The Barnet Eye national news round up - Anelka, Income Tax, The Weather, Watford & Ed Balls !!!

Did last years big freeze damage the economy?

As it's Sunday, here is my take on the weeks news in brief.

West Bromwich Albion striker Nicholas Anelka has been charged over making a racist gesture when celebrating scoring a goal. The striker made a "quenelle" gesture, widely associated with far right/nazi groups. Mr Anelka claims it was nothing of the sort, simply a getsure of solidarity with his mate, who happens to be an anti semite. Anelka claims in France the gesture is simply anti establishment. Given that the Nazi's invaded and did unspeakable things to many people in the French establishment, it is always possible that he is just a complete moron. If someone tood outside a synogogue in Golders Green performing Zeig Heil salutes and was arrested for incitement, a defence that  they were simply showing solidarity with vegetarians and dog lovers, as Hitler was both, would be laughed out of court. Anelka performed his gesture in front of thousands of people and a TV audience potentially of tens of millions. I'd never heard of the Quenelle before or the racist thug who invented it. Mr Anelka has succeeded in promoting the vile gesture beyond his wildest dreams, with Nazi  morons photographing themselves making the gesture outside all manner of sites associated with the holocaust. I rather hope that Mr Anelka is banned from playing football in the UK for good. That will cost him a fortune and it will serve as a warning to the next moron who wants to behave in such a manner. In Barnet we have a large Jewish population, many with familiy ties to holocaust victims. I personally do not want any scumbag who insults the memory of the these innocent victims to be allowed any platform at all.

This week, Ed Milliband and Ed Bollocks launched a commitment to reintroduce a 50p top rate of tax for the highest earners. The Tories have a long term ambition (meaning when and if they can ditch their Lib Dem partners) to reduce the top rate to 40p. I find this to be a very interesting debate, as it won't really affect anyone apart from a small band of "the slightly rich" . Millionaries employ accountants to ensure they pay nothing and the majority of rest of us don't pay it. The Tories claim that by cutting tax rates, more people simply pay up and don't employ accountants to avoid it. So if we did a straw poll of multi millionaires and said would your rather pay tax at a rate of 50p, 40p or nothing, what do you think they'd say. In truth to get multi millionaires to pay income tax, you'd have to cut the top rate to 10p in the pound. Then they would probably not bother to avoid it. I discussed the matter with a couple of friends who were accountants. They said that if you borught in a top rate of 10p for earnings over £1 million, the treasury would rake in zillions. I am not an accountant so I have no idea whether this is true. When I asked why no government has ever proposed this, they laughed and said that the accountancy firms who advise the government keep schtum because it would be like turkeys voting for Xmas to let the cat out of the bag. Who would employ an accountant if it was cheaper and easier just to pay tax.

Being British, we all love a good moan about the weather. We have certainly had a lot to moan about this winter. Last year it was absolutely bloody freezing at this time of the year. This year, it is warm and wet. As a dog owner, it has been a nightmare. The garden is a quagmire and every comfort break for our two hounds results in the mop coming out. Many areas such as Arrendene, where we like to exercise the mutts are almost impassable. Having said that, as a businessman it has actually been great for business. Last year, the big freeze caused hellish travel disruption. This resulted in mass cancellations of sessions at our studios and the weather probably cost us £50,000 in lost revenue one way or another. Just for example, our takings last week were approx 45% on the same week last year. If people aren't going out, they don't spend money. I believe that Mill Hill Music Complex wasn't the only business to suffer due to the freeze. I am of the opinion that the reason for the poor economic figures this time last year, with stalled growth, were largely due to the freeze. On Friday night I attended our football club late Christmas curry at the Mill Hill Tandoori restaurant. Every table was full and Mr Lemon who runs the establishment said it was his best night for years, even without our party of 14. Which leads me to a very interesting conclusion. Could it be that the result of the next general election will be defined by the weather next winter? If we get another big freeze, then Osbourne's recovery will stall. If we get mild and pleasant weather, the economy will power ahead. In a week when UKIP announced that the wet weather was the result of God's opinion of the decision to pass Gay Marriage legislation, a cool rational view is that as it has boosted the economy, it will also boost the chances of Osborne and Cameron getting elected. Given that God is the supreme intelligence (assuming you accept the premise that God exists), then it is most unlikely that God failed to take into account the effect of this weather on the election chances of the party that passed the legislation. Of course trying to figure out exactly what message God is trying to send us by watching the weather is perhaps a little bit futile. I'd suggest that UKIP would be far better taking account of the story of the "Good Samaritan". The moral of this story is that despised foireigners (The Jewish population of Israel at that time despised Samaritans) can be as good, if not better people than the rest of us.

