Lifting the December gloom

Scratchwoods on a gloomy December afternoon

Christmas will soon be upon us. One of the gifts of dog ownership is the fact that rain or shine, you have to go out for a walk every day. At this time of year, this can be challenging. We have two reasonably large dogs and our preference is to take them somewhere that they can run around off the lead. In the summer a favoured destination is Arrendene open space, but at this time of year it is simply too muddy to be a practical option. The passages between fields are virtually impassable.

A better option is Scratchwoods, as the pathways are generally better. Today was a gloomy day. There was a mild mist and a chill in the air. to be honest it isn't much fun, but the hounds enjoy it. To me December is a strange month indeed. Public transport late at night can be a rather unpleasant experience. Trains are full of completely smashed individuals and over the years I've seen many a puker on these journeys. Some of these drunks are friendly and some are less so. Pubs tend to be busier, in town often full of people out for firms Xmas parties. This tends to mean that your normally civilisd watering holes become busy and full of people who don't understand pub etiquette.

Then there are the shops. Special Christmas ranges are rolled out and often you simply can't find the things you normally buy as the shelves are full of mince pies and pigs in blankets.Everything also seems a bit more expensive.

The thing I find interesting is just what a strange festival Christmas has become. Perhaps the strangest thing is that the British establishment have developed an aversion to calling it Christmas. It seems that this has been done out of fear of offending Jews, Hindus and Muslims. I have many friends of all of these creeds. I've discussed this many times and the only  thing that offends any that I've spoken to is the concept that they would be so stupid as to be offended by the use of the term Christmas. In fact I know members of all communities who have trees, eat mince pies and give each other presents. I was talking to one Muslim friend who told me that he always had a tree and gave his children presents. His view was that Christmas is a time of joy and anyone who rejected happiness is likely to be a bad person indeed.

Then there is the Christmas Story. You know the one. Santa comes, pulled by a bunch of reindeer and comes down the chimney to give good children a bunch of presents. Of course you have to believe in Santa to get any. Oh sorry, that isn't the story of Christmas is it? Nope, the story of Christmas is that 2,000 years ago a virgin gave birth to a baby in a barn. Shepherds saw an angel and came to see what was going on. A bunch of wise men from the East also turned up bering gifts. This was where the tradition of Christmas presents originated. They also gave the babys parents a stark message. Get out of town quick because the King Herod is coming to chop your baby's head off. So the saviour of the world began his life scarpering to Egypt to become an asylum seeking refugee. To celebrate this, the British government have sent the RAF to the region to ensure that the tradition of refugees is maintained. Rather strangely lots of rather right wing people who profess allegiance to the teachings of that baby (peace, love, non violence, turning the other cheek, looking after the poor) don't want asylum seekers, call people who want to see peace and profess turning the other cheek "appeasers". They label the poor as benefits scroungers. In the period running up to Christmas, churches have specific readings. Todays readings in Catholic Churches tell us that John The Baptist told Tax collectors to collect no more than they were due, he also said "if you have two cloaks, give one to someone who has none". Interestingly enough George Osborne has devised a strategy of a budget surplus, which means collecting £10 billion more than he needs. As to the sharing of cloaks, there's been huge tax cuts for the rich, whilst the poor get harpooned with all manner of clobberings.

How many of us will spare a thought or some change for the homeless this Christmas as we tuck into our festive feast? How many of us will spare a thought for the Yazidi Christians in Syrian, who have been there since the early followers of Jesus first took the journey up from Jerusalem. We spend billions on sending bombers to "Save them". What a strange world we live in.

If you are a Christian or follow any of the main monothiest faiths remember this God not only sees everything you do, he understands your motivation for everything you do. I have no idea what is in store for you after you die, but one has to presume you will be called to account. Will your story be a good one? If you are an athiest, the question is far simpler. The world works better when we are nice to each other. If we look after our less well of brothers and sisters, the world will be a better safer place. Whatever you believe in or don't, we will all be safer and happier if we treat each other with kindness and respect. The weather may be sad, cold and miserable. Tht doesn't mean our hearts have to be. That is where we need to start if we want to lift the seasonal gloom.

