The Friday Joke - 21 May 2021

 It's Friday, if you've had a week like me you'll probably need a joke to cheer you up. 

Which one is the odd one out - Facebook, Google, Twitter, Bill Gates?

Answer: Bill Gates he's the only one who isn't busily acquiring every bit of information he possibly can about you. 

Yeah, I know it isn't funny but there are plenty of people who believe he is and if that isn't hilarious I don't know what is, given that he's loaded and clearly couldn't give a monkeys whethe Bridget buys her beans in Waitrose or Tescos.

As we approach the end of the Football season, all of our best footballers are figuring out how best to shaft those people (The Fans) who pay their wages and engineer a move to a team their wagepayers can't stand, I've put together a playlist of the best betrayal songs.

Secondhand Harry Kane shirt anyone?

Managing a music business in a pandemic

I am an up beat, can do person. I always have been and I always will be. That's why I run my own business, write my own blog and walk around with a smile on my face most of the time. But the last year has been a challenge. I run a music business and our sector, worth £5.4 billion to the UK in 2019 has taken a kicking beyond belief in the last 14 months. I've been involved with music for 44 years, a long journey, but this is unprecedented.  

Back in 1977, I had a vision. I believed that music could change people's lives. I was only 14 at the time, but I went to The Roundhouse, saw the Ramones and realised that music can set your soul free. I knew instantly that I wanted to be involved in the music industry. Prior to the advent of punk in 1976, music was a cartel that was controlled by the big boys, but Punk rock changed all that. The Buzzcocks set up their own record label, New Hormones to put out their first EP. Mark Perry created the 'Punk Fanzine' creating Sniffin Glue with a photocopier and a bit of imagination. His call to arms was to print three chords on the front cover with an invocation "Now go form a band".

That was exactly what I did. It took a year to get  a guitar, learn three chords and find a few people to play in the band. There were false starts. There were tears. Our first drummer was ambushed whilst waiting for the 221 bus with his girlfriend on Mill Hill Broadway, thrown through the window of WH Smiths, severing a tendon in his arm and ending his drumming career and aborting our debut gig, a support slot with the UK Subs in Derby. Did we give up? No of course we didn't. The main problem we initially had was finding a rehersal space. I was lucky, my Dad was in the motor trade and where his yard was there was a derelict caretakers cottage, that we agreed to rent for £5 a week. I put together a musicians collective, pooling gear and sharing costs. What is now Mill Hill Music Complex was born. 

Between the start in 1979 and 2008, every year we saw our turnover grow. In 2008, we undertook a massive rebuilding project. That meant we lost two studios, our shop and our toilets, that were replaced with portaloos. Between 2008 and 2012 we lost 40% of our business and the project ended up costing twice what we budgeted. Having said that, we got something that was twice as good as we thought we would. It took us three years to get back to where we were in 2008. The portaloo's had scared off a lot of customers and the business had changed since we devised the project. But having adapted and learned, we saw amazing growth between 2015 and 2019, so much so that in 2019, we reached the point where we started a new project to develop more purpose built modern studios, in conjunction with some amazing partners. A financing blip put this on hold in December 2019. This seemed like a disaster at the time, but was a Godsend in reality. It meant that when the pandemic hit in March 2020, we were not in the middle of a building project and we had cash reserves earmarked for the build that we could divert to keeping the business running. 

In March 2020, I did not anticipate that we'd still be in lockdown a year later. Here we are in May. Many of our customers have their first bookings for over a year. I am pleased to report that they are getting work. This month Leee John and Kenny Thomas are playing the Boisdale, Zeeteah Massiah is playing the Crazy Coqs, punk legends Menace have a gig in Gateshead and Hollie Jervais has a gig at a Norfolk holiday camp to name a few. In terms of bookings, we are at about a third of what we were in May 2019. 

You may think that this is a recipe for despair and throwing in the towel? When I look at the industry, there are far more questions than answers. From what I can work out, around 30% of the studios in London and the South East have closed. Whereas around 15% of our business in 2019 was pro musicians, I'd estimate that we are seeing the equivalent of a doubling of this. We are inundated with pro musicians who's regular studios have closed. Many tell us that they'd have used us years ago if they'd known about us. We are only just starting to see the return of the social bands. It is far too early to tell how many will return. What I have noticed is the sheer re-energisation of the musicans turning up. I have an unshakeable view that whatever the post covid world looks like, music will play a massive part of it. Venues will want to attract people back and punters want to enjoy themselves. People who have been in work have had nothing to spend money on. They can't go abroad, so will want to have fun closer to home. It is hard to plan as we labour under the shadow of new variants, but as the UK death rate has plummeted, people do want to come out to play.

For me, the various Whatsapp groups etc that I have for social groups are all pinging with invites to gigs, drinks, etc. I strongly believe that our studios have gained market share by investing in ventilation last year and being able to remain open for professional musicians. As musicians are, by nature, networkers, we have broken into networks that we'd not have got a sniff of before. We all got out fingers burned last year, but I think that the world will once again see a 'roaring twenties' as we emerge from the dark days and start enjoying ourselves. Of course, we could be back to square one by this time next month, but if we are not. I strongly believe that the industry will come strongly out of the crisis. 

