London Riots - Stating the bleeding obvious

Last night, with an overwhelming police presence, London Town was quiet, by and large the rioters and looters stayed at home. So what changed? The people in charge, Boris, Theresa May, David Cameron, had decided to come home off holiday. Decisions were actually made and action taken to get a grip.

We can't expect them to live without holidays, but is it too much to ask to expect them to go at different times? It seems to me that if it takes 4 days for the authorities to get a grip, then there is a huge logistical and planning failure. People on big wages have failed. Sad really

Burnt Oak - Life and Death in London Town

What do you do when London is ablaze with riots? You go to Burnt Oak. Well you do if you are me. Not the place, the West End show at the Leicester Square Theatre. The play is written by Laurence Lynch, ex resident of Burnt Oak and plumber to the stars. I've already chronicled how I know Laurence. Tonight I went to see his masterpiece. I didn't quite know what to expect, but from the first moments of it's opening, to the sounds of Wire's "I am the fly", I knew I would connect with the play.

The (anti) hero of the play, Nobby, reminds me of me in some ways as a youth. The play is sort of loosely set when I was a teenager in Burnt Oak. Like Nobby, at the time I was a trainee painter and decorator. Many aspects of the play spookily mirrored some of my own experiences, from the monster of a girlfriends father (I'm not refering to my father in law here, a long ago ex), to the references to drunken exploits in the Beehive. Whilst it had a special resonance for me, for those who weren't raised in the locality would still "get it".

I won't spoil the plot, other than to say the audience was engrossed for the full two hours. I went with Mrs T (Wife, not blogger) and two friends. They didn't have the same misspent youth as me, but were equally taken. The cast were all excellent, but special note must be made of Jason Wing as George. He is truly scary and really deserves a wider audience for his talents. I think Burnt Oak - Life and Death in London Town would translate to both the small and large screen.

I also managed to have a chat with the author, who was in attendance. I'm chuffed for him. It is a very powerful play, with lots of dark humour and the odd slapstick moment. He deserves to do well.

 I must say that Soho was quiet and the journey home was peaceful and subdued. Life goes on.

Message from Deputy Leader of Barnet Council regarding riots

The Deputy Leader of Barnet Council praised Barnet police this morning for their prompt action overnight.

“Barnet escaped the worst of last night’s violence, in large part due to the very prompt action taken by the borough’s police. But there was still a level of criminality that was completely unacceptable to Barnet’s residents.
“Obviously these are going to be some difficult nights for London. We all need to follow the advice of the police and stay in this evening so they can do their job. In particular I trust that Barnet parents will keep their children with them this evening and make sure they are not out and running the risk of getting caught up in criminality or hampering the police as they deal with potential disturbance.
“Local businesses should follow the Metropolitan Police’s advice, which is available on our website.
“Over the next few days we need to make sure that those who have despoiled London in this way are properly punished and anyone with any information that could lead to prosecution should speak to the police.”
Barry Rawlings, Deputy Leader of Barnet Labour Group, said: “I want to make it clear that members of all sides of the political divide in Barnet will be working together with the police and the community as London copes with this civil disturbance.
“I support the decision of the police to encourage everybody to stay indoors this evening and in particular to make sure that parents have their children with them.

“Barnet is made up of strong communities and its these communities that will pull together to make sure that this level of criminal behaviour is unacceptable to them all.”

This is taken from Barnet Council Website - original message here

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/press_releases.htm?id=2380

Police response to the riots

I think all Londoners owe a huge debt of gratitude to the ordinary coppers on the street today, for their bravery in standing in the firing line during the riots. Having said that, we must look at the issues of leadership and whether that has played any part in the trouble. At the moment, the Met only has an acting chief constable. The riots occurred whilst most of our senior politicians were on holiday. We found out that the Prime Minister, the Home secretary and the Mayor of London were all away. Whilst everyone is allowed a holiday, is it any wonder that with no senior officer confirmed in post, and all of the top politicians away, the situation drifted for several days. Surely plans should be in place to ensure an effective system of command.

Another thing that intrigues me. During the 7/7 terrorist outrages, mobile phone networks were taken down in Central London. As the current violence is being coordinated via mobile phone networks and twitter, surely there is a case for temporary suspensions of service. One presumes the police are monitoring Twitter, surely it is not beyond their capability to see a site has been targettted and get the local mobile networks taken down?

Bonkers Council : I'm not a number, I'm an anaesthogist

Are you sleeping soundly? Great then we'll begin.

