Barnets biggest joke - The Barnet Press

Do you want to see something funny, perhaps the biggest joke in the whole of Barnet. Well the letter above on the right was written by me to the Barnet Times, in response to them giving Brian Coleman, a convicted criminal, an interview in which he did his best to trash the reputation of the victim of his assault, Helen Michael. A few days before they published the article, Helen lost her mum to cancer. She is an avid tweeter, as was the journalist who wrote the article, so there is no way the journo in question could claim they didn't know. Perhaps he thought it was a jolly jape to stick the boot into Helen at such a time? Who knows, they didn't bother to ask her for her side of the story before printing Colemans attack.

Anyway, I sent them the above letter to tell them what I think of them. How did they take the criticism? Erm, rather sadly, they seem far better at dishing it out than they are at taking it. Here is there response

It seems that I am now considered a hysterical, knee jerk reactionary because I believe in sticking up for my friends in difficult times, when bullys have a go at them.

The Press is delivered to tens of thousands of homes in Barnet, and whilst many use it to line their budgie cage poo tray, some people do read it.

They try and make out that the article was simply giving a politician a chance to talk about his next job. What a complete load of old baloney. He made all sorts of outrageous statements against Ms Michael in the article, implying she was a malicious stalker who would stop at nothing to harass Coleman.  This despite clear CCTV footage of him charging at her and attacking her. To the best of my knowledge Helen has never spoken to Coleman and had only ever been in the same room as him at Council and other public meeting prior to the court appearance. She has never followed him around as he implies. She doesn't write a blog either, so the claims of cyber stalking are nonsense. At the last GLA election Coleman turned a 20,000 majority into a 20,000 loss. That was not the result of cyber stalking it was the result of band and unpopular policies.


I have no objection to the Barnet Press becoming part of the Brian Coleman PR machine. I find it highly amusing when they come up with such laughable and clearly flawed excuses for their behaviour. They imply that their article was simply giving Coleman enough rope to hang himself.

All I can conclude is that as hangmen, they are extraordinarily useless as they've managed to hang themselves and their own reputation at the same time. I suppose it is fairly clear that whichever idiot at the paper wrote the article knew it was a bit dodgy, given that they didn't want to put their name to it.

I believe that local papers are vital to the wellbeing of our area. The Barnet Press, until recently, had been a decent read and rather independently minded, giving excellent coverage of many local stories. When the original article about Helen was printed I was enraged at this attack on a good friend, who was vulnerable. I was severely tempted to try and organise a boycott of advertising by local business. Then I realised that however bad the paper is at the moment, it is infinitley better than the alternative, ie no paper at all.

When it comes down to it, I don't really give a s**t what sort of names the Barnet Press choose to call me, or what sort of sanctimonious guff they want to write about themselves. That is what a free press is all about. If they have no self respect or morals, that's up to them.  I guess that at the end of the day, we just have to be a little bit grown up about it all and accept that some of the people who work at the Press are simply not very good at their job and don't really see the bigger picture. I sincerely hope that whoever is responsible for putting the Barnet Press together reads this and thinks "hang on, we've got this a bit wrong, lets learn from our mistakes". Is that really too much to ask?

Signed

Mr Hysterical Knee Jerk Reactionary AKA Roger Tichborne

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BTW The Evening Standard has today picked up the Barnet Press story, reprinting a few of Colemans rather stupid distortions about Helen Michael. It is a well known fact that Brian Coleman has a few mates at the newspaper, which soundly backed his mate Boris Johnson for Mayor. It is just as well I'm not a conspiracy theorist as if I were I'd conclude that the Brian called in a favour or two to have a pop at Helen the day before her mums funeral. But as I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I think it's just an unfortunate coincidence

G4S - A lesson for BT and Capita

This morning it was announced that G4S's share price has continued to plummet. The companies share price has lost £700 million as a result of the Olympics fiasco. There is an important lesson for the bidders involved in the One Barnet program from all of this. G4S will not loose £700 million as a result of the Olympics cock up. As I understand it, they will still get their £50 million management fee. The reason the share price has dropped through the floor is because they now have a national reputation of non delivery.

If you are working for any organisation and G4S are bidding for the contract, would you hire them now? It may well be that they would do a fine job, are far cheaper than the competition and have put the best bid in, but they have lost trust. If we analyse why, the reasons are fairly obvious. They were blinded by the glow of a large contract and didn't think through whether they had the skills or resources to meet the needs of it.

