The 10th Anniversary party for the Friern Barnet Library Occupation

 It was my pleasure to be invited to a 10th anniversary party to celebrate the reopening of the Friern Barnet library by members of the occupy movement. This eventually resulted in the council scrapping their plan to demolish the library and put a Tescos there. The Library is still going strong and looking better than ever. I thought I'd film the highlights for posterity


I was delighted to see the Leader of Barnet Council, Barry Rawlings in attendence, as well as Councillor Pauline Coakley-Webb, who were stalwart campaign supporters, as well as new Friern Barnet Councillor Linda Lusingu. Also present was Sarah Sackman, who is running to be the candidate for the Finchley and Golders Green seat. Sarah represented the campaign in the court case. I'm not an FGG resident or a Labour member, but I genuinely think Sarah should be selected. She is one of the most capable and committed people I've ever met. Parliament and the Labour Party needs strong MP's and she would be one of the very best.

It's happening! I have applied today to be Labour’s next candidate for Finchley & Golders Green.

I've spent the last decade fighting for our communities, speaking truth to power & giving a voice to people who need it most.

Now I need your help to turn this seat red. pic.twitter.com/Bj255E7us2

— Sarah Sackman (@sarahsackman) September 20, 2022

I have absolutely nothing against the other candidates, but Sarah is a far higher calibre candidate. When she spoke, I was reminded just how good she is. 

What a lovely afternoon at the 10 year celebration of the reopening of the Friern Barnet Library. Great meeting Phoenix again! Good speeches from @BarryJohnRawlin @sarahsackman & @Barneteye Where did those ten years go? pic.twitter.com/6bu8EbgREY

— Donald Lyven (@barnet_rebel) October 9, 2022

It was also nice to see retired rabbi Jeffrey Newman, former accountant Keith Martin, who was one of the defendents in the case and Joanna Fryer who has kept the library running. Perhaps the biggest shout out, should go to Pete Phoenix of Occupy, who lived in the library during the occupation and organised the reunion. I was reminded of the video I made of him when the occupation started.

The reunion was rescheduled due to the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The group shared stories. Perhaps the sweetest was of Don and Lucy, who met at the Pop Up Library and have now been together for ten years. Like many events in Barnet, the get together was slightly bonkers. Phoenix recalled how during the negotiations with the council, we ensured the officials had to sit on kiddies chairs. We recalled how Will Self did a book signing at the Occupied library. 

The Library campaign was the best, most successful I've ever been involved in. When it started I doubted we'd save the Library. Not only did we do that, but we managed to ensure that the architect of the closure, Councillor Robert Rams lost his seat on the council at the next election. I doubt that Labour would have ever won the council if we'd not won the library campaign. 

I gave a short speech, where I explained that the Policing Bill, so beloved to our anti libertarian government, would prevent a benign campaign such as the Library campaign. Liberty asked me to make a video for their campaign, explaining this. 

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Barnet Labour - They never forget and they never learn

Look at the calendar. The date is the 8th May 2015. By my reckoning it is only 1,825 days  until the next election. Things change. 1,825 days ago, the day after the last election, the Lib Dems were the kingmakers and the SNP were a bit of a joke. The Lib Dems entered the Coalition, on the promise of a referendum on electoral reform. The SNP festered on the subject of a referendum. Gordon Brown was still the leader of the Labour party for a few days. In politics things change a lot don't they?

Well not in the Barnet Labour Party they don't. In 2010 they had just lost two parliamentary seats and the Tories had tightened their seat on the Council. Andrew Dismore had lost the seat in Hendon to Matthew Offord and Alison Moore, who was both leader of the Council and parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green had overseen an awful campaign in both. Whilst Labour didn't do too badly in London generally, they put in an awful performance in the London Borough of Barnet. So what happened next? Whilst Labour has had two national leaders resign in that period, the Leader of the Council, Alison Moore, who went on to lose the council election in 2014, is still in charge. Whilst both Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband recognised that they should make way for fresh blood with new ideas, Alison Moore seems to think she should go on forever. When Alan Williams lost the council election in 2002 he resigned. After last years council elections, I had a meeting with a leading Barnet Labour Activist. He informed me that there was no one else who was up to the job. When I trotted out a list of far more charismatic and effective councillors, a  lame excuse was given time and time again as to why each was unsuitable. I stated that as far as I was concerned, if Moore remained, then it would seriously damage the campaign for Andrew Dismore in Hendon. This claim was ridiculed.

The activist used the example of the 2012 GLA triumph for Dismore in Barnet and Camden. I stated that this campaign had little to do with Alison Moore. As far as I am concerned, that campaign was won by a coalition of local groups that myself and a few other people put a huge amount of effort into pulling together. These included the CPZ group, the Friern Library Group, Helen Michael and the Finchley Traders. All of these  busted a gut to campaign for Dismore. The fantastic five local bloggers threw our heart and soul into the project. We produced a documentary film before the election, A Tale of Two Barnets, which was shown to over six hundred local people at the Phoenix Cinema, explaining how the Barnet Tories were making a complete hash of the local council. I used every media contact I had, and it was featured on BBC TV and radio as well as ITV News.

All of this ensured that Coleman was deposed. So what conclusion did the Barnet Labour party draw from this huge community campaign? They decided that the 40,000 turnaround in votes from Tory to Labour was all the result of their hard work and nothing to do with community groups, BAPS (yhe group formed out of the local popular movement) or the bloggers. For the 2014 campaign, all of these groups were effectively excluded from the campaign. Rather than building relationships in the local community, they were cut. A suicidal policy of attacking the Lib Dems was embarked upon in Childs Hill and High Barnet. This alienated thousands of Lib Dem voters from Labour. It also cost the Lib Dems the Childs Hill ward. This shoddy treatment of Jack Cohen alienated many. Cohen had always supported Labour locally against the Tories and local voters new that if votes were leant across party lines at elections, victories for Labour in national elections and Lib Dems in council wards, which would otherise be Tories would follow.

