An amusing conversation with a local resident about Potholes.

I was stopped as I got out of the car yesterday. It was a neighbour of mine, who lives at the posher end of my road. "You were standing for the council in the election, weren't you?" she asked. I responded "Yes, did you vote for me?". Her face screwed up "No, I always vote Conservative". She then continued "What are you going to do about the potholes outside my house?". I replied "You do know that I didn't get in?". She replied "Yes, of course I do, but what are you going to do about the potholes?". I replied "I'll give you John Hart, your local Conservative councillors telephone number and you can ask him to get it fixed. He won, he gets paid to do this". She wasn't having any of this "You will never get anywhere with an attitude like that". I felt a little explanation was required "Look, all I can do is ring he council to report it. John Hart is a councillor and he can follow  it through. You chose him because you felt he was the best man for the job". She then said "Look, you Lib Dems are better at sorting out local things, everyone in Mill Hill knows that". I then asked "So why didn't you vote for me?" She replied "Because I always vote Conservative". I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Maybe I'll report it anyway later using the http://barnet.fixmystreet.com/ website. The hole needs mending. If they don't mend it maybe I'll ring John Hart and tell him off. I'd just remind everyone that if you don't actually vote for the bloke who you think will do the best job, you've only yourself to blame if nothing gets done.

A message to Barnet Councils workforce : Nobody likes hard work

Do you work for Barnet Council? Are you a member of Unison. If you are, there is an election coming up for general secretary. Make no mistake, this vote is vital for you. The challenges facing you are immense. If you want to save your job, your terms and conditions and the vital services you provide, you need to get organised. To do this you need a general secretary who is prepared to get his hands dirty with hard work. Now no one likes hard work, but if you don't put every ounce of effort into defending public services, the public services in Barnet will be destroyed. In your forthcoming election for general secretary, you have a stark choice.


Paul Holmes would be my choice. This video explains why. I don't agree with everything Paul says, but he's honest, passionate and straight talking. Near the start of this video Paul says about the trades unions "They would rather win a dispute by writing a letter" "Nobody likes the hard work". Sadly this is true in more areas of life than just trades union disputes. This man talks my language. Vote for him if you belong to Unison.

A message to the Labour Party in Barnet

Dear Barnet Labour Party,

There is no nice way to say this. I am saying this because the people of Barnet desperately need you to change, probably more than any local Labour party anywhere in the UK. I know that this will make me no friends at all, but frankly I really don't care anymore. I am saying this because if no one says it and no one does anything, then it is a total betrayal of the people who have supported  you, the working people of Barnet. Every single Labour party member in Barnet should read this and ask themselves "How did we let this happen?"

You are a disgrace and you've let the people of Barnet down badly. Barnet Council is run by a completely useless Conservative administration. Not only have they shown themselves to be financially incompetent, but they have embarked on a war against the poor, the vulnerable, the weak and their own employees. This campaign is called Future Shape. If you are a member of the Barnet Labour party, you either know about this and have done sweet FA about it, which is a disgrace or you don't know about it which is even worse. This is a plan to completely privatise all council functions, sell off all of the councils assets and reduce the council down to a core of highly paid officials and councillors, who sit in Ivory towers allocating lucrative contracts to private companies. This will  relocate thousands of jobs out of Barnet, causing poverty and deprivation. Where have the stalls been on the high street to fight this? Where have the leaflets been explaining why it is vital for Labour to kick the Tories out of the Town Hall? Where have the activists been marching up and down the high streets saying to people "Do you agree with these policies, if not join us". What about Barnet Councils war on Sheltered Housing tenants? Have you been marching up and down the High Street saying "They can't get away with this" Have you been saying to everyone you know "We can beat this, but only if we get off our lazy fat arses and do something". Where have the stalls been? Where have the pickets been. Oh yes, I hear you say "Andrew Dismore and Alison Moore were at the front of the March against sheltered housing in Finchley last year". Trouble was that they had no part in the organisation, they just turned up and hijacked it. Did they make sure that there was a Labour stall out in the High Street building on that, reminding everyone, week after week? No, of course they didn't.