This last year has stretched us as a business almost to breaking point. As a sane, rational businessman, I put a plan together to wind up the business. I set up a spreadsheet of income vs expenses, which would tell me when the cash was going to run out and we'd have to wind it up. This week, we will break even for the first time since March 2020 on our day to day income/expenses. This means that doomsday will move a week into the future. Our working assumption previously that we needed six weeks money in the bank to tide us through a crisis. The fact we've survived 14 months is a miracle. I am not entirely sure how we willmanage our finances going forward, but we will most surely be a lot more conservative with respect to our reserves than we've been previously. 

Many people have left the industry. All of the freelance technicians have been thrown to the wolves by the failure to address a fair furlough scheme. As many have mortgages to pay, I am not sure that they'll leap back. But those who do will be in demand and able to command premium rates. It will be a difficult decision for many, but I am sure that once it is clear that touring etc is resuming, the lure of decent wages will win out over minimum wage stability. 

I am struck by the new found optimism in the industry this week. People are genuinely excited to be gigging again. Today I've taken bookings for major bands into October. People are talking about Xmas gigs. Normally that would be normal, but it seems to be like the promised land. The problems of normality are starting to return. Reception usually has one person answering the phone and one assisting the bands. I've been doing both on my own. It is starting to get too busy. The question is now timing, when do we bring people back from Furlough. The answer has to be when the business can afford it. I hope that day is coming very soon. We should have some idea by the end of June. 

As a musician, I found lockdown to be a sterile time. However, I've started writing some new material and have a new project on the go. For the first time in a long time I am genuinely excited about it. So what advice could I give other businesses? I am not sure I can. We were lucky with our finances having a war chest ready for a new building. I just think that someone up there is watching my back. I've always been of the opinion that those who are successful in business are those that are born lucky and prepared to work hard. I've worked 60 hour weeks since we reopened last May. I haven't earned a penny in that time, save for enough to pay my self assessment (somehow tax doesn't go away). The studio bills have had to be paid. But if you are going to be skint, the best time is when the pubs are shut and you can't go on holiday. 

Teddygate - Mill Hill's very own Watergate scandal?

If like me, you are old enough to remember the 'Watergate Scandal' in the USA that brought down President Richard Nixon, you will know that it wasn't the burglary on the Democrat campaign office by some Dodgy Republicans that brought Nixon down, but the cover up that Nixon unwisely authorised.

It seems we might have our very own Watergate scandal, or Teddygate as we shall henceforth know it in this blog!

Let me tell the sorry tale.  Yesterday, our friends at the 'A Better Mill Hill' Twitter feed posted that the much loved Teddy Walk between Lawrence Street and Birkbeck Road, which has been decorated by local children with Teddies and has become a local talking point, was being cleared by workers from Barnet Council. 

The Barnet Eye knows this walk well. We regularly walk our dogs along the route and it is always a joy to see parents and grandparents with toddlers enjoying 'seeing the teddies'. Sadly we also know that not everyone is a fan. I was recently approached by a local, who describes themselves as 'a bit of a curmudgeon' who told me that they were aware of a small number complaints to Barnet Council about the teddies which were 'an eyesore and a covid risk' which had been ignored and asking me what I could do to get them removed. I replied that I did not have a problem with the Teddies, but if they genuinely felt it was a problem, they should report the problem  on the Barnet Council website and send their local councillors an email. I was informed that this was exactly what they would do. 

When I saw the post, I naturally assumed that our friendly local curmudgeon had done just that and the council had taken action. Generally Councillors will get on to the street scene department if residents report issues of fly tipping etc, which aren't being dealt with. In my experience, councillors of all parties are usually quite good at this. As none of our local Conservative Councillors actually live in the ward, it struck me as likely that they were not aware of how popular the walk has become with local families. I wouldn't have been surprised if they had simply acted without fully understanding the background, but I am sure the way our curmudgeon described it would have had teams down in hazard suits. 

Later yesterday, the Mill Hill Councillors responded on Twitter and denied all knowledge of the now infamous 'Mill Hill Teddy Massacre'. This was followed by a rather more terse 'we will reply when we have the full facts'.

It won't surprise regular readers to know that having supported many Unison initiatives over the years, I have some excellent moles in the Council. Just as the Watergate scandal had a whistleblower called Deep Throat, we have our very own Deep Throat in the Council. It has been suggested to me that whichever one of the Mill Hill Councillors posted the first response had not properly discussed the matter with their colleagues and jumped the gun posting the denial. My contact in street scene told me that Barnet Council do not do major operations such as the Teddy clean up, which may have a negative PR element, without speaking to the local councillors. 

