month. 

An article telling you more about this exciting exercise in Guardian open journalism will appear on Sunday morning at 11.00. The aim is to paint a picture of a dream mayoral candidate and the policies to bring his or her vision for the capital to life. What sort of London do want a mayor to help build? Get thinking now. We need your help!

You can sign up for Metropolitan Lines here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/signup/2009/may/08/london?CMP=twt_gu

Commentary on Guest Blogs.

This blog has a policy of publishing guest blogs from other people who are concerned about the quality of life in Barnet. Generally these have been extremely interesting and informative. If you look at the sidebar, you will see the blogs which have received the most hits in the last week. It is unusual for there not to be a guest blog or two in this list. The guest blog which tops the table at the moment -  Guest Blog - Opposition to huge rent rise growing has had over 1,000 direct hits (where people have specifically chosen to view this blog rather than just generically looked at the Barnet Eye main page and read it. Four of the ten most viewed blogs in the last month have also been guest blogs. There may be many reasons for this, not least because I suspect my guest bloggers write with an authority on their subject, driven by direct personal experience. I doubt that most of these stories would ever see the light of day, if it wasn't for the Barnet Eye.

What may interest you is that most of the people who send me guest blogs are people I've not met or have only had the most casual of meeting at, maybe they've said hello at a council meeting. Perhaps even stranger is the fact that my team of guest bloggers are actually full of thanks whenever I publish their blogs. Surely, given the quality and work they put in, it should be the other way round? (which in fact it is).

It may not surprise you to know that I always read guest blogs before I publish them. Today when I received the just published blog from Janet Leifer, I wished I hadn't. It ruined my Monday morning to look through the window into the life of Janet and her husband. It may, for all we know, be a window into our own future. My admiration for carers such as Janet is beyond expression. The love she clearly has for a husband who clearly is completely reliant on her and who clearly has many needs is an example to us all. I wonder how I would cope in such a situation?

Now here's the point. When I read Janets story and how she's been treated by Barnet Council, I asked myself this question. I pay a lot of money in tax, I'm a sort of well of chap. Last night, I drank a bottle of good wine, had a tasty curry at the Day of the Raj in Mill Hill and washed it down with two pints and a complimentary Brandy. It cost me £70 ish of my hard earned money. I felt I deserved it after a hectic week. I do something similar of a weekend, most weeks. How many of those lovely tasty dinners would I forgoe to spare myself having to read emails from people who are suffering cuts. One a year? Two a year? Would two less curries a year to solve the problems of funding of social services in Barnet be a sacrifice worth making? It would to me. That would equate to a 10% rise in council tax in my band (approximately). Now I'm not an idiot, I actually believe no tax increase is required, because I know for a fact that Barnet Council is badly run and there are huge savings that could be made, simply by purchasing goods and services more effectively. The Metpro and RM Countrysides scandals have proven this. These are just two tiny suppliers which by chance came onto the radar of bloggers.
Even worse is the fact that Mr Reasonable - John Dix, offered his services free of charge to Barnet Council to help them identify savings and they never got back to him.

It doesn't stop there. The job description for the CEO Nick Walkley requires him to have "business acumen". How has this "business acumen" been demonstrated? Well his regime has introduced a massive hike in the cost of visitors permits in CPZ zones. As a result sales have plummitted, costing the council half a million pounds so far. His regime replaced pay and display parking with pay by phone. A sensible council would have rolled this out over a period and tested the system. Barnet went big bang and the explosion is killing our High Streets. Not only that but revenue has gone down by 14% as a result. All of these initiatives were the brainchild of Councillor Brian Coleman, a man who earns approx £120,000 from a string of publicly funded part time jobs, but has no experience of running any commercial enterprise. How can you have a bloke who wasn't even in charge of the tuck shop at QE boys school, deciding charges which can mean life or death for local businesses?

