Jonathan Hoffman pickets Miriam Margolyes at the Arts Depot

Leading Zionist campaigner Jonathan Hoffman staged a protest at the Arts Depot against actress Miriam Margoyles, for signing a letter criticising the Globe Theatre for inviting an Israeli Theatre company  Habima (The National Theatre of Israel) to give two performances of The Merchant of Venice as one of its 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 languages season. 


Former Mill Hill Tory council Candidate, Richard Millet reports on the incident in his blog. He also shows a short video clip of a local resident giving Mr Hoffman short shrift for his campaign -  http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/protests-outside-arts-depot-against-anti-israel-actor-miriam-margolyes/ - clearly offended by this attack on a "national treasure". Some of the comments are (to me at least) rather interesting. One commenter is deeply offended that Ms Margolyes boasted of "helping a soldier to Mastibate (sic)". What an easily offended bunch of people read Richards blog.

What I'm going to say next will probably sound like heresy to most of my friends on the liberal left in Barnet. I actually feel a bit sorry for Mr Hoffman. The last time he was in action protesting, I met him and had a chat. He was leading a pro Brian Coleman protest when Brian was done for breaching the standards code. On that occasion he had two other protestors with him. His protest failed and Coleman lost.

On this occasion it seems he only had Richard along for company. It appears that the sell out crowd largley ignored him and it seems they all went in to see the show. As someone who has been to a few protests, there is nothing more disheartening than when no one else turns up and everyone by and large ignores you. I was warned after I spoke to Mr Hoffman at the Coleman hearing, that he was a dangerous and shady individual. I have to say that a bloke standing outside a theatre handing out leaflets which are largely ignored, is in my book no threat to anyone. I always feel quite relieved when we see oddball protests, which we don't really understand. To me it is all part of the fun of living in a democracy. Earlier this week I blogged about how a Russian punk band called Pussy Riot had been jailed for writing an Anti Putin song. The more people  that we have on the streets like Mr Hoffman, the less likely we are to see that happen here.

We need people like Mr Hoffman (whether we agree with them or not) to make peaceful protests. It is part of a democracy. We should also not be surprised when people meet such protest with complete apathy, when people think the whole thing is a complete waste of time.

You may wonder what my views are on Miriam Margoyles, her criticisms of Israel and Mr Hoffmans response. As Ms Margolyes is, like Mr Hoffman, Jewish, my view is that I'll leave them to have their argument well alone. They both clearly feel quite passionate about it and totally disagree with each other. The last thing they need is people like myself who are ill informed about the issues to stick their oar in. I'm sure if you have an interest in Israel or Palestinian issues, you will already have made your mind up and this little incident will only reinforce whatever views you already had. Anyway, I'm sure that having offended everyone with my comments here, I'm off to help at the FCHS annual Garden Fete. Have a pleasant Sunday.

Barnet Blogs update :- Buggles featuring Han Dope

As ever the Barnet Eye is keen to keep its readers up to date with the world of the Barnet Blogosphere

Probably the most notable recent addition is The Barnet Bugle. This is the work of former Barnet Conservative Councillor Dan Hope (or Han Dope as us dyslexics like to call him). Dan is an  interesting character, one of the many true blue Tories who have, shall we say, not been massively impressed with the local Tory council. Of all of the Barnet Tories I have jousted electronically for longer with Mr Hope than any of them. He understands electronic media better than any of the rest of the Barnet Tories (with the exception of Don't Call Me Dave). When he first cropped up on my radar, I coined the term "Bonkers Dan Hope" as I felt he had some rather odd views on issues such as road humps. As the local Tories became more entrenched in power and disaster followed disaster, I came to realise that Dan is actually one of the least bonkers of the Barnet Conservatives. The Barnet Bugle is running a local election diary and if you want to follow the election, it is a great place to look. I doubt that Dan really wants my endorsement, but I'd be lying if I said that the Bugle isn't one of the first blogs I check every day.

Another interesting blog, especially for those of my readers interested in Jewish issues and Israel is the blog written by Richard Millett, a former Mill Hill Conservative Candidate. This is notable as Mr Millett is not afraid to criticise the Barnet Tory Council or even David Cameron for his comments about East Jerusalem.

The Hendon Times is also running an election blog for the candidates. The Conservative challenger for Hendon, Matthew Offord has posted a few entries as has Matthew Harris, the Lib Dem. I am intrigued by Matthew Offords postings. He repeatedly tells anecdotes about what people have said to him in Mill Hill. Now I've spoken to thousands of people in Mill Hill on the campaign trail. It seems that they must tell Matthew completely different things to what they tell me. Is it possible that the people of Mill Hill are trying to cheer Matthew up? I don't know, but it is rather intriguing? The most interesting thing though is that there is no blog from Andrew Dismore, the Labour candidate (or any of the others). Wasn't he asked or couldn't he be bothered? Either way it's pretty disturbing.

Leading Barnet Tory attacks Barnet Council Parking Policy

One of the up and coming stars of the Barnet Conservative Party at the last Council election was Richard Millett. He stood for the Mill Hill ward and I whiled away many happy hours discussing the folly of his policies. Happily the people of Mill Hill agreed with me on this issue. Richard now writes a blog and it seems that he's coming around to sharing my views about the Tories at Barnet Council. He wrote a rather good piece on the scrooge like parking policies of the local Tories.

http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/parking-meters-on-yom-tov/

Richard was rightly upset that Barnet Council traffic wardens turned Easter Sunday into a nice Cash earner. Like many local Jewish people, Richard takes a rather sensible view on other peoples religions and recognises that to many people, easter Sunday will be considered as a special day and that parking restrictions should be relaxed. He states :

Barnet Council’s denigration of this holy sabbath shows lack of sensitivity for the Christian religion, for Londoners and even, if they wanted the day off, the wardens themselves.

Richard sensibly goes on to state :-

Barnet Council’s denigration of this holy sabbath shows lack of sensitivity for the Christian religion, for Londoners and even, if they wanted the day off, the wardens themselves. Barnet Council should make Easter Sunday more holy next year by treating it like the bank holiday it feels and if they don’t then they need to erect big “Parking Meters operating today” signs - Easter Sunday; a good day to be a traffic warden.

I am not so sure about it being Barnet Councils job to make any day more holy, but I fully agree with Richards comments that the Parking Wardens of Barnet Council use such occasions to catch people out. It is clear to me that the practices of some parking wardens in Barnet has greatly upset many people. As Barnet Council earn huge sums from these practices, it seems pretty clear to me that there is a policy of maximising revenue.

It is crystal clear to me that if Barnet Council and the local police put a fraction of the effort they put into catching out motorists into dealing with anti social behaviour, graffiti, rogue traders, burglars and enforcing property development rules, then Barnet would be a much better place to live.