Why the term oligarch is misused in relation to Abramovich and his mates

 I've been increasingly irritated by the usage of the term Oligarch to describe Roman Abramovich his mates. The reason? It is a complete misuse of the word. The people who the press describe as Oligarchs are nothing of the sort, according to the classical definition. 

oligarchy (n.)

"form of government in which supreme power is vested in a small exclusive class," 1570s, from French oligarchie (14c.), from Latinized form of Greek oligarkhia "government by the few," from stem of oligos "few, small, little" (a word of uncertain origin) + -arkhia, from arkhein "to rule" (see archon). An earlier form of the word in English was oligracie (c. 1500, from Old French).

Aristotle, after some preliminary remarks, concludes by defining a democracy to be, when the freemen and those not the rich, being the majority, possess the sovereign power; and an oligarchy, when the rich and those of noble birth, being few, are in possession of the sovereign power. This definition of an oligarchy necessarily implies that the majority are excluded from participating in the sovereign power. It might be inferred, on the other hand, that in this definition of a democracy the few are excluded from the sovereign power: and such in this passage should be the meaning of the author, if he is consistent with himself. ["Political Dictionary," London 1845]

The one thing the likes of Abramovich don't have, it is political power. They are terrified of Vladimir Putin. If they fall foul of him, they are likely to get bumped off. Most, such as Abramovich, have secured nationality of other nations, in his case Portugal and Israel and have bolt holes and superyatchs. I was recently asked why Oligarchs need so many superyatchs. I was amazed at this question. I thought the answer was obvious. If you know that, at a whim, a crazed dictator may order you to be bumped off, the safest place to be is on the high seas. 

Putin did a deal with the so called Oligarchs, he let them keep the money they'd robbed from the state in return for them relinquishing all power and control. Abramovich handed over his energy assets in 2004, in return for a few billion dollars. He's kept his head down in the political arena and is still alive. Some didn't and paid the price. 

I have a problem with what is going on with Chelsea. Not with Abramovich, but with Chelsea. Two weeks ago Abramovich was deemed a suitable owner. Now he isn't. Nothing in his actions have changed. He is exactly the same bloke who was in charge last year when they won the Champions League. Nothing has materially changed about him since he bought the club. All that has happened is that it suits the British government to pretend he's suddenly become a monster. But what about the Oligarchs who donated to the Conservative Party? Think about the usage of the term Oligarch? When a Russian Oligarch gave Theresa Villiers thousands of pounds, does anyone seriously believe it was because they admired the work she'd done for the cats home? 

This is disgusting. In a world where politicians had integrity, Theresa Villieres would immediately offer her resignation, but of course she won't https://t.co/yriYdd9Rs7

— Roger Tichborne/RogT🔸 (@Barneteye) March 13, 2022

I'd personally ban all such donations from non UK nationals. We cannot be sure if the cash was splurged for favours don e or for insurance in future votes. What we can be sure of is that none of these donations were given out of the goodness of the hearts of these billionaires who came across their fortunes by means not open to you or I. 

I don't know about you, but I'm horrified by the whole issue of Russian influence in Parliament.  I passionately believe that one of the reasons Putin felt emboldened was because he thought all his tame billionaires favours to British politicians would persuade us to look the other way when he invaded Ukraine. I have Russian friends and family and they all tell me that they believe Russia has been completely surprised by the strength of the western economic response and sanctions. You don't have to be a genius to work out that had our troughing politicans not taken the bungs, then Putin would not have felt so confident. All we need now is the Wikileaks style disclosure in the next few weeks, where the whole supertanker full of sleaze sinks. 

But returning to my original point. These gangsters have been laundered by being mislabelled Oligarchs, which clearly was a calling card to the top table. If you heard that a "Russian Oligarch donated thousands to Theresa Villiers MP" it sounds far better than  "Putins crony and lacky donated thousands to Theresa Villiers MP", doesn't it? As far as I can see from Ms Villiers business expenses claims, she's getting more than enough to run her office. I should make clear that there are plenty of MP's who've taken tainted Russian money, but as this blog is based in Barnet, we look at our local MP's. 

The bottom line is that language is important. Whenever we misuse words, it is a sure sign that something untowards is going on. 

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.

Mike Freer MP and the £500,000 war chest

I was staggered today to find out how much money Tory MP Mike Freer has in his war chest. According to the Search the Money website http://searchthemoney.com/profile/218?p2=2#tabsx-3 he's had over half a million quid in donations.

Here are the details.

Money found: £503,082.59

 

Donations to Constituency Association:£19,793.13

 

Donation breakdown estimate

 

Cash  £475,969.33

Non-Cash £9,230.13

Hospitality£5,910.00

Kind £15,883.13

Food £2,810.00

Travel£7,248.00

Mike has also had some interesting corporate donors to his cause (and some interesting private ones if you look on the weblink)

Corporate donor

Associate	Amount	Accepted	Details
Ministry of External Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)	£3,600.00	2011-06-08
Conservative Friends of Israel	£1,500.00	2005-03-15
PDL Ltd	£1,300.00	2006-10-30
Excelsior Properties	£25,000.00	2007-11-27
United and Cecil Club	£3,000.00	2008-03-31
United and Cecil Club	£1,500.00	2008-12-24
United and Cecil Club	£1,500.00	2009-02-01
Lakeside Developments Ltd	£5,000.00	2009-12-02
Manrows Ltd	£3,600.00	2010-02-11
I-CD Publishing Ltd	£3,000.00	2010-02-23
Brookstream Properties Limited	£10,000.00	2010-04-07
Sun Mark Ltd	£1,962.13	2011-04-08
British Airways	£798.00	2010-12-06
Excelsior Properties	£950.00	2011-12-20
Municipality of Morphou	£900.00	2010-10-25
Conservative Friends of Israel	£2,000.00	2013-02-17
Conservative Friends of Israel	£2,000.00	2013-03-07
The Municipality of Morphou, Cyprus	£700.00	2013-10-11
Conservative Friends of Israel	£1,200.00	2014-03-27
Sun Mark Ltd	£2,163.00	2013-12-09

Not a bad little business is it?