I wouldn't ban Donald Trump from London, I'd invite him for an educational visit

One of the hardest lessons I've had to learn in the eight years that I've been writing this blog is that in Politics, whenever a major issue flares up, my initial instincts and gut feelings are wrong. This may sound like a terrible admission and it may convince you that I am a blithering idiot. In fact I think it is a great strength to recognise this. I have come to realise that I am not alone in this. it applies to us all. Our initial reaction to any shock is one purely dictated by emotions. Our brains are wired with a "fight or flight" reflex to shock. When I was a teenager, I found I didn't really understand peoples behaviour, so I took time to study psychology. With some understanding of why we react in certain ways to certain situations, and with cool headed analysis, we can generally make far better decisions than rash and rushed decisions, based on a need to do something.

Perhaps the best example of this is the reaction to the blatherings of Donald Trump that London has no go areas, where the police fear to tread due to rampant Jihadis. The British public have reacted with fury and a petition has been launched to call for him to banned. This has now become the most signed petition ever on the Parliamentary website. Hundreds of thousands have expressed their disgust. Of course this is a quite natural response. I was highly tempted to sign the petition myself.

I then did what I have learned to do in such situations. I made a quick checklist of questions I need to ask myself before I signed it.

1. Is Mr Trump correct?
2. Does it matter whether Mr Trump is correct?
3. If the petition was successful would it make Mr Trump correct his actions?
4. What would be the best way to make Mr Trump see the error of his ways?


The answer to the first question is obviously No. As to the second, it does matter. Trump may become the President of the USA. Think it through, it conceivably puts us at material risk if the man with his finger on the button of the worlds biggest nuclear arsenal thinks London is a Jihadist hotbed. As to the third question, if the petition was successful, Trump would be banned. This begs the question as to what happens if he's banned and he become President of the USA. We be forced into an embarrassing climbdown and being an obnoxious braggart, he'd use this as a weapon to shout even louder how marvellous he is. Which brings us to the final question. What is the best way to make mr Trump see the error of his ways. This is actually quite simple. We should simply invite Mr Trump to London. Let him come over and see just what a load of B@ll@cks he was spouting. If he really believes that Jihadis are running amok in London, let him see the truth. Let him visit a few Mosques, have a few curries in Brick Lane, visit a few culture centres and walk the streets. Whilst many Muslims will be inflamed by his comments, I believe that if he were to actually visit a few London Mosques and speak to the ordinary people who attend them, he'd find himself rather pleasantly surprised. One of my friends is the chairman of a Mosque. I discussed Donald Trump with him and his view was that Trump clearly is clueless and the best thing that could happen would be for Mr Trump to actually receive some education.

Mr Trump is a classic narcissist. I look at what he has achieved and how he lives his life and conducts himself and I see a man who needs an education. Mr Trump sees the answer to every question as "Look how much money I have in the bank". It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend recently. My friend is my age and over the years he's keen to boast of the hundreds of women he's slept with. Recently he was telling me of the marvels of Tinder and how it has generated a seemingly endless supply of new notches on his bedpost. As he droned endlessly on, his lifestyle sounded more lonely and horrific by the minute. I found myself thinking of Trump his inflatable trophy blondes. Trump sees himself as the embodyment of the American dream, but in some ways he's more a classic example of an American nightmare. His bid to be President is clearly nothing more than a desperate attempt to seek approval. The wives/girlfriends are not selected on the basis that they will make him happy or that he will be able to sit on the veranda and sup tea with them, reminiscing about when the kids were little. They are there to say "Look how fabulous I am". The businesses and the money he makes are not generated to do anything other than say "Look how rich I am".

