Barneteye Weekly Roundup - 10/1/2012

What a week it has been. On Monday we had the shop owners of Finchley holding a protest against Barnet Council's parking policies. The parkimng fiasco, overseen by Barnet and Camden GLA superemo Brian Coleman (who is up for re-election for his £50K a year part time job in May - hint, hint) has not only pushed many traders all over Barnet to the brink of bankruptcy, it has ACTUALLY COST THE COUNCIL NEARLY HALF A MILLION QUID IN LOST INCOME ! My fellow Barnet blogger Mr Mustard has done an excellent expose of just how much the fiasco has cost - http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2012/02/permits-figure-differences-mr-mustard.html. You can see a video of the protest if you scroll down and look in the sidebar. It was a good humoured event, despite the snow! The North Finchley traders are a resilient bunch and any sane council would harnessing their energy for the good of Barnet, not indulging in a slash and burn policy of destroying their businesses.

On Tuesday we commemorated the 200th Borthday of Charles Dickens. Barnet was an inspiration for Charles Dickens, his experiences of the workhouse in Wellhouse Lane inspired perhaps his best known novel, Oliver Twist. Dickens was a staunch fighter for social justice and this was a permanent theme through all of his work. The Barnet Eye wonders what he'd make of a character such as Brian Coleman and his recent outburst against the disabled "Why should the Council subsidise transport for these people", which would be a bad enough thing to say without Colemans penchant for free taxis at the public's expense  - http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/Brian_Coleman_2010_2011.asp. I have wondered if the reason Brian Coleman and his chums in the local Tory party are so keen to shut all of the museums in Barnet is purely because they associate with the type of character Dickens used to lampoon ni his works and they want to erase all memory of one of our greatest authors links with the Borough. I can think of no other reason why the historic workhouse building would be demolished.

On Wednesday, the Barnet Eye stats counter showed that our website had been inundated with hits from recruitment companies and headhunters searching for a very well known (to readers of this blog) figure at Barnet Council. What was intriguing was that there was a splurge of them in the afternoon and then another splurge of hits in the evening from private emails. It rather looked to me as if people had been checking the individual out and then decided to dig deeper later in the day. Is someone planning to jump ship? Only time will tell.

Yesterday, the big news was the strike in Barnet by Council workers, against outsourcing, redundancies and cuts to services. To ensure their time was not wasted, they volunteered to put a shift in at a local charity. There is an excellent write up in the Edgware and Mill Hill Times -
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9523342.Strikers_fighting_council_s_outsourcing_plans_help_out_charity/ - as ever the story has the obligatory inane comment from Councillor Daniel Thomas.

"Any staff who move as part of the restructure will remain in the local government pension scheme, keep the same level of pay and have a job guaranteed for 12 months at the very least from their move.  I'm sure many of our residents would envy that level of certainty in the current financial climate."

At present, many staff are being forced to relocate to Croyden. All of this for a job which is likely to only last 12 months. Does Daniel Thomas really think that for mothers working part time for the council with children in local schools, this is enviable? The man is quite clearly a blithering idiot.

There are also a couple of big national stories. Of most interest to this blog was the news that Fabio Capello had resigned. My 11 year old son ran in excitedly and announced "Capello has just resigned". He was not a fan. I suspect that the England job is an impossible task. Harry Redknapp seems to be the man for the job. He has transformed Spurs from mid table mediocrity to Champions League contenders. Whilst he's made some shrewd signings, he has developed players such as Gareth Bale beyond recognition. He clearly is a great motivator and a man who understands the way British players play. Spurs play great football, which is something any purist such as myself would say should be paramount.

Then there was the Harry Redknapp tax trial. I have some sympathy for Harry Redknapp.  Many footballers and rock stars do not have a great education and end up with pots of money. Many end up skint, due to the fact that they really don't understand tax. I would like to see all footballers and other short career/high earners have to be enrolled in a scheme whereby their tax affairs were managed by a competent professional, otherwise the football club/ record label would bear the tax liability. This would soon stop the situation where young people earn a lot of money in a short time, spend it and then get bankrupted because they can't pay the tax. For the taxpayer, the worst thing is usually by the time the Inland Revenue take action, the money has been spent, so they bankrupt the individual and never get the money back anyway. That is clearly a ridiculous situation. I don't blame the tax authorities, they are just doing their job as best they can. If we didn't pay tax, the country would fall apart.