You won't feel a thing (unless you're young, old, disabled or disadvantaged - in which case many of the services you rely on will disappear in a puff of smoke)

We are going to make a little cut. You see we here at BONKERS Council need to save money. You do understand, it's not our fault, don't you? Times are hard. We are doing everything we possibly can to ensure that the cuts affect you in the smallest possible way (unless you live in a road where there is a CPZ and you need to buy car parking permits). We're tackling the problems that we face, we've hired a whole bevvy of the finest consultants we can find and we're paying them handsomely to dream up ways to save money. We've spent three years doing this and we've found lots of services which huge multinational companies are fighting each other to run. The advantage of having these companies in charge of providing the services is that they can generate huge profits for their shareholders, so if you have a few quid, you too can buy a few shares and rake in nice big dividends for years to come. There are lots of other fantastic benefits to this scheme. At present, if there is a problem, you can discuss it with a councillor and they can do something about it. All of this interference causes all sorts of problems for the senior executives at the council, as they always have to look over the shoulders. Under the new system all of these interfering busybodies will have to mind there own business. Complaints will be directed to a nice call centre in a far flung part of the world.

If you are not happy with the service, you can hire a nice expensive lawyer to read the fine print of the contract. They will be able to tell you that the company has been delivering EXACTLY the services they are contracted to deliver. If you don't like it, that is because you are too stupid to understand that providing services is BIG business now.

Of course to ensure that BONKERS council gets the best out of it's contractors, we need people who really understand contracting to work for us. That is why we employ a contractor as the deputy chief executive and pay him £1,000 a day for the privelege.

Many troublesome lefties and bolshie bloggers claim we don't have the necessary skills to engage such companies and we'll be taken to the cleaners. This can of course be exposed as a complete lie. We already have thousands of companies supplying services. Many of these companies do fine work for the people of Barnet and deliver great value for money. Of course we have a few minor problems (such as rats eating outsourced datacentres, security companies operating illegally and not having proper licenses, huge costs of millions of pounds awarded against us by the High Court for badly drawn up contracts), but as they say, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

Of course you care about none of this, do you. You are asleep. You are comfy. None of this affects you does it? And in a few years, when it all goes wrong and your council tax goes through the roof, when the taxpayer has to pick up the tab for all the costs, when the Police have to pick up the pieces of a fragmented society, you will say why didn't you tell us that this would happen?

But we did, sadly you were fast asleep and you didn't listen. Did you?

Andrew Dismore press releases : 8/8/2011 - Dismore launches Metpro inquiry e-campaign

Andrew Dismore. Labour candidate for the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden,  has today launched a new online campaign to fight for an inquiry into Barnet council’s contracting procedures, with particular reference to MetPro. The campaign can be accessed at http://www.campaignengineroom.org.uk/tory-barnet-easy-council-procurement-disasters and is directed at Secretary of State Eric Pickles MP.

Mr Dismore said:

“As Barnet is now planning the wholesale privatisation of Council services, it is vital that there are proper contracting and compliance arrangements in place to protect the Council’s  taxpayers.

Under the watch of the MPs for Finchley and for Hendon when they were Barnet Councillors, due to poor contracting the Council lost tens of millions in failed Iceland investments and through the Aerodrome Road overspend. Now we have the MetPro scandal and concerns over some care services providers.

Whilst the appointed external auditor is monitoring in private the Council’s processes, this is not good enough.

We need to restore public confidence in the Council’s ability to protect residents from scams, dodgy companies, profiteering and overspends, an ability the Council has so far failed to demonstrate under the present Conservative administration.

It is now up to Eric Pickles MP, the Secretary of State to clean out Barnet’s Augean Stables by setting ip a public inquiry into what has been going on and to learn lessons for the future.

I am sure many people share this view, and this online campaign now gives Barnet residents and even those from further afield who are concerned about standards in local government, to back my call for an inquiry”.

For further information call Andrew Dismore 07957 625 813   Ends

Hey Boris, still think cutting police numbers is clever

Firstly a message to our friends in the Old Bill. Thanks. As dozens of coppers nurse injuries this morning, it is pretty clear that we owe them a debt of gratitude for not running away when bunches of yobs decided to grab themselves free tellies or new pairs of trainers in Tottenham, Enfield, Brixton etc. How many of us have job descriptions which include "occasionally getting thumped"? As Kit Malthouse and Boris Johnson wake up this morning, maybe they'll think to themselves "Maybe we should rethink our masterplan to slash police numbers". Let's hope that the Laurel and Hardy of London Lawmaking see a bit of sense.