Just as a comparison. you may be interested to see Matthew Offord MPs total
http://searchthemoney.com/profile/470

Money found: £59,472.00

Donations to Constituency Association:£11,172.00

Donation breakdown estimate

Cash £48,300.00

Non-Cash £0.00

Hospitality £800.00

Kind £9,172.00

Food £4,272.00

Travel £8,472.00

And what about our longest serving MP, Theresa Villiers.

http://searchthemoney.com/profile/610

Money found: £25,750.00

 

Donations to Constituency Association: £2,000.00

 

Donation breakdown estimate

 

Cash £23,750.00

Non-Cash  £0.00

Hospitality £0.00

Kind £2,000.00

Food  £0.00

Travel £0.00

 

Am I alone in wondering why Mike Freer MP has got nearly ten times as much in donations as Matthew Offord and nearly tweny times as much as Theresa Villiers, who has been an MP far longer and is a minister? Now of course this is total donations and he's probably spent a chunk of it, but that is a simply huge sum.

I suppose the answer must simply be that Mike Freer MP is a really wonderful chap. It seems that his fans are popping up in the press and in blogs to say so all the time, without any prompting from him.

It is 100% clear that his Labour Challenger Sarah Sackman will have nothing like the war chest Mike has to fight him. For Sarah's supporters, there is only one way to counter the huge machine that Mike clearly has at his disposal. They will have to get up off their backsides and work ten times harder.

As the Beatles once said "I don't care too much for money, Money can't buy me Love". It seems that for Mike it certainly must have it's usese though. I am just mightily impressed at Mike's ability to raise funds. If by chance he does lose in May, he certainly won't have to sleep rough. Maybe he should give Tess and Matthew a bit of ahand with their fundraising as they are certainly missing a trick or two.

The Sunday Times exposes the One Barnet Effect on Tory Party membership !

On Friday I published this blog asking "When will Barnet Conservative voters realise that there Council holds them in total contempt?" - http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/when-will-barnet-conservative-voters.html - drawing attention to the way that the local council has used Tory voters as a cash cow.

It seems that I am rather more behind the times than I realised. According to todays Sunday Times, membership of the Chipping Barnet Conservative Association has declined by 43.9% since 2009 http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Politics/article1298968.ece. This is a huge decline. The Sunday Times has not explored the reasons for this fall off, but it does mention that other Cabinet member such as William Hague and David Cameron have only lost 2% of their association membership in the same period. In fact of all cabinet members only Eric Pickles local association has seen a steeper decline. Whilst all of the cabinet have seen a decline in membership of their local parties, Villiers has seen an extraordinary fall off in her association.

Given the behaviour of certain members and former members of her association at the Council, it is no surprise to anyone in Barnet that the membership of the party is in a state of total collapse. Ordinary local Conservative Party members are generally a fairly sensible group of people. They recognise what are sensible policies and what are decent standards of behaviour. Back in 2008, when this blog started, one of my staunchest supporters was "Dont Call Me Dave" AKA David Miller. Although David doesn't agree with my political philosophy, he found that he agreed with 99% of what I was writing about the local Conservative Council. He started writing his own blog, called "Not The Barnet Times" (http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/). At the time I was writing blogs for the Hendon Times. I described David as Barnets most sensible Tory. David is a former executive officer of the Chipping Barnet Conservative Association. David soon established himself as one of Londons top political bloggers. He was scathing of his own party and chronicled the descent into farce of the Chipping Barnet Conservative Association. As the policies of the local Conservatives became more disconnected from reality and real voters concerns, David predicted the disenchantment of the local party.Eventually David gave up on the local Conservatives and left the party.

Sadly without the moderating influences of the more sensible members of the association, the policies of the local Tories became ever more bizarre. Perhaps the final nail in the coffin for many members was the disasterous reign of of notorious criminal Councillor Brian Coleman as parking supremo. As befits a convicted criminal, Coleman passed a swathe of measures hiking parking charges, which have since been declared illegal by the High Court. Coleman once proudly bragged to David Miller that the Barnet Conservative party needed to be destroyed, so that it could be rebuilt (presumably in a Colemanesque mold). It seems that he is well on the way to achieving the first of these objectives. As he's been kicked out of the Party following his criminal conviction, it seems he'll be unlikely to ever enact the second part.

A couple of years ago, this blog did a poll of readers. To my surprise, 35% identified themselves as Conservatives. I talk to many local Conservatives. A common theme emerges. They all seem totally disenchanted with the local party. One comment that emerges time and time again is that they are voting Conservative with gritted teeth, because they can't bring themselves to vote for another party. Some have defected to UKIP in recent months, but many do not see UKIP as an alternative.

Whatever you think of the Conservative Party, in Barnet they are in a complete state of collapse. The more sensible councillors such as Sury Khatri, the Salingers and Mark Shooter are marginalised. The cabinet seems to be selected on the basis of who will nod their head most vigorously when senior officers speak. 

