Your Choice Barnet Week - Commentary

So far this week, the Barnet Eye has published three blogs from members of the public affected by the fiasco that is Your Choice Barnet. Perhaps the most moving contribution has been from Phillip Rackham talking about how the YCB cuts have drastically impacted his quality of life. The cruellest cut has been that to transport, cutting people off from friends and social activities at day centres. All this whilst executive salaries have skyrocketed - No "We're all in it together" here.

The Barnet Eye is proud to give the dispossessed of Barnet a platform. Every week our local papers give local politicians a platform. They use this to promote themselves and to try and stay in a job. Isn't it about time that they started to get out there and give people like John Sullivan, Janet Liefer and Phillip Rackham a platform, to put right the ills in our community?

The Barnet Eye urges everyone in Barnet to join the campaign. Tonight at 6:30 at the Greek Cypriot Centre in Britannia Road, North Finchley, there is a meeting of community campaigners. If you have been moved by what Phillip, Janet and John said, why not come along and see how you can help?

A Proper Newspaper for Our Barnet !

What do you do when you're sick to death of the press not telling the truth about what is going on? Well if like myself, Vicki M and the rest of the Barnet Alliance for Public Services, you are not prepared to let the Council get away with spouting porkies for the press to slavishly reprint verbatum, you write and distribute your own newspaper setting the record straight. I have written a column in the paper detailing why it I started the libraries campaign and why we haven't been told the truth. Click on the link to read it. We are delivering it to homes all around Barnet this week and it is also available at key places. Please look out for it and take the trouble to read it. If you can help deliver it or want to know more about the campaign, please email us at barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com

The worst recent example of this uncritical press coverage is this justification of the cuts by Councillor Daniel Thomas.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8783837.Fees_increase__in_line__with_other_boroughs_says_councillor/

Surely the press should contact an opposition councillor for balance? Here is one porkie which he spouted which was completely unchallenged :-

Councillor Daniel Thomas, cabinet member for resources, said the increases will help plug the £43m hole.He added: “The enormous financial challenges we are facing at the moment mean we are having to look in detail at every aspect of the services we provide to residents.

So you may ask, what is wrong with this. Well, I couldn't let it go unchallenged so here's the comment I left

Please can the Hendon Times stop slavishly stop spouting Tory propoganda and tell the truth. The financial mess was caused by the failed Icelandic investments which lost £27.4 million, the Aerodrome Road overspend which cost £11 million and the freemantle court case which cost £6 million. If you add all of these up, you will see that it's exactly the amount Daniel Thomas claims has been withdrawn - £43 million. The Times is meant to investigate and inform. It is not meant to repeat propoganda for lazy, useless and incompetent Tory Councillors who have mismanaged the Boroughs finances.

Given that all of these issues are widely known and have been reported many times, why didn't the Times pull up Thomas for his blatent porkmeistering?

Here's a few links to prove that unlike Thomas, I'm not bulls***ing.

Icelandic Investments
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/4169656.Council_may_lose___27_4m_of_Icelandic_deposits__says_minister/

Aerodrome Road
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/4346831.Aerodrome_Road_runs___11m_over_budget/

Fremantle/Catalyst (I got this wrong, the claim is £8 million, not £6)
http://www.times-series.co.uk/your_local_areas/3685068.Care_home_firm_demands___8m_from_council/

That is why we wrote the newspaper. That is why it is vital that the residents of Barnet read it. I believe that if people know the truth about these cuts and the councils incompetence, they will take a very different view of what is going on. Once we realise that the £43 million of cuts is directly down to Barnet Tory Incompetence, maybe we'll ALL do something about it

Barnet Council Cuts - What sort of a world do we want to build?

Who will suffer from the Barnet Council cuts - The old, the disabled, students, families on low incomes, residents of sheltered housing, to name but a few. The elderly have spent a lifetime paying into the tax system. Where is the justice for them? Youngsters and students are told by politicians, who had University grants and no tuition fees that "it's too expensive". Children (such as myself as a kid) who are intellectually late developers will be cut loose by a system where they don't fit in. Elite and selective schools cream of the A* students, whilst the less able, who need help more are neglected. Is there any justice in this? Just about any averagely bright child can get into any of Barnets selective schools, no problem at all. They just need wealthy parents who know how to play the system. That might mean spending a fortune on private tuition. It might mean paying over the top for a property in a school catchment area. Where is the justice for the poor children, who's mummys and daddies don't have that option.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is this. We need to pull together as a community. We need to ensure that when cuts are made they are made fairly. We need to make sure that those least able to shout and complain are looked after. One day we'll all be old and vulnerable. Whatever world we build today is the one we inherit tomorrow. If we sell out our kids and destroy our care system, we won't have to wait till we die to go to hell, it will come to us in our old age. Our kids won't care and we will be at the mercy of a harsh uncaring system. No one thinks they'll be a disabled geriatric, entirely forgotten in a badly run home, semi starved to death, abused by staff, left to fester in your own urine. That will be the final destination for many of us, unless we ensure that social justice is ALWAYS the councils first priority.

On Sunday I was reminded of the need to campaign tirelessly for justice, in a rather unexpected place.
This blog doesn't do preaching, but I was reminded of the need to stand up for justice on Sunday when I attended mass. The reading was from Lukes Gospel (chapter 18) and told the story of the unjust judge and the widow seeking justice. Every day she pestered him, until he gave in, just to shut her up. The priest Fr Kevin, then reminded us of the women in Argentina who opposed the Fascist dictatorship which was killing their menfolk. He explained how with silent, dignified protest, they eventually brought down an evil dictatorship. The point was that violence didn't win the battle, dignified and persisitent protest did. He drew the parallel between the Argentinian Mothers and the Widow seeking justice. They both won because they never gave up.

Sometimes I get ground down by all the bad things which happen in Barnet. Sometimes I think "Is it worth it, what can we achieve". Sometimes we need something, in my case a pep talk at Mass, to keep us going. I'm probably the worlds worst Catholic, but there are times when such moments give me the strength I need to keep going. We have a massive challenge facing us as key services are cut and vulnerable people are thrown to the wolves. We are faced with a council which clearly cares about nothing about the people to whom they owe a duty of care. Unless we campaign tirelessly for Justice in Barnet, we cannot expect justice for ourselves when a time comes when we might need it.

Barnet is full of caring communities. Tens of thousands attend religious service, tens of thousands belong to trades unions. All of this is worth nothing if the people who pay their dues are too lazy to get off their backsides to fight for justice.