I am shocked by the fact that the vast majority of trouble seems purely to be an excuse to rob shops. I'd urge all parents to ask little Johnny where he got those new trainers or telly last night. If we descend into a society where such crimes are seen by the young as great fun and a way to get the things we want, we are truly fucked.

I'm all for protest against injustice. Against repressive regimes, violent protest is sometimes the only way. It is 100% clear that in the riots around London, no such justification exists. As a responsible society, we must unite, pull together and make sure that anyone who loots in a riot, not only feels the full force of law, but is also made to realise that wider society rejects their behaviour.

Barnet Unison TV - Interview with a One Barnet consultant

Am I paranoid or are they out to get me?

This is all a bit odd really. When I started writing the Barnet Eye, I certainly didn't expect it to be a recipe for universal popularity, but  some of the things which have mysteriously happened, seem unbelievable. I'm not talking about the odd nasty comment which the blog attracts, or the fact that a couple of councillors have deleted me from their Xmas card list (or would have if I'd been on it). Nope, that is all part of the package of benefits.

What I'm talking about is the rather strange things which happen to the computers I use. I have a friend who is a very useful source of information. He usually visits me at work on a Saturday. Once he has got a coffee, he'll say "have a look at this website". What happens next beggars belief. Usually I spend all day on the computer, but as soon as my friend enters the shop and asks me to look at something, no matter how innocent, the internet connection freezes. He long ago stopped emailing me information. He is convinced that all of my emails have been hacked and intercepted. Is he paranoid? I've no idea but the more I see him, the more that strange things happen.

Yesterday, as we sat discussing Barnet Council, he said something very strange. What was it? He said "I think it's time for you to back off on your blog now". This warning came out of the blue. What did he mean "Let's just say that people you've been having a go at are expendable, but they are buffers for people who you really don't want to upset". I asked what he could possibly mean. "I'm not going to say any more".

I am intrigued. I've reviewed my blog over the last few weeks. What on earth has brought about this comment? Was it the leaked FoI report into the state of Barnet Council datacentres? Who are the people that the likes of Brian Coleman, Robert Rams and Dan Thomas are buffers for? Is there something in the FoI I submitted this week, which has uncovered something big? Is it the fact that the likes of Eric Pickles have taken an interest in the blog.

Is my friend (who I've known for over 30 years) being overly paranoid?

I suppose I'll only know when the car runs me over in the middle of the night and speeds off, or I fall off a ladder and break my neck, when no one is around. After his comment, I went and trawled through my blog stats. There are all sorts of strange visitors, but then there always have been. I checked my security software. There are hundreds of attempts to access my computer which have been blocked, but there always are. One of these says "Intrusion prevention is monitoring 1705 signatures" whatever that means. I've no idea whether this is good, bad or indifferent.

One thing is 100% clear to me though. The OneBarnet contracts are worth £750,000,000. People have found themselves at the bottom of a lake for far less money that that. Am I paranoid? As my friend said, if I'm not, I certainly should be. Have a lovely Sunday lunch

Etz Chaim Fee School Mill Hill - Mill Hill Action Group leaflet appears

I was passed this leaflet by a resident of Victoria Road. It is for a public meeting to discuss legal action against Barnet Council, with regard to the decision to grant Etz Chaim school planning permission. I am rather perterbed by certain aspects of this meeting.

a) The meeting is not advertised on the Action Group website
b) There are no proper contact details for the organisers
c) The leaflet does not have a publisher address

It would seem to me that if the campaign has genuine grounds for a legal challenge, then they should be notifying as many people as possible and widely publicising the meeting. I am intrigued by the suggestion of  "an even better amenity for the community at large".

Anyway, I am publishing this leaflet, as I believe that such meetings should be open to all. If serious legal grounds have been identified, surely these should have been discussed with the School & Council? I cannot attend this meeting, due to prior commitments at Wembley Stadium.

For the record, with Barnet Council's recent record for accuracy etc, I would not be surprised if they had cocked up the paperwork.Whilst this clearly should be completed properly, I personally would not support a campaign of attrition against the school. If the campaigners have found a real reason why the centre cannot legally be converted and must be turned back into a swimming pool that is one thing, but if it is merely an attempt to waste the time and spend public money on court cases to delay things for six months whilst the paperwork is corrected, I cannot agree that this is a good way to conduct the campaign. I look forward to hearing the legal arguments from the campaign.