When I raised the stupity of this policy with the local activist, I was given short shrift and told that this policy would ensure a Dismore victory, as Lib Dems were forced to choose Labour or Tory. Sadly for Dismore, they all chose Tory, punishing him for his antipathy towards Jack Cohen. No party wants to encourage opponents, but local Labour knew Jack was an assett and they tried to destroy him. The arrogant assumption that Lib Dems would back Labour after such shoddy behaviour was ridiculous. Despite being banned from being a Labour Party member for standing for the Lib Dems (although I resigned from the party, I forgot to cancel my standing order for subs and in an act of spite they invoked the rule saying you can't stand for another party whilst a member), they still asked me to deliver leaflets for Labour in the 2015 election.

I broached the subject of rejoining the party a few months ago with one of the local activists and was told in no uncertain terms that I wasn't wanted. A week later I got another call to deliver leaflets, which I did. I again asked if we could sort something out and was told "If you write a grovelling apology we'll consider it". At this I decided that I'd had enough and made excuses when I was again asked. I decided that I would write blogs in support of the Labour campaign, but from an independent perspective. After the Mill Hill hustings at the Hartley Hall, I went for a curry with some Dismore activists, Dan Hope of the Barnet Bugle, Alasdair Hill, the Lib Dem candidate and a few other locals.

I again raised the subject of my membership. Much to Mr Hope's amusement, I was given a lecture on why I couldn't rejoin. Mr Hope then suggested that we have a £5 wager on the outcome of the Hendon election. He stated he was convinced Dismore would lose. Now I have no idea whether the conversation between myself and the activists had any bearing on his taking the bet, but I suspect he twigged that they were not exactly on top of their brief when it came to running a campaign.

Now I am not a narcissist. I don't think that my membership of the Labour party made the slightest difference to the result in Hendon. But I think the whole thing is a prime example of why Labour is so completely useless in Barnet. Whatever you may or may not think of me as a person, I am sure that no one can doubt my work ethic. Yet Barnet labour avoid me like the plague. What about the other active Barnet bloggers. Mrs Angry is a fantastic blogger, with a real gift for writing and Mr reasonable is brilliant at forensically destroying the financial case for Tory Competence in Barnet Council. Mr Mustard has won countless parking appeals. Before the 2014 Council campaign, we met with Labour to see how we could help there campaign. The answer was "knock on a few doors for us please". I thought this was insane.  Barnet bloggers have issued many joint blogs on important subject, we are all well versed in tweeting, and have sizeable followings locally. Yet Barnet Labour never asked us to coordinate anythiong with their campaign themes. During the 2012 campaign, BAPS and the bloggers would regularly organise "twitter storms" where we all agreed to tweet like mad on a subject at a designated time. Barnet Labour weren't interested. Whilst on my own, despite the 1.5 million blog hits I've had, I doubt I could make much of a difference, between the four of us, we could have really done quite a lot.

I found it bizarre that no one from Barnet Labour ever asked us to help get a film together in the way we had for "A Tale of Two Barnets". Any of us could have listed dozens of reasons why Barnet Tories couldn't be trusted. They didn't ask Helen Michael. Even if they'd just made Youtube clips, it would have been something. Over the years, I've done a huge amount of PR work in the music business. For a couple of years I used this experience, free of charge to help oppose the Barnet Tories. I got 60's sensations The Foundations to play at a packed rally at The Arts Depot in Finchley, which was packed out. I organised smaller scale events with bands, for BAPS as well. These were well attended and helped draw in the community. I worked with the other bloggers to maximise the impact of these events, and BAPS gave stirling support tweeting and leafletting.

Yet for the 2015 election, Labour made no use of BAPS, bloggers or other community activists. Conversations about engaging with the Lib Dems were met with disdain and comments such as "I can't understand why they are bothering to even turn up".  The Dismore campaign never once made any effort to try and win the Lib Dems over. The campaign was simply about getting the Labour core out. This failed miserably, because it insulted the intelligence of the vast mass of people who were genuinely unsure. The Tories message was support us or get chaos. Labour should have been saying to Lib Dem voters, we made mistakes but we've learned. Sadly there was no humility, and even worse there was a degree of arrogance. The Hendon campaign thought they had the seat in the bag. Several local people have said to me that they were rather put off by this arrogance.

I didn't see Matthew Offord winning either, I fell into the same complacent trap that Labour had. Whilst the activists worked hard posting leaflets and knocking on doors, ultimately they didn't sell an attractive proposition to the local floating voters. The Moore years at Barnet Council do not support the concept that Barnet labour knows what its doing. Appointing Andrew Dismore as candidate following his loss in 2010 was a mistake. I hadn't really thought about it, but as he was thrown out after three terms it Labour were effectively saying to voters "You made the wrong choice and we know best". If Dismore had simply lost on a huge national swing, then it may have worked. As it was, he lost because he had issues with his expenses that alienated many voters. The assumption was that this would simply be forgotten, but it was naive and stupid to assume the Tories would let this lie. Wheras Labour didn't use the Barnet bloggers at all, the Tories used theirs to blistering effect http://order-order.com/people/andrew-dismore/ and to be quite honest they were correct to.

By the time polling day came around, I'd decided that I couldn't give Dismore a wholehearted endorsement, so I said nothing. I cannot and will not lie to my readers. I felt completely different about Sarah Sackman, who I feel has been let down by the Barnet Labour machine.

