Why Mike Freer is a useless leader of Barnet Council

Councillor Mike Freer is trying to make a name for himself as a Council Leader by championing an initiatve called "Future Shape of the Council". As he fancies himself as a right wing Thatcherite, you've probably guessed that this involves much ideological mumbo jumbo.

In lay mans terms, his plan is to Privatise everything he can. If the Council runs a call centre for residents, let the cheapest provider take the function over, they may not know where Barnet is, but it'll save a few bob. Now most people don't call the council for a chat or to discuss the price of plums. They call because something has gone wrong. They call because there is a serious problem. When you need your council to help you, you will be speaking to someone, who "cheapness" was THE PRIME FACTOR in their selection.

If you could pick anything the council does and select the thing where quality of service was the most important factor, what would it be? I thought long and hard about this and given that Mike Freer is planning to outsource the lot, drawing up major contracts, I would say legal services. Barnet has already had experience of what happens with shoddy contracts. Barnet Council's sale of Underhill suffered from a badly drawn up contract. The result? A £1 Million bill for lawyers and accountants during a protracted inquiry. That was just the expense of the case, the actual loss to the taxpayer is many times that. Another example is the outsourcing of care homes to Fremantle. This has resulted in multi million pound claims against the council. The reason? Badly drawn up contracts.

You would think they'd learn, wouldn't you? You'd think they'd realise that when you are dealing with complex legal issues, you need the best lawyers. Has Mike Freer learned?

Well today the following cabinet report was brought to my attention Appointment of Panel of Legal Advisors. The reason for this report (drawn up at huge expense)?

3.2 The service provided by the in-house Legal Service is in high demand to deliver on the
Council’s priorities. Moving to the Council’s ‘Future Shape’ will involve additional and
extensive legal input.

So there is a tacit admission that privatisation requires huge legal expenses. When the council decided to select lawyers, what criteria did they consider important and how much importance did they associate with each.

APPENDIX A – “Successful ‘Tenderers’ Scores
Organisation Authority Comment(s)

Price Score 55% Quality Evaluation Score 30% References Score 10% Overall Tender Quality Score 5%
Total 100%

There it is, in black and white. The Council ascribes a 55% importance to the cost and a 5% importance to the OVERALL TENDER QUALITY. If quality is so unimportant when choosing lawyers, who draw up the contracts, how can anyone believe that Mike Freer's baby, FUTURE SHAPE will ever really work or save money.

So I ask you this - Do you really believe that a leader who has so little regard for quality, really has what it takes to lead the 9th largest authority in the Country. Reading this report explained one thing though. I now understand why we've lost money in Iceland, the Aerodrome Road project has overrun, we wasted a million on equirys into Underhill.

It's because the Council, from the very top, has scant regard for attention to detail. As far as I'm concerned, if I was looking for Lawyers and I went through a tender process and a firm submitted a Tender where the "overall tender quality" was rubbish, that Tender would go straight in the bin, no matter how cheap and cheerful it was. Believe me, if the Council really pay as scant regard to quality as this document implies, the Icelandic experience is just the tip of a huge Iceburg, one which we will all pay for (except those lucky Councillors such as Mike Freer who are hoping to move to Westminster next year).



Mike may think he's the King of the Jungle. Truth is though, he's out of his depth !

Immunisation

Yesterday I wrote an affectionate blog about my dearly departed Mum. As I write this, I am listening to the Eddie Nestor show on 94.9 BBC London. A woman has just called in stating that she has refused all immunisations for her children. She claims that unless a doctor can tell her that it is 100% safe she will continue to resist calls.

The woman is claiming that she has a stronger immune system because she hasn't been immunised. The woman complains that she is a member of a group called "informed parent". She said that the "drugs in immunisations are harmful".