We started with football, so we'll end with football. This week has seen two rather extraordinary games. The victory of Sunderland over Manchester United at Old Trafford was perhaps the most extraordinary game of football I've ever seen. United ultimately paid the price for being so conservative at a time when they had the advantage. What was extraordinary, was the fact that so many professional footballers, men paid a kings ransome to kick a ball, having been trained since the age of six or seven, couldn't hit the target from ten yards. Then we have the performance of Watford at Manchester City yesterday. City have swept all before them, yet Watford played without fear and were desperately unlucky to lose, with their young goalkeeper making a howler at 2-2. Unlike United (and many others) Watford went to the Etihad and threw the kitchen sink at City. At half time they lead 0-2. City sent on the big guns and pulled it back, but all credit to Watford for having such a go. As a City fan, I was relieved at the end, but my many watford supporting friends can be proud of their team. A special mention to Sergio Aguero. Yet again he was the saviour for City. He is a sublime talent, unlike Ed Milliband he is admired for the way he can use his talent to Ed Balls and score ! (groan !)

Have a great Sunday.

The Storm that never was?

Well, I for one am relieved to see that the BBC website is reporting that the worst of the storm forcast for tonight seems to be missing Mill Hill ! You can check the local weather here http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/nw7

The worst winds are forecast for 6am and it predicts 30mph.

Of course we know how well the BBC did last time with Michael Fish ! Lets hope that in the morning we are all still here !

So who is responsible if you fall over on the ice?

Just suppose you are an elderly person living on your own. Nine days ago it snowed in London. The pavements have been treacherous ever since. Would you go out an risk life & limb or stay in, running out of fresh food and provisions? More to the point, if you have to go out, who is responsible if you fall over and break your hip.

When my mother was 81 years old, she fell and broke her hip. On arrival at hospital they advised that many elderly people with her injuries don't make it. She pulled through the episode, but it just about finished her off and robbed her of what little independence she had. Yesterday I fell on the ice in Flower Lane car park, as I walked my dog. I didn't break anything, but I have a huge bruise. I was wearing proper walking boots, but the car park was a sheet of ice. The council had plenty of warning about the bad weather and the snow has sat on the ground for nine days. Elderly people are virtual prisioners and nobody can walk the pavements without fear of  a fall. The grit bin at the bottom of our road is empty and has been for most of the time.

The council policy of not bothering to grit is tantamount to discrimination. The argument they use is that it's too expensive to grit. How come they used to do it and we paid far less tax? Council tax is higher than ever, but services are worse than ever. The reason? Overmanagement. In the not too distant past, council depots had a foreman who allocated the work and reported in to the town hall. My guess is that these days there are more managers than people driving grit lorries. I'd almost forgive them if when it snowed they all rolled up there sleeves and got out with the boys gritting. Sadly when it gets cold, the top bosses bugger off on holiday. They've left a geezer running the council who is not a Barnet Council employee, he's a highly paid consultant. He gets between £15,000 and £17,500 a month.

Has he been working 24 hours a day, telling staff on redundancy notices to pull their fingers out? Has he been repeating (on holiday) Council Leader Lynne Hillans message that "We're all in it together" to staff.

