Robert Rams - Twattus Norvegicus

As our little poll in the sidebar about Councillor Robert Rams, the man who wants to close and sell off  all of Barnet's libraries and send us to Tescos and Starbucks for our books draws to a close, I thought I'd share with you an amazing likeness I happened to nothice.

Last night I attended a School Transfer meeting with my son. He was enthralled by the biology department (where I had as a 15 year old studied biology). The cause of his excitement? The pet rats being handled by the students conducting the tour. On returning home, I thought I'd read up on domesticated rats, as they were rather appealing little chappies. As I started to research, I was struck by the similarity to a certain Barnet Councillor (and a few of his friends). First of all, the Latin name Rattus Norvegicus. Simply substitute a "T" for the first letter of the name and it seems to sum up our lovable councllor.

There are many little snippets of Rat behaviour decribed on Wikipedia, which reminds me of the way Robert Rams has "risen to the top" of the local Tory hierarchy.

Here are a few examples :-

Brown rats live in large hierarchical groups, either in burrows or subsurface places such as sewers and cellars. When food is in short supply, the rats lower in social order are the first to die.

It sounds rather like the way that the non cabinet members were shafted to ensure that the likes of Rams got a pay rise.

It also seems that rather like Barnet's Libraries and Robert Rams, proximity to rat populations can be fatal :-

Similar to other rodents, brown rats may carry a number of pathogens^[53] which can result in disease, including Weil's disease, rat bite fever, cryptosporidiosis, Viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), Q fever and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. In the United Kingdom, brown rats are an important reservoir for Coxiella burnetii, the bacteria that cause Q fever, with seroprevalence for the bacteria found to be as high as 53% in some wild populations.^[54]

Another similarity with Robert Rams is the way they both squeak to communicate :-

In addition, they commenly sqeak along a range of tones from high, abrupt pain sqeeks to soft, persistant 'singing' sounds during confrontations.

Of course not all rat behaviour is similar to Robert Rams and his Tory chums. They clearly seem to be a far more social and amiable bunch

Social behavior

It is common for rats to groom each other and sleep together.^[27] As with dogs, rats create a social hierarchy, and each rat has its own place in the pack. Rats are said to establish an order of hierarchy and so one rat will be dominant over another one.^[28] Groups of rats tend to "play fight", which can involve any combination of jumping, chasing, tumbling, and boxing. Play fighting involves rats going for each other's necks, while serious fighting involves strikes at the others' back ends.^[29]

Clearly there are some distinct differences. I can honestly say that I've never seen such behaviour (apart from the hierarchy and dominance)  in the Council chamber.

By the way,  on other matters Ramsbottom, it has been reported in the local paper that when asked why, after  3 years and  several million pounds, when Mr Ramsbottom was asked why there was no business case, no cost justification and a high risk profile for the Future shape project to privatise the council, Mr Ramsbottom replied "Don't worry, I'll knock one out by Christmas" or words to that effect. We here at the Barnet Eye wouldn't leave Mr Rams in charge of a rattery, let alone a massive Council transformation. If you agree or disagree, please take 5 seconds to join in our poll at the top of the green sidebar. Please join me on Saturday morning between 10am and noon in Mill Hill Broadway as we protest against the library cuts. We are having a collection of books for young Rams in an effort to  teach him the value of reading. If you have any books which you think could help, please bring them along.

I apologise to any rat lovers who may feel that they get a bad enough press without being compared to Robert Rams.

Councillor Robert Rams - Barnets biggest twat

Today I actually feel a bit sorry for Lynne Hillan. I cannot imagine how truly awful it must be to be beholden to such complete idiots as seem to comprise her cabinet. Has she insisted that all Tory Councillors are psychometrically tested and only those with IQ's lower than a nemotode worm are offered cabinet posts? I can think of no other earthly reason why she's made Councillor Robert Rams a member of her cabinet. You really couldn't make up his latest escapade. On the day before the vote for the leadership, this man who is an integral part of Lynne Hillans team gave an interview to the local press. You may recall that the reason for the Leadership challenge was that the cabinet had shown themselves to be totally out of touch with the man in the street in Barnet.