When I heard this, I wished my mother was still alive. I remember about 10 years ago, before mum had a stroke, that there was a similar discussion on the radio. My mum had felt incensed. She had rang up the radio station and demanded to speak. She said that she'd caught diptheria as a child during an epidemic in the late 1930's. She explained how every few days a new child would appear in the bed next to her, how a few days later they'd disappear. The matron would tell her that they were happy now as they were in heaven. My mother was in an isolation hospital for 6 months recovering. Most who caught the disease didn't.

My mother went on to say that the reason that people who didn't have their children vaccinated could do it in relative safety was because most people did. As such they were selfish and dangerous. You see if no one vaccinated, we'd soon be back to the days of epidemics. I ask you this, how many people have died of smallpox in the history of the human race? How many have died in the last 10 years? Why is this?

I tend to agree with my mother's view that parents should not have a choice. Their selfishness puts others, such as children too young to be immunised at risk. If we are to allow a choice and if there is an epidemic of preventable diseases and children die who have not been immunised, I'd charge the parents with manslaughter.

A message from Ken Livingstone

Dear Friend

Tomorrow, 4 June the polling stations open for the European elections.

There is one powerful reason why everyone should use their vote. If you don't, the BNP may win their first seats in the European Parliament. That would be the biggest electoral advance of fascists in British history.

The latest poll puts the BNP within less than one per cent of winning a seat in London.

Unite Against Fascism have written an article for Progressive London "Vote to stop the BNP", which I urge you to read here:

http://www.progressivelondon.org.uk/

Most important, please vote tomorrow to stop the BNP.

You can find out where your local polling station is here: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/

Yours sincerely

Ken Livingstone

Sex with Pia Zadora

I used to be one of Mill Hill's four musketeers. Two of my best friends rented the caretakers cottage at Bunns Lane Works and my band - The False Dots - started it's life rehearsing in the front room. It seemed like every single night was like a scene from a movie, be it "Mad Max", "Night of the Living Dead" or even sometimes "Escape to Victory". The band would rehearse four or five times a week and afterwards we'd chill out in a variety of ways.

Under the lights of the M1, midnight games of football would take place. Strange people would turn up and then disappear. Bizarre excursions would be planned, such as to the Ridgeway to try and ride the horses (with rope bridles and no saddles). Strange card games would take place, such as the barrell of doom. A game where the loser would have to immerse themselves in a barrell of dirty rainwater. The last time we played this game, a fellow musketeer, Brian lost 3 times on the trot. To prevent such a thing happening again, he emptied the barrell. As the water flowed out, he wished he hadn't. There was an army of drowned rats at the bottom of the barrell. In the kitchen was a brickbuilt cupboard with a sturdy door. This was known as the Turkish Cell. Should you be stupid enough to be lured in, the door would be shut and you'd spend the rest of the evening in there, on your own.

Home made fireworks would be made, along with other pirotechnical treats, such as suspending plastic bags from the ceiling and settingh them on fire. On another occasion, a real fire was made in the Kitchen fireplace. All of a sudden, we became aware of a strange ticking. As we debated what this could be, there was an almighty expolision. Burning cinders flew everywhere. Another Musketeer, Dermot, had thrown an inhaler on the fire, to see what happened.

Bizarre conversations were had and strange challenges were issued. Perhaps the strangest, was the challenge which was thrown down to have sex with Pia Zadora, the actress. During the course of a conversation, I had mentioned that the previous evening, I'd had a bizarre dream that I'd been being pleasured by the delightful Pia Zadora. Not such a strange dream for a young man you may think? Well it was more complicated than that. In my dream Pia had explained to me that the way to obtain maximum pleasure was to have the act performed whilst I stood on my head. The thing was, I wasn't just standing on my head, but I had to put a swivel chair on the table, stand on my head on the swivel chair and gently rotate it using my feet, whilst Ms Zadora did the business. She explained that this resulted in a huge rush of blood to the head and the most fantastic experience possible.