We seem to find ourselves in a perfect storm in Barnet. We have inept politicians and council officials, who have never run a whelk stall making decisions which are killing our businesses. We have a social services department which dishes out £50 shopping vouchers, yet won't fund visits to daycare centres for elderly gentlemen with dementia. We have a council which spends £70,000 on a "pilot project to resolve chaos" yet hasn't got the wit to make it's own housing tenants behave themselves.

Can I tell you a funny thing. I've only ever fobbed off one potential guest blogger. A couple of years ago a woman got in touch. She told me a story that was so ridiculous, so far fetched and so unlikely and so littered with terms of abuse about Barnet Council and Barnet Tories that I thought "I'm not falling for that old trick". I thought that it was an attempt by Barnet Council Tories, to get me to publish something which, in the run up to the council elections, would allow them to sue me for defamation.

To my eternal shame, the lady I fobbed off in disbelief is Mrs Angry of Broken Barnet fame. At the height of the Metpro scandal, when all manner of shenanigans were occurring, I confessed that I'd fobbed her off and explained why. She said that at the time she couldn't understand why I'd not been interested, but now she knew how Barnet Council worked she completely understood. In actual fact, I think I probably showed exceptionally good judgement, because she set up her own blog, for which all of us in Barnet should be eternally grateful. I have learned and I will not make that mistake again though !

Barnet Traders Special - North Finchley Business owners speak

A week ago I was at the Arts Depot, attending a Barnet Council organised forum for small businesses. Yesterday, I attended my own little mini forum of small business owners in North Finchley. At the council meeting I'd been highly impressed withthe way Helen Michaels, the owner of Cafe Buzz had spoken. Even more impressive was the way she seemed to have complete backing of virtually the entire meeting. At the meeting I gave Helen my card, told her about the blog (she'd never heard of it before) and suggested we do an interview. She agreed, so I made my way up to her business, Cafe Buzz in North Finchley yesterday afternoon, to see her. She advised me to arrive hungry, as she'd be providing lunch. I was a bit taken aback when I arrived. I had expected a quite chat, but the shop was full of the owners of small businesses, all wanting a chat as well. It became clear why Helen had the support of the hall, she is a natural organiser.

Before we got going, she kept her side of the bargain and provided me with lunch, which I must say was excellent. Without wishing to get too sidetracked, I am on an anti cancer diet right now which involves being virtually vegan, eating plenty of antoxidants and drinking a minimum of five cups of green tea a day. In the vast majority of cafe's in London, this means that you are generally limited to fried tomatoes and mushrooms, and if you are lucky a slice of wholemeal toast without butter. Helen provided a very tasty snack of lentils and roast vegetables, with a fine cup of green tea to boot. And don't be mistaken, all of the other stuff I'd have eaten had I not been on the diet were there, tastily beaming out at me.I suspect I'll be back again

So who did we have? We had a hairdresser, the owner of a health shop, the owner of a discount store, the butcher to name but a few. Now normally I'm a copious note taker, but for some reason I'd left the notepad in the car, and I'd parked a half a  mile away to avoid having to pay to park ( I can't be bothered to register and I don't want to give Coleman a penny in parking charges). If you don't mind a schlep and you are visiting in North Finchley, you can park for free in Avondale Avenue except between 2 and 3pm.

As I tucked into my lunch, perhaps the most interesting part of the chat occurred. We all discussed the issues and challenges of running a small business in these times. Helen summed it up when she said "I am personally responsible for the lease, I can't walk away from it, even if I wanted to". She explained how a few years ago "someone from Barnet council asked me why I want to run a business here and suggested I'd do better if I moved to Brent Cross". She explained how Councillor Brian Coleman had marched into one of her neighbouring stores and demanded that the owner moved some street furniture, which he'd taken a dislike to "Get your property off my street". That was her first encounter with Coleman. She said "what right does he have to call it "my street", we pay rates". All of the business owners told the same story. There turnover was down. Some by 15% some by 30%. Why? The same answers time and again. "People can't be bothered with the hassle of paying to park". I asked about the 115,000 people that the council have claimed to have registered? "That is less than 1/3rd of the population. That is probably people who have to because they park in Council car parks for work."  The hairdressers have said that it is the hassle factor rather than the cost which is putting her customers off. "People are just baffled by the system. Who has twenty minutes to register for the system, for a quick trim?" The owner of the discount store was far more blunt "They're killing our business and they don't care".