What election leaflets did we get from Labour. Lots and lots from Andrew Dismore telling us how marvellous he was. If these leaflets had said "only a vote for Labour will stop the sheltered housing cuts and only a vote for Labour will stop wholesale privatisation, which will bring poverty and unemployment to Barnet, in big, bold brassy letters, then maybe Mr Dismore would have got the 106 extra votes he needed in Hendon". I have  no doubt whatsoever that if the Labour party had started it's local campaign against the warden cuts and the future shape program last year, and got a stall out in every High Street in Barnet once a month for the last year, they would have followed the example of Brent,Harrow and Camden and taken control of the council. As it was they were all too lazy.

Oh, I hear them say, we didn't have the activists on the ground to do it. Of course you didn't because you only do that by the leadership getting off their arses, organising local meetings, working hard and saying "get out there and get us some activists". Work breeds success and the Barnet Labour party did none. I don't believe the lie that there was nobody interested. I attended a few meetings of the Barnet Community Campaign and there was huge interest in fighting these policies. The sad thing was that the local Lavbour party wasn't. All they were interested in doing was trying to save Andrew Dismores seat. The sad truth is that if they'd campaigned against the council, they'd have swept Dismore in on the backwash. Dismores campaign was built on sand. There were no solid foundations.

Andrew Dismore won because Labour and the Lib Dems controlled the Council and there was a healthy network of local activists. These people worked tirelessly at ground level to fight on local issues and this engaged local people. The key turning point for Andrew was Edgware general hospital, where a huge local campaign swept him into power. Sadly once he got there, local people and local politics were forgotten. That was why the council was lost and that's why it wasn't regained.

I received an email yesterday from Don't Call Me Dave. He's a Conservative who runs the Not The Barnet Times blog. It is shameful that he's done more to oppose future shape, the warden cuts and all of the other inept actions of the Barnet Conservatives than the entire Barnet Labour Party put together. All the Barnet Labour Party had to do to win was say "Read the Not The Barnet Times blog and see why you cannot vote Conservative. This blog is written by a leading Barnet Conservative". They had all of the ammunition they needed from a source of impeccable trustworthyness.

I know that many angry Labour members will say "Well you are in no position to talk, you jumped ship to the Lib Dems". I did this because I believed that the Lib Dems were the only realistic opponents of the Barnet Tories in Mill Hill ward and also because they seemed to understand the need to campaign locally. Sure we lost, but we worked our socks off. We were squeezed by a general election happening on the same day as the council election. We have issues to sort out and lessons to learn, but there is one big difference between Labour and the Lib Dems in London. Labour had a huge swing in most councils apart from Barnet. The Lib Dems didn't. If you are a Labour party member living in Barnet and you don't like what the Council is doing, then get out and get active. Dust down those tressel tables, get that photocopier going and start telling people why they need to kick the Tories out in Barnet Town Hall.  If you start now and you start to reengage with all those lost Labour voters at street level, by the time of the next election you might get there. There will be plenty of local issues for you to fight, given the policies of local and national government. This can only be done from the ground up.

Many people have asked me if I am going to be rejoining the Labour party, following the Lib Dem pact with the Tories. I have thought long and hard about this. As to the deal "I agree with Charles" - Charles Kennedy said he could never vote for such a pact. Having said that, I am Mill Hill through and through and the harsh reality is that only the local Lib Dems offer an alternative to the Tories in this ward. All of my reasons for quitting the Labour party still stand true. As I said to Dont Call Me Dave, the reason that the Tories won in Barnet is because no one believed that the local Labour Party had worked hard enough to prove it was a viable alternative.

I do have one suggestion for the local Labour Party, a parting gift. There is only one person in Barnet who has the skills, capability, knowledge and drive to get you back on the right track. If Alison Moore really is a leader she will lead a delegation around to her place and beg her to become the Barnet Labour party general secretary and not take no for an answer. Give her access to all your cash, all your campaigning resources and let her run the back room show. That person is Vicki Morris and if you do that you will win the Barnet Council back in four years time. If you don't ask her then you deserve oblivion. She knows how to campaign, how to work hard and how to fight.