My fellow musketeers and our assembled friends looked stunned. Even for me, this was a rather strange dream to recount. Then fellow musketeer, Brian asked "Do you think it's possible?" Dermot said "What?", Brian replied "To put the swivel chair on the table, stand on your head and rotate yourself through 360 degrees using your feet?". We all looked at the chair and table. It didn't look promising. At this Brian said, "Lets see". Sure enough, Brian managed to get up and swivel himself around. As it was my dream, I was up next. I can honestly say that it was one of the scariest things I've ever done. It wasn't stable and I'm not a small guy. Next up was Dermot. As he was half way around, the door opened. It was Dermots girlfriend. She entered the room to see Dermot balancing on his head on a swivel chair, which was balancing on the coffee table. We were gathered around ready to catch him. She asked "Dermot, what the hell are you doing?" At this one of our friends, Captain Ubungus, announced "He's having sex with Pia Zadora". At this the total ridiculousness of the situation dawned on us. We burt out laughing and Dermot lost his balance. The whole sorry caboodle came crashing down. Amazingly, no one got hurt. As ever there was a forfiet for failure. Dermot refused on the grounds we'd nobbled him. We insisted. He asked for another go. We relented.

A couple of weeks later, at the pub with a different group of friends, we were chatting and Captain Ubungus said "The funniest thing I ever saw was when Dermot fell off that chair, whilst having sex with Pia Zadora". A friend (unaware of the context) said "You saw Dermot having sex with Pia Zadora?". Ubungus replied "Yes, he fell off the chair when Claire (Dermots Girlfriend) came in, we were all watching". The friend, completely shocked by this revelation said "What did she do?" Ubungus replied "She creased up". The friend looked at us and announced "You lot are weird!".

The funny thing is it actually seemed like quite normal behaviour at the time. Mind you, I could never watch another Pia Zadora film without giggling.

Councillor Caroline Margo: A failure of Mike Freer's Leadership

The reason d'etre for the Barnet Eye blog is quite simple. I've lived in Mill Hill most of my life and I passionately hope that I live here for the rest of my life. I love the area. I've lived through Tory Councils and Lib/Lab Councils, some good, some not so good. I want the council to do the best job they can. I want our MP's to do the best job they can. I want our money to be spent in the best way possible. Contrary to rumours, I'm not politically active. I've no desire to be a politician whatsoever. I don't think I'd be any good, I'm a dyslexic Punk Rock guitarist and I'd just end up shouting at people if they talked rubbish. Not skills which are called for in a debating chamber. My skills are better deployed writing blogs, my way of saying "this is wrong". The only campaigns I've joined and been active in were the Save Edgware General campaign. When Labour were elected and didn't save it, that ended my inclination to do work for the party. The other is the Save Sheltered warden campaign, currently running. If our local Tory council were doing a good job, I'd be writing blogs about music, football and three legged dogs.

Why this lengthy preamble. Well some people would have you believe that there are all sorts of other reasons why I criticise the council, or that I've some personal vendetta against certain Councillors, such as Mike Freer. This is complete cobblers. As I've never actually spoken to Freer, I've no reason whatsoever to have a personal dislike of him. I just happen to think he does a poor job as Leader of Barnet Council. I happen to think he's not up to the job and that as a result Council services have suffered and taxes are higher than they need be. If you click on the Mike Freer label at the bottom of the page, you'll see a whole host of blogs where I detail why I think he does a poor job.

One area of his leadership of the Tory party in Barnet which I've not touched on is how he's doing as local party leader. One of his jobs is to develop and bring on new talent. The Tory party is percieved by many sections of the public as old, stuffy, middle aged and out of touch. David Cameron, to his credit, has tried to drag it into the 21st century. He has spoken about the need to widen the appeal of the party. The best way to do this is to move away from the white, male, upper class twit image. One of the ways to spot new talent in politics is through local councils such as Barnet. An ideal time to see how good a candidate you have is at a byelection where you can see a single candidate's effectiveness.