This week, perhaps the biggest folly of all has been completed by the Barnet Conservatives. The One Barnet contract with Capita has been signed. The Leader of the Council, Richard Cornelius has claimed that this will lead to £150 million of savings in ten years. This figure is based on all manner of assumptions and best case scenarios. Many local people simply do not believe the figures. The Council never point out that the first two One Barnet projects have been total disasters. In the first, Parking control was outsourced to NSL. Now parking wardens swarm around like angry wasps, aggressively looking for opportunities to issue tickets for the most minor of infringements. My fellow blogger Mr Mustard has demonstrated how since NSL took over parking in Barnet, the number of appeals has soared. Not only that but now more than half of parking tickets are cancelled (full details here http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/patas-appeals-soar.html ).

The second big One Barnet failure is Your Choice Barnet Ltd ( http://www.yourchoicebarnet.org/ ). This is a private company, wholly owned by Barnet Council. You may wonder how a private company can be "wholly owned by Barnet Council". I did. It seems that the Barnet Conservative Leadership believe that if you take a group of Council functions (in this case adult social care) and then set up a private company, outside of democratic scrutiny by councillors, but owned by the Council and managed by the same people, you will save lots of money and provide better services.  The company was set up, the staff transferred on the basis of "a cast iron business case" and then the inevitable happened.  Because no one in Barnet seems to understand how the relationship between Barnet Council and Your Choice Barnet works, they helpfully put this on their website ( http://www.yourchoicebarnet.org/news/2013/08/the-relationship-between-barnet-council-and-your-choice-barnet/ )

• YCB is part of The Barnet Group, a Local Authority Trading Company, which is owned by Barnet Council
• YCB's only shareholder is the council. Any profits we make are reinvested into our services or paid to the council
• YCB is a private company and is treated the same as any other provider of care and support in Barnet
• we provide care and support services and have a contract with the council to do this. It is called a framework agreement and other providers are also on this framework agreement
• if we cannot provide value-for-money services, the council could award the contract to another service provider who can
• Barnet Council's social workers assess people's needs and decide the level of care and support they need. We do not carry out these assessments
• YCB then provides the services required to meet people's needs
• we will support or advocate for our service users if we feel that they should receive extra hours, but we do not make the final decision on this. This is made by the council.

 Does this clear up the issue of what Your Choice Barnet really is? One of my readers is a management consultant, working for a very large consultancy company. He often points his clients at this website, when trying to explain why things shouldn't be done in a certain way. He uses Your Choice Barnet as a classic example of how to do things badly. He wrote me an assessment of why it is a stupid idea for Barnet Council

1. Barnet Council and the taxpayer is liable for any losses.
2. Barnet Council needs to fund all investment and take all of the financial risk.
3. The management is largely the same management that were in place when the service was in house, meaning that they are unlikely to be innovative.
4. Barnet Council has placed itself in a position where it can suffer reputational damage for issues beyond its control.
5. There is a whole new layer of management, accountancy and legal advice required. Every agreement between YCB and Barnet needs to be signed off by two sets of lawyer, where previously there was none.

It may also surprise you to find out that the person who advised me of this is a prospective Conservative Candidate at the next general election. I asked if he was a member of the Barnet association and he suggested that he wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, as they are a toxic brand. His view is that many Conservatives are in management and when they look at the way the council is being run, are horrified.

So what has happened with YCB and its "cast iron business case"? The company found that it's cast iron business case was nothing of the sort. The company had to go back to the council, asking for a million pound bale out. This was less than a year after the services were transferred. Did this cause the Council to pause for thought about the One Barnet contracts being let with Capita? Of course not.

Who picks up the bill for all of this? As I mentioned in Fridays blog, it is not the largely Labour supporting people in the borough who are on benefits or on minimum wage. It is the affluent middle class, more Tory demographically voters who have cash to be milked.

This is why the Chipping Barnet Conservative Party has seen a 43.9% drop in membership. I don't believe it is inevitable that party membership is in decline. I think it is a product of the party being out of touch. The "Young Conservatives" used to be a pseudo dating agency for young Tories. Members would then progress through the party, with a strong social scene at all levels. As the party has become more divorced from the concerns of ordinary membership, these links have broken down. I have a friend who is a senior member of a South London Association. He said they have had to work extremely hard to keep their membership bouyant. He reads the blog and often advises people advocating outlandish policies to consider the case of Barnet. I am sure that the decline of the Chipping Association will be useful ammunition for him in his crusade for sanity in his association.

Of course, I have no doubt that senior Tories in Barnet such as Robert Rams and Richard Cornelius will deny that the decline has anything to do with them or the One Barnet scheme. Until they pull their head out of the sand, they will fail to see the danger that the One Barnet effect poses to them and their membership. The bottom line with all this is that with nearly 50% fewer members, it will be twice as hard for their activists to get voters out in 2014. The ballot box will then tell the true story.

See flowers and kiss babies - It's coming up to the time when politicians pretend they care about us

Be warned, if like Princess Kate, you've recently been up the duff and out has popped your little treasure, your pride and joy, then he or she may be in for a nasty shock. The poor little darling might just get a great big kiss from a politician doing the rounds. You see its coming up to that time in the electoral cycle where they come out and meet the stinky old public. There was a tweet on Councillor Robert Rams feed with a nice picture of some Tories doing the rounds in Chipping Barnet. If you click here, you'll see a nice picture of aspiring chinless wonders and wizened old councillors about to do the rounds -  https://twitter.com/CllrRobertRams/status/361436179436011521/photo/1 - in the middle is Big tess Velliers, the local MP and Northern Ireland secretary. With the Council elections under a year away, all three Parties are marshalling their resources, trying to persuade you they really do care and have been slaving away on your behalf.