If you have fallen over and injured yourself, I'd strongly advise you to check and see whether Barnet Council have failed in their duty of care to you by not taking steps to ensure safety of their property (pavements, car parks, etc). If everyone who could sue them, did sue them, maybe they'd actually make sure the pavements are safe. Has anyone been to North London Business Park. I'd be intrigued to know if they've gritted around their own offices?

Congratulations to Barnet Council

Let me be the first to congratulate Barnet Council on their stirling work, keeping the Council running through the volcanic ash crisis. Whilst airports everywhere ground to a halt, trains to the continent were filled to capacity, stranding thousands of people, Barnet Council managed to provide a full service without a hitch. Well done chaps ! Lets hope that the lessons they learned from the snow crisis in January, when the whole of Barnet ground to a halt and they ran out of grit were well learned.

Barnet Council is full of Grit

I thought that any Barnet Residents may be interested to see what Barnet Council spends your Council Tax on. Here is a video they made explaining what a marvellous job they did gritting roads and footpaths during the recent bad weather. Strangely all of this seemed to completely bypass my road and many in Mill Hill.


As you may recall the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan and her Deputy, Andrew Harper were on holiday during the worst of the bad weather when the grit ran out. I suppose that they watched this from their luxury hotels in the sun and thought "We're doing a fine job". Strange how they can find the money to make videos saying what a marvellous job they've done, but they can't find the cash to pay for Sheltered Housing wardens for the elderly

Barnet in Chaos

Yet again Barnet has ground to a halt due to snow. First Capital Connect are yet again experiencing delays of up to 1.5 hours (no surprise there). It seems to me that every time there is a spot of bad weather they all just hold up their hands and give up. Schools are shut and many roads are in gridlock. Buses have been diverted.

It took me an over an hour to drive from Mill Hill to Finchley this morning. Bunns Lane and Pursley Road were completely gridlocked. Unlike last week, the three local schools which my Children attend were all open. Given that driving conditions during the rush hour were just as bad, if not worse on some roads exposes the fact that there is no rhyme or reason to the schools opening policy. Why were schools closed last Friday and open today? Are there clear guidelines on when schools should shut or open due to weather?

As to gritting. It looks to me as if Lawrence Street had been gritted this morning, which was not on the list of roads, whilst Pursley Road, which is on a bus route and has three schools on it's route was left alone (resulting in gridlock). It strikes me that the "resilience plan" for road gritting was drawn up by people who know nothing of the Borough. let me give you a couple of examples of roads which have not been gritted, but any sane person would immediately recognise the importance.

Firstly, lets look at Hartley Avenue. This is a no through road, approx 100 yards long, with no residential dwellings on it. Not a priority if you are a council official in an ivory tower? What any local will know is that there is a Fire Station, an Ambulance Station, a Doctors surgery, and a public library in the street. Do the council really not recognise the importance gritting such a road and keeping our emergency services moving?

Next up, Consider The Rise. This road runs from Parkside to the A1/A41 Barnet Bypass. Although this road is a very short road, which only has a couple of dwellings, there are a couple of factors which make it a massive hazard in icy weather. As I said, it leads on the the A1/A41 which is gritted regularly as a priority trunk road. As a result traffic will always be travelling at near normal speeds. The Rise, however is completely ignored by gritters and becomes a skid track. It is also, as the name implies, on  a very steep hill. Anyone not knowing the road, will go to turn down it, and skid straight into the oncoming traffic on the Barnet Bypass. In short, it is a massive road safety hazard. Lib Dem candidate for Barnet Kim Chechetto lives on Parkside, opposite the entrance to Parkside, and she was telling me horror stories of how cars were skidding out of control. She said that Parkside residents actually blocked the entrance to The Rise with cars to prevent these accidents during the worst of the cold.

It's all very well for Barnet to say that only the resilience network of 60 roads matters. They have a responsibility to all of us to keep the roads safe. With both of these examples, a short stretch of road could be gritted with negligable effects on the Boroughs grit supplies. It just highlights the lack of leadership at the top of Barnet Council. Do any of Barnets ruling elite actually know anything at all about the Borough they get paid so much to run?