Photo special : The death of the local High Street - Traders put the coffin on show

Stop Brian Coleman killing our High Streets - Traders display the body in North Finchley

Barnet Council Strike - 9th January

Today the staff at Barnet Council are on strike. To show their commitment to the community, striking staff are spending the day volunteering for community projects such as the Larches Trust, a charity based in Edgware, which helps people with special needs.

The Barnet Eye believes that the dispute is completely unnecessary and has been caused by the complete intransigence of Barnet Council and its unwillingness to engage with its own staff. Every industrial dispute is caused by failures of management and unions to communicate. It is completely clear to anyone who knows Barnet and knows the previously excellent industrial relations in Barnet where the fault for this dispute lies.

The Barnet Eye fully supports the staff and commends their efforts for the community on this day of industrial action

Mill Hill Special - Transport links, pubs and restaurants details and bank opening times

When I started the Barnet Eye blog, I made a decision that I wouldn't use it to push my business interests. I set up a separate blog for this and a separate twitter account. I do occasionally cross post things, which I genuinely believe are of wider community interest. What you won't see here is a blog saying "come to my studios, they're great" as that isn't what the point of the Barnet Eye blog is.

There are occasions however when there is something which I think has a wider reason to publicise than for just narrow commercial reasons and I do mention these. Today is one such occasion. I have employed a talented website designer to revamp my studio website and they have added a couple of really useful pages, which I think are very useful to anyone who lives in Mill Hill. These are highly useful pages

First there is a comprehensive list of details for restaurants, banks, pubs and shops with links for opening times, telephone numbers etc - http://www.millhillmusiccomplex.co.uk/about-mill-hill.php

The other interesting page is one which is designed for studio users, but would be really helpful for anyone who lives in Mill Hill and uses public transport. This is a directory of all bus timetables and links for travel updates for the trains for Mill Hill - http://www.millhillmusiccomplex.co.uk/contact-map-and-directions.php

I hope these links are of some use to all of you who live in Mill Hill. Can I be so bold as to suggest every High Street should have a couple of pages like this. Well done to my web designer, this impressed me. Sometimes the simplest things are the most useful

The Madness of King Nick - Barnet Council on Strike

As Barnet Council prepares for yet another strike by it's workers, my thoughts turn to the CEO Nick Walkley. What I really can't understand about the current bunfight is the fact that it is completely avoidable. You may think that this is a ridiculous statement but if you were to ask Nick Walkley these questions, his answer would reveal the truth. The questions are :-

1) Were the current in house services allowed to bid for the One Barnet contracts?
2) Are the criteria for awarding the contracts for the One Barnet bids available for public scrutiny?
3) Has the process of awarding the One Barnet contracts been open and transparent?

Sadly the answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO. Had the In House teams been allowed to bid and had these been shown to be uncompetitive, the staff and unions would have had no grounds for a dispute. You may ask how I can claim that the criteria are not available for public scrutiny? It is quite clear, I have a letter from a lawyer at Barnet council demanding that I take remove the document from my blog which explains the award criteria.

It is no wonder that the staff are up in arms. They know they are being shafted. The document makes it clear that the process is risky and dodgy. Barnet have not even published the business case. Recently a Barnet Tory councillor, Brian Schama stated "I have seen the business case and I believe the numbers add up". Well I believe in the tooth fairy, but if I wanted to convince you, then you'd expect me to come up with the evidence. If it is strong enough to convince Brian Schama, then it should be robust enough to be published.

Recently, the fight has become dirty. On the Barnet Council side I've had legal threats and on the other side I've had all manner of things from the workers at Barnet council, from embarrassing pictures of Mr Walkley claiming to be genuine (which in this day and age are probably photoshopped) as well as a few more highly confidential leaked documents. As the leaked documents contain commercially sensitive information relating to contracts in the process of being negotiated, there is clearly a huge risk of legal sanction should these be published and the leaker has advised me to take notes and then destroy them, which has been done. What do they tell me?

They tell me that if these documents were in the public domain, there is a significant chance that this program would be exposed for what it is. I am currently pondering exactly what questions need to be asked under the FOI act and whether I should try and get Eric Pickles, the Local Government minister to take a look. The most difficult issue is the fact that I've not seen all of the documents. It is clear that only the most damaging documents would be leaked and there may be other material that mitigates it. That is the madness of this secrecy culture, it is impossible to really know.

I would issue this caution to Capita and EC Harris and FM Conway. If I've seen stuff marked confidential, who else has? It is clear that some very senior staff at Barnet have grave doubts. My guess is that these companies realise that there is easy money to be had and so don't really care. I do wonder why EC Harris and FM Conway are continuing to throw money at the process given the likelyhood of their winning the contract. They have even been insulted at a council meeting by the Council leader who noted that they sound "like a firm of solicitors". Maybe they take the view that if you don't buy a ticket, you don't win the lottery.