There is a Council By-election on Thursday. Conservative Councillor Caroline Margo is stepping down. The official story is that she's got a young child and she's moving to Hertfordshire, so she wishes to concentrate her efforts in the district where she will be living.
Caroline represents Totteridge. If like me you have a dog and you like a good walk, you would probably often walk from Totteridge to Hertfordshire. It is next door. It would be quicker for Caroline to drive to Childs Hill, on the other side of the borough, than to get from Totteridge to her new house. I got to wondering whether there was any more to her decision than met the eye.

I have several friends who are Conservatives living in Totteridge. I discussed Caroline's resignation with one recently and my suspicions seemed to be confirmed. I asked whether they thought Caroline might like a chat with the Barnet Eye to set the record straight. They said that this was unlikely as she's a pretty loyal Tory and whatever she may think of certain individuals, she'd never do anything to damage the party. I asked how she'd performed as a Councillor "She's actually very good and extremely well liked". I asked if she had a future in politics "I think she'll do very well. She never got the chance to shine in Totteridge or Barnet Council. I think she found this frustrating". I asked whether the Tory candidate replacing her was an improvement "If you replace a young, keen Councillor who is the mother of a young child, with the wife of an existing cabinet member, you are doing nothing to widen the appeal of the Tory party to the electorate. There is a perception that Barnet Council's ruling Tories have a powerful clique. Making a cabinet members wife the candidate only adds to this perception". At the current time, with various Tory husband/wife teams in Parliament being highly embarrassed about double dipping on expenses, surely the Barnet Tory leader could see that this isn't the best way for the Barnet Tories to go. As being a councillor is not a full time job, it is an excellent way for intelligent young mums such as Caroline to give public service. She should have been held up as a great role model. The Council should do everything possible to accomodate the needs of people such as Caroline who may have childcare issues. As the children grow and they get more time, this will be repaid with interest.

I suspect that among the Barnet Tories, being a young, rather attractive female counted strongly against Caroline. A certain rather well known fellow Totteridge councillor publicly used the term "airhead" to describe a female MP. With such sexist view prevaling at the top of Barnet Council, it is no wonder that a talent such as Caroline Margo was sadly overlooked. I don't know Caroline, but I wish her well. As a father of young children, I admire her for finding the time to fit it all in and do such a good job.

If like me you've attended a few council meetings, you would have noticed that Caroline Margo stood out. She didn't look like a stuffy old Tory Councillor. As a young mum, she'd have a perspective that is sadly lacking for many of the the Tories. A Tory leader who cared about the party and the Borough would have promoted Caroline. They would have fought tooth and nail to keep her, at least until the Council elections next year. A good leader uses their assetts wisely. Be this assetts in the Bank being deposited safely, or councillors who could broaden the appeal of the party to the electorate. As a Labour supporter, I guess it's good to see that Mike Freer can look such a gift horse in the mouth. As a Barnet resident and a Council Tax Payer, I think it's appalling that the Tories can allow such an ineffective man to have such an important job.

As I outlined in the first paragraph, I care about Barnet. That is why the council needs to represent everyone. That is why it is important to encourage the likes of Caroline Margo, not thwart them. When I started this blog, I never dreamed that I'd be sticking up for the rights of Tory Councillors on it, but I having heard some of the background to Caroline's decision, I simply couldn't let this pass without comment.

Daily Telegraph plays a dangerous game

Sex scandals destroy Tory governments, money scandals destroy Labour governments. With this mantra in mind, the Daily Telegraph continues it's daily drip feed of revelations regarding MP's expenses. The Telegraph is a Tory leaning paper and has no doubt concluded that the scandal will damage Labour more than the Tories.