Last week we were faced with the situation where the Borough ground to a halt, but both Council Leader, Councillor Lynne Hillan and her deputy dawg Councillor Andrew Harper were on holiday. Everyone I've spoken to who has been involved with organisations which have a responsibility to the public, say that someone should always be left in charge. Mayor of Barnet, Brian Coleman has been forcefully making this point to his colleagues. Councillor Coleman himself got caught out by the management chaos last week. He was on BBC London claiming Barnet had plenty of grit, only for his fellow councillor Daniel Thomas to announce that supplies were running low a few hours later.

It seems that Lynne Hillan and her Tory Colleagues think that the solution to any problem is to go and swan around in the lap of luxury at a luxury hotel. Don't Call Me Dave highlighted this in a recent blog, reproducing this email that Hillan had sent to her Conservative colleagues. It amazes me that Hillan thinks the whole issue of provision of care for the elderly is a joke. It is even more incredible that her Tory colleagues though she was the best person to run the council.

While we are on the subject of people not doing their jobs properly. Why is the Barnet Times (or the Barnet Tory Bugle as it likes to be known) incapable of criticising the Tory administration or their lack of commitment to the job. No mention at all of Hillan and Harper swanning off. As Barnet has failed so miserably to deal with the problems, surely they realise that people should be told why.

Is it any wonder that Barnet is in chaos. We urgently need a change. We need people who care about the London Borough of Barnet. We need people who care about ALL of the challenges that the Borough is facing. We need people who care for our elderly. We need people who are willing to rearrange their holiday schedule so that there's always someone around to take tough decisions.

Bad weather - hilarious grilling of the met office chief

Here's something to warm you up. A hilarious clip of the Met office chief getting grilled as to why he got a huge bonus, when they've consistently got the forecast wrong

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8443687.stm

Enjoy !

Losing touch with reality

I've spent most of the last two days looning around in the snow with my children. No school for them. It has been great. Bumped into all sorts of friends, old and new as our kids hurtled down the various slopes of Mill Hill on a variety of sledges, toboggans, trays, inflatables, estate agents signs .....

Each evening I've gone home and put on the news. There are only two stories. The weather and a couple of MP's saying Gordon Brown should go. As I watched I realised that the current story about these MP's sums up all that is wrong with politics in the UK. As I chatted to friends today, did anyone at all mention Gordon Browns problems with his MP's? Not a sausage. Did they mention the travel chaos caused by lack of planning for bad weather? You bet, that's all they wanted to talk about. Which story did David Camerons Conservative Party think warranted rushing out a billboard poster for? My guess is that every Tory politico in the land looked at the poster and went "Marvellous, we're on to a winner here". It is also my guess that every normal voter in the country hadn't got a clue what it was all about. I suspect that if you showed the poster to most people in my local, they'd probably think it was a bad picture of Dierdre Barlow and that she was hooking up with a new husband - Is  Geoff Hoon the new Ken Barlow? Doubtless millions of Corrie fans will be tuning in tonight to be disappointed that this plot line isn't happening.

It was summed up for me during a conversation with a friend, Gary the Cabbie, who told me of when he had John Prescott in his cab. Prescott asked what he thought of the then new bus & taxi lane on the M4. Gary replied that it didn't make much difference to him. He said that Prescott should concentrate on things like banning large lorries delivering during rush hour and listed a whole lot of other enhancements around London which would make a huge difference. John Prescotts reply? "What do you know about transport?". Gary retorted "We'll I've only spent the last 30 years driving around London". Prescott replied "People like you never see the big picture".

The trouble is that the big picture is really a montage of small pictures. The likes of Prescott want a simplistic broad brush, but in reality it's attention to detail which makes all of the difference. David Cameron had the choice yesterday on how to spend his advertising budget. Should he impress all his mates with a poster which they'd find rather clever, or should he vow to fix the effects of bad weather on the economy under a Tory Government?