We discussed politics. Most of the assembled group agreed that the small business community is pretty staunchly Conservative. How has the changes affected this "We won't be voting for them agin until they start listening". One of the group said "I love Boris and what he's doing, I can't believe he's tied up with Coleman, that will hurt him round here". Helen has had a bunch of t-shirts made up. She's getting a group of small business owners together to protest at the Boris and Brian show at the Talk London event tonight at the Peel Centre in Colindale.

We discussed the cost of making the parking regime more business friendly. We discussed the claim by Richard Cornelius that it would cost £2 million to introduce free parking  for 1/2 an hour. I dispute this claim. You may ask why? Because it is clear to me that no one really has a clue how much it would cost. There are two types of shoppers. Those that want to spend 5 minutes buying a paper, milk, get cash out of an ATM etc. Then there are those that are having a meal, getting their hair done or other lengthy appointment. To me the answer is simple. Have a designated section of parking in each High Street, maybe 20% of spaces, where there is free parking for 1/2 hour. In these bays, if you park longer than 1/2 hour without a ticket, treble the fine. If the space is available, you can still pay and display for longer, but you have to pay. This would ensure a turnover of car parking spaces. It would mean that people just nipping out for a sandwich at lunchtime would be spared the effects of the stealth parking tax.

Richard Cornelius asked how the council could plug the gaps in their finances. Here's one suggestion. Last year, Barnet Blogger Mr Reasonable suggested on the Council Pledgebank, that he would donate his time free of charge, to the Council if he could look at the books and identify savings. The council never got back to him. I would suggest that Barnet Council, take Mr Reasobable up on his offer. I'd suggest that they also invite myself and Helen Michaels to take part. Any savings we identify, could be offset against the supposed £2 million required to fund the parking changes.

It may not surprise you to know that I think we could save a minimum of five times that amount (£10 million). How can I make such a claim? Well quite by accident bloggers discovered that Barnet Council had paid Metpro Security over £1.4 million for security services. There was no tender for this work and no proper contract. As a result of our enquiries, the agreement was cancelled and the work retendered to companies which charged far less. Even worse, much of the work was deemed "unnecessary". At the audit meeting, where this was discussed, it was revealed that of the 9,700 suppliers Barnet use, only the top 187 are actually properly audited. I would suggest that between myself, Mr Reasonable and Helen Michaels, it is inconceivable that we wouldn't find at least a couple of dozen other such expensive and wasteful practices and examples of unnecessary services. I'd be happy to give the rest of Barnet the £8million savings, once we'd got the funding for our free parking initiative. What is more, I doubt it would take people, who are used to eking out savings running their own businesses very long to achieve. Here is my challenge to Barnet Council. Call the bluff of the Barnet Eye. Take up this challenge. You really cannot lose. You'll either get a stack of savings or you can discredit me for once and all. All I ask is unlimited access to the books. I will happily sign a non disclosure agreement if that is what is necessary, to protect any sensitive data.

Of course, if Barnet refuse to take up this offer, what does that tell you? I await the call.

Barnet Eye weekly round up - Philistines trash Barnet

I've been in France, no internet, no papers for a week, so I've been totally out of touch with the news in Barnet. For me the big news (and sad news) is the story that Barnet Council is selling off Church Farmhouse museum.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9167638.Farmhouse_museum_sale_sparks_anger_among_supporters/ 

I made this video about Church Farmhouse museum on the sunday before it shut. It features Gerard Rootes, the now Ex curator of the museum, giving his views on the museum. Sadly this video and a few memories are all that is left of the museum, thanks to Councillor Robert Ramsbottom and his Tory chums.