Who cares?

Some of my main music studio customers are charities and voluntary organisations who use the facilities for youth projects. Many of the young people are not in education or training, many have problems. These are kids who need an outlet for their energy and need support and positive activities to expend their energy on. It is vital that any round of spending cuts do not cut loose these marginalised youngsters. These are soft targets for cuts as they have not got anyone to speak up for them, but if they are abandoned, then don't be surprised if graffiti, anti social behaviour increase and your quality of life gets worse. In the world of funding, those with the most effective lobby skills generally win. Who cares? You should, because we all have to live in this City together. We need to work together as a community to pull through the hard times. During the second world war, everyone suffered for the common good. Rationing was imposed for everyone, regardless of class, colour or creed. I'm not advocating a return to rationing, but I am saying we need to ensure that no one is left behind and the bottom level of society isn't neglected as we fight the defecit

A new blog for a new era?

There's just under four years until the next Council Elections. People have asked "Is there any point writing blogs about Barnet Council, if we can't do anything about who is running the show for four years?" It is quite clear that the Conservative administration can more or less do what the hell they like for the next couple of years and they'll still have two years for us to forget. "Why bother expending all of that energy if it can't change anything?".

Well I never expected anything other than a Tory victory at Barnet Council. I'd rather hoped that the Lib Dems would do better than they did, but I never doubted the Tories would still run the show. You see, it has been crystal clear to me for some time that the local Labour party has been in a state of disarray. Andrew Dismore would probably have won if he'd had the helpers on the ground to get out and campaign. He lost out by 105 votes. I honestly believe that if they'd have worked in council wards like Hale, they might have actually won a few more council seats as well as the Hendon constituency.

Which brings us to the main point. I don't believe that there will be any real opposition to the Tories in the Council chamber. Labour are clapped out and the Lib Dems are too depleted. Whilst some (rather silly) Tories think that the victories locally were down to their own brilliance, it is pretty clear to me and to the Tories with half a brain that factors such as holding a general election on the same day as the council election, and a national mood for change were massive factors. They may think that the results went the way they did because of their own personal brilliance, but should the national wind blow in a different direction in four years time, I suspect things will be rather different.

Given that none of us can see that far into the future, what point is there in writing blogs today? Well it is quite simple. For the next four years, blogs such as this will be the official opposition to the Barnet Tories. We can't vote in the council chamber, but we can co-ordinate the fight against unfair policies. We can highlight waste. We can expose councillors and other officials who are letting us down. We can be a mouthpiece for improvement in the council chamber. Now I'm sure the Tory Councillors will say "What right have you to tell elected officials what to do. What mandate have you got?". Well I have a right as a Council tax payer to expect my Council to be well run. If any Tory councillor wants to post a comment here to say otherwise, please go ahead or we'll take that as agreed. What mandate have I got? Well, far more people have read this blog than voted for all of our councillors and MP's put together. That counts for nothing in the council chamber, but only a fool would completely discount it. There is no earthly reason why any Councillor should listen to anything I say, that goes without saying, but on the other hand, if I have a point, shouldn't they at least consider it?

There are three groups of Conservative councillors. There are those who never listen to anyone apart from their own voices, there are those who do what they are told and there are those who you can have a rational conversation with and who want to do a good job. Now if you are a Tory Councillor, which of these groups do you consider yourself a member of ? As there won't be an election for four years, blogs such as this have a responsibility to construct arguments which the third group will take up and buy into. We can't expect the Conservative group to drop their own manifesto, but we can try and show why some of their policies are damaging. We can hope that the more sensible councillors start to earn their allowances and vote with their consciences.