You may ask, where are the similarities between the Olympic security and the One Barnet program. They are clear to see. Barnet is now the largest London Borough. The CEO Nick Walkley has committed the Council to be the first to become "a commissioning council". In other words the scale of what is being attempted in Barnet is way beyond any other outsourcing. The complexity of the contract is such that they've already spent £9 million on consultants reports and want another £10 million to finish the work. That is £19 million pounds just to figure out how to do it. The project has ground on for four years, delivering nothing,.

The money spent so far could have saved every shut library, day care centre and paid for the continuation of sheltered housing wardens. In short, all of the cuts in Barnet have simply paid the fees for One Barnet consultants. What have they produced? Reports recommending more reports, done by themselves. The fact that this wasteful project has gobbled up £9 million so far is a scandal in itself, but merely shows the difficulty of what is being attempted. Mr Walkley and Conservative cabinet member such as Councillor Robert Rams claim there is "no alternative", but their quiet clearly is. The Association of Public Service Excellence have demonstrated this. Mr Rams tried to describe  APSE as a "left wing organisation", without actually bothering to check what they are and who they work for. They have delivered real savings to councils of all political flavours up and down the country.

Anyone who has bothered to look (and trust me, Barnet bloggers have), know that Barnet Council is riddled with inefficiency. Yesterday, three Barnet bloggers went to see the Borough auditor to discuss concerns regarding the procurement process in Barnet and to discuss specific contracts. The response of the auditor? He sent one home, because he could only cope with two people at a time.

Yesterday evening, at the Cabinet resources committee, Councillor Jack Cohen gave an impressive speech detailing how Barnet Council had rejected a bid for Hendon Football Club's old ground of £3.5 million in favour of a lower £2.8 million bid from a property developer. Councillor Cohen rightly asked why the council, in a time of desperate financial need, was not trying toa chieve the highest price?  He also detailed all manner of shenanigans going on with the property company which is buying the ground.

This is yet another example of waste in Barnet, which the council clearly lacks the organisational abilities to deal with. So lets sum up the situation. BT and Capita are bidding (as G4S) did, for huge contracts, of great complexity, on a previously unprecedented scale. Barnet Council (as it is now clear with the London Olympics) do not have the track record or the management skills to successfully administer the project. This has been demonstrated in Barnet by Metpro, Aerodrome Road, the SAP fiasco, RM Countrysides to name but a few. Perhaps the one thing which BT and Capita think may be different is the level of public interest in Barnet Council compared to the Olympics. If this is the premise they are working under, they should think again. The list of national, regional and local TV, Radio and press coverage of various Barnet issues is endless. I have personally been involved with the following over the last few months, the BBC One Show interview, ITV Tonight used my film footage, I wrote an article for th Gaurdian, I was interviewed by the Evening Standard, and have been featured in a weekly basis in the local press (so much so that when I wasn't in the paper a few weeks ago, my aunty rang to see if I was alright).

If BT and Capita think "well that's only a few stroppy local bloggers", think again. Every major news organisation has offices in London, as well as hundreds of independent documentary makers and other freelance journalists. More live in Barnet than anywhere else in the UK. The power of such people can be demonstrated by the Stephen Lawrence case. Stephen's father Neville knew the editor of the Daily Mail. As a  result Stephens case was kept in the public eye until justice was done. If BT and Capita think that a massive story on the doorstep of the worlds media will be ignored, think again. The first cock up which hits a major news producer or editor in the pocket, or affects their parents, children or friends, will result in a media frenzy, which will make G4S look tame.

I produced this graph to help illustrate the possible effect on the shareprice of BT and Capita if OneBarnet goes TU.

Having seen £700 million wiped off G4S shares as a result of the Olympics cock up, I do wonder if I was a tad optimistic? Still I don't own shares in BT or Capita anymore, so what do I care?

A very Barnet Style of insurrection

Yet again Barnet Council is mentioned in the Evening Standard today (on page 2 of the West End Final edition). The story says "Councils "could need Police to pass cuts". The text says "Police were called to Barnet town hall last week and in Labour controlled Islington protestors in the public gallery drowned out councillors agreeing £52 million of cuts".

On page one of the Standard there was a headline "LIBYA ABLAZE" with a picture of a building burning down, with reports of hundreds of people being shot. So in terms of riots, how did the Hendon Town Hall massacre shape up (given that it was only knocked off the front page by such a story).Well in the front row of the public gallery, there was a lady in a wheelchair and a couple of pensioners. I suspect (although I may well be wrong, that I was the third or fourth youngest of the 17 people who asked a question and I'm 48).