You will at some point get a knock. They will ask whether they can count on your vote. If you get a visit from the Blue Rosette Brigade in Barnet you may wish to ask them a few questions. I'd suggest that even if you love them and would never vote for another party, you do. Why? Because you won't see them again for four years and regardless of how much you love them, they have done a lot of things which they never mentioned in the manifesto last time. So here's the questions I'd suggest you put to them.

1. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of the abolition of Pay and Display parking. Why did you not tell us about this policy? Why was there never any consultation?

2. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of the plans to increase the cost of CPZ parking vouchers from £40 to £100 a year and a similar rise in the cost of day permits. There was no consultation. Why was this policy concealed and not mentioned in your manifesto?

3. The High Court has ruled that the unpopular parking charges are illegal. Do you believe that the the Council should break the law to raise revenue from residents?

4. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of the One Barnet Outsourcing program. Over £12 million has been spent on this and it is held up in court. The judge deemed that the council had breached its statuatory duty to consult. If the program has the benefits that the Council claims, why has it all been done in secret?

5. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of the One Barnet Program. The Council has awarded nearly a billion pounds worth of business to Capita, despite a string fo high profile outsourcing failures by the company. No Barnet Councillor has satisfactorily explained how the Council can have any faith in the process. Why should we?

6. Conservative Councillors have spent years criticising the previous Labour regime for awarding an aoutsourcing contract to Catalyst. The company sued Barnet and won £8 to cover profits it didn't make. The company is being taken to court following the death of a vulnerable resident. Despite all this, the council has re-awarded the contract to Catalyst. How could this have happened?

7.  In the last manifesto, no mention was made of the Councils hostility to Barnet Football Club. The council has driven the team out of Barnet and to Harrow. Why does the Council not value a successful team?

8. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of plans to build a 10,000 seat Rugby stadium at Copthall. The Conservatives claimed the Lib Dems planned a football stand on the site for 50 fans of Kentish Town FC, claiming this was a major development. How come they think a stand for 10,000 fans is not a problem, whilst a stand for 50 is?

9. In the last manifesto, the Conservative Party claimed it would bring prudent financial management to Barnet. When bloggers exposed the Metpro scandal, costing Barnet hundreds of thousands of pounds, and asking for an independent investigation, the local Conservative Party closed ranks and blocked the proposal. Why?

10. Councillor Brian Coleman, violently assaulted a woman in broad daylight, outside her business in Finchley. The Local Conservative party prevaricated to such a degree about his suspension, that the national party had to step in. No one from the Barnet Conservatives has yet apologised to Helen Michael for this awful lapse of judgement or the subsequent whispering campaign against her by certain Conservative Councillors. Why?

11. In the last manifesto, no mention was made of plans for Tory Councillors to award themselves a pay hike. This was their first action after the 2010 election. How could they do such a thing, in a time of economic hardship?

 If I were a Conservative, I would find it hard to see any future for the local party until this sort of behaviour is sorted out. Sadly they seem to be getting worse, not better. It is all very well to come knocking on the door, but when it comes down to it, can you believe a word they will tell you?

What is the story behind the Theresa Villiers sexy pics?

Us Barnet bloggers are a competive bunch. Today Mrs Angry reported a huge number of blog hits from people seeking details of the Olympic Torch procession in Finchley. As this was the only story in town today, we decided to check our own blog stats and see what our most popular search phrase was. Imagine my surprise to find that it wasn't anything to do with the Olympics. It wasn't anything I've ever seen searched for before. Nope the most popular google search phrase today for people stumbling upon the Barnet Eye by accident was "Theresa Villiers Sexy pics" Sure enough, if you do a Google search on this phrase, the Barnet Eye is the third most popular search item. I decided to see if there were actually some naughty piccies of Big Tess on the net (purely as reasearch for this blog I hasten to add), so I did the same search as an image search. Not a single piccie was returned. I removed the quotation marks and this was the top of the pile of  pictures I got.

I got pictures of Nick Clegg, planes,bikes and cars. I didn't however get a single sexy shot of big Tess. One wonders why all of a sudden this has become a hot google search item? I must admit that I was rather pleased that there weren't a load of embarrassing pictures of the Chipping Barnet MP on the net.

We can only guess as to who was searching and why. I suspect they were rather disappointed. with the blog they landed on at the Barnet Eye. It seems that Theresa has lead a very pure and wholesome life as far as the net is concerned. And there is no shame in that !

As ever, this blog must also mention that the rumours (started by a scurrilous blogger) that Ms Villiers used to sing backing vocals in my band - The False Dots are completely untrue. One wonders what Ms Villiers has done to deserve these rumours. She's always been very pleasant when we've met her.

The Barnet Eye Saturday Quiz - Great Prizes

We are proud to announce the launch of the Barnet Eye Saturday Quiz. We have a great prize, an all expenses paid holiday for two at the lovely Sandbanks Hotel. Just cut and paste the questions below into an email, knock up an invoice for the amount of the holiday with the name "Metpro Security Response" on the top. Add 20% to it for spending money (detail it as VAT) and email it to Andrew.Travers@barnet.gov.uk (actually please don't as it's illegal, not that it seems to stop anyone round here). The quiz is actually just for fun

1. Metpro Group got paid over a million quid whilst operating without required licenses or accreditation Who spotted this?