What is clear to me is that whoever wins the bid, it will damage the economy of the London Borough of Barnet. Jobs will be exported and local people will suffer. I've no idea what the job description for Nick Walkley says, but does it really include "destroy the local High Street, damage the economic wellbeing of the Borough and export jobs to other London Boroughs, other parts of the country and other continents?

In short the whole thing is total madness and it's time King Nick realised.

Barnet Council Workers Strike - Barnet Eye commentary

On Thursday Barnet council workers will be on strike in protest at the attack on their terms and conditions threatened by the One Barnet outsourcing program. I have been speaking to several Barnet Council workers, who took time to call me and thank me and the other Barnet bloggers for our support in the face of intimidation and threats to them during previous strike actions. It appears that the bloggers of Barnet have taught Mr Walkley and his cronies a harsh lesson and they have backed away from the intimidation and threats this time. The message has got through that the intimidation is counter productive. There have been no Stalinist Agitprop billboards from Walkley this time. In fact the message seems to be "go on strike if you like, we don't care".

I was intrigued by this sudden change of plan, the sudden relaxed attitude over the Ivory Towers of Barnet. Why on earth could this be? Then I noticed some rather interesting blog searches, using people associated with Barnet Councils names by some top recruitment companies  - http://www.theadeptway.com/what-we-do.php - http://www.aon.com/human-capital-consulting/default.jsp - to name but a couple. Also several late night hits from home computers on that very same persons name. Someone is doing their homework. They are very interested.

I wonder if someone has realised that the grass may be greener on the other side of the hill. It certainly will when the grass on this side of it has dried up, withered and died.

I someone on the lookout for a new job? Someone checking someone out? Who knows, anyway, one more thing. Thank you Bob.

Charles Dickens links with Barnet

The cabinet of Barnet Council discuss bringing back the workhouse

Today was the 200th Birthday of Charles Dickens. Dickens had many links with Barnet, you may be interested to know Charles Dickens opinion of the area :-

Victorian London - Directories - Dickens's Dictionary of London, by Charles Dickens, Jr., 1879 - "Barnet"

Barnet.—A pretty and still tolerably rural suburb, but on the north side of London and on clay. Perhaps the best situation on that side and standing high, its fell name being, in fact, High Barnet. Locally it is considered “the highest ground between London and York.” In September (4th to 6th) there is a huge horse and cattle fair, one of the most important in the kingdom. The best part of Barnet, from a residential point of view, is the ring of villas round the common. Rents, compared with those in choices spot on the south side, fairly moderate, From King’s-cross, Ludgate-hill, Moorgate, and Broad-street (about 37 min.), 1st, 1/6, 2/6; 2nd, 1/2, 1/10; 3rd, -/9.  

Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879

Local legend has it that Charles Dickens used to drink at the Red Lion.

Barnet is the home to many pubs, and it was even recognised for this in Charles Dickens novel, “Oliver Twist”, it became the location where Oliver first met the Artful Dodger. Barnet workhouse is said to have been the inspiration for the workhouse in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist after a friend of his paid a visit to the establishment and heard one its young inmates "ask for more".

It is a matter of great sadness to the Barnet Eye that so many young people are completely unaware of the rich history of Barnet. Everyone should visit Barnet Museum (sadly still under threat of closure from philistine cuts by Barnet Council - website http://www.barnetmuseum.co.uk/ ).

As I read "A Tale of Two Barnets Cities" I was shocked by the way the current round of cuts and austerity echoes today. These are the opening lines of the book

It was the best of times,

it was the worst of times, 

it was the age of wisdom,

it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief,

it was the epoch of incredulity, 

it was the season of Light,

it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope, 

it was the winter of despair, 

we had everything before us, 

we had nothing before us, 

we were all going direct to Heaven, 

we were all going direct the other way

There was a theme which ran through all the works of Charles Dickens. It was that unfairness and social injustice is never acceptable. Although we view Dickens as a writer of novels from a bygone age, the enduring nature of his stories, the strength of the characters in his works and the message are still relevant today. The following text is from the wikipedia entry for Charles Dickens. He is one of my role models. I make no claim that my writing is in any way a patch on his, but he is an inspiration, one I believe we should all look to :-

Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues—such as sanitation and the workhouse—but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion in regard to class inequalities. He often depicted the exploitation and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result.

