New Mayor slates Tory colleague on Barnet Council

Rather strangely, I didn't receive an invite to the inaugeration of the new Mayor last night. I was extremely pleased to hear that he took time out to slate one of his fellow Tory Councillors in his acceptence speech. For those who didn't follow the saga, one of his council colleagues (who's name I know but can't say for legal reasons) ran a rancid blog called "Barnets Third Eye". The author of the blog went under the anonymous handle of Boombastic. As if this foolish man's blog was bad enough, he also posted a message of support on a blog advocating the violent abuse of children.

The blog was pulled, under orders from the rulers at Barnet Tory HQ, after famously posting pictures of all of the Barnet Council Labour group with the following caption (this is saved from the blog).



The new Mayor clearly isn't impressed by his colleagues behaviour and criticised bloggers whom he claimed pulled down civic institutions by attacking officers and councillors, as demonstrated by this awful blog.

The Marmite Mayor declared “I will not put up with it!”

From this, can we conclude that it was the New Mayor, rather than Tory group Leader Mike Freer, who was responsible for carpeting "Boombastic" and getting his obnoxious log removed?

Regular readers will know that the Barnet Eye regularly praises Councillors of all parties who do a good job, such as Mill Hill Tory John Hart. We trust that the Mayor is happy for us to attack those who are doing a lousy job and need some help!

Exclusive: No Ball Games on the Mayor of Barnets new Lawn !!!!!

I went up to the Hendon Town Hall to join the Barnet Community Campaign lobby of the Mayoral Inauguration. The campaigners were protesting against the Barnet Tory Council's policy of cutting wardens for the elderly and vulnerable.
A petition was also handed in for consideration.

The council are making savage cuts to this service in a frantic effort to plug the black hole in the finances left by the outgoing cabinet member for resource management, Mike Freer. Due to the mismanagement of theBorough's investment policy, the council is unable to access £27.4 Million of it's reserves. This is rather inconvenient as they need £11 Million of it to plug the overspend on Aerodrome Road Bridge project. According to the Councils accounts, the £27.4 Million has been borrowed. Now I am not sure at what rate of interest this deal was done at, but if it was at 3.5%, a typical rate for the time the loan was taken, the interest would be approx £959,000 per annum. This figure is a sum remarkably similar to the saving derived from abolishing the wardens. So to be able to pay the interest on this dodgy deal, it rather looks as if the elderly and the vulnerable are being sacrificed. A Barnet Tory Councillor said to me a few weeks ago that times are hard and everyone will have to make savings. He commented that I was lucky to have a Tory council as they would take tough decisions and not shirk from cutting all unnecessary waste.

So there I was at the inauguration of the new mayor with 50 or so other protestors. As the protest wound down, I was having a nice chat with Labour Councillor Julie Johnson's (our Julie as she likes to be known) husband, a proper old school Labour supporter. As we were putting the world to rights, a pleasant lady from Barnet Council approached us. "You are ruining our lovely new lawn, please move". I replied "New Lawn?". She replied "Yes and the lovely new flower beds, just been put in for the mayors inauguration". At this I asked "At what cost?". Realising she was talking to someone who had stood in the cold for an hour, protesting because the council says it can't afford decent care for the elderly, she diplomatically replied "I can't remember". I then asked if the Town Hall is fully operational. She replied "Oh no there is still lots of building work to do".

Am I right in thinking that a Council who have all the financial woes of Barnet, who are so hard up they can't even fund proper care for the elderly and vulnerable, have laid a new lawn & flowerbeds, suspended building work, done a quick make over of a half finished building, purely so the new mayor can be inaugurated in a building that is a bit prettier than North London Business park. I am going to be putting in an FOI request to find out how much the lovely new lawn and flower beds cost. It should take 28 days to turn around. Any guesses?

Have a look at the pictures at the top of the blog. Oh and just in case they say that it was just regular maintenance, I noticed that the Library next door, had some rather less magnificent specimens in it's flower beds.

So now you know, in the eyes of Barnet Council's Tory rulers, a nice setting for the new Mayor's big night is a higher priority than looking after the borough's old people.