As to the Police being called. There were several Police around before the meeting began. These weren't TSG riot police, just the normal bobbies who you ask where the loo is if you don't know the place. One of these was summoned to the council chamber and had to speak to a couple of members of the audience. One of these was a pensioner and the other was a lady who was a Doctor. The Policeman rather politely asked them both to be quiet or he'd have to ask them to leave. The two people in question stated they had a democratic right to free speech. The policeman agreed but asked them to be quiet. This was repeated several times as both the pensioner and the lady who was a Doctor were rather upset.

Quite a few of the rest of us chipped in as well, but not with the persistence to actually get a telling off. I must confess that I must confess that the walk out by the cabinet was really rather a poor show. It just demonstrated  what a spineless, cowardly bunch they were. At the point where they walked out a couple of extra bobbies were summoned from downstairs. They came, took one look at the crowd and walked off again. I've stood on Football terraces when trouble has kicked off, been to marches which have turned into riots. I've been in pubs where full scale brawls have taken place, with people losing eyes to broken glass & bottles. I'm a pacifist, so when I see the signs I leave. There was never the slightest chance of any violence whatsoever. The one thing that was patently clear was the "raging mob" was not out for violence. They were there to make a political point and have their say. I was probably identified by the bobby on duty as "a ringleader and potential troublemaker". What did it earn me?  A smile and a joke when I went home.

Councillors such as Hillan, Harper and Coleman clearly know that they are in the wrong. There has been an unprecedented level of spin about the meeting. Harper has tried to pretend that there were "respectable residents trying to make their point, being drowned out by a raging mob". I don't know if he's telling Porkies, got lousy eyesight or he's just plain stupid, but the "raging mob" were a bunch of respectable local residents who were riled by the pisstaking of the individuals at the cabinet table. There was anger at the meeting, people were highly upset, but in a dignified and reasonable way.

I have a theory as to why Hillan, Harper and Coleman made so much of the whole thing. Because they despise the people of Barnet and they'd probably have enjoyed it if the Old Bill had piled in and duffed me, a pensioner and a lady who is a Doctor up, in the hope that we'd not come back.

My revulsion at the Evening Standard

Yesterday evening I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard at Blackfriars, to entertain me on my journey back to Mill Hill. The news wasn't good. train fares to rise by 10% (strange how this isn't headline listed as a Tory policy by the business editor praising the "bold budget"), much analysis of the England world cup debacle and reports of roadworks hold ups.

Then on page 38, I read probably the sickest piece of journalism I've had the misfortune to read in a long  time. It was in a rather curious place for such a revolting article. It was in the City pages and penned by the City Editor, Chris Blackhurst. The title "How to make a killing (literally) in the city and on wall st.

I won't repeat the first two paragraphs, but it is a graphic description of how to take another mans life and how the process works. It goes on to detail the details of a company who teach city suits the art of killing other people. The course costs £1,000. It has seen a 40% uplift in business.

I don't believe violence solves anything, except in the most extreme circumstances.  What especially troubles me is that this course teaches lethal and non lethal self defence. I can understand the desire for non lethal, but what sort of a psychopath would want to kill a man when they know how to disable him? For any budding Rambo's out there, I would like to point this out. If you do actually kill someone, it's murder and you'll get life. You have trained yourself to kill, when you could have trained yourself to disable. In the event that you kill someone, you have no defence. You have trained yourself in the art of murder so you can't say it isn't pre-meditated. You also can't claim that you could do nothing else or even that it was an accident because it wasn't. You'll get life and you deserve it.

I will quote one chilling passage.

"amongst his quickest learners, he says, are city traders - they know that thinking aggresively about a trade is not enough, they actually have to do the trade. It's the same with inflicting violence - thinking about it is often too late. You have to do it"

I have many friends who know all about self defence and martial arts. Our studios are next door to a martial arts club. The first lesson is self control. I am a pacifist in all but desperate situations. This whole article, on the business pages, glorified killing and violence, which are not necessary skills for the streets of our fair city. This article was disgusting and repulsive. I hope that the editor takes suitable action to ensure we don't have to read this type of macho-sadistic drivel again.

The Andrew Gilligan Song

"There once was a creep called Andrew Gilligan
Made a lot of trouble for Sir Ken Livingstone
He got him out, but he'll get in again
That'll be the last from Andrew Gilligan

He made a lot of trouble for several charities
wrote a lot of pieces that lacked clarity
Called into question his journalistic ability
When he gets the sack it'll cause much hilarity"

Gilligan receives his award for services rendered