I hope that those of you who regularly read this blog recognise some echoes of the great mans influence in what I write. How sad is tt that 200 years after the great mans birth, we are still talking about these issues

Viva la Republic (but not just yet)

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Queen becoming our head of state. Only an idiot would claim she's not done a fantastic job. Even staunch republicans realise that it is pointless making the case for a different system, whilst she is on the throne. Any such arguments are reserved for what or who replaces her. What is the secret of the success of Queen Elizabeth? I suspect that it is the fact that she doesn't get involved with the day to day politics of the UK. As she has aged, so have we. How many of us remember a time when another monarch was on the throne?

The bizarre thing about the monarchy is that some of our best monarchs have been female, yet the rules conspire to keep them off the throne. Ask any Londoner to name six great monarchs, who will they say? I'd guess The Queen, Henry VIII, Victoria, Richard the Lionheart, Alfred the Great, Boudicca and King Harald. I once read that whilst we all know William the Conqueror, most of us don't consider him our King. Our Scottish friends may make a few different picks, but I'd envisage that Mary Queen of Scots would make the cut. Is it odd that even though women are so discriminated against by the system, three of the best known six are female? I don't think so. Whilst male monarchs have looked beyond our borders, my reading of history tells me that the female monarchs cared about the people who lived here.

A succession of kings sought victories in far flung places, to cement their place in history. As far as I'm aware, only Richard the Lionheart actually cemented his reputation for his achievementsabroad. I'm not saying this to validate his campaigns, but he was widely acclaimed as a military genius even by his opponents.

So what exactly has cemented the place in our affections for Elizabeth II. In short, I believe it is the fact that she is viewed as someone who just gets on with it. Whether she is meeting Richard Nixon or Nelson Mandela, she makes all of us feel that we have a leader who we could be proud of. She is non divisive and calm. She is perceived as being the Queen of the Commonwealth. This means she unites us all. The issue for me is whether Prince Charles will carry the same affection. Whilst the Queen seems to naturally exude authority, without seeming oppressive, what will we make of Charles?

As a Republican, I would like to see an elected head of State. I would not seek to replace the Queen in her lifetime. I suspect she is far more loved and better qualified than anyone else. What about when Charles has to replace her? I'd advocate a referendum. If the people of Britain vote for Charles, then that is the end of the issue. If they don't, we can set up a Royal Commission to look at the question. Some people have said "but the Monarch is the head of the Commonwealth". Many commonwealth countries have a head of state. Why is that such an issue for us?

My readings of the history books tell me that there have been as many bad monarchs as good ones. We have a good one at the moment, so there is no necessity to change the system. We just need to consider the fact that things change. In a mature democracy, that is something all of us should face up to and if that means choosing our head of state in future by a democratic process, is there really any logical argument against it.

Rog T's Cancer blog - The results of your MRI scan are

For those of you who are regular readers and have read the previous posts, you can skip this first paragraph.This is the latest installment in my occasional series about how I'm adjusting to living with a big C in my life.  For those of you who aren't, here's a quick summary. I'm 49 years old and I recently had a prostate biopsy following two "slightly high" PSA tests - 2.8 & 4.1. The biopsy took ten tissue samples and one of these showed a "low grade cancer" which gives me a 3+3 on the Gleason scale. I'm now on a program of active monitoring. I've no symptoms and sadly for a few people, if I'm gonna die soon, it won't be from Prostate cancer. Got the picture?

Well, if you've read all of these cancer blogs, next time you read it the previous paragraph will change. Today I had the first of my follow up sessions on active survelliance since I was diagnosed as having a low grade prostate cancer on 8th November. I received my latest PSA test result and the result of my MRI scan. Which means that the next blog will have to have the preamble updated.

It may sound odd, but I hadn't actually given todays consultation much thought. I have just been too busy. I have a studio to build, a blog to write and another couple of projects which have completely filled my mental bandwidth. I also have a friend who has a serious cancer and a bad prognosis to cope with. This morning, I had my meeting with the specialist at 11.55am. How did I prepare? I went to North Finchley to video the traders protest against parking fees. I bumped into Mrs Angry and VickiM, the two esteemed lady bloggers of Barnet, along with a whole bevvy of traders, photographers and filmmakers. It seems that the idea of traders carrying a coffin down Finchley High Road was a great draw. I felt a strange sense of irony that I was going to an imaginary funeral before a meeting which may (although unlikely) give me some very bad news.

My good lady wife insisted on accompanying me to the meeting. As I've been in rude good health recently, I suspected she wanted to make sure I hadn't made the whole thing up as an excuse to have a permanently bad mood (only joking, she wanted to make sure that if I found out something horrible, I'd have her support). I picked her up on the way back from the demo. She wanted to make sure I was mentally OK, I wanted to show her the video I'd shot.