So what did Robert Rams have to say. He decided to give us his views on the "transformation of the library service". He said the following (in this interview   http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8374350._Nothing_ruled_out__says_library_review_supremo/ ) :-

Maybe people could order books online and pick them up at their local supermarket. These are things to look at in the future.

Let me explain to Mr Rams how a library works. People go along, they browse, they pick up a book and have a look at it. They may borrow it, they may not. Many young people (victims of the rabbit hutch housing policy in Barnet) visit libraries to work in a peaceful and quiet environment, with a stack of reference books to hand. Children go to the library, find books they like the look of and learn to read using them. Many elderly people (a reasonable proportion of who are sensible Conservative voters) like to visit the library to read papers, borrow large print books (if they have issues reading) and meet friends. Councillors hold serguries for residents at libraries.  Local organisations leave information about events.

Mill Hill library is a special place for me. Until the very last weeks of her life, my mother would visit it every Thursday and select large print books. She was 83 and didn't have (or want) a computer. She didn't want to have to get a bus to a supermarket to borrow a book. She liked to read a page or two of a book before she selected it.

Sadly Councillor Robert Rams seems to understand none of this. It would be interesting to see what sort of books he reads (although from what I've seen of him I suspect I really wouldn't). The man is a philistine who seems to think everyone else in Barnet is as ignorant as he is.

It says much about Lynne Hillan that she could appoint the biggest twat in Barnet to be the man responsible for "transforming" the Library service.

Footnote :  You may think that I am being rather strong in this blog. I know for a fact how the elderly in Barnet love the library service and I feel that Rams policy is discriminatory (many elderly are not IT literate) and will cause deep anguish. If my mother had still been alive, she'd have been distraught at this policy. Like her boss Lynne Hillan, Robert Rams is completely without compassion. I suspect Lynne approves.

Exclusive : Barnet Council planning sell off of libraries

The Lynne Hillan regime at Barnet Council evermore resembles the regime of Nero in Rome, fiddling whilst the city burns (in the musical sense of course). The latest masterplan before the scrutiny committee is one which is discussing the sale of the Libraries of Barnet Council. The document on the right is part of the scrutiny committee agenda (click on the image for a more readable version). Click on the following link  and then click link to item 9 -


 http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/meetings/meetingdetail.asp?meetingid=6287

As you can clearly see, parks, gardens and council housing are exlcluded from the strategy. This means that everything else is included. This means Open spaces, Daycare centres, Libraries, Council mortuaries and car parks. You don't believe me?

Well check this out from appendix 4 - page 2. It is there in black and white. They are planning to sell mortuaries, L:ibraries and Morgues and lease them back. Why? because they have lost so much money in Iceland that they can't meet there commitments and are desperate for cash. Whilst flogging off the family silver in the short term will bring some cash in, what happens in a few years time when property prices rise, rents go up and it's time for a rent review - Sorry chaps, the greedy landlord has put up the rent and so we have to close all of your facilities.

Yet again, the Barnet Tories are taking a punt on the future. Wheras maintenance costs are predictable and managable, commercial rents are not. Why would a commercial landlord buy a property other than to make a profit? Nothing wrong with that, it's called business, but only Barnet Tories would consider a sale of a long term assett when prices are depressed and the market is flat.

The sad truth is that Barnet Council have no real understanding of the world of commerce and business. They merely see all of their assetts as trinkets to be sold to dig themselves out of a hole. Gordon Brown was rightly derided for selling off the nations gold reserves at an all time low. Clearly Hillan and Co are trying to trump him.

I must say that of all the crazy Barnet Tory Policies that Hillan and Co have thought up, this is probably the most destructive one yet. When you voted Tory in May did you know that they were planning to sell off your local library? I campaigned vigorously against them, read every paper I could and yet this paper, drafted less than three months after the election is the first I've heard of it. This stinks to high heavens !!!! Let me leave you with a final gem from their strategy - the bit where they say in Barnet Gobbledygook speak that we - the people of Barnet  - might get the hump with this policy. I think they might have slightly underestimated the response, although one has to wonder whether people like Lynne Hillan really care. This gem is in appendix 4 page 4 - seems your allotments are up for sale as well !!!!