The second thing we can do is organise effective community action. If something is wrong, we have to get together and try to put it right. We need to pool information and resources to fight bad policy. We need to ensure that we use every tool at our disposal to protect the weak and vulnerable. It would be the easiest thing in the world to bury our heads in the sand. If we say "It's not my problem, it's someone elses" then we can blame no one else if we find ourselves alone, exposed and in deep trouble. Most readers of this blog don't live in sheltered housing and don't need an on-site warden. By the time you do, it will be too late if Barnet Council abolish them. That is why you need to fight today. As to overdevelopment. When your children or grandchildren don't have any green space in their locality, no local school place and nowhere to play football, it will be too late. When all of our high streets are dominated by bookies, fried chicken shops and convenience stores, it will be too late.

So is there any point writing blogs about the Council when there is four years to the next election? There's more reason than ever. Until we start seeing some proper political opposition, it's the only way that we'll keep the wheels on the bus.

The frustration of dyslexia

Regular readers of the blog will know that I'm moderately dyslexic. Generally this hasn't been a problem for me since my early teens, when I developed a pretty decent strategy for dealing with it. In the good old days of the mid 1970's dyslexia as such didn't exist. We were just plain thick. I'm so glad that I don't live in todays namby pamby state where I'd have been statemented, given extra time in exams, had my own classroom assistant. Had I been given all of that, there's no way I'd be the mass of raging anger that propels my love of punk rock and my burning hatred of injustice. Children today don't know what it's like to be called to the front of the class and ritually humiliated "Let's all laugh at the retard" sessions were one of the highlights of my growing years. There was a turning point for me. It happened when I was at Finchley Catholic High School. At the time my best friend was Patrick Walsh. I had transgressed. The then Headmaster of the School, Nick Kelly was taking us for a lesson. He didn't like something I said and decided to humiliate me. He invited Pat Walsh to stand up and ridicule me. Pat stood up and announced that there was no way that he would do such a thing. He turned round and said "You've got something to say, say it for yourself". The rest of the class, like a bunch of hyenas sensing that the old alpha was hurt and the old order was changing all joined in. Kelly bottled it and dragged me up to his office to give me a letter to take home to my parents and told me I was a troublemaker. That was the day I learned the most important lesson of my life. Stand up for what you believe in and don't abandon your friends. If Pat had done what the Head asked, I wouldn't have held it against him, I'd just have taken it. As it was, it made me realise that you NEVER should take it. I doubt he even remembers it. We lost touch when I left aged 15. Much to my shame a year before, I didn't have the guts to take the same stand. Pat had bad eczma and used to have a red raw face. One day, he turned up late for a history lesson. The teacher, Mr Linane, looked at him as he arrived and annouced "Baconface arrives". We all found it hilarious and for a while the name stuck. I thought it was wrong at the time, but didn't have the courage to stand up and say anything (I was about 12).

Do you know how it feels when your friends put themselves on the line for you and win, especially when you have low self esteem? It feels great. After that day, all of the thrashings I received didn't matter. So what got me thinking about this. Well these days there's only thing which I have significant problems with. Filling out forms. Generally I get Mrs T to do that. Sadly she's in Sheffield at a swimming championship with eldest daughter. My anti virus subscription expired and I needed to renew it. For most people this would be a simple task. It took me 45 minutes and a phonecall to the bank to sort out my card. After getting absolutely nowhere I eventually had another look (for the hundredth time) Oh yes. I realised the error of my ways. 01/11 isn't the November 2011.

Happily for me such errors now only make me feel frustrated. I no longer have to stand in front of 40 classmates for a ritual humiliation by the teacher. Whenever you hear radio shows about schools, you year the same mantra. Standards have dropped, the old ways are better, in my day we got a proper education. I see how hard my children work and how good their work is. I had a great education if you consider having a deep mistrust of authority, a raging anger at injustice and a commitment to stand by my friends through thick and thin are what you consider to be a good education. I just wished I'd enjoyed the whole process a tiny bit more.

Anger is an energy, Anger is an energy, Anger is an energy, ANGER IS AN ENERGY !!!!!

ANGER IS AN ENERGY. Don't ever forget that.  
ANGER IS AN ENERGY.