I am left pondering the future. I have decided that I can no longer support local Labour, unless it radically changes. I am not a Conservative, so I have some serious thinking to do. But then, so do local Labour. Lets hope that they finally wake up, but it seems to me they forget nothing and learn nothing.  Now is the time to have these debates and try and learn the lessons,

Congratulations to Barnets three Tory MP's in retaining their seats

So I awoke this morning to the rather surprising news that the London Borough of Barnet has returned all three Tory MP's. I am one who believes in being gracious in both defeat and victory, so I would like to congratulate Theresa Villiers, Matthew Offord and Mike Freer. I would also like to congratulate Daniel Hope at the Barnet Bugle, who called not only the election result, but the Hendon result correctly. Following the Mill Hill hustings, Mr Hope predicted a small Tory majority and all three Tory MP's to retain their seats. So it appears that Mr Hope is after all the Mystic Meg of Barnet (Sadly this means I now owe him a fiver, but he ho, only birth, death and tax are truly inevitable in life).

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this election is that they show that opinion polls are a complete waste of time and money. Will anyone ever bother believing them again? I don't think so.

The results are as follows

Finchley and Golders Green
Mike Freer, Conservative, 25,835
Sarah Sackman,  Labour, 20,173
Richard King, UK Independence 1,732
Jonathan Davies, Liberal Democrat, 1,662
Adele Ward, Green, 1,357

Hendon
Matthew Offord, Conservative, 24,328
Andrew Dismore, Labour, 20,604
Raymond Shamash, UK Independence, 2,595
Alasdair Hill, Liberal Democrat, 1,088
Ben Samuel, Green, 1,015

Chipping Barnet
Theresa Villiers, Conservative, 25,759
Amy Trevethan, Labour, 18,103
Victor Kaye, UK Independence, 4,151
Poppy AM, Green, 2,501
Ray Marisha, Liberal Democrats, 2,381
Mehdi Akhavan, Independent, 118

These results are a stunning indictment of the Barnet Labour party. It gives me no great pleasure to say it, but the truth is that Barnet Labour are a disgrace and a shambles. Labour most certainly should have won in Hendon and had a good chance of taking Finchley. Why did they fail so miserably? It is clear that the country didn't want Ed Miliband as Prime Minister. I met Mr Miliband shortly after he was elected, with a delegation from the FSB, and it was clear to me that he wasn't Prime Minister material. I have not met anyone who felt Miliband was a credible man to take the keys to number 10.

But that is only a small part of the picture. In Hendon, we had Dr Matthew Offord, who even privately told me at the Mill Hill hustings that he expected to have "some time on his hands" after the election. Hendon Tory councillors told me that they thought Matthew was in trouble on many occasions. Following a Mill Hill neighbourhood forum meeting, I was discussing the matter with Val Duschinsky, a Mill Hill Tory Councillor, who played an influential role in Offords campaign. I told her that I thought that the only hope for Offord was to hoover up local Lib Dem votes, on the basis that the coalition had been successful. It appears that this is exactly what happened. Matthew Offord also did something none of the other Tory candidates in Barnet did He reached out to parts of the community which Tories traditionally ignore. His courting of the local Nepali community and evangilical Christians has paid off massively. I warned local Labour activist Adam Langleben of the "under the radar" work Offord was doing and sadly Adam dismissed this out of hand. This delivered a huge swing to Offord. One has to look at the Labour campaign. Andrew Dismore was rejected by the Hendon electorate in 2010. Mr Dismore was mired in the expenses scandal, which I believe did for him in 2010. Matthew Offord missed no opportunity to remind the public of Dismores expenses. When it comes down to it, people do not like such things. But the problem goes far deeper than Mr Dismore. Under Alison Moore's leadership at the Council, Barnet Labour have been shown to be naive, stupid and ineffective. There is a tight clique which control Barnet Labour and they have been thoroughly discredited time and time again.

The truth is that if you analyse the 2010 general election figures, you will see that the vast majority of the Lib Dem vote has defected to the Tories. I stood for the Lib Dems in 2010 and it was clear to me that the Labour party has completely alienated the Lib Dem voters. Between 1997 and 2005 elections, the Barnet Lib Dems and Labour had a cosy arrangement whereby they gave an implicit nod to each other to support the anti Tory candidates that were most likely to win. This resulted in Lib Dem councillors in Childs Hill, Mill Hill and High Barnet and Labour MP's in Finchley and Hendon.This is the end of the road for Andrew Dismore. Unlike his two colleagues in Barnet seats who added nearly 5,000 votes from 2010, Dismore added nothing much. It is time for fresh blood and fresh ideas in Hendon.

As you can see from the 2010 results, the Lib Dems had 5,734 voters

	Conservative	Matthew Offord	19,635	42.3	+5.2
	Labour	Andrew Dismore	19,529	42.1	−3.0
	Liberal Democrat	Matthew Harris	5,734	12.4	−1.7
	UKIP	Robin Lambert	958	2.1	+0.5
	Green	Andrew Newby	518	1.1	−0.7

Only one in five of these went to Andrew Dismore, the rest went to Offord. The reason is quite simple. Dismore has spent the campaign insulting Lib Dems and blaming them for the ills of the country. It is also quite clear that these Lib Dems looked at what he had to say and decided that they'd rather see Matthew Offord, who was quite nice about the coalition than Dismore who kept calling them every name under the sun. I haven't spoken to any Labour members yet, but I expect a lot of blood letting. The truth is that clique who run Labour are completely out of touch with ordinary voters and they simply talk to each other, convincing each other that they are on course to win. They simply expected the Lib Dems to vote Labour, despite having nothing good to say about them. Dismore only added just over 1,000 voters to his 2010 total, wheras Offord added 5,000

In Finchley and Golders Green, Sarah Sackman was always going to have an uphill task overturning Freers majority. It is clear that with the national swing (the real one, not the "opinion pollsters verdict"), she was always going to fail. Comparing the swing in Finchley with the one in Hendon, it soon becomes clear that Sarah put up a good battle.

