How is Barnet Council responding to the war in Ukraine

 When I started the Barnet Eye, I did so because I felt that the local press wasn't doing its job, in relation to keeping an eye on the activities of Barnet Council. The blog is interested in local issues, generally I leave national issues to others, although clearly I have an opinion and I do on occasion blog about these, as the big issues do impact Barnet. I always try and look at issues from a local perspective. 

Which brings me to the crisis in the Ukraine. To me this has been a depressing and devastating war. I had a couple of days when I felt extremely depressed about the situation. I've worried for my children, but over the last couple of days, I've started to gather my thoughts and think about what we can do on a hyper local level. My eldest daughter has left home, so we have a spare bedroom. It strikes me that it is immoral that I have an empty room and there are people who might need a roof over their heads as a result of the crisis. I thought I'd have a look at what Barnet Council are doing to see if there were any local schemes where people can assist. If you read the page, you will realise that the answer is absolutely nothing (apart from putting a page signposting where else to go). 

This is a misconception that councils shouldn't get involved in all of that sort of thing. There are two reasons why this is wrong. The first is that London is the Capital city of the world, we have citizens from just about every nation living in our Borough. They need support, help and reassurance. Ukrainians living in Barnet may have relatives who are fleeing the war and who need a roof over their head. Most people on a budget, unlike me, don't have a spare room. Surely Barnet Council should be leading the way in helping these to find a place near friends and family. I'd be more than happy to help someone out for a few months. The only caveat I have is that they must be OK with large (friendly) dogs. 

The second reason is that there used to be a concept in the Council called 'civic pride'. It manifested itself in many ways. Barnet Council used to take pride in the way it maintained our parks, swept our streets, twinned with foreign towns, had exchange programs and looked beyond the boundaries of our Borough to say 'Barnet is a wonderful place, come and have a look'. How did that manifest itself? The Council had a museum in Hendon called Chiurch Farmhouse Museum. They would have all manner of exhibitions celebrating our local community and heritage. A few that made a strong impression on me were ones such as the Harry Beck (inventor of the tube map) who lived locally. Then there was the one that really excited me, the Sound of the Suburbs exhibition, which celebrated the Rock and Roll history of the Borough. However, the most interesting of all was a collection of photographs, retreived from a skip, following the death of a local press photograpaher, which chronicled the Spanish Civil War. 

Sadly, Barnet Council and the Conservatives who run it, have abolished the concept of civic pride. They closed Church Famhouse museum to save a few pennies. It is now offices for Middlesex University. The argument is always that there is 'not enough cash'. This is complete rubbish. Following the second world war, in 1948, the UK was virtually bankrupt, but we maintanined parks, museums, created the NHS, built council houses. Now we would rather have a cup of frothy coffee or two a week than fund all this. Tax has become a dirty word. Whilst the Barnet Conservatives have given up on 'Civic Pride' and doing the right thing, I don't believe locals have. 

I posted this tweet earlier (At the time of writing I've had no response from Barnet Council)

Dear @BarnetCouncil we have a spare room. If there is a refugee who is ok with dogs, we’d be happy to accommodate them. Do you have such a scheme?

— Roger Tichborne/RogT🔸 (@Barneteye) March 10, 2022

There were several replies which pointed me at varous individuals and schemes.  I am heartened that we do care. We need a council that reflects this. 

I just want to say a few words about the 'spending taxpayers money' charge that the Barnet Conservatives always reel out. I'm an engineer by trade. As such I've made a career by making things work better. That is what engineers do. If you look at your phone or your computer and think what they did 30 years ago and what they do now, consider this. Because they are designed by engineers, they are cheaper and do infinitely more things. Barnet Council is designed by accountants. It does far less and charges you far more than it ever has.  Even other Conservative Councuil Tories are taunting the Barnet Conservatives for their huge tax rises, trolling them for having raised tax by over 50% more than Tory Hillingdon Council.

#Harrow #Labour Inflict the Biggest #Tax Hike in #London! #Conservativeshttps://t.co/grwFC8UDXz

— Harrow Council Conservatives (@HAConservatives) March 8, 2022

But it doesn't need to be like this. I've run a successful business for the last 42 years. I know better than anyone, that the worst solution to any problem is to throw money at it. One of the reasons I want to stand for council is I believe that it is badly run and a better administration would save money and do a better job. Let me give you a simple example.

At the studio, like everyone, we are facing a huge increase in energy costs. This is starting to seriously affect our profitability. So we had a brainstorming session. A few sums showed that replacing all of our remaining non energy efficent bulbs would result in a net saving in six months. We then considered other measures. The easiest and cheapest is simply to turn off lights and heaters immediately that a session finishes. I drove past the buildings of Barnet Council recently after office hours. Maybe a few lights off there would save a few bob? 