Shame on them. This is an act of philistinism. I had absolutely no doubt that this would happen, from the first moment that the cuts to it's budget were announced. Barnet Council really do make me sick. It's OK to concrete over green spaces, build mini cities in Brent Cross, build incinerators next to them, but when it actually comes to providing things for the people of Barnet to enrich their life what happens?

Museums budgets are cut
Libraries are closed
Football pitches are sold off
Grants to voluntary sector organisations are cut

So I hear you ask, how can we justify supporting the arts in these times of recession and debt?

Well lets look at a few things which haven't been cut

The pay of the CEO of Barnet Council and other senior executives
The allowances for Councillors (committee chairmen got a 50% rise)
The budget for consultants to outsources the council

Do I hear you say that "The consultants are increasing efficiency". This is complete codswallop. The Future Shape/OneBarnet/Barnet Track project has been running for over three years, has sucked millions from the coffers and delivered no net savings whatsoever. In fact if they had just concentrated on realising efficiencies using the Councils own staff and resources, they would have had enough money in the kitty to fund all of the chopped museums, libraries and other voluntary sector grants.

Whilst spending huge amounts on these consultants, they've let purchasing run out of control. This has been demonstrated by the Metpro fiasco, where £1.4 million was spent on a company which didn't even have a contract or the licenses to legally provide the services.

As for the Barnet blogs - my pick of the week. Mr Mustard notices that the One Barnet project has ceased to exist. Imagine my surprise. A week in Lourdes and we have a miracle whilst I'm away !


http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-barnet-now-you-see-it-now-you-dont.html

Sadly Mr Mustard had played a nasty practical joke (we have a good sense of humour, us Barnet bloggers). Nope, OneBarnet hasn't disappeared, they've just stopped telling us how much they spend on it.

Mr Reasonable reports that he's listed a whole plethora of errors in the way Barnet Council pay invoices without proper supporting information.
http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/07/audience-with-auditors-part-two.html

There is an absolutely fantastic post from VickiM on Colindale. Vicki shares my concerns about the fact that the council is obsessed with shiny new developments, whilst leaving existing Council victims housing tenants to rot in run down, badly maintained, pseudo slums. Top blogging Vicki - no one seems interested in Graham Park, Burnt Oak etc, it is truly shameful.
http://vickim57.blogspot.com/2011/07/colindale-can-you-feel-rhythm-or-would.html

Mrs Angry reports provides documentary evidence showing that Councillor David Longstaff is without doubt a prize cock. Which stone did they find this failed actor under?
http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/07/recall-performance-appraisal-for.html

I would also have given a roundup of Robert Rams blog, but old lazybones couldn't be bothered to post anything, despite being responsible for selling off Church Farmhouse museum.

Barnet Eye Weekly Roundup - The dark arts hit Barnet !!!!

There is something in the air. Vickim broke the news that Brian Coleman has appointed a spin doctor. I wondered how on earth you could put a positive spin on Brian (the Buffet Slayer) Coleman. Well now we know. I suppose it was bleeding obvious really  - slur the other bloke. Seems like Brian Colonman has gone on the attack on the expenses issue. Now I wouldn't have chosen this as a battleground if I was Brian Colemans spin doctor, but hey what do I know about such things. Interestingly the case for Brian Coleman seems to be that he's hard working, a mate of Ken Livingstone and a staunch supporter of the plan to shut Wyevale Garden Centre and replace it with Etz Chaim Jewish Free school. I wonder if Brian will still be as thrilled in June 2012. Still, I guess at least he'll have more time to write articles slagging off the British Olympic team. It will be interesting to see how this spat develops. At least Coleman has served early notice as to how he plans to conduct his campaign.

Mr Reasonable published a blog which deserves a far wider audience, detailing the subject of how a £2.5 million IT project has cost 10 times the original budget. Yup, £25 million for a system which still doesn't work properly.  Mr Mustard published a blog exposing the myth (Brian Coleman again) that Barnet has similar parking charges to other Boroughs. This is a story which the local press really should have picked up on. I wonder what Brians spin Doctor has to say about this (all Dismores fault no doubt)?