Some folk have asked me how I manage to write so many blog posts. ANGER IS AN ENERGY- That's how.  We all have a stark option when faced with injustice. We can either ignore it or we can fight it. Whatever you read in the papers about deficits and spending cuts, this is an immensely rich country. The problem in this country isn't that taxes are too high (or too low). The problem is what they are spending it on. Why is it that when I watch the likes of Paxman on TV interviewing the likes of David Cameron, I find myself screaming at the TV. Why? because they never ask the obvious questions.

One big reason I supported the Lib Dems was their commitment (unlike Labour and  the Tories) to not waste £100 Billion on Trident ( a sum which would virtually clear the deficit, unlike the £6 billion George Osborne is proposing). David Cameron scored some heavy blows on Nick Clegg by saying "Oh but what about if a rogue state such as Iran or North Korea threatened us. We'd be exposed. There is such an obvious answer to all of this. Why didn't Clegg say it? Why didn't Paxo ask?

Trident is an American system. We can't actually fire the bloody thing without the Yanks approval. Just suppose that the next President of the USA is a right wing lunatic who decides that he wants to get his own back at Great Britain for the war of Independence? Could we fire Trident at him? What do you think? We have an independent nuclear deterrent in the way a prisoner in jail has independence from being given a kettle. Sure he can make himself a cup of tea, but is he independent?

As to a situation where Great Britain fired a nuclear missile at South Korea or Iran. Did Paxo ever ask Cameron to describe a believeable situation where we would fire one, and the rest of the world stood by and watched. Sadly I believe that someone is likely to use nuclear weapons again. Sadly I suspect it may well be in the Middle East or possibly even the Korean peninsular. There are a few candidates who I think are very likely to fire the first one, but I guarantee that Great Britain is not one of them. In fact I would go as far as to say, there are absolutely no circumstances where Great Britain would fire a Trident Missile at Iran, South Korea or any other rogue state, unless it was as part of a wider NATO or UN action. Even then, it would be part of a coordinated strike with the Americans. They would use our sub, because it happened to be conveniently in the right place.

Do you think that London is a target on the maps of the dictatorships in North Korea or Iran? Do you think that this would change if we didn't have Trident missiles. If you do, you are bonkers. We all know who the Iranians are likely to fire Nukes at. We all know who the North Koreans are likely to fire nukes at. The only thing which actually makes us a target for these countries is our close ties with the USA. Now I'm not advocating loosening these ties, but as a military power, we have an ill funded under equipped army, which can't afford safe vehicles for our troops in combat areas. Why? because all of the money is being spent on a system which is a complete white elephant. What is even more absurd is the people who argue for the next generation of Trident are the same people who argue against action to combat climate change. What poses more of a threat to the world? The effects of climate change or us not having expensive Inter Continental nuclear missiles, which are ultimately controlled by the Yanks? The climate change deniers say "where is the concrete evidence". I say "where is the slightest shred of evidence that any rogue state would ever declare war on Great Britain, without declaring war on NATO or even the rest of the world".

We will give the Yanks £100 billion (or whatever their bit of the cost is) for a completely useless toy.

As I said, ANGER IS AN ENERGY. If ever I need inspiration to write a blog, I just watch this video by Public Image Ltd - The song is RISE. If you can watch / listen to it without having some sort of reaction, then you must have been born on a different planet to me

How Brian Coleman intends to celebrate the victory of the Blues !

I was just driving to pick my son up from music lessons and was entertained by Brian Coleman on the Ken Livingstone show on LBC. He was reviewing the papers. As his slot wound to a close, ken asked him if there was anything else he wanted to say. Brian Coleman said "Well, one thing we can be sure of is that the Blues will win the FA Cup final". Ken retorted "As we both hate football, how will Brian Coleman be celebrating?". He replied "I shall get out my pin ups of John Terry and Frank Lampard". He then added "Frank Lampard is a good Tory boy you know".

I am sure that John Terry and Frank Lampard will be thrilled to know who their biggest fan is !