A) Andrew Travers (Barnet Council Cheif Finacial Officer on £1000 a day)
B) Grant Thornton (Barnet Council Auditors with massive contract)
C) Lord Monroe Palmer (Head of Audit Committee - allowance £15k per annum)
D) The Bloggers of Barnet  (Free of charge, guvnor)

2. When the Council became aware of the serious problems with Metpro, and the fact that the company had been providing services without the legally required checks, did they?

A) Call in the Police to see if there had been any criminal activity?
B) Set up an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of the issue, with power to discipline individuals for wrongdoing?
C) Suspend all work on outsourcing until the Council systems for contract management were given a clean bill of Health?
D) Set up an internal inquiry, with no power to do anything except "Inspire the Council Officials" (to quote Maryellen Salter)?

3. Having established that there was no audit trail of the Metpro Contract, Invoices were paid to unauthorised bank accounts, VAT was paid in contravention of VAT rules and EU law on contracts was not followed, how many Council officials have been suspended or dismissed from post?

a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3 or more

4. Every member of the Audit Committee expressed their disgust at what happened. It is clear that the duty of care they owe Barnet Residents has not been discharged properly. The MP's of Barnet , Theresa Villiers, Mike Freer and Matthew Offord are elected and paid to look after the residents interests. Additionally Freer was head of the Council when Metpro started to work for the Council. Offord was Deputy Leader. Which of these MP's has gone on record to  express their dismay at the situation?

a) Villiers
b) Freer
c) Offord
d) None of them

5. What percentage of Vendors did the Head of the Audit Committee say that Barnet Council monitored until recently?

a)  100%
b) 10%
c) 1%
d) 0.1%

Please send your answers to nick.walkley@barnet.gov.uk along with any comments you may think appropriate. You may wish to CC the Leader of the Council cllr.r.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk

It is your money. Over £1 million of it. Please do not sit on your hands, contact these guys and tell them what you think

Mike Freer MP - Barnet's ugliest MUG !!!!!!

I guess it had to happen. Someone has created a website so you can rate your MP in terms of shaggability

http://sexymp.co.uk/

So how did our MP's do? Well clear winner was Theresa Villiers MP who crept into the top 20 at #20 with  a stonking 6777 votes. Second in Barnet is Matthew Offord, at #118 (724 people wanted to shag him) which means that when the most minging MP in Barnet is none other than Mike Freer MP, who finished at #254 with 511 votes. My advice to Matthew Offord is get Max in the picture next time, that will do wonders for your look. As to Mike Freer, a makeover is well overdue. He's still using the same old picture from the Easycouncil photo. My advice? Go and borrow Robert Rams Thunderbirds outfit. The hat will hide the receding hairline and people will think you have a GSOH.

As for top twenty Tessie - no surprise for the Barnet Eye. Regular readers will know that some naughty wag spread rumours around that Theresa Villiers MP was actually a backing singer in my band, the False Dots. Needless to say, this rumour is wholly untrue, but the stardust has obviously sprinkled on Tess accounting for her top 20 finish. Just think how high she'd have finished if they'd said she was the bassplayer !  Not that we like to trivialise politics here at the Barnet Eye of course.

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.

The idiots guide to politics - First Edition

When my daughter was about five, she asked me to explain politics to her. I explained. "Well, there's the Conservative Party and they are run by rich people and they hate poor people. Then there is the Labour Party, which is run by poor people and they hate rich people, and finally there's the Liberal Democrats and nobody runs them and they hate everybody". Whilst that explanation was good enough for my daughter all those years ago, it is clear that we need a more comprehensive and updated glossary of terms for the vast majority of us mushrooms. As such, the Barnet Eye is delighted to announce "The idiots guide to politics - First Edition". This is a guide for everyone who has a passing interest, but doesn't understand the all of the terms. Please bear in mind that the definitions found in this guide are only applicable to politics. For general usage, there are plenty of dictionaries.

Allowance - Cash (usually a large amount) given for non job for party lackeys to stop them moaning. Used to enforce party discipline. Often given in smaller amounts, just for turning up.

Cabinet - Bunch of people who have displayed an extraordinary talent for shafting their colleagues

Conservative Party - Bunch of posh people, pretending to be middle class and a bunch of middle class people who want to mix with posh people.

Consulatation - A money wasting exercise, conducted to find out why politicians should ignore the wishes of the people

Consultants - People paid huge sums of taxpayers money to write reports which no one reads, generally because they are completely unreadable. Successful consultants write reports, which recommend further reports written by yet more consultants.

Constituent - Person to be lied to every four years and ignored for the rest of the time.

Council - means of supplying otherwise unemployable idiots (councillors) with money in return for votes for bonkers schemes.

Councillors - 3 types, unemployable idiots in it for the cash, unemployable idiots in it for the status and very occasionally quite nice people who actually want to make things better in their locality. Generally the third group are the ones excluded from all decision making, usually spotted in Council chamber looking embarressed or cross.

Council Leader - The person who the majority of unemployable idiots think best suited for the job.

Democracy - A system of voting designed to ensure that the will of the people is ignored.

Election - An opportunity to decide which useless idiot is elected to the council and which purveyor of porkies is picked for parliament.

Election Pledge - Porkie specifically constructed to con the voter.

Expense claim - Amount of cash given to councillors and MP's in return for (often made up) out of pocket spending

First Past the Post System - Method for ensuring that the majority of voters in most constituencies are not represented.

General Election - Opportunity to replace one useless Prime Minister with another one that is usally even worse.