As regular readers of this cancer blog will know, I've made a few lifestyle changes. I've gone semi vegetarian. I've cut out meat (mostly apart from the odd treat) and gone organic. I'm drinking green tea instead of black with milk. I'm drinking the pomegranite and eating my broccoli (which I loath). I've always been fairly active, so my sport has simply been maintained. I'm now  10kg lighter than when I started. This is down to better eating (not the cancer eating me).

Oddly enough, I rather suspect that I wish I'd adopted this diet years ago. Eating meat as a treat rather than a norm agrees with me. I enjoy the odd steak (I had a beautiful cut of venison on saturday, first meat for a week). I enjoy cooking, so the challenge of transforming a box of organic veg from Abel and Cole into a weeks worth of tasty meals is a challenge I relish. I enjoy eating the mushrooms with tumeric, pepper and ginger that the diet I'm following recommends. I enjoy the fact that the green tea and water I'm drinking has resulted in the fact I've not had a hangover for three months, even though I've drunk way enough to warrant a monster headache. I believe that this is because my liver and kidneys are working far more efficiently than they have done for years, without all of the fat, omega VI and other crap to clean up. In May I was told my cholesterol was "slightly high". I had it tested again last week and will be interested to see how this has responded to the new diet.

So as you may have gathered, I entered the meeting with a positive mental attitude. We sat down. I must confess that my doctor is not a man I'd like to play poker with. He gives absolutely nothing away. When he gave me the cancer diagnosis, I honestly thought he was going to give me good news, until he pulled the "C" trump card out. "Left side 5 sticks clear, 4 of five on right clear, 1 stick with 2mm tumourous mass, Mr Tichborne you have cancer" or words to that effect. With this guy, I don't know how good or bad it is till I'm out of the room and the door is shut. Please don't take this as a criticism of him, it isn't. If my job was to give people bad news, I've no idea how I'd approach it.

So we sat down. "The results of the MRI scan are clear. Your PSA level is down to 3.5" he said. I responded "So we can cautiously say that this is good news?". He said "Well it is better news than if they had found a tumour or the PSA level was up". He then said "You are sure you don't want to consider treatment options?". Now to me this sounded like there was something I'd missed. I asked what exactly the MRI report said. He read it out and it indicated everything was OK. He then said "Sadly, we can only tell you what the limited technology at our disposal indicates, it is not necessarily accurate". So I enquired further. He responded "Mr Tichborne, you are 49 and you have a long way to go. Things can change". He then informed me that I should have another PSA test in May and another biopsy in October. This was the course I'd already agreed previously. I really didn't enjoy the previous biopsy and I do wonder how beneficial it really is at this stage. I am however not a doctor and there are graveyards full of people who thought that they knew better than the bloke in the white coat.

I have a friend who was a doctor and I asked him why on earth we can never get a straight answer from a doctor on anything related to cancer treatment. He gave me an answer, which I sort of understood. he explained "Listen Rog, for years you've said how much you fancy Uma Thurman. Hypothetically, Just suppose that I told you, I'd managed to get her phone number and got her round for an evening of passion, with my smooth talking charm, I could tell you what her phone number was and what I said to her, but would it necessarily work for you?" I responded "We'll I'd certainly give it a go". He then said "But just suppose I caught her at a time when she was lonely and vulnerable and she just wanted to see someone she didn't know. Just suppose she'd got that out of her system and moved on. You wouldn't know why your approach hadn't worked and mine had, would you". I said "Well I see what you are saying". He continued "Cancers are a little like that. Two people can have the same cancer and yet the same approach will work completely for one person and fail miserably for another. We don't know why. Just as you'd never know why your approach failed with Uma". He then continued "That is why you need to be careful when people say that "it worked for me"". Ignorant fool that I am, I still don't completely get it. Last week I had a pleasant evening with a friend who told me quantum physics and mathematics will ultimately resolve every problem in the Universe,  he believes with no shadow of a doubt that science is the solution to everything. Two days later I was told that to understand the treatment of cancer, I had to understand the whims of fancy of Uma Thurman. It's a strange world we live in.  

Of course, I'm happily married, so if I was caught having an evening of passion with Uma Thurman, that would probably prove far more deadly than my prostate cancer seems right now. Have a pleasant evening. I certainly intend to.

North Finchley Traders protest against Brian Colemans parking charges

Barneteye TV - Barnet Traders North Finchley Protest