Check the 2010 results

	Conservative	Mike Freer	21,688	46.0	+6.2
	Labour	Alison Moore	15,879	33.7	−5.4
	Liberal Democrat	Laura Edge	8,036	17.0	−0.1
	UKIP	Susan Cummins	817	1.7	+0.6
	Green	Donald Lyven	737	1.6	−1.0

Sarah put on nearly 5,000 votes, which is hugely impressive. I hope that in the cold light of day, she sees that this is a fantastic achievement. Again it appears that Freer hoovered up many Lib Dem voters. I believe that the key to this was Barnet Council Labour leader Alison Moore's decision to attack the Lib Dem stronghold of Childs Hill. This alienated a key area that has always swung behind Labour at general elections. I told Labour before the council elections last year that this was suicidal and so it has proven. Sadly I think Sarah has paid a heavy price for Alison Moore's arrogance.


Finally a quick look at Theresa Villiers in Chipping Barnet. Despite no support from the local Labour Party, Amy Trevethan added nearly five thousand votes to the total polled in 2010. Again though, the Lib Dems jumped ship to the Tories. Again I believe this was due to the way Labour disrespected the ordinary Lib Dem voters. High Barnet had been a target seat for the Lib Dems in last years council elections, they had a popular local councillor, Duncan MacDonald until 2010. Labour threw the kitchen sink at the Lib Dems in Barnet. This simply drove Lib Dems to the Tories.

Check the 2010 results

	Conservative	Theresa Villiers	19,744	46.6	+0.2
	Labour	Pauline Coakley-Webb	13,784	32.5	–7.5
	Liberal Democrat	Sean Hooker	6,671	15.7	+2.1
	Green	Audrey Poppy	1,199	2.8	+2.8
	UKIP	Victor Kaye	924	2.2	+2.2
	Rainbow Dream Ticket	Rainbow George Weiss	59	0.1	+0.1

The sad truth in Barnet is that Labour have to learn that arrogance never pays off. They have been arrogant in council, with little to be arrogant about. They have to learn that the art of seduction has nothing to do with lecturing people and telling them they are idiots. You have to tell them they are marvellous, but just this once, maybe can we have a quick kiss, whilst the life partner is looking the other way. That is why Barnet Labour failed and until they learn this lesson, they will go on failing.
In life, you get what you deserve in the end. Barnet Labour deserve nothing, because they are foolish, arrogant and lazy. Not the activists who worked tirelessly, but the people with their hands on the levers of power in the party. This blog has been broadly supportive of the Labour Party since its inception in 2008. In this time we've had over, 1.5 million hits. In the whole of this election campaign, despite posting at least one blog a day for the last year, we have not had anything from Barnet Labour to enable us to make the case for them. We asked for their candidates to support the #SaveLondonMusic campaign, which we've been running since February, but none signed up or even mentioned it with a retweet. We asked them to give us info on local stories, we got nothing, we asked for feedback on canvassing, we got nothing. All we got was press releases from Andrew Dismore that went to every other news organisation. I take no great pleasure in seeing the Tories back in, but it would be dishonest to fail to admit that when it comes down to it, they are far better at connecting with the real voters of the Borough. Until Labour realise that and come out of their Ivory towers, we are doomed to see this story repeated again and again. This process can only start with the resignation of Alison Moore. I sincerely hope she goes today. I hope Amy Trevethan takes over, because the one lesson you can learn from the above stats is that she can connect with voters and she has fresh ideas and a fresh approach.

And the other parties. It was a dismal night for the Lib Dems. If you jump into bed with your next door neighbour, don't be surprised if your partner throws a paddy when they get home and catch you. The Lib Dem voters have been none too keen on coalition. They seem even less keen on Labour though, which is why we have three Tory MP's.

UKIP have simply proven what we knew all along. They have nothiong to offer in Barnet and nothing to offer nationally. I suppose the only good thing is that they've emptied the pockets of a few billionaire backers. It's a shame these greedy opportunists backing UKIP didn't give the cash to Battersea Dogs home instead. At least that would have been a shaggy dog story with a happy end. 

On Barnet politics, finally a word about the Green party. If anyone can look at the above results and tell me that the Green party are anything but a useful way of splitting the progressive vote, they are clearly smoking something far stronger than Benson and Hedges. Thank God the whole thing is over. Much as I am disappointed with the result, if nothing else it appears the country will have stable government.

One last word on a personal note. I was pleased to see my friend Jane Ellison, a former Mill Hill and Hale Tory Councillor, reelected as MP for Battersea. Jane founded the Mill Hill Music Festival 20 years ago, before moving to Battersea. Unlike most of her colleagues at the Council, this is a fantastic legacy from her time here. Jane is no longer involved with the festival, but it is still going strong. Click the banner at the top of the page to find out more details.

The female vote will swing it for Sarah in Finchley and Golders Green

I live in the Hendon Constituency. The election campaign here is really rather boring. There is a straight choice between Matthew Offord, who has been the MP for the last five years or Andrew Dismore, who was the MP for the thirteen years before that. As such we all know what they are like, what they will do and how they will do it (or not do it). As in the vast majority of seats we have two rather dull white middle aged blokes trading insults as politely as they can. In short, it is a very boring contest, which even the local Tories expect Dismore to walk.