All across the Borough I see waste by Barnet Council. I see bodged repairs of potholes and pavements. I'm not a fan of candidates who you never see until just before elections, who then wander around pointing at potholes, pretending they care. They don't. What they should be doing is reporting the pothole and then checking the repairs and feeding back to the council if they are not done properly. Contractors should not be paid for shoddy work. 

In short, we need civic pride. This starts with clean streets, well maintained parks but it extends to a council that says "We will set an example with how we deal compassionately with refugees and we'll take the whole of Barnet with us". 

Here is a little reminder of what civic pride is. This is the video I made the day the Barnet Conservatives shut Church Farmhouse Museum

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How did we end up back in the 1970's but without punk rock?

 What has happened. A couple of weeks ago we were living in 2022, with 2022 problems, such as covid pandemic variants, Brexit chaos and  internet trolls to exercise our minds. Then Boris Johnson announced the end of the pandemic and in one fell swoop, we are back in the 1970's. This weeks words are cold war, , strikes, cost of living crisis and energy crisis. I'm mildly surprised that Boris hasn't announced a three day week. I often find myself feeling nostaligic for the 70's, I loved the music, the cars, the TV, the football and the trains of the era. However all Boris has managed to bring back is the very worst. It has been a long time since I heard the phrase mutually assurred destruction and heard counts of Russian tanks on the news. Of course, Boris Johnson can do little about much of what Putin does or says, but clearly he is important enough to warrant huge donations from Russian Oligarchs to the Tory Party. I do wonder whether we've misread these. They must have known that Putin was going slowly off his rocker and I do wonder whether the cash was more about ensuring they had a Western bolthole when Russia implodes rather than trying to say "Knock it off Boris, we've paid your wages, do as your told". Sadly for Boris, there really is no excuse that cuts the mustard for allowing rich foreigners to buy influence over the government. I suspect that the relative acqueisence of Labour on the subject is as much to keep the skeletons in their own cupboards firmly locked in, but that is just a wild guess really. 

What was interesting was that much of the chaos in the UK was not down to the USSR. the cost of living crisis was down to the ineptitude of both Labour and Tory governments under Wilson and Heath to manage the economy. Although many Tories think that the prospertity of the 90's was down to Thatcher, it was as much down to the economic stability of EU membership. When Boris enacted Brexit, he put us back to a position that was worse than pre membership in 1973. Prior to joining the EU, we had trade deals with all manner of nations and were also members of EFTA. We also had significantly stronger armed forces, something that have virtually been dismantled as the EU seemingly guaranteed peace in Europe. 

My biggest fear about Brexit was never about trade with the EU, although this was significant. It was that the UK would bot be at the table when the EU discussed existencial threats to Europe, of which we will always be a geographical part, regardless of what Brexiteers believe. We have no control over what happens across the channel now. It is well accepted that Russia and Putin covertly supported Brexit. This was clearly because they feared a united Europe on their doorstep. However much Boris calls leders of EU and Nato countries and pops in for visits, that is not the same as having UK diplomats at the table as an EU response is coordinated. it is noticeable that EU sanctions against Oligarchs are far more stringent and rigorous than those in the UK. The EU is a very different beast to the Common Market that we joined. Many former Soviet satellite nations are members and all would have preferred us in the club, as we've traditionally supported them.  Not only are we in the pre 1973 1970's politcally in Europe, we are there with ur hands tied behind our back.

There are other almost amusing parallel's. Our Railways have reverted to diesel haulage of freight trains as electricity is to expensive for electric locomotives. There are some fine locomotives built in the early 1960's still playing an important role some 60 years later. Visa's and passport stamps are back in lovely blue passports. In football Chelsea have once again started to worry about their financial future (remember save the shed protests). 

In fact the only thing that seemingly isn't coming back is 70's music. The era spawned punk rock, my favourite musical genre. It's interesting to note that there was so little reference to the Cold War in the music. Of that era, only Bowie's heroes really comes to mind. It always amused me that this anthem was about Bowie watching his producer Tony Visconti snogging his girlfriend in Berlin. I'm sure there are others, but the only punk track I can recall that referenced Russia was 'Disco in Moscow' by the Vibrators. I gave my copy to my Russian brother in law when he first came over as a birthday present. 

A wise man once said "Everything changes but nothing really changes" It seems to be quite true today. 