I sometimes despair at the way billionaires such as Trump see a business only as a way to fill the coffers. I may be unusual, but for me the greatest success of my business is that great artists such as Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash started their career and went on to spread the music around the world. For me, I put our artistic contribution to London above making pots of cash. I'd rather live in a modest semi and drive a six year old Ford Galaxy than live in a self constructed prison behind electric gates and railings. The sad truth is that Mr Trump and his billions could do great things.

What is preventing him? As far as I can see, he is missing compassion, vision and self awareness. If he wants to be president or even a better human being, he should start by trying to get an education in the more important things in life. That is why a visit to London, not staying in the Ritz in Mayfair would be a good start. Let him come over and stay with an ordinary family and visit a few mosques, meet a few real people. I am sure he'd soon see that he'd made a huge mistake. I personally can't believe that anyone would willingly want to be ignorant. Mr Trumps comments have actually given him an opportunity to improve himself.

Right wing ideologues who are denying ordinary British workers decent housing

The billionaire press barons and the right wing governments of the last three decades have enacted a huge act of fraud and dishonesty on ordinary working class people. I am talking about the management of housing stock. When I left school in 1981, living in London and buying a house was not an issue. You knew that if you got a decent job and saved up for a couple of years, you could afford to buy a house on the basis of a 10% deposit and a mortgage of three times your salary. I bought my house in 1987 for £44,000. At the time I was working for BT and I had a salary of £18,000 per annum. As I've always managed my finances sensibly, I was able to obtain a mortgage with no problem at all. I put down a £5,000 deposit and the rest was easily funded. That house is now worth in excess of £650,000. On the same equation, I would have required a salary of £220,000 per annum to buy the same place. In short, it is impossible for an ordinary person on an normal salary to buy property without major assistance. London house prices rise faster than inflation, so the situation is getting worse, not better. Who benefits? Today in the Daily Express there is a story about a former school teacher who is selling his portfolio of 900 buy to let houses. His company is worth billions. Good luck to him. The sad truth is that hoiusing is now a commodity not a place to live for many. It is a way to guarantee a pension, as the pension industry has lost the trust of many to guarantee a decent lifestyle in old age.

Even worse is the situation with social housing. A city does not work without workers on relatively low pay. These people need decent homes. Margaret Thatcher invented the right to buy. The net result of this is that a majority of former Council house stocks in places like Barnet have transferred from local authority control to gentlemen like the one in the Daily Express article. Housing that was on decent rental rates for working class people with specific requirements is now simply part of the private, unregulated housing market. Thatcher screwed up in two major ways (deliberately I beieve). Former Council tenants were given huge discounts to buy their homes. I disagree with many socialists in that I think this was right and was socially progressive. Where I disagree with Thatcher was that I believe those homes should have been sold with a clause stating that any future owner can only rent the property at the rent set by the council for council homes. This would have cut out the profiteering buy to let landlords.  As former tenants got a huge discount, they should have been leegally obliged to ensure the homes were still available at resonable rents if they chose to move on. The other mistake Thatcher made was that none of the proceeds were invested in repleneshing the council housing stock.

You may wonder where the press barons come in. These Tory supporting billionaires have done a despicable thing. They have helped to pedal the lie that the issues with housing are the fault of immigrants rather than the bad policies of right wing governments. It is clear to anyone that a refugee arriving with nothing but the shirt on their back will need somewhere to live. The fact that governments have failed to manage their housing stock has meant that the migrant rather than the government has been blamed in the minds of many. As the taxation policies of right wing governments are hugely beneficial to the billionaires, they have no interest in blaming the people responsible. Rather like a bully, they seek to pick on those least able to defend themselves. To me this is immoral.