Breaking the mold of the old boys club

However in our neighbouring constituency of Finchley and Golders Green, one which I have strong ties with as I went to school their and my son still attends the local school, the contest could not be more interesting. The encumbant is Mike Freer, who is perhaps Parliaments highest profile LBGT candidate. Mike won many plaudits for his support of the same sex marriage bill, which when passed he took full advantage of to get married to his partner. I suspect that whatever happens on Thursday, Mike's speech will be the pinnacle of his political career. It is fair to say that Mike is not without strong local support in certain sections of the community. Prior to becoming MP, Mike was the Leader of Barnet Council and was the force behind the One Barnet program, which saw the council outsource its services to Capita. As this has been a bit of a disaster for local residents, with cock up after cock up, Mike has not been keen to claim credit in his campaign. A recent Ashcroft poll put his Labour opponent ahead, and Mike immediately did what Mike does when he's under pressure. He says stupid things. In this case, he suggested that he can represent Jewish people better than a Jew!

Which brings us to his opponent, Sarah Sackman. As you've probably guessed, Sarah is not a white middle class bloke either. She is a very effective and capable barrister, who has got stuck in to local issues. Where Mike has managed to sniff out support in some areas not normally strong in support for the Conservative party, Sarah has also reached out far beyond the typical Labour core vote. Appearances at events organised by the Federation of Small Business has given her the chance to explain her family background of small business and hard work. At recent event, everyone I spoke to was highly impressed by her. Not all will vote for her, but even the fully committed Tories told me she was an excellent candidate. She has a monumental task in trying to overturn Mike Freer's 5,000 majority, but I believe she will. Talking to many local family and friends in the community, she has one massive advantage over Mike that I've not seen mentioned anywhere. Sarah connects extremely well with female voters. Not only that but she has spent the last year or so working extremely hard for their concerns. I first met Sarah through the save Friern Barnet library campaign. At the time she wasn't a candidate, just a local person who wanted to save an important community asset. Then she became involved in the successful campaign to Save Mapledown school services for handicapped people. It was 100% clear to everyone that Sarah was right. Her arguments were compelling, and the services were saved. What was interesting though was that the person who broke ranks with other Tories to save the school was Tory Councillor Maureen Braun. Whilst I thought her case was strong, Braun picked up on the fact that Sarah was appealing for hard working mothers to be given help. On an emotional level, this swung it. As Braun is a hard nosed Tory councillor of many years, I was amazed at this. However having seen Sarah in action, I have come to realise that with female voters she has an especially strong appeal.

This view has been reinforced by her performance at various hustings and meetings I've attended, where the men felt she made a good case, but the women thought she was a brilliant candidate. I personally dismiss opinion polls in tight seats, they mean nothing. I don't dismiss the evidence of my own eyes. In 2010, Mike Freer was fighting Alison Moore, the Labour Council Leader. Moore is a poor public speaker, an uninspring candidate and her campaign had the air of simply going through the motions. She got exactly what she deserved at the polls. A sound trashing. Since then, we've had the Tories try and shut Friern Barnet Library, decimate the High Street businesses with crazy parking policies, upset core Tory voters with the CPZ hike, the attempted closing of Mapledown school services, the attack on nursery provision in Finchley and the cock up that is the One Barnet outsourcing. Add into this mix an intelligent and hard working campaigner who is an excellent public speaker and you soon realise Mike Freer has a serious fight on his hands.

I wasn't too sure how the votes would go until I found out about the local Tory smear campaign against her. She is being attacked for all manner of completely irrelevant reasons on the doorstep by rather naive Conservative canvassers. I was chatting to a couple of locals and they were telling me that a rather fresh faced Tory canvasser told them she "wasn't local" as if this was big crime. As Sarah had played a massive part in the campaign to save a local nursery school (a campaign Mike Freer studiously ignored), they simply found this insulting. They also were rather wound up with how Mike Freer had hijacked the campaign to keep the No 13 bus. The problem with making silly claims is that people see through them and actually find the person concocting the wild stories to be untrustworthy. The Tories tried the same tack with Tony Blair, claiming he was really very left wing and would hike taxes. They tried this in 1997 and people saw straight through it. They tried it again at the next two elections and it failed equally miserably, especially as people knew Blair was more right wing that half of the Tory party.

What I find quite fascinating is whilst most male voters simply see these attacks as "par for the course", the female voters I've spoken to are really put off by the whole attack dog mode of behaviour. Many in the Finchley area have not forgotten the way the local Tories initially closed ranks against Helen Michael when Brian Coleman assaulted her. It was only when the BBC showed the CCTV footage of the attack that many privately admitted they'd been hoodwinked. Sadly for the local Tories, Mike Freer's failure to condemn Coleman for his assault is an albatross around their neck with local female voters.

The recent Ashcroft poll which put Sackman ahead in Finchley was flawed in several ways. One of which is that the poll asks what party people will vote for, not by candidate name. It has been shown time and time again that when voters recognise the name, they change their preference. Sackman has worked hard to build confidence and trust and I believe this will give her at least another 3-4% of the vote. It is quite noticable when you look at the twitter comments for Freer and Sackman, just how many more female voters seem drawn to Sackman. The pictures on the street also look far less "staged" and there seems to be a bit more warmth in the pictures with locals.

Have a look and see for yourself

Mike Freers twitter picture feed
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40freer4fgg&src=typd&mode=photos

Sarah Sackman twitter picture feed
https://twitter.com/search?q=sarahsackman&src=typd&mode=photos

They say every picture tells a story.