The Saturday list #338 - My ten recollections of the USSR

What we are seeing in the Ukraine is an absolute tragedy. My family has very close ties to what was formerly the USSR. My wife did Russian studies at Manchester University, including a course at the Minsk Language institue that lasted three months. That was the year after Chernobyl and it was nearly cancelled due to the disaster. She made many close friends, many visited us, one of whom married my sister. They came from all across what was then the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was the general secretary of the Communist party and the Soviet empire was falling to bits. As soon as she finished her course, we visited the USSR, visiting Moscow, Leningran and Minsk. Most of her friends were still at the college and I got to meet many of them. They were a diverse bunch from what is now a collection of countries, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Azerbajan. I also visited Vilnius in Lithuania illegally, without paperwork, pretending to be a drunk Beolarussian peasant, which was then part of the USSR. It is amazing how invisible you can become and what you can get away with if people think you are drunk and insane. 

 I met many Lithuanians who were desperate to see the end of the USSR and join the EU. It seemed a ridiculous proposition at the time. I started to write a book about it, but with the end of the USSR, it seemed to be a pointless exercise. 

In light of events, I have been thinking of those times. I simply couldn't imagine a situation where Russia was at war with Ukraine back then. They were all mates at University and there were no divisions on ethnic lines. I thought the situation warranted a list of my recollections. I have to say, I get no pleasure reading of deaths of Russian soldiers. Each one  is the beloved son/daughter of a mother, a brother or sister to someone. What for? Nothing. War is futile and perhaps never more futile than this conflict.

1. The beer bar in Minsk. Russians drink vodka. They didn't really understand my love of beer. When I met Clare's friends, I asked if they could take me to the pub. The concept didn't really exist as such in Minsk, as we know it. But eventually they relented and took me to the beer bar. The nearest anaology in British terms I can give is a bar at a non league football ground in the 1970's. It was full of very working class middle aged men. My student friends felt quite uneasy taking me there. I loved it. There was one brand of beer on sale. There was no womens loo and no traps. The urinal was a piece of corragated iron draining into a gutter. Clare was not too impressed with the place. I proceeded to get into an argument with an old Belarussian guy who called me a fascist, because I was British. I told him I was no fan of Margaret Thatcher and reminded him that the USSR was in a pact with  Hitler when Britain was at war with them. That went down very badly, but I enjoy a good row. Later some black Cuban students arrived. I started to discuss Castro with them. They told me of their undying love for their leader. I said they were being ridiculous and I was more than happy to criticise Thatcher. They said that was because Thatcher was not a bad person wheras Castro was marvellous. One of my Russian friends later told me that any criticism of Castro would have meant a return to Cuba. My friends got very embarrassed when the Cubans started to get Racist abuse from the local workers. They told them off and said that they were an embarrassment to the USSR behaving like that in front of an English visitor. That was when I realised that the USSR was a in reality deeply racist. It disturbed me and made me realise that for all the talk of Communist ideals, you get racism and stupidity everywhere.

2. The train back from Lithuania to Minsk. One of my friends, Sasha, a Ukranian studying in Minsk, asked if I'd like to visit his parents with him in Vilnius. I am by nature reckless and used to love putting myself in danger. I had no papers to visit. It was a long train journey. He gave me strict instructions that under no circumstances was I to speak English. The cover was that I was a Belarussian drunk. On the train back, an attractive young lady joined us. The trains were divided up into compartments. She chatted to Sasha for an hour. She seemed very nice. I just sat there drinking beers. When she got off, Sasha looked very relieved. She was working for the KGB. She'd told him that she 'hated drunk Belarussian peasants'. I am a very good actor.

3. The slice of fat. When we arrived at Sasha's parents, they'd put on a big spread for us. His father worked in the aviation industry. There was all sorts of meats and fish. I saw a large slice of haloumi cheese, that I loved and said "Ah, this is my favourite, thank you for getting this". I took a slice and when I bit into it, I realised my mistake. It was a slice of pig fat. I nearly gagged, but to be polite scoffed it down. I thought I'd got away with it, but Sasha's Dad, having seen me wolf it down so hungrily, gave me another slice.

4. The Menus. In the Soviet Union, you'd go to fine restaurants and the food would be decent and cheap. You'd get given an extensive menu, it was most impressive. There was just one snag. They only had the items on the menu that had a price next to them. The rest was just for show. Clare being a vegetarian, it was all a bit of nightmare. She had eggs and tomatoes at many places and they thought she was bonkers. 

5. The Beryozka. The shops for the local populace were very poorly stocked. It was only when I visited the Berioska that I realised that the Soviet version of Communism was rotten from top to bottom. They were well stocked shops that took hard currency and were only open to foreigners and party officials. It offended my sense of fairness and justice. The workers in the beer bar would never be allowed anywhere near the goodies on sale. If you really want to understand Vladimir Putin, you need to understand that he was a man of the Beryozka, a man who believe in the privelige for the few who ran the show and stale bread and cheap vodka for the masses.