This is a dangerous game. UKIP are waiting in the wings and whilst the Telegraph may agree with much of UKIP's program, they wont agree with a split of votes between the Tories & UKIP, if it lets Gordon Brown sneak in through the back door. Whatever happens in the Euro's is unlikely to have much effect a year down the line when the job of Prime Minister is at stake, with direct voting intentions for left leaning voters. Voters on the left have no natural protest vote, wheras disaffected Tories have UKIP.

Those who switch to UKIP for the Euros, may not automatically switch back next year at a General election. This will be especially true if UKIP does well. I think the time has come for the Telegraph to just close the matter. By this, they should give away a special supplement detailing all MP's not yet covered. That is unless they really would like UKIP to torpedo David Cameron. I totally agree with their mission to expose dodgy MP's, but theyv'e still got 4/5th's of the MP's to get through. For those who've done nothing wrong, this is unfair. I'd be surprised if we get any more revelations of moats or duck houses, we are at the dregs.

The Skiff Skats - Happy Times

One day, when I'm too old and too decrepid to do anything else, I'm going to write a book about the various bands on the Barnet/Mill Hill scene in the late 70's early 80's. I'm sure it will bring me and at least 6 or 7 other people a lot of pleasure.

One band which will certainly merit a chapter are the Skiff Skats. This cowpoke/rockabilly combo were lead by the notorious Smith Brothers, Pigmeat Pete on Guitar(who sadly passed away in 1999) and Rob on Banjo. They were part of a whole scene of turbocharged country tinged music. From this scene the most famous band are "The Pogues" featuring Shane McGowan, but for a time the Skiffs were real contenders.

Anyway, I just got an email from my old mate Rob Smith, who sent me a link to their brand new website. For those of you with a love of the local music scene, check it out :-
http://www.skiffskats.co.uk/

Gladys my heart to see you !

When I read the recent press coverage concerning Brian Coleman becoming mayor, one thing brought a rather large grin to my face. It is reported that Mr Colemans redoubtable mother, Gladys Coleman will be his official consort. Why should this amuse me? Well, and I would have been strung up if I'd written this when she was alive, my own dearly departed mothers name was Gladys. This may come as a surprise to any readers who knew her. You see she absolutely hated the name. She also hated her second name, Mary. When she was confirmed, she chose the name of Cecilia as her confirmation name. She immediately adopted this as her preferred name and woe betide anyone who referred to her as Gladys. She was also none to keen on her surname - Fanning. I am quite convinced that one of the reasons she was so keen to marry my father was his surname was Tichborne, a fine old English aristocratic name, even if he was born in a mining town in the outback of Australia. Of course the fact that he was an extremely handsome, dashing, funny and brave officer in the Royal Australian Air Force probably helped.

My mum was born to an extremely poor family living in Oldham, Lancashire. Her father was an out of war, invalid Irish immigrant, who'se health was destroyed in the trenches of the first world war. He loathed pomposity and snobbishness. Once my mother brought a potential suitor, a British army officer home for tea. My Grandfather greeted him by demanding my grandmother brought a bowl of water for his feet. He sat drinking tea, making objectionable comments and smoking his pipe. My mother was mortified. The officer made his excuses and left. My mother was furious at this display. My grandfather retorted "If he liked you he wouldn't give a stuff what your old man was like. He'd be keen to rescue you from such a terrible family". My father passed the test with flying colours, he thought grandpa was a real character and a wise man.

My mum's family moved to London for work in the 1930's. As soon as she arrived in London she set about shedding her Lancashire accent. As the fifth of six children in a very poor family, she was determined to move upwards socially. In common with all of her brothers and sisters, she was remarkably intelligent. She achieved a scholarship to a very good school and was at the top of her class. Like my daughter, she was also a champion swimmer. In 1938, disaster struck. She contracted diptheria and nearly died. She spent 6 months in hospital. She told me how other children would appear in the bed next to her. She'd make friends. Then they'd disappear. She'd ask what happened and the matron would tell her "They've gone to heaven". My mum confessed that she was jealous, as it sounded so nice. After the war, my parents started a local business and built up a successful firm. By the time I arrived in the early '60's they had a four bedroom house and were comfortably off. My mother once told me that she honestly believed that she had never really been "Gladys Fanning". She said that she'd only been called Gladys as she had a rich aunty called Gladys, who my grandmother thought may look after her if anything happened. She said that when she announced to her family that she was to be called Celia, they all took the mickey mercilessly. They'd greet her with "Gladys my heart to see you" in the morning. Boyfriends would be informed of her real name. I once asked her why the aversion to the name. She said that there was a famous character called "Gladys Conk" who she was teased about when she was a child.