Oh and on the subject of the Mayor's big night. My congratulations to Brian Coleman on being granted the honour of serving the Borough of Barnet as it's Mayor. I look forward to warmly shaking his hand when my daughter receives her award from the Borough for her magnificent swimming achievements. She really enjoyed meeting the outgoing Mayor, John Marshall last year.

On a completely different subject, can anyone recommend a good glove shop?

How thick are the BNP ?

A very good question. I think I can provide the answer. Simon Darby, BNP deputy Leader posted this post on his blog. I was rather disturbed until I read all his mates comments.


As of 00:45 he got the 6 replies - I've attached 5 of them for your amusement. As you can see, as with most things, the BNP haven't got a clue. As for the rest of us, this is why you should get out & vote at the Euro Elections. Do you really want these dunces running the show?

Comments (6)

Gary · 3 hours ago

I don't understand them odds is this good or bad?

Andraste 70p · 2 hours ago

Can someone please tell me exactly what that shows? Being completely unaware of betting odds it means nothing to me. Thanks.

Bob · 1 hour ago

Not being a gambler and not wishing to start now, could you please explain the significance of this?

odin 43p · 1 hour ago

This really needs a translation, for us none betting types Mate.

Simon Bennett 77p · 1 hour ago

Is that good or bad? I am useless when it comes to betting odds.

Barnet Council: Choosing the right person for the job?

One of the most important portfolios in the Barnet Council Cabinet is resource management. The job of this person is to make sure that the council uses it's resources wisely (ie Doesn't lose our cash). The previous holder of the job who has just resigned was Mike Freer. Under his stewardship, the Council has mislaid £27.4 Million in an Icelandic Bank, with no hope of getting it all back from them. They've also gone £11 million over budget on the £12 million Aerodrome road Bridge project. Council borrowing has increased sevenfold since Labour ran the show. £1.4 Million was spent on obsolete computers, many of which the council are paying to store. Council officials have had tellies costing over £2,000 bought for their desks. Does this sound to you as if Mike Freer has done a good job managing your resources?

What did Mike Freer have to say about his own departure and the new incomig team?

This is a cabinet put together to solve the long- term strategic problems that face our borough, particularly given the unprecedented and appalling state of the public finances caused by Gordon Brown

So there you go, someone else is to blame for Iceland, Aerodrome road, The Tellies, etc, etc.

Now if I was one of the 33 Tory Councillors selecting a new person for the job, who would you choose. I'd hope you'd want the best person. The safest pair of hands. Who have they chosen? Lynn Hillan. According to the Not The Barnet Time website, she ran a company which went bust in 2006 owing £121,000. Over £10,000 was owed in taxes. That isn't my idea of a safe pair of hands.

My question is this. If Hillan really is the best of the 33 for the job, as her colleagues seem to think, what are the rest of them like?

Speaker Michael Martin: A deluge of hypocrisy

If Michael Martin has been a naughty boy, sure he should go. Having said that, how many of those queuing up to stick the knife in are blameless. Martin didn't force them to fiddle thier figures or claim for outrageous items, which in any other walk of life, no one would dream of even thinking of claiming for. By all means sack him, but he should be just be one in the queue for the dole office.

Cameron, Brown & Clegg can't force Martin out & leave people such as Chipping Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers, who racked up a whole range of claims for second homes, whilst living less tham an hourfrom the job, in place. If they do they are being hypocrites.

The Barnet BNP Bugle?

This is the 352'nd blog I've posted on Blogspot. In a different world, it may well have been the 1st. I originally had a blog on the Barnet Times website. They asked me to be a community blogger. When I started, the plan was to write about music mostly with a few sidelines about local issues. It didn't work out like that. As I scoured for inspiration, I found that there were far more local issues that required covering than music stories. All sorts of people would track me down & tip me off. I felt duty bound to cover these issues & take up their fight. During the course of the blog I rattled the cages of the local Tory ruling elite many times. They were not happy. In my final blog, I drew attention to a Youtube clip, posted by Barnet Council, which featured some inflammatory & anti semitic comments. The elite went mad. Pressure was brought to bear on the then editor and I was sacked as a blogger. The reason? The then editor of the Times felt that the tone of my coverage was "over the top". He felt that I may one day get a press complaint. He said that he didn't object to the blog, just the title "Barnet Council uses taxpayers money to put Nazi propoganda on YouTube". The council soon removed the clip, vindicating my stance.