6. The train explosion. We were in Minsk when there was a train explosion. 575 people died and 800 were injured. It was an absolutely awful accident. There was a day of mourning to commemorate it. The mood was somber and sad. Many of my friends were angry and felt it was a symbol that the Soviet Union was failing.

7. The Kremlin. Growing up, the BBC always portrayed the Kremlin as a grim and scary place. When I visited it, I was shocked beyond belief. The building we associate with it, St Basil's cathedral, is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. The rumour has it that after it was completed, Peter the Great had the architects eyes pulled out, so he couldn't make anything better. I went to see the corpse of Lenin, the man who caused all of the trouble. It was all a bit odd. When I was at St Vincents school in Mill Hill, they had dead nuns in glass coffins, supposedly saints who's bodies were preserved as they were so holy. When I saw Lenin, it reminded me of that and I realised that Leninism was in many ways a quasi religious cult gone wrong. 

8. The Pirate Radio Station. I was delighted to learn that one of Clare's friends was running a pirate radio station at the Uni. I had the honour of being interviewed on it. What especially impressed me was how they'd built all of the gear themselves. I realised that there were such stations all over the USSR as the mainstream stations there didn't really play Western music. Their tastes were a bit AOR for my tastes. I was surprised at the lack of interest in Punk Rock. It didn't really occur to me at the time, but punk is quite quantly English in many ways. Bingo Masters Breakout by The Fall doesn't really translate. It took me a while to fully understand that.

9. The Vodka party. For our final night in Minsk, Clare's friends held a party at the Uni for us. I'm not a Vodka drinker, I'm not really into spirits, but they insisted. We had vodka with lime, vodka with tonic, vodka with coke. When all the mixers ran out, we even had vodka with Mayonnaise. I have to say that all it really did was confirm my dislike of vodka, but it was great fun. I also found out that you get a very different quality of hangover with Vodka. You feel very glum, grey and miserable, quite fitting for living under a dictatorship.

10. The wedding party. My sister got married in Minsk Cathedral in 1990. I went over with my Mum, my missus and my sister Catherine. I'm not entirely sure why the rest of the family didn't go, probably because it was expensive and difficult to travel. Under Soviet Law, if you got married you got a special pass that allowed you to have a  proper party at very little cost. There were 40 or 50 people, mostly friends of my brother in law. The food was amazing, but what really caught my eye was that between every two people there was a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, a bottle of vodka and a packet of Marlboro cigarettes. My Mum was most impressed that the whole thing cost less than £400 with a DJ and a band to boot! Sad to think that some of the people at that do will have sons and daughters possibly fighting each other as we speak. 

Have a great weekend. A couple of years ago I wrote a song that seems quite appropriate to the current situation, although written for a different nation and a different scenario

Ukraine 0 - 1 England

Last night we had the third of Englands three qualifying games. We all knew the maths, a point would see us through and a better result than France would see us top the group and play Italy rather than Spain in the quarter finals. Perhaps a true reflection of the relative strengths of France and England could be gauged when  an Italian friend wished me luck earlier and said that "All Italy was hoping for an England win".

When the match kicked off, it soon became clear what Roy Hodgson's game plan was. Sit back, restrict Ukraine to pot shots and then hope that the superior finishing powers of England would prevail. Thus it transpired. I wondered whether the injury to Frank Lampard was a belssing in disguise. Not only does Steven Gerard seem rejuvinated, but our luck has changed. Now it is England getting the benefit of dodgy decisions, when balls are clearly over the line. I have much sympathy for Ukraine. When Lampard "scored", there wasn't a bloke standing two yards away on the line with a flag. I wonder if that particular man will be featured in a specsavers ad. The match also saw the return of the Handsome Prince, Wayne Rooney. Adding to the feeling that Hodgson is a lucky manager, he scored a goal which even my mum could have scored, although to be fair to Rooney, he was in the right place at the right time, which is something beyond some of Englands former centre forwards. 

How good are England? Well they scored three goals against Sweden, France couldn't manage one. They beat Ukraine on their own turf and they got a score draw with France. They have also had credible shouts for penalties turned down in all games. Are France worse than we thought? I suspect that we will only really know after they face Spain. I think that may be the game of the Tournament. 

I am extremely pleased for Roy Hodgson. We shouldn't underestimate the job he's done. He had no time at all to prepare the squad and has only worked with a handful of players (those at Liverpool) previously. He has managed to fashion a well organised and disciplined side, who hold a tight line and fashion decent goalscoring chances against more than decent sides. Although Ukraine had  a lot of pressure, they only had one chance which you'd reasonably have expected a decent striker to finish. 

Perhaps the biggest lesson from yesterdays game wasn't for England or even the Ukraine. It was for Sepp Blatter, who has resisted goal line technology. His idiotic position is now completely exposed. How many more important games will have their outcome altered by this mans Luddite stupidity?