Government - The lot who are deemed winners in a general election

Hustings - Opportunity for politicians to lie directly to the voter in person.

Inquiry - Method of avoiding taking action when there has been a cock up for long enough so people forget why they were cross.

Jail - Where really stupid politicians end up, when they are either so incompetent or so greedy that they want allowances they are not entitled to and can't lie effectively enough to hide their tracks

Labour Party - Bunch of middle class people, pretending to be working class and a bunch of working class people trying not to be completely shafted by the middle class people pretending to be working class

Lib Dem Party - A bunch of people who want to get into bed with whoever has the biggest **** (in a political sense of course) and another bunch of people who are highly embarrassed at such behaviour

Manifesto - Long list of porkies, designed to con the general public.

Majority - Meaningless term. At present we have a Government no one voted for (Con / Lib Dem was not an option on ballot paper) and they have the "majority of MP's"

MP -  Elected to Parliament. Gets a huge wad of cash and the ability to attack opponents in Parliament without fear of libel. Fantastic perks to enable ownership of multiple homes and marvellous schemes to assist with costs for moat cleaning.

Mortgage - In political terms, this is what the taxpayers pay for MP's with second homes.

Opposition - Bunch of people paid huge sums of money to do nothing useful

Parliament - Exclusive Members club which MP's belong to. Has cheap dining room, great bars and a great view.

Principles - A shop found on the High St which female MP's occasionally frequent when buying clothes.

Question Time - Weekly event in Parliament where Government MP's can further their career by brown nosing and the opposition try and make the Prime Minister look like a berk.

Speaker of the House -  Bloke who decides who's turn it is to talk b*ll*cks

Taxpayer - sheep to be mugged for cash

Television - Where most MP's want to work, despite their usual complete lack of suitability

Vote -  A meaningless piece of paper that people put into a box so their views can be understood and ignored.

Whip - The person who makes sure the useless idiots know they will be out of pocket if they don't do what they are told
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As this is the Barnet Eye, here are a few facts about Barnet.

Barnet is made up of three Constituencies - Hendon, Finchley and Golder Green

The MP for Hendon is Matthew Offord MP. Prior  to his election, he was Deputy Leader of Barnet Council. His most notable achievement was letting the Aerodrome Road Bridge Replacement project overspend by £11 million (on an original budget of £12 million). Since entering Parliament, he has made a name for himself by claiming that the person responsible for getting him elected in Hendon is a raving Anti Semite and that once he was elected, he didn't talk to him anymore. Matthew Offord rather strangely told voters that he would like to see a cheese shop open in Mill Hill Broadway whilst canvassing. Sadly, he's done nothing to actually deliver on this promise since being elected. It's probably the one thing he promised which might be useful.

The MP for Finchley and Golder Green is Mike Freer MP. Prior to his election, he was the Leader of Barnet Council. In the year before his election, he was voted "Private Eye Banker of the Year" for losing £27.4 million of Taxpayers money in Iceland. Mike Freer told RSPCA staff working at a rescue centre that he was "fond of dogs and would look after canine interests if elected" whilst campaigning. He has made a name for himself by investing in a camper van and has toured the Constituency inviting residents to "join him for a chat". It is not known how many have taken him up on the offer.

The MP for Chipping Barnet is Theresa Villiers. Contrary to malicious rumours, being spread around the Borough, she was never at any time a "Backing singer for blogger Rog T's Punk Rock Band "The False Dots". Rog T would like to say that such a slur on the band is despicable and intolerable. Further more, we'd also like to say that we can categorically state that Theresa Villiers did not join the False Dots for the "Stand Stoned Starkers" protest on Hampstead Heath in 1981, where the band were billed to play and the event was broken up by Riot Police. To the best of Rog T's knowledge, there is no known association between the band and Theresa Villiers whatsoever. We suspect that these rumours were started by former guitarist Peter Trayling, after several bottles of strong cider, in the company of his friend, Church of England Vicar "Holy John" purely to wind up Rog T. Sadly, there is absolutely nothing of interest to write about Theresa Villiers, her political career or any other aspect of her career.

Barnet Council is lead by Leader of the Conservative Group, Lynne Hillan. Councillor Hillan has confounded critics of her leadership, by proving even more of a disaster than anticipated. The latest disaster involves a councillor "allegedly" racially abusing a resident at a council meeting. Other PR disasters include awarding herself huge allowance rises, resulting in open revolt, huge hikes in parking charges and appointing Robert Rams to oversee the Libraries closure program, In a fierce put down of critics, she announced that "No one can teach me anything about incompetence" at a recent council meeting. For once, we were inclined to agree.

Please feel free to add your own comments with terms to the guide, for edition 2

Barnet Tories : The Good, The Bad and The Ugly !!!!!!