In a parallel universe, just suppose I'd stayed there? I was quite happy blogging for the Times. Today I would have resigned. Why you may ask? Well the owners of the Times are Newsquest group. Today I read this story in the Tory Troll blog. Newsquest are taking money from the BNP to place adverts at the top of the page in the Stourbridge News, one of their local papers (recognise the familiar layout).

What in effect this means is that bosses of the group are having their pockets lined by an organisation which said on National TV that no black person is British. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP told Andrew Neil that even Johnson Beharry VC, one of the bravest people alive today on this Island CANNOT consider himself British.

There is another serious point to be made here. When dealing with organisations such as the BNP in a country with free speech, we have difficult dilemmas. Should they be allowed to advertise on a local paper? I view their politics rather like I view cigarettes. The are toxic, so you can't advertise them. I'd allow them access to debates where their views can be challenged, but I'd not let them peddle their dangerous wares unopposed. They sell the lie that they are patriotic, but British values are ones of freedom, tolerance and honesty. The BNP oppose all of these.

I don't want my writings to appear under a BNP masthead or ever be associated with them. That is why I would have resigned. Rather strangely, this blog is the opposite of the one I thought I would be writing today. As you will have read in the Barnet Eye over the weekend, the Barnet Times has dropped it's pro-Tory policy. There was further evidence of this today, with the publication of two letters supporting the Campaign to stop warden cuts. I was going to say well done to the Times. I'm sorry to say that, given who is paying the wages there, I can't.

I am not saying Rebecca, Elizabeth or Tom or any of the rest of our crew locally are BNP supporters, far from it, they are probably unaware of these adverts at the moment. I must say that if I was a journalist on the group, I'd go on strike until the adverts stopped. I am sure that they are all in the NUJ and would get supported. I know that even journalists have to pay the rent, so it's not easy, but sometimes you have to do wth right thing.

I personally would never ever knowingly allow the BNP to be promoted by my efforts.

Boris Johnson's Guide to Sex

Time for another in our series showing our beloved Mayor in action, developing exciting and innovative initiatives designed to improve the lot of us Londoners. Today Boris tackles the tricky subject of sex education



Boris demonstrates his latest innovation. The trademark Boris contraceptive underpants. These are to be issued to all London teenagers in an attempt to cool passions & cut teenage pregnancy.















Boris explains his innovative approach to sex education to an admirer, who suggests a few tweaks to the policy












Boris discusses sex education with former editor of Spare Rib magazine












Boris explains that size isn't everything











Please note that all similarity between this post and a sensible blog are purely coincidental. This is designed purely to give you a snigger. No carrots were hurt in the making of this blog.

Better sex = Emotional Intelligence ?

Tonight, the Barnet Eye is doing sex. Well actually we're not as we're sitting here writing blogs, but you know what I mean.

There is an interesting story on the BBC. It says that if you want better sex, find a woman who has higher emotional intelligence (doubtlessly written by women with high emotional intelligence). I have a healthy scepticism of all polls about such issues. When I was a teenager, I laboured under the impression that everyone was having more sex than I was. There was one particular guy I knew who would regale us with his exploits. I was impressed, but I couldn't really understand what girls saw in him as he was a complete dickhead. One day he boasted about his exploits with a girl I was good friends with. Shocked at her sudden lapse in taste, I waited for a suitable moment and asked her what he had that the rest of us lacked.

Her response? She said that he was a a creep, he'd tried to snog her at a party when he was pissed and she'd told him to get lost. I then broached the subject of a few other mutual friends who he'd claimed were notches on his bedpost. Similar stories emerged. The said individual got a public dressing down shortly after. Since then I've never really believed any of these tales. Our old guitarist, Captain Ubungus, has a partner who's mother spent a year in the 1980's performing lengthy interviews with couples about their sex lives for a national government survey. Her verdict? don't trust surveys.

The Barnet Eye doesn't do personal advice, but if it did it would say this "never believe what your mates tell you about sex after they've filled up on the best lager in the world" - if you know what I mean. One thing which is a common theme in these tales. The bloke recounting the episode of great sex, in the pub after 10 pints, rarely refers to a current partner or anyone you've ever met or are likely to. I wonder why?