He chose the easy option. The one his mates thought was clever. You may well ask, how on earth do you fix transport disruption caused by snow? Here's my suggestion. You find out which local authority dealt with it best. You then get all of the other authorities to learn the lessons which that authority has taken on board. Train companies. You institute massive fines for disruption caused by bad weather. In this day and age, the Council must know where it's teams have gritted. Put this information on-line. Let's see in real time how Barnet is doing compared to Harrow and Brent? They must have the information, so why not share it with the public. The Council spent £100,000 on putting you tube videos on the Internet. Why can't they put useful info, like when your road will be gritted next up?

I'll tell you why, because they've lost touch with reality.

Chaos in Barnet - Fantastic snow pictures in Mill Hill Broadway

If like me, you enjoy the snow, here are a few pictures taken at Noon today in and around Mill Hill Broadway.

Here is a lovely picture of a couple of boys tobogonning in Mill Hill Broadway. It seems they've lost their reindeer and are relying on a boxer dog to tow them up the Hill.

I had hoped to get a picture of the guy skiing to Marks and Spencers but he was at the Gherkin counter by the time I'd got the Camera out of the box.

Here's a lovely snowman in Station Road Mill Hill, outside of the M1 Cab office. In the background there's a 186 bus. Due to the lack of gritting the cab office had cleared the pavement outside of their office and made this rather jolly snowman on the pavement.

In the background you can see a 186 bus, the one Boris Johnson has diverted from the Watford Way, effectively putting Brent Cross well beyond the reach of the many elderly who live on the Watford Way between Mill Hill and Aerodrome Road and who used to use the bus to go shopping.

Here's a rather deserted looking Mill Hill Broadway. As you can see, at noon, no attempt had been made to grit the pavements and as a result, rather sensibly no one was out and about shopping. Given that the traders in Mill Hill have effectively lost a days trade, I wonder if the Council has any plans to refund a days business rates? Sadly for the owners of the shops, staff costs are the same, heating costs are higher, but takings will be well down due to the dangerous state of the pavements. I doubt that too many people at Barnet Council care too much about the effect on the business community.

Earlier today, I suggested that Barnet Council Leader Lynne Hillan should have at least been answering her emails and helping to coordinate the council response to the problem whilst on holiday. I asked why she hadn't delegated responsibility to the new Deputy Leader of the Council, Andrew Harper. It turns out that he's on holiday as well and the relatively junior Melvin Cohen is coordinating the response. Both Hillan and Harper receive generous allowances for their jobs. Is it too much to suggest that they coordinate their diaries and holiday at different times of the year. According to the Not The Barnet Times Blog, Hillan receives a "special responsibility allowance" of over £34,000 a year as Council Leader. Surely for such a figure, the least we should expect is that she ensures her or her deputy is around at all times.

Today we've had Mayor Brian Coleman on the Vanessa Feltz show saying Barnet are doing a fine job gritting. We've got the Leader of the Council and the Deputy Leader on holiday at the same time, leaving a junior cabinet member in charge. What is the result of this management drift? Boys sledging up and down the Broadway pulled by dogs, cabbies building snowmen because they can't navigate the sidestreets. Who suffers? The hard pressed businesses who pay rates and have no customers. The normal taxpayers who need to take time out of work to look after school children whos schools are closed. I'm sure Hillan and Harper will get straight on the case. Just as soon as they return from their holidays.

No wonder transport in Barnet is in a state of chaos !

I had an extremely urgent query for the Leader of Barnet Council, Lynne Hillan regarding the council's gritting of roads in Barnet. I needed to urgently check claims made on the LBC last night, on the James Whale show, regarding plans for gritting of the Boroughs Roads.

Not wishing to publish incorrect facts on the blog, I sent an email to Lynne Hillan. I immediately got the following response (phone no's masked by me) :-

I am currently out of the office until 8th January 2010.   If you want to contact me urgently, please call Caroline Gray on 0208 359 2***.  For Brunswick Park Ward issues, please contact my colleague Cllr Tambourides on 0208 368****or Cllr Lisa Rutter on 07956 ******.  Otherwise I will deal with your message when I return.