I was heartened to see that the "conscience" of the Conservative Party is still alive and well in the general membership. It seems that while all of their councillors (bar Kate Salinger) lack backbone, the wider membership is not afraid to speak it's mind. The Hendon Times reports that the Chairman of Hendon Conservatives, Adrian Murray-Leonard has branded Hillan and co "greedy vultures" following their decision to award themselves huge payrises at a time of national belt tightening. Read all about what Mr Murray-Leonard had to say here :-

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8297992.Conservative_association_member_brands_party_colleagues__greedy_vultures__over_allowance_hike/?ref=mr

It seems to me that we can divide the Barnet Tories up into three Groups when it comes to the issue of awarding  yourself huge payrises -

The Good -
Kate Salinger (who was the only Tory Councillor to abstain and got ritually humiliated for her trouble)
Mike Freer MP and Matthew Offord MP (both criticised the increase)
David Miller (former chairman of Chipping Barnet Conservatives)
Adrian Murray-Leonard (Chairman of Hendon Conservatives)
Every single Barnet Conservative I've spoken to who isn't a Barnet Councillor (and the many who've privately emailed me to express disgust)

The Bad
Council Leader Lynne Hillan who has shown herself to be a complete hypocrite on the issue
Councillor Graham Old who despite knowing Kate Salinger was right lacked the backbone to stand up for her
Councillor Barry Evangeli who used the opportunity to snaffle an allowance, when Kate Salinger lost a committee chairmanship
Councillor Hugh Rayner who was distributing a very brown nosed press release saying that the increase was a good idea, completely ignoring what could have been done with the money had it not been spent lining the pocket of the cabinet
The rest of the motley crew of Barnet Tory Councillors who gutlessly voted for something they know to be morally wrong

And the Ugly

Hard working Councillor Brian Coleman who trousers between £114,000 and £121,000 from the public purse (depending who you believe) and claims he spends 100 hours a week beavering away at his desk.

And last but by no means least

Well if it ain't old Tessie Viler than a blocked drain Villiers. The only Barnet MP to think it's a spiffing idea for her mates to line her pocket. Of course given that she' rather partial to a little bit of troughing herself it's hardly surprising is it.

Sadly all the troughing seems to be taking its toll !!!!!

Oh, by the way, let me share a little snippet of gossip with you. Apparently Mike Freer MP has been telling his friends that he's rather enjoying the experience of not being beholden to certain friends of his at Barnet Council - this is my interpretation of his exact words - I'm sure you get the gist.

Barnet Eye war on Spongers and Parasites : Villiers approves of troughing

There are three Tory MP's in Barnet. Two have one house and one has two. We used to have three MP's who all had two houses, but one got slung out and the other retired. All three of them claimed a second home allowance. Theresa Villiers is the one who is still there. Despite the fact that she can get from Barnet to Westminster in less than an hour by public transport, she thinks she needs a second home subsidised by the Taxman nearer Parliament. To their credit the new Tory MP's Freer and Offord, have said that they are quite happy commuting (see boys, I do say nice things about you when you deserve it).

It seems that wheras Freer and Offord are preapred to criticise the troughing in Barnet Council, Theresa Villiers MP, the one with the second home, thinks it's fine. She thinks its up to councillors to decide there own pay and if they decide to take the piss, that's fine.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8282873.Villiers_fails_to_condemn_council_pay_hike/?ref=mr

Her statement :-

This issue is for the Council to determine. As an MP, I have no say in decisions made by elected councillors on pay and allowances. This is a matter for local, not national, decision-making.

 Lets get this right then. A minister of government (yes she is amazingly enough) thinks local Councillors can do what they like? There is a rumour that this statement was made because Lynne Hillan and Brian Coleman reminded her that they said nothing about her troughing. That's how it works. You turn a blind eye to my troughing and I'll turn a blind eye to yours.

She is a disgrace and not fit to be a part of the government. In fact the only job she's fit for is putting out the pigswill for the porkers to feast on. Let me remind you Tessie, that you are an MP, you are meant to show a bit of Leadership. You have failed the voters of Barnet

Barnet Eye war on Spongers and parasites : Huge public interest in Barnets sponging Tory councillors

Welcome to Monday Morning at the Barnet Eye. Here in sunny Mill Hill I had a wonderful weekend. Friday night, my band the False Dots did a really good gig at The Water Rats in Kings Cross. Saturday I watched a bit of my boy playing Gaelic Football at Copthall, for St Keirnans, had a great Chinese meal at Hees, Dropped a faulty mixing desk off in Surbiton. Sunday, had a lie in till 9.45 am, took the dog for a walk, cooked a barbeque lunch, went to 6pm mass, then played football at Powereleague.

Did I forget something? Oh yes, I dealt with a deluge of emails about our sponging parasitic councillors. I've never known anything like it. I've been swamped with info about what went on (from the most unlikely of sources as well). I've had the most disturbing reports from the most diverse of sources corroborating all sorts of funny business. In short I've got enough material for a years worth of blogs on the subject. The past week has been by far the busiest on the blog. I had a huge spike of hits during the election week, but this week has far surpassed that. I am saddened that there hasn't been more coverage by our local papers, but what they have said has been dynamite. One major omission from the Hendon Times is that they've said nothing about what our Third Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers ahas to say on the matter. She's posted nothing on her blog - http://www.theresavilliers.com/ -  I urge the Times and the Press to contact her and get her views. She is not a trappist Monk, she owes it to the people who voted her in to tell us what she thinks. If she refuses to comment, then we deserve to know. Come on guys, do the job properly, this is a huge story.

The most interesting thing is that the Barnet Tories seem happy to go to war with the national party (of which Villiers is a minister). I have had one email from a very trustworthy source which reported the most extraordinary comments by a certain Barnet Councillor, well known for his shenanigans, which are well documented in many a blog. Now it is not my job to tell the Leaders of the Conserrvative Party how to run their affairs, but I'd suggest that they call him in (they can email me if they can't guess who he is) and have a chat about what his priorities as a politician are. No one is bigger than the party they belong to. He says he is keen on Party discipline. Well he has publicly insulted a minister. Surely that in itself is grounds to have a quiet chat. If David Cameron and Grant Shapps allow such people to undermine them, they will fail. Sorting this out will be good for them, good for the people of Barnet and ultimately good for British Politics. We are just starting to recover from the MP's expenses scandal. Does David Cameron really want to send out the message that the pond life in Barnet can get away with tricks which he's doing his best to squash in Westminster? Over to you Dave.