As we move into the last day of campaigning and it becomes ever clearer that Mike's campaign is in deep doo doo, I expect all manner of scare stories and bizarre, unsubstanciated allegations from Mike Freer's camp. It is what the Tories do. When I was standing in 2010 in Mill Hill, the Tories put a leaflet out claiming I wanted to build a massive football stadium on the Green Belt at Copthall for Kentish Town FC. Given that Kentish Town FC are in a very low league and get an average crowd of 30, this was clearly nonsense (what they didn't tell anyone was that they'd lined up Saracens RFC to go into Copthall in a 10,000 Rugby stadium). It did however scare a few people into voting Tory. So if you see some wild, unsubstanciated stories eminating from Mike Freer and his friends, I suggest you take a few pinches of salt with them. Things are going to get very interesting. 

Have the Conservative Party let convicted woman beater Brian Coleman back in? *** Updated 3/5/2015

Of all the local Politicians in our neighbourhood, none is more infamous than disgraced former Conservative Mayor Brian Coleman. Less than two years ago, he was expelled from the Conservative Party after being convicted of a vicious, unprovoked assault of Cafe owner Helen Michael at Tally Ho Corner. Coleman received a large fine for the assault and his disgrace was completed last year when he lost his seat on Barnet Council, receiving a mere 265 votes when standing as an independent councillor in the elections. Despite the fact that Coleman was exposed as a complete liar at the trial, having spent six months telling all manner of porkies to the Police and denying the assault, until the CCTV footage showed the vicious assault. Coleman eventually pleaded guilty to the "assault by beating" of Ms Michael, having wasted months of Police time.

You may think that Coleman would be a bit repentant having gone from being one of the leading Tories in London to a shamed convict. You would be wrong. Only this week, Coleman stated on Twitter that he should have been given the freedom of the Borough for his attack on Ms Michael. Here is the exchange. Steve Ciobo tweeted his disgust at the execution of prisoners in Indonesia. See what you make of Colemans response

Steven Ciobo ‏@steveciobo Apr 28

There are few greater displays of abuse of State power and regressive thinking than the death penalty. #RIP

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 Apr 28

@steveciobo complete rubbish , well done Gov of Indonesia for standing up to pathetic liberals like you

Rog T ‏@Barneteye Apr 28 Walthamstow, London

@BrianColeman251 @steveciobo Brian, just out of interest, what is an appropriate punishment for a man attacking a women in the street

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 Apr 28

@Barneteye The Freedom of the Borough in my case clearly !

As you can see Mr Coleman thinks his attack was clever. The Barnet Eye believes that there is no place in public life for such a person. We happen to think that assaulting women is something which only a coward would do and only a complete idiot would boast about. Sadly though, Colemans Tory friends such as Mike Freer, the Tory candidate in Finchley and Golders Green take a rather different view. Despite Coleman admitting his guilt, Freer has never spoken out about Coleman. The two are good friends and go back a long way. Coleman engineered the palace coup at Barnet Council which made Freer council leader, propelling him into the position where he was elected MP for Finchley and Golders Green. Whilst Freer has been very vocal about issues such as same sex marriage, where he personally has benefitted from the legislation, he has been far less vocal on the subject of violence against women, something his friend  seems to think is a laughing matter. 

To my complete amazement, yesterday Brian Coleman tweeted that he's been readmitted to the Conservative Party.  Helen Michael, who had been a Tory voter until Brian Colemans parking policies wrecked her business and then assualted her, was paid a visit by the Labour candidate Sarah Sackman, with Labour front bencher Ed Balls. Unlike Mike Freer, Sarah Sackman takes the issue of  violence against women seriously. Ed Balls told Helen he wanted to show that not all high profile male politicians are thugs who beat women up and some actually want to put a complete stop to such horrible behaviour. 

Barnet Blogger Mrs Angry tweeted a picture of Helen receiving flowers from Mr Balls. Coleman, as is his want, immediately started taunting his victim Ms Michael. What followed was an exchange of tweets between myself, who was disgusted at Colemans continual harrassment of Ms Michael and Coleman, where he suggested the Tories have let him back in

Mrs Angry ‏@BrokenBarnet 22h22 hours ago

Flowers for @BuzzingHelen from ed balls pic.twitter.com/jTXg74iWrV

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 18h18 hours ago

@BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen well , well , well ........people will draw their own conclusions

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 18h18 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen Brian you may be a cock but unlike Helen you have no Balls & dont use your Ed!

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 17h17 hours ago

@Barneteye @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen #labourstooge

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 17h17 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen #ToryEmbarrassment

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 17h17 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen cleverest thing the Tories did was kick you out of the party

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 17h17 hours ago

@Barneteye and indeed readmit me

I was completely amazed by Brian Colemans claim. Could the Torys really want to be associated with Coleman? Are they so desperate for members that they would let such a complete pariah back in? We immediately started making enquiries. We sent messages to friendly sources in the local Tories, who usually are pleased to confirm the truth of stories or set the record straight. None replied. We tweeted to Mike Freer. No reply. We contacted friendly sources in the press to see if they could find out. They contacted the Tory CCHQ, who promised to get straight back to them. As of now, none of these sources have got back. In fact our press sources seemed to suggest a certain world weariness at the request, indicating that they realised the car was going over the cliff. Given that Coleman launched a scathing attack on all his Tory Council chums when he was kicked out, we are completely amazed that they would consider readmitting such a nasty, convicted felon to the party. Of course Coleman may be lying, if he could lie to the police about assaulting Ms Michael, he can clearly lie about anything. Surely though if this was the case Freer and the Tories would have denied it immediately.