It is clear what needs to be done. The right to buy has to include a clause for future rental, to peg at council house rates and the proceeds need investing in new stock. My parents started their marriage in Council housing for the first twelve years of their marriage. This enabled them to raise a family and then as their finances improved they bought a home. Every young family should have a home available near their place of work. This is not some silly socialist pipedream, it is how you ensure your economy functions. Contrary to what you may believe, I am a Capitalist. I run my own business and I employ people. Unlike many Capitalists, I believe that social responsibility is a key element of being relatively well off. Without my staff my business is nothing. If my staff have nowhere to live, then I have no business. The same is true for every business in London. It really is time that the billionaires who produce the lie sheets we read woke up to this fact. Housing should be a right and providing it is a primary function of government. A government that fails to do this is a failed government.

The Friday Joke 11/12/2015

Well it's Friday and we hope all our readers have a great weekend. As is the tradition, here is the Friday joke

 

 

#Save London Music Campaign - News

Firstly we have some fantastic events coming up. Tonight we have a great night of Free Music at The Unicorn in Camden Town, featuring Mr Susan + Three Other bands.

On Saturday, we have the amazing Mr Lee Thompson of Madness, with The Silencerz at the Barnet Eye pub of the year 2014, The Chandos Arms. He is ably supported by local heroes The Hamptons.

You can check all forthcoming events by visiting this page http://savelondonmusic.org/events/


There are more great gigs being added all the time, so do remember to bookmark the page!



The campaign has also had some great news, in that MP Michael Dugher has tabled an amendment to the planning laws supporting many of the objectives laid out by our campaign. Click here for this and all the latest news - http://savelondonmusic.org/news/

We also had a great gig at the Mascara Bar in Stamford Hill on Friday, here's a tweet from a happy customer

Jonathan Birdwell ‏@jdbirdwell  Dec 6

Best Sunday nights @EstLnsmeDrfters @MascaraBar #savelondonmusic

Apology to Mr Roger McKenzie

Roger McKenzie (Unison Deputy General Secretary)  has contacted the Barnet Eye to clarify that the picture contained in a retweet left by McKenzie,  which was included in a blog published earlier this week, featuring photograph of a person wearing an Aston Villa hat is not him, as originally stated in this blog.  

We would like to issue a full apology to Mr McKenzie and the man in the hat for any offence caused. We assure Mr McKenzie and the chap in the picture that this was a genuine error and no offence was intended.

Donald Trump - The most dangerous fanatic on the planet?

What do ISIS want?  They want to create a fundamentantalist Caliphate and have a war between Muslims and Infidels. For them to realise this insane dream, they need western leaders to abandon sense and reason and play the game which ISIS are trying to start. It has been estimated that 0.03%  of the 1.5 billion Muslims on the planet support such an agenda. This is probalby a lower number than the % of US fundamentalist Christians that support bombing family planning clinics. I do not want to play the politics of division, but blaming decent, law abiding Muslims for the actions of the mad, bad fringe is not only stupid, but it is devisive and dangerous. On Monday evening myself and my wife happened to be having  a drink with a friend who is the chairman of a Mosque. He was telling us that when his children were small, he'd put up a Christmas tree and they would get presents. He said that this was because it was part of the English culture. He has friends of all faiths and says that it  is his faith that ensures he treats everyone with respect. His view is that life is full of enough owes and worries without making artifical divisions. He does not drink or smoke, but accepts people from other cultures do. He is absolutely typical of British Muslims. He abhors ISIS  and their creed.

Yet despite this, if Donald Trump gets  his way, he will not be able to visit his sister in Atlanta. Despite the fact that he has visited the US on numerous occasions and that his sister has paid tax for 20 years, without commiting a crime or even getting a parking ticket. He is criminalised in the mind of Donald Trump as a threat. Mr Trump has taken to lying about Muslims and lying about London. He claims London has "no go  areas" for the Police, where Sharia Law rules. This is nonsense. I am a Londoner, I have many friends in the Police. I spoke to one yesterday and asked what he thought. His response is that "Trump is talking B****Ks".  There are areas with problems, but he said that there are worse areas than the predominantly Muslim areas and more frightening things than visiting Mosques in the job.