A victory for the Barnet Eye, A victory for us all !!!!

Yesterday I detailed how, following pressure from The Barnet Eye, the Barnet Times had dropped it's pro Tory stance and decided to return to a more campaigning form of journalism. As I rather suspected, this approach has gone down very well with the visitors to the Times website.

One of their campaigning stories is currently no 1 on their list of most viewed stories (see screen shot left).


A big well done to Rebecca Lowe for a great story. My old motto seems to be true "Give them the story and they will come". I am pleased to be able to once again recommend the Times as a great read.

Lets hope for more of the same !!!!!

The most disturbing thing you will hear all week !

Picture - Johnson Beharry VC - National Hero

The country is sick of bare faced lying, cheating politicians. I think we all know this, but every Tory, Labour and Lib Dem politician in the land should click on the link below to the Vanessa Feltz show, forward the time to 2hrs 52 seconds and listen to what the clearly very honest, upset and intelligent lady of African descent has to say.

The Vanessa Feltz show

I have thought very long and very hard about posting this blog. Her message is so stark that it disturbed my nights sleep. There is a year until the next general election. Anyone tempted to call for an immediate election, should listen to this broadcast. I have come to the conclusion that parliament needs radical surgery to sort it out. They have 1 year to clean up the show. Here is my recovery plan. Believe me, if we don't do something radical, then we might end up with a Government that we can't sack at the election after next.

We've had about 50 or 60 MP's exposed by the Telegraph. Surely there must be a majority of decent MP's who want to sort the mess out. Here is my action plan.

1. Gordon Brown resigns tomorrow. Appoint Kate Hoey Prime minister & Frank Field as Deputy.

2. They should appoint David Cameron to head up a commission to reform expenses for once and all. A vote of MP's should be taken to give him sweeping and draconian powers to fire all MP's shown to have behaved in a dishonest or underhand manner. He will have this role for a 6 month period. MP's who have been dishonest will be given a stark choice. Resign & pay back the money or get the sack and be investigated by the police.

3. The Speaker should resign immediately. He must be replaced by someone with credibility on all sides.

4. All MP's expenses and accounts should be on line. Expenses should be just that. If they are genuine out of pocket expenses they can be claimed back. If they want a flat they can buy one, with their own money, like anyone else who has to work away from home. They would get travel, food, hotel bills & other related costs. They would send out accounts as part of their re election package.

This plan would give us all an opportunity to see whether David Cameron really can take tough decisions. Whether he can cut the mustard. He'd have six months to prove himself and six months to campaign. With Hoey & Field, we'd have someone trustworthy running the show and someone who knows what they are doing running the economy.

Finally a few words about the BNP and the African lady on the Vanessa Feltz show. She says that they are the only party who she can trust and the only party she knows where she stands with. I'm terribly sorry to disappoint her, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Their member on the GLA, Richard Barnbrook has shown that he's even more dishonest than the mainstream politicians. The Tory Troll has exposed how Mr Barnbrook has made false claims about murders in his borough. He faces a suspension of up to 6 months.

I would suggest that the lady in question watched Nick Griffin on the Daily Politics show. Mr Griffin clearly states that Coloured people are not British. He even says that Johnson Beharry, VC winner is not British, despite his bravery for Queen & Country. Who do I think can call themselves British? Well anyone like me, who was born here. My Dad was an immigrant, my mums Dad was an immigrant. Having said that, if you had to have the choice between me or Mr Beharry VC, I'd advise you to choose Mr Beharry, even though he's not born here. He has PROVEN his worth and the likes of Griffen have not earned the right to even question him. Where's your bravery medals Nick? You can see what a shifty, dodgy character Griffin is here, being interviewed by Andrew Neil.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8044337.stm

Is Mr Griffin being honest about his views on the holocaust? I don't think so. His excuse "European Law prevents me from explaining why I changed my views". Since when has European Law forbade people from saying "I read a load of old tosh, got taken in by it, and in the face of overwhelming evidence, been forced to admit I'd got it all wrong".

There is a big debate at the moment on the Left. Do we ignore the BNP or do we confront them head on. I say that now especially, we must expose their lies. Pretending they don't exist just keeps ladies like the one on Vanessa's show in the dark as to what they are really like.