If Coleman is telling the truth, we can only speculate as to why Freer would take such a risk. Being associated with Brian Coleman is election poison. One has to assume that Freer understands the risks, so what would make such a risk worth while? Given that Coleman clearly has no base of support following his Totteridge Council debacle, what benefits could Freer possibly get? Well Mike owes Brian big time, for his patronage. When Freer was council leader, he protected Coleman when he was found guilty of breaking the councils code of conduct.  Despite this only being the first of a whole string of breaches, Freer never said a dickybird. When Coleman launched the crazy parking policies that lost him his seat on the GLA, Freer defended him and his policies. Even after Coleman assualted Helen Michael and was arrested, the local Conservative party did not suspend him. It was only when the national party stepped in that his membership was revoked.

The  situation is quite clear. The Conservative Party have to come clean about Brian Coleman. Have they let him rejoin. If this is simply another example of Coleman telling porkies, why has it taken so long for anyone to say?

Does Mike Freer think violence against women is funny?

As the picture in this weeks Jewish News shows, Mike clearly is not too concerned with sensitivity around this issue. One would rather hope that such prehistoric attitudes had been buried in the past. The blog was started by a tweet from local blogger Mrs Angry. I will give her the last word as well. I think it is 100% clear how the local Tories should have reacted to the whole Brian Coleman issue. It is time for them to bring their attitudes into the 21st Century

I wait to see what the Tories have to say about Colemans comments. I trust the good sense of the people of Finchley and Golders Green to consider what sort of party they want to see representing them.

Regardless of all of this, it is clear that a vote for the Conservatives in Finchley and Golders Green is an endorsement of Brian Coleman and his behaviour. Mike Freer has had many opportunities to take a stand and say that violence against women is unacceptable. He also had many opportunities to set the record straight regarding his views on Brian Coleman and his attack on Helen Michael. I googled Mike Freer to see if he'd made any parliamentary interventions about violence against women. The only thing I could turn up was where he contribiuted to a debate on the subject of domestic abuse to remind everyone that it can occur in same sex relationships as well..

Mrs Angry @BrokenBarnet  ·  41m 41 minutes ago

@Barneteye @rozgab @David_Longstaff Such silence speaks for itself: & if it is true that it is even possible for the Tories to readmit him..

Mrs Angry @BrokenBarnet  ·  40m 40 minutes ago

@Barneteye @rozgab @David_Longstaff this says everything you need to know about the innate moral vaccum & misogny of the party.
 

*************** Updated 3/5/2015 *************
The Plot thickens. Yesterday a whole bevvy of local local Conservatives privately and publicly contacted me to say Brian Coleman had not been readmitted. The most categorical of these was from Gabriel Rozenberg who is a Conservative Councillor for Hampstead Garden Suburb. I believe Gabriel to be a honest and trustworthy guy so I pretty much took this tweet at face value and was preparing to update this blog saying as much. Here is what Gabriel had to say

Gabriel Rozenberg @rozgab  ·  16h 16 hours ago

OK, I can confirm that Brian Coleman has not been re-admitted to any local Conservative party. AFAIK he hasn't asked; if he did we'd refuse.

So that seemed to be that. As I was out last night, I got up preparing to update the blog when I noticed this tweet from Brian Coleman in response to Gabriel

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 1h1 hour ago

@rozgab you are of course misinformed

As I said above, Mike Freer is a friend of Brian Coleman. He could settle this matter for once and for all by speaking to Brian and clarifying the matter with a public statement. The matter is quite clear. Either @RozGab is "misinformed" or Brian Coleman is telling outright porkies to damage the local Conservative party, who clearly want us to believe they want nothing to do with him. Brian Coleman has put Gabriel in a difficult position. Mike Freer must either back Gabriel and expose this as a Coleman porkie or make sure Gabriel is given "accurate information". 

What is it to be Mike?

********* Updated 14.30 **********

 Brian Coleman just tweeted this. Seems like our local Tories have mislead us. We look forward to seeing what the Tories have to say, having assurred us he wasn't a member. I feel rather mislead

1. 1. Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 6m6 minutes ago

      apologies please from @Barneteye with promise never to tweet about me again as for @rozgab you are just a silly boy 

      
      

      
      

      
      

      

Why Sarah Sackman would be a great MP for the local Jewish community

Last night at the Finchley and Golders Green hustings, it seems Sarah Sackman was given a hard time over the Labour Party positionon Israel. Here is just one example tweet

Jonni Berger ‏@jonnibgood 10h10 hours ago

The damage to the labour vote for @sarahsackman in #finchley due to their unilateral support for Palestinian statehood evident tonight

Many people in the local Jewish community have justified fears about the what a Labour government may mean to UK policy towards Israel. It seems to many that Ed Miliband has courted the "militant student vote" in drawing up Labour policy. Given the record of Hamas in the Gaza Strip I can well understand the disquiet. It is clear to anyone who is any way familiar with the area exactly what would happen if Hamas ever had the opportunity to get the upper hand militarily with Israel.  This is the fear which the local Tory Party are using to ensure that the community are soundly Tory. 

What the community should consider is that the election will not be decided in Finchley and Golders Green. If you accept the proposition (which I personally don't as the Foreign Office largely set UK foreign policy), that the Tories would be universally good for Israel (again a proposition I don't really believe facts and history support), then surely the logical position is to ensure that as many strong advocates for Israel as possible are elected in the Labour Party to ensure that should a Labour government transpire, there will be effective voices for the Pro Israel lobby.

No one can criticise Sarah's credentials in this matter. Anyone who has seen her campaign for Frien Library, Mapledown disabled school, etc will realise she is an extraordinarily effective operator.  She is a barrister by trade and a very eloquent and brilliant speaker. Surely it is better to have Sarah in the Miliband government tent making the case than Mike Freer on the outside, screaming in vain?