The derision that have greeted Trumps comments are nearly universal. In London, they are met with total incredulity. I live and work in London. There is nowhere I'd fear visiting, apart from one or two dodgy pubs. Like all citys random viloence can happen, but as the UK does not have the stupid gun laws of the USA, at least I don't fear random shootings.

Trump is a dangerous man. His blatherings spread fear and division and amazingly a substancial number of US citizens believe him. He is too stupid to see that he is playing into the hands of ISIS. His  policies would alienate the decent Muslim population and would spread fear and loathing. As far as I am concerned, he is far more dangerous than ISIS.  The fact that he has chosen to lie about the city I live in and the city I love  is the icing on the cake. If he ever becomes president of the USA, I suspect the world will become a very dangerous place.

Why I love Tandem Computers

Unless you are a teccie nerd, don't read on. Apologies for the 99.9% of my readers who this article will be completely incomprehensible to, but I simply had to make my feelings public for the 0.1% who will get it completely. Last week I went to the BITUG autumn conference for the first time in a number of years. For those of you who don't know what BITUG is. It isn't a bunch of swingers indulging in some odd practices, it is the Britain and Ireland Tandem User Group. And what is a Tandem? Well Tandem Computers were the worlds leading manufacteres of fault tolerant computer systems between 1974 when the company was set up until 1997 when it was acquired by Compaq (the company is now part of HP).

A typical Tandem Nonstop machine

I first came across Tandem Computers in October 1983, when  I got a job at SPL International, then one the UK's leading software companies. My official title, having completed an 8 week TOPS course in computer operations was Tandem Operations Controller. TOPS courses were set up by the Thatcher Government to address the then skills shortage in the IT sector (these days they take a different approach and they outsource everything). My job was to "look after the in house development machine". This meant doing backups, arrange maintenance visits, support the in house users and perform operating system upgrades. The system was a Nonstop II system. A 16 bit machine with four 477mb hard drives. These drives were 11 platter removable hard drives. The operating system revision was A06. The Nonstop II was the second generation of Nonstop computer. It had replaced the 8 bit Nonstop machine (rechristened Nonstop I). I had the pleasure of doing some work for SPL on a Nonstop I machine, as I was the in house operating systems expert. The last Nonstop I machine in the UK was operated by Dixons and controlled an automated warehouse system in Stevenege. SPL had supplied the system. This was my type of computer system. The Tandem controlled the largest train set in the world! Deliveries were scanned in and the Tandem would ensure that a whole series of rails and lifts stored them in the right place. At the other end of the factory was the goods out, where orders were automatically sent for despatch. It was a joy to behold.

The wonders of DynaBus

Tandem Computers were unique at the time in being "fault tolerant to a single point of failure". This means that if any one part of the hardware fails, there is another part that automatically takes over. Tandem developed there own special programming language called TAL, which is a block structured language, vaguely similar to C. Unlike most of the languages we see today, it is developed for high performance and data is directly addressed. If you only have 32k to deal with, you have to be pretty efficient. Due to their extremely high reliability and availability, Tandem Computers were bought by companies that required 24 x 7 availability. Customers of SPL included banks for ATM and payments systems, Air Traffic control and the airlines. Anything where you don't want your computer to fall over and be down for days. As you had to buy twice as much of everything as other comparable systems such as IBM and ICL mainframes, it was twice as expensive, but you had happy customers.

But it wasn't just the technology that made Tandem different. The ethos of the company was different. It was a Silicon valley startup, in the days when such things were novel. The company had a beer bust every Friday afternoon. This meant that the fridge full of beer was opened and the staff could get plastered on the company. It was a chance for staff to unwind. Customers were invited along as well. For people like me who worked on the technology, we had the satisfaction of knowing that we were working on the very best systems in the world. As Tandem was a far younger company than IBM or ICL, the people who worked on the technology were a generation younger than the IBM and ICL experts.