Anyway, however you choose to celebrate the Blues victory, have a great FA Cup final. I'm not watching it, got a pop video to shoot. Thanks to everyone who turned out for our cancer charity gig last night. It was a great night.

And on the subject of charity, as Brian Coleman is stepping down as Mayor, let's remember that he has done one very useful thing (seriously). He made the Larches Trust his nominated charity. This is a great cause and so please visit their website and make a generous donation if you can - http://www.larchestrust.org.uk/ - I think that whatever our political differences, this is one thing we both wholeheartedly support.

Justice?

What a day I had yesterday. A friend of mine has been rather naughty and extremely stupid. The net result of this is that he's on remand in a prison in Oxford. Yesterday he was due to be sentenced. He has pleaded guilty (because he is). Sadly for him, some of his associates haven't and a full trial has been set for September. Due to the circumstances, at the commital hearing in March it was decided that the members of the gang who had pleaded guilty would be sentenced yesterday, assuming the trial judge agreed. As a couple of the gang had a minor role and were previously of  good character, there is a good chance that if the sentencing is delayed until September they will have suffered that rare injustice in Great Britain, they will have been in prison for too long.

So I picked his girlfriend up from Mill Hill East station at 7am and drove to Oxford. We got their to find that the sentencing hearing was at 2pm at the earliest. We had the joy of sitting around until around 2.30pm. Then we went in only to be asked by my friends barrister to come outside. There was a problem. The court hadn't appointed a trial judge, so the hearing was pointless. Relatives who'd travelled from all over the country were left bewildered. No apology for our inconvenience. No recompense for our day off work. You see often the people who really suffer as a result of the criminal system most are not the criminals. My friend wasn't going anywhere, the postponement affects nothing. In my friends case the crime was a financial crime, with no victim (other than a large company). He deserves what he gets, I have no problem with that. He's looking at 2-3 years. He has accepted that he's made a huge mistake and is putting the time in prison to good use. He's been studying and has achieved a couple of diplomas. He goes to the gym every day. Apparently all prisoners have this option, but most don't bother.

He went completely off the rails a few year ago. He has learned a lesson and prison has done him a lot of good. I genuinely think he'd have died sooner or later if he'd continued with his former lifestyle. As such I'm pleased at what has happened. What I am less happy with is the way that it appears the system treats people. We had a wasted day in Oxford, without any sort of apology. If they hadn't appointed a trial judge, they should have let us know and postponed. My friend is on legal aid so all of the barristers and court time is completely wasted. Probably a few thousand pounds. How often does this happen across the country? The barrister said "quite often". Add it all up and it's a huge expense.

My friend also has a problem with his tooth and is in agony. He's been told he can't see a dentist until he's sentenced. To me that is inhuman. He was hoping that this would be next week, but it's June 2nd at the earliest. I left the court feeling dazed and angry. To make matters worse, the council car park we'd parked in stung me for £17.20 when I picked up my car. That was for six hours. I thought Barnet was bad for parking......

Bring along your dog - It's the Cameron - Clegg love in

Happy days, David loves Nick and Nick loves David. Have a party, bring along your dog. There's going to be a brave new world of brave new politics and we're all going to be so so happy. Sure I'll sign. Oh whats this. The smallprint. £20 billion of NHS cuts. Thats Ok, I'm not ill. Sod you jack. We've all got ministerial limos now. We're big boys.

Tell me this. Did we get into this mess because nurses spunked the money? Nope. Did we get into this mess because dustmen spunked the money? Nope. Did we get into this mess because teachers spunked the money? Nope. So who got us into this mess? Bankers and hedge funds.

Oh, you say? And where is the super-tax on bankers and hedge funds? Oh we can't tax them, they're wealth creators, you say. Erm nope, they spunked the family silver for their own greed.

I'll reserve judgement on the love in until I see the full detailed proposals for caning these greedy bastards. I guess I'll have to reserve judgement for a long time, won't I? Actually maybe I won't. Maybe I'll say it makes me sick