The Barnet Eye war on Barnets spongers and parasites - The Empire Strikes Back !

The Barnet Council allowance scandal has taken a new turn. Rather unbelievably, the Leading Barnet Tory trougher, Brian Coleman has taken a swing at successful businessmen. In yesterdays Telegraph Brian Coleman appears to suggest that Grant Shapps, a self made millionaire, has no right to criticise Mr Colemans troughing at the public expense.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/7896482/Tory-minister-condemns-bumper-pay-of-Conservative-councillors.html

To quote Mr Coleman, rebutting Mr Shapps criticism of the self awarded huge increase in allowances

"Is that the multi millionaire Grant Shapps? The one with the private plane? The successful businessman? I don't have to justify what I earn. Councillors are worth every penny they earn. I'm not interested in this tittle tattle." 

So the Barnet Tories are against entrepreneurs? They resent people who have worked hard to build up a business and are reaping the rewards of their efforts. Mr Shapps launched a website & marketting business aged 22 and made a fortune (incidentally Barnet Council Leader Lynne Hillan did the same, except her company went bust in 2006 with huge debts to the taxman). Mr Shapps generated his wealth through hard work, vision and imagination. I have absolutely no objection to such people being rich. Mr Coleman? Well we all know how he got his latest payrise. He voted for it himself, used his position of seniority in the Conservative Party in Barnet to bully his colleagues into going along with it (even though bullying is specifically banned in the Councillors code of conduct). he has enforced the the threats under the guise of "party discipline", neglecting the fact that huge increases in his pay are not national Conservative Policy, were not in the manifesto from the election two months ago and have been derided by two of our local Tory MP's. There are rumours that the reason for the complete silence from the third local Tory MP, Theresa Villiers is that Lynne Hillan and Brian Coleman reminded her of their silence during the storm of criticism over her second home allowance. Theresa Villiers needs to speak out and let us know her position of the expenses scandal as a matter of urgency, to squash these rumours if they are untrue. She is welcome to post a guest blog here, detailing her views (without comment from me).

According to the Telegraph, Brian Coleman is the second highest paid Councillor in the country on a total of £114,322 (before the latest increases). He lives in a property with a subsidised rent, designed for low income families. He has had more gifts and hospitality than any other member of the GLA -

http://www.london.gov.uk/pls/apex/f?p=135:2:5616695545762709:fsp_sort_2_desc::RP&fsp_region_id=10248804584908268

Then theres his publicly funded taxi service to all the dos (despite having a free travelcard) (£345.83 not including travel card (over £1,000) - 2009-2010)

http://legacy.london.gov.uk/assembly/members/expenses/docs0910/b-coleman.pdf

and more gifts and hospitality than any other member of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority

http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/gifts_all.asp

and his free taxi service and subsidised congestion charge (total - £4,676.24 - 2009 -2010 )

http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/Brian_Coleman_2009_2010.asp

No wonder Mr Coleman is so keen to suppress any debate on the issue. Now before he criticises Mr Grant Shapps too much, maybe he should consider this. Mr Shapps pays a huge sum of tax on his private wealth, money generated through hard work. Mr Coleman generates no wealth and any tax he pays, is just giving back to the taxman what he has received. I rather suspect this is why Grant Shapps gets it and Brian Coleman doesn't.

Barnet Tory MP's : Hypocrites one and all

The people of Barnet voted to elect a Conservative Council and three Conservative MP's. What did you expect from them all? Did you expect a massive extension of the schools building program under a Conservative government? Did you expect the poorest children in Barnet, who attend the worst schools to get cash thrown at them? Well if you voted Tory and are suddenly shocked to find our new government has cancelled the rebuilding of all the delapidated schools in Barnet, I'm afraid to say you only have yourself to blame.

The local paper reports that our local Tory MP's Theresa Villiers (a member of the Government), Mike Freer and Matthew Offord are meeting education secretary Micahel Gove to see what can be done. They should save their efforts. It is quite simple what will happen. Gove will say "Blame it all on Labour" then say "tell them it has to be done or the country will go broke".

Sadly though that is a porkie. There is always an alternative. Sure things have to be cut, but not necessarily this budget. There are other things. Trident could be scrapped. Taxes on the very rich could be raised (people like Moir Lockhead who gets paid £800,000 to run First Capital Connect). Allowances for councillors (such as Brian Coleman who gets £113,000 from the public purse for a string of non jobs) could be slashed. Consultants writing "blue sky reports" for £1,500 a day consultancies could be sacked. The culture of layer upon layer of managers in public bodies could be ended.  One of the "sacred cows" of the Governments spending cuts is the NHS. I wonder how many bureaucrats simply generating paperwork could be sacked with no effect on anyone. As for the Police, how much time do officers waste doing pointless paperwork.

I don't believe that we need to cancel any of these. We just need our local MP's to get off their backsides and start working. They need to start identifying waste in their own constituencies. If Matthew Offord said "We can save these schools if we can find the cash by cutting elsewhere and being really ruthless" I may have some respect for him. He won't because he's too lazy. He's the man who told me that 5-15% of Barnet Councils budget was wasted. This is enough to save the school rebuilding program. He did nothing about it as deputy leader and he's doing nothing about it as MP.

Sadly they are all hypocrites shedding crocodile tears for people they don't care about at all.