 I was especially lucky to work for SPL, who installed systems across the world. Every week teams were being despatched to places such as Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, New York and Brussels. Many of us had cheap weekends away, visiting workmates who were staying in such places. The best place to work in SPL was deemed to be BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).  You got great expenses and a fun environment. It didn't last, nothing does. SPL were bought by Systems Designers in late 1984 and the whole culture changed. SPL were a 'Tandem Shop' where as at SD, Tandem was a sideshow. We were told that they would be setting up an "IBM division" in our office. I was told that as I didn't have a degree I'd have to be regraded as admin staff. I told them to sod off. It was their policy to have 100% graduates as technicians. Although I stayed for another 18 months and oversaw the office move from Windmill St in W1 to Victoria, it was never really the same.

Despite the march of technology, Tandem computers are still in use. The vast majority of global ATM systems use Tandem technology as do POS systems. The UK rail reservation system runs on Tandems. At BITUG, we saw a demonstration the game Minecraft running on Nonstop server as HP now designates Tandems, but the main customers are large corporates dealing with the exponential growth of their core systems backbone networks. It is a testament to the technology that companies still use it for the systems that matter most to them.

Barnet Unison John Burgess election campaign stitch up - Impartial investigator appointed by Unison

Readers of this blog will have no doubt been rather disappointed to hear of some rather dodgy practicses in the Unision union election for general secretary. Local Barnet Unison Rep John Burgess was standing against long term incumbent Dave Prentis. Johns campaign was made aware of a rather damning piece of evidence, an audio tape detailing all manner of dodgy goings on involving paid Union staff, who are meant to be impartial, caught red handed helping the Prentis campaign.

In response to Johns complaint, it appears that Unison have appointed Roger McKenzie to investigate. You may ask who Roger McKenzie is? Maybe this tweet will tell you.

1. Roger McKenzie ‏@unionroger Dec 1

   5 years today as a Unison assistant general secretary! Doesn't time fly when you're #unisonorganising

John Burgess had called for an independent investigation. Clearly it is very difficult for someone to investigate allegations of malpractice against their Union boss. The Barnet Eye was interested to see how "independent" Roger McKenzie actually was. A quick trawl of his twitter timeline soon gave me an answer.  There are a whole stream of retweets from Mr McKenzie regarding the election campaign (see below). Can you spot a pattern. Do you think this is the right bloke to be investigating?

The Barnet Eye detailed how a paid member of Unison staff told us how they were worried to speak out about what has been going on, due to fears for the job of any whistleblowers and a lack of faith in the transparency of the Unions grievance process, to protect staff from reprisals. In light of the way this investigation has been handled, it is clear that these fears are justified. I am sure Roger McKenzie will do his best to do a fine job, but if you were a member of Unison staff, would you be happy telling things in confidence who is a public supporter of the person who is being investigated. Unison is at risk of becoming a laughing stock. The Barnet Eye urges Roger McKenzie to say "I am proud to be asked to lead the investigation and in the interests of transparancy, I am commissioning an outside body, who are clearly impartial to investigate". That way it will show that my fears about the Unison were unfounded.

Our enquiries tell us that Roger McKenzie is a decent, honest and principled man. We are sure that he has been put in a difficult position. The only honourable thing to do is set up an independent inquiry to set the record straight. No one can argue that having important investigations run by people with a declarable interest can be viewed as a credible process. We urge McKenzie to recognise this and take the appropriate action, here are the tweets.

1. Roger McKenzie Retweeted

   Dave Prentis 2015 ‏@electprentis Nov 27

   One week to go – join us for the final Vote Dave Day on Monday, and don;t forget to vote! http://www.votedaveprentis.org.uk/one-week-to-go-join-us-for-the-final-vote-dave-day/ …

   

   6 retweets 4 likes
    
Roger McKenzie Retweeted

Dave Prentis 2015 ‏@electprentis Nov 22
In times as tough as these, you need a General Secretary you can trust to stand up for #votedave

16 retweets 8 likes

Roger McKenzie Retweeted

Dave Prentis 2015 ‏@electprentis Nov 21

UNISON East Midlands Health members show their support for Dave - thank you!