Mike Freer and the Finchley & Golders Green pantomime

A very strange thing has happened in the Finchley and Golders Green election. In the space of three days, Tory candidate has gone into meltdown. On Monday I wrote a blog saying that being an MP seemed to be agreeing with Mike as he looked younger and far more relaxed than he did six years ago when he was leading the Council. Little did I know that a storm was brewing and Mike's notoriously thin skin was about to be stretched to the limit. The cause of the meltdown was former Tory Chairman Lord Ashcroft & respected pollster pollster who is now predicting that Labour will take the seat.

Mike reacted to this news in the way he always deal with difficult news. He got nasty and tetchy. He told the Guardian that his opponent, Sarah Sackman would jump on any bandwagon, in reference to her efforts in campaigns to save local libraries and retain funding for disabled childrens support services. Given that all of the campaigns Sarah Sackman has fought are highly emotive local issues, where even local Tories disagree with the Council, I found it hilarious that Mike would actually draw attention to them in the local paper. What exactly would Mike expect her to say if accused of "jumping on a bandwagon" when fighting for the rights of disabled children. Should she say "Oh, I am sorry I should have let their services be cut, so that Mike wouldn't insult me?" Heaven only knows what he was thinking.

 As if this wasn't bad enough, he has made an even more bonkers gaffe today.He has told Jewish News that he can "represent Jews better than a Jew".  He said  “A non-Jewish MP is able to represent Jewish constituents more forcefully as I can’t be accused of any vested interest. People know if I’m arguing for the Jewish community, it’s what I believe and what constituents want.” 

It appears that Mike is seeking to adopt the "Ali G" approach to the question of race. If it wasn't so hilariously stupid, it could be deemed offensive and patronising.Let's consider Mike's claim in a bit more detail.  Given that Mike isn't from the Finchley and Golders Green area, one has to assume that his interest in Jewish politics arrived at around the same time as he decided he wanted a career in politics. Like many politicians, Mike clearly looked at the demographics of the area in which he lived and decided it was a good move to get onside with various local communities. Now there is nothing wrong with trying to understand your electorate and representing them, but to claim that you can do the job better than someone who has grown up within a culture is completely ridiculous. A few years ago I went to a charity fundraising dinner, where a Jewish friend of mine from Orange Hill School was speaking about the need to support the charity, which raises money for local elderly Jewish people, who need care. My friend is a successful businessman and I'd never really put him down as a great orator. When he spoke, he talked about his family, how his parents and grandparents had fled Germany, how many of his uncles and aunties hadn't and how they'd perished. He talked about how his family had struggled, about how anti semitism had destroyed half his family. He talked about how his grandparents and parents had worked night and day to ensure their children had a future. He told how that by the time he was born in 1961, the family had a successful business, built from nothing. He talked of their sacrifices and the sadness in their heart for lost family members. He then explained how they needed specialist care as they reached the twighlight of their lives and how important the work of the charity was. They needed an environment that understood their social and cultural needs. The dinner was a great success raising a huge amount of money. 

When I read Mike Freer's comments, my mind went back to that. Is there any way that Mike Freer could start to put across the case so passionately? When he is in Parliament, he may speak well if he's had a briefing on a subject, but does he instinctively understand the cultural implications of what is being discussed? Whatever Mike Freer may say about Sarah Sackman, it is clear that having been born and raised in a community, she instinctively will recognise any threats or attacks, without a briefing from a friendly member of the community. To her credit, Sarah hasn't played this card, which in a seat with 22% Jewish electorate could make a huge difference. Mike Freer has. Having had the chutzpah to make such a claim, he now has to watch it crash in flames. Let me give another example of why Mike has been hoisted by his own petard. By any judgement, his finest moment in parliament was his speech about same sex marriage


It should be clear to anyone watching that the reason that Mike could put his case so effectively is because he is representing the gay community. The issue affects him directy and he was able to make a brilliant speech putting his case forward, calling on his own personal experiences. Mike was widely congratulated for this speech and it was widely accepted that the personal element that he referred to helped him make the point.

Sadly however Mike feels that Jewish people clearly can't use their personal experience to the same effect. They need "Big Uncle Mike" to make the case for them. As far as I am concerned, the idea that Sarah Sackman, who is an extremely eloquent barrister, would be less able to represent the Jewish community than Mike Freer is laughable.

The trouble with Mike is that he just doesn't seem to really be clever enough to see the contradictions in his own arguments. In truth he's in a state of panic. His campaign has become like a pantomime, with Mike shouting "Where's my Parliamentary career" and the electorate shouting "It's behind you".

The following tweet seems to sum up the general reaction to Mike Freers statement

Noa Lessof Gendler ‏@NoaGendler 18h18 hours ago

@sarahsackman @Freer4FGG A Jewish MP who'll stand up for human rights is better placed to represent anyone... (1/2)

Noa Lessof Gendler ‏@NoaGendler 18h18 hours ago

@sarahsackman @Freer4FGG ...than someone who'll defend Israel for the sake of his own votes (2/2)

I think that this statement from Mike could be the defining moment in the Finchley and Golders Green election. Whilst I am sure that some people would vote Tory even if a donkey was standing, many will be put off by what Mike had to say. I doubt that anyone in the Jewish  community thinks that only Mike Freer can represent them successfully. I think some may actually be rather disgusted by the implication that a Jewish MP may be perceived as less honest than someone who has simply turned up and grubbed for a few votes, when representing the people they've spent their life growing up with. 

The most illuminating thing about Mikes panto act is the fact that he has chosen this as his battleground. How desperate is that?