Our favourite councillor Little Bobby Sheepsjacksie Robert Ramsbottom had a simply fascinating post about Barnet Council infographics. Bobby has sophoric powers unique in the whole Universe. One supposes that Bobby thinks that people actually enjoy this drivel. Sadly he refuses to publish any comments I leave? What a poor little twatlet he is.

Finally in our roundup, we have the Broken Barnet blog, written by Finchley's favourite fishwife.
Mrs Angry details how Boris has sent her son a letter. Boris says :-

Ever since my 18th I have enjoyed my life as an adult citizen of the best big city on earth, and I hope you will too. I look forward to the vital role you will play in making London even greater.


Now if I was Mrs Angry, I'd be livid. We all know what sort of shenanigans Boris was up to, when he enjoyed life as an 18 year old member of "The Bullingdon Club" at Oxford University. Wikipedia notes that Boris and his chums got up to all manner of "fun" at the expense of the lower orders :-

Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: "I don't think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash. [...] A night in the cells would be regarded as being par for a Buller man and so would debagging anyone who really attracted the irritation of the Buller men."

Charming.

As to the "respectable press".  The Barnet Press and associated papers are on strike. See the video in the sidebar for more details. This blog was started as I felt local issues were being neglected. As the strike is over journalisitic quality, I clearly fully support it. The most popular story details how staff at the Royal Free will not be getting bank holiday pay for working the Royal Wedding. It seems that we can spend billions of pounds of public money, giving one of the richest couples in the country a day to remember, but we can't afford to pay the people who run our vital services properly to keep their country running.

And onto the twits. Matthew Offord tells us he was having a great time partying in Burnt Oak. Of course Mike Freer MP and Theresa Villiers MP are far too haughty to visit Burnt Oak, or even to twitter.

Anyway, I'm off to plant a few flowers on my Mum & Dad's graves, then to settle down for an afternoon of football, beer and fine food.

Dear friends .......

I felt the need to have a weekend where I completely ignored the shenanigans at Barnet Council, the issues with the Metpro inquiry, the scandalous plans to outsource all council functions under the easycouncil/OneBarnet/BarnetTrack project, the Catalyst Legionella outbreak, the fact that the Leader of the Council - Lynne Hillan has disappeared and no on is in charge, the fact that they've been exposed by Mr Reasonable for spending over £20 million on an IT project with a budget of £2.5 million, the list goes on and on. I feel much better for having a weekend where I concentrated on football, family and films. Sadly the problems have not gone away and if we don't keep writing blogs and highlighting all of the things which are going so badly wrong, they will get away with it all.

We need to keep the pressure on about all of these things, if not redouble it. I have been passed some rather interesting information, which I will start sifting through tomorrow. Watch this space, there will be some very interesting blogs appearing here later this week, concerning the shenanigans within our Council. I really don't want to say too much until I've done my homework, but I'd strongly advise the de facto Leader of Barnet Council (in Hillans absence) Andrew Harper, to have a long chat with his CEO - Mr Nick Walkley and ask him this question -  "Nick, have you checked the CV's of some of the senior officers you've brought in. Are you aware of their previous track records".

I'm playing a rather interesting game now called "join the dots". If things go where it appears they are going, we are in for some exciting times.

Congratulations to Mr Reasonable

Congratulations to fellow Barnet blogger Mr Reasonable. He has received the highest accolade available to London Bloggers and been selected by Dave Hill at the Guardian as a Top London Blog. It is a well deserved accolade for some really good work. Barnet is hugely over represented in this list, which shows what a great blogging community we have (or what a crap Council, take your peak).

The full list of Dave's Top bloggers is here :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/blogosphere

And my list of top Barnet Bloggers is in the sidebar (+ a few others I like)