7 retweets 5 likes

(Editor Note  -Mr McKenzie has contacted the Barnet Eye to clarify that the person on the picture wearing an Aston Villa hat is not him, as originally stated in this blog.  In the circumatances, we would like to issue a full apology to Mr McKenzie and the man in the hat for any offence caused. Of course we should take far more care in such cases ) 

  Roger McKenzie Retweeted

Dave Prentis 2015 ‏@electprentis Nov 11

It's #VoteDaveDay! Share this to spread the word

 

Roger McKenzie Retweeted

Dave Prentis 2015 ‏@electprentis Nov 9

Have you watched Dave Prentis's personal video message to UNISON members yet? Don't forget to #voteforDave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHcAK5ppUE …


Please note that we saw no retweets of any tweets from any other campaign. Whilst retweets are not necessarily endorsements, we suggest that as no similar tweets appeared for other campaigns, the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that Mr McKenzie is sympathetic to the Prentis campaign

Tweets of the week in the London Borough of Barnet - 6/12/2015

Here is the one you've all been waiting for! Our most popular regular article. It's the Tweets of the week from Barnets biggest twits!

1. And this week there can only be one! It's from our old friend Brian Coleman. Brian is in Gibralter on holiday and it is clearly doing him some good. He even seems to have developed a sense of humour!

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 Dec 4

@JennetteArnold I was once mistaken for a serious Politician !!

2. Piyush Pankaj is a bit worried by the ominous clouds over Edgware Station

Piyush Pankaj ‏@piyushpankaj 24h24 hours ago

#OminousLookingCloud at Edgware station

 

 3. The Mayor of Barnet has been enjoying himself

Team Heart and Soul ‏@HeartandS0u1 Nov 30 Barnet, London

Meeting with mayor of Barnet , Mark Shooter @mshooter Thanks for having us ! #wingsofhope #teamheartandsoul

 

 

 4. Sad news in Finchley

6. Evening Standard Verified account ‏@standardnews 24h24 hours ago

   Man, 90, dies after 'wind blows him into path of bus' outside Finchley Central Tube station http://bit.ly/1R15J4N 

   

    

    

 5. Nice Piccie of Mill Hill East viaduct from CLOG

CLOG ‏@Clogtweets Dec 1
1. 1. Mill Hill viaduct on the Dollis Valley walk today. @LondonNPC @footprintsldn @CotswoldHolborn @Cotswold_N1_LDN

 

 

 6. The best view in London?

Tom Adams ‏@thom_d_a Dec 4

One thing @TheCrick institute will lose when moving to Kings Cross = stunning views from the Mill Hill library

 

7. Seems like Barnet Council has the countries best Social Workers. Soon to be outsourced.....

Barnet Council Verified account ‏@BarnetCouncil Dec 4

Barnet wins Team of the Year at the Social Worker of the Year Awards http://ow.ly/VtqmV  #BarnetSuccess

 

 

 8. That Mayor of ours gets around a bit, doesn't he

David Longstaff ‏@David_Longstaff 4h4 hours ago

@mshooter Mayor and Mayoress of Barnet at the opening of Christmas Fayre today

 

 

 9. Sadly our outsourced Council seems to be falling apart

Barnet Council ‏@BarnetCouncil Dec 3

Our call centres are experiencing technical difficulties & are unable to receive any phone calls (1/2)

Barnet Council ‏@BarnetCouncil Dec 3

We are working to fix this issue ASAP. We apologise for any inconvenience (2/2)

 10. and finally.... we were on the radio with the Save London Music campaign

MillHillMusicComplex ‏@MillHillMusicCo 4h4 hours ago

You can hear the latest #SaveLondonMusic campaign update on the Robert Elms show here at 1.45.50 to be precise! -> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0389lzg#play …