Lynne Hillan has not even been Leader for a month. Surely she realises that this type of major event needs hands on management. I'm not suggesting that she fly back from her holiday, but presumably she's been given a Blackberry courtesy of the council and the least she could do is is pick up her emails. When you take the top job, you get paid more. This is because you have to take extra responsibility. When crises occur, you have to be hands on. Even a note to contact her deputy, Councillor Andrew Harper would at least give the impression of someone being in charge.

The picture at the top was taken at 11am. It is of my road and it is quite clear that no gritting has been done. On a normal day, this would be filled with shoppers cars. From the snow on those parked, you'll notice that most haven't moved. 

The picture on the left here is the pavement. No sign of grit here either. My road is a busy cut through between Mill Hill Broadway and the A1/A41. Many people walk down to the Thameslink station from Apex Corner and beyond.  At this time normally there would be many people walking up and down.

Clearly it is dangerous, especially for the elderly and disabled. This leads us to another question regarding one of Lynne Hillans pet projects. The plan to get rid of wardens for the elderly and disabled in Sheltered Housing. What would these people do if there was a problem today? Call a mobile warden from the other side of the Borough? They'd probably be put through to a foreign call centre and told someone will come next Tuesday.

Unlike Lynne Hillan, these residents, who pay the same taxes as Hillan but don't get massive allowances in return, cannot swan off on holiday to avoid the worst of the chaos.

The bottom line is that the buck should stop at the top. An organisation without leadership is an organisation that will fail. That is why your road probably looks like my road, if you live in Barnet. That probably explains why you are at home, like I am, minding my children, rather than sending them to their school. I lived in Stockholm for a Swedish winter and todays snow is nothing. The schools don't shut down there, because the authorities have sensible plans. How much money has Barnet Council cost the economy by shutting schools and leaving roads unsafe. The reason that schools and roads are shut, is purely down to bad planning. If Council Leader, Lynne Hillan can't even be bothered to pick up her emails, is it any surprise that nothing else works.

Class A hypocrisy from Brian Coleman

I could not believe my ears. I was lying in bed, listening to the Vanessa Feltz show and who pops up to say what a marvellous job Barnet Council are doing? None other than our ubiquitous Mayor Brian Coleman. In the course of the broadcast he made a statement that made me spill my tea. Asked why schools in Barnet were shut, he said that it was due to the problems of staff getting in. No problem there. He then said that pupils generally lived close to the schools and that they could walk in. Again no problem there. Then he said "I'd much rather pupils walked in every day than have their mothers drive them in, in their 4 X 4 cars". Hang on. This is Brian Coleman. This is the man who has spent more public money on taxis than the rest of the GLA put together. This is Brian Coleman who used the Mayor Limo to pick him up from a standards hearing into a complaint against his behaviour. This is Brian Coleman who has the mantra of putting the motorist first in Barnet. This is Brian Coleman who ripped out all of the traffic calming measures designed to slow down cars on roads used by children walking to school. My daughter walks to school every day at Mill Hill County High School. All of her friends who walk from the direction of Poets Corner have to traverse roads with no safe crossings such as Lawrence Street. They have to walk up Uphill road, where Barnet Council removed road humps, even though all but three residents opposed this.

Every child should have a "safe corridor" to walk to school. A route where they do not have to chance their luck with dangerous traffic. Brian Coleman was road safety supremo in Barnet for many years. His policies were the exact opposite of a sensible policy required to get children "out of the 4X4's". Given that Barnet Council has completely neglected to grit sidewalks and sideroads, I'd say that the mums are quite justified in buying 4X4's as these are the only cars it is safe to drive your kids in when it snows.

Brian Coleman then said that anyone having problems caused by extreme weather in Barnet should email him directly via the Council website. Here's a link to his web page if you want to - http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/council/councillor.asp?intsectionid=9&councillorid=6030 - I just hope he's more polite if you email him than he was to me.

Brian Coleman gets more money from the public purse than any other GLA member or any other Barnet Councillor. Well over £100,000 at last count, for a few part time jobs.  I'd suggest that if you have any problems, he's your man.