The picture above is my mum, with my big brothers at her 80th Birthday party. Despite her age, chronic poor health, stroke induced speech problems, she wouldn't leave the house without "getting ready". She was a fiercely proud woman. Surprisingly maybe, given her social aspirations, she was a life long socialist. This caused much friction as my Dad was a Tory! I once asked her, if she was able to change anythig about her life - The Cancer, The Stroke, The Diptheria, anything, what would she have changed. She told me she'd have changed her name. As a result, I really thought long and hard about our childrens names. When my eldest daughter, Madeleine was born, we had kept the name under wraps. When I rang my mum to tell her the news - a daughter - she said "What is her name" I replied "Madeleine". My mother spat back "Oh no, you can't call her that. I have a book full of really nice names you can borrow". I'm pleased to say that Madeleine is happy with her name and my mum soon adapted. She never stopped interfering though. My wife's early attempts to raise the children as vegetarian were thwarted by my mother cooking them steaks when she babysat. Madeleine came home and announced "Mummy, meat is lovely, you should try some". End of that plan. As I said above, had I written this blog when she was still alive and well, I'd have been murdered, or at the very least disinherited. As it is, I suspect she's looking down chuckling.

Towards the end of her life, following a fairly major stroke, when she became very old, doddery and frail, I was out with my mother. I was staggered when she introduced herself as Gladys to someone. Later at home, I asked her why she had done this. She replied "because it's my name". I asked if she no longer wanted to be called Celia. She replied "look at me, who do you think I am trying to impress". Shortly after that she stopped putting her curlers in every day. Shortly after that she died.

Bye Bye Darling

There are two things we expect our chancellor to be, given that he's in charge of the nations cash.

1) Trustworthy
2) Good with money

Mr Darling has shown that he fails at least one of these tests. He really should resign, it is as simple as that.

Urgent : Barnet Tories Sheltered Housing Decision

I was most alarmed to read Lib Dem Councillor Duncan MacDonald blog concerning the Councils decision on sheltered housing wardens. I suggest you read what he has to say. He sums up my feelings in this paragraph :-

Whilst the retention of the alarm system is welcome this options does not recognise the fundamental value of site based wardens. Having recently had to visit my Aunt in Scotland who is in a sheltered housing scheme I can personally vouch for the value of site based support. Without it my Aunt would be in a nursing home at much greater expense. I really don’t care if the current system does not meet some strategy or target. It works very well and is well liked and valued by residents of sheltered housing schemes. The money can be found for this and I have plenty of suggestions as to where it can be obtained starting with the scrapping of multiple special responsibility allowances for Councillors.

There are two Council By-elections this week. I just hope and pray that the voters in these wards send the Council a strong message. After reading Vicki Morris blog about Tory Lynn Hillan's crude attempts to bully a local Jewish charity into silence, I cannot believe that Edgware's voters will sit back and passively let this happen.

I guarantee that the one thing which will focus the minds of the Council Cabinet is the thought of losing their majority and their beloved allowances. I say this to the thousands of decent Tory voters in Edgware and Totteridge. If the Tories lose BOTH seats, they will still have a majority on Council. This is your chance to send a powerful message WITHOUT losing them the Council. If you disagree with the policy on Sheltered housing, this is a unique chance to tell them. In the long run, you might be saving their bacon !