Of course, given the nature of this whistleblowing, I cannot really say whether this is correct and whether Barnet Council has a rogue team of Street Scene operatives intent on massacring the local Teddies, but I do know that they seldom spend money on such operations without good reason. 

All we are asking for is transparency. We don't want names named, if it was simply over zealous street scene cleaning. We'd just like to see some evidence with names redacted. If however, a councillor did get the Teddies massacred, they should come clean and say so and apolgise to local kids. If they had to go, they should have had a proper send off and a chance to be rehomed. For such a well loved site, the Council should have given some notice and given people the chance to give their feedback. 

If you want my view, I think the Teddy walk brought a lot of joy to a lot of people. I think that what we should do is have an annual 'teddy walk weekend', where the route can be adorned with Teddies and at the end of the weekend, the teddies can be rehomed with children who might appreciate them.  Maybe we could have a few set in a case permanently. There will come a point where they will start looking worse for wear, so an annual Teddy walk would seem to me a great way to keep the children happy and do some good. What do you think?

Senior Barnet Tory launches sexist attack on Labours new assembly member

It will come as no surprise to anyone to learn that former senior Barnet Conservative politician Brian Coleman, once convicted for assaulting Cafe Owner Helen Michael on Finchley High Road, is up to his old tricks of misogynistic abuse on Twitter.  

Mr Coleman has tweeted today describing the new Labour London Assembly member, Anne Clarke,  as "A housewife from Cricklewood as she is known in Barnet". What might surprise readers of the Barnet Eye is that Mr Coleman was the Conservative Candidates Roberto Weeden-Sanz  guest of honour at the GLA count and by all accounts acted as a mentor and main campaign adviser for him. A little bit of searching on Twitter revealed that this patronising insult was not the first time that Coleman had used this term, regularly launching this insult at Anne Clarke during the campaign. 

I find it rather odd that a Conservative should find the idea that the term 'housewife' is an acceptable putdown in this day and age. The sheer snobbery in his tweet where he asks "A Cricklewood housewife or the former President of the Oxford Union" about the choice between Clarke and Weeden-Sanz is there for all to see. Rather interestingly, the People of Barnet and Camden decided that they much preferred Anne Clarke and were clearly not as impressed as Mr Coleman at Mr Weeden-Sanz former acedemic exploits.

As regular readers will know, I've spent many hours at the Town Hall, observing our local politicians. I have to confess I was surprised when the Tories picked Mr Weeden-Sanz as their GLA candidate. The reason? He'd made absolutely no impression on me at all. 

There are several Tory Councillors who I have observed, who have shown that they would make good and engaging candidates. I'd list Laith Jajeh, Alex Prager, Helene Richman and Saira Don are ones that spring to mind as having shown that they have something about them. When I look through the list of Councillors in Barnet, there are always a few that I see and think "Oh, I'd forgotten about him/her" Councillor Weeden-Sanz was pretty near the top of this list. I can only assume that someone with an excellent sense of humour or a malicious grudge against Roberto, thought it would be a wheeze to let Brian Coleman mentor him. 

It seems strange that the Councillor Weeden-Sanz turned to a man who'd transformed a 20,000 vote majority in Barnet and Camden in 2008 into a 20,000 loss in 2012 GLA elections, in a year when Boris won a strong triumph in London, to be his mentor. Given the fact that Labour do not have a single MP in Barnet, one can only wonder at how bad the campaign Mr Weeden-Sanz ran could possibly be.

I know Anne Clarke well, although we are members of different parties, I consider her a friend and have a lot of admiration for the work she has done with the Cricklewood Town Team and as a Councillor in Childs Hill ward. I find it insulting and patronising that a former Mayor of Barnet and GLA Assembly member can refer to his successor in such a manner. 

One has to ask Roberto Weedon-Sanz whether he thinks his 'mentor' and friend's lack of manners and respect is something he thinks is clever and funny. Just in case you were not aware of what sort of a chap Mr Coleman is, here is a video of his assault on Helen Michael, that resulted in his conviction. This made the ITN News. I wonder if this really is the sort of thing that the Conservative supporting females really want associated with the party. I'd remind Mr Weeden-Sanz that we judge people by the company they keep. 

Yesterdays anti semitic incident in North West London

 I'd be pretty surprised if anyone who follows my blog is unaware of the anti semitic incident in our neighbourhood of London yesterday. If you didn't there is a report on the Barnet Times here.

We cannot have people driving around our community, intimidating, insulting people and inciting violence. There is no place for 'whataboutery' in relation to this incident. It was plain, blatent anti semitism, with a large dollop of sexist misogyny thrown in. There is nothing that could excuse it and no decent person should bother trying. 

We do not want this in our community. The police and the authorities need to ensure take appropriate action. 

I have always supported the right of people to protest peacefully, even for causes I find disagreeable. This was no such thing. It was a clear attempt to insult and intimidate one section of our local community.  I spoke to several people this morning who feel threatened by what happened. I find it hard to understand how the Police allowed the situation to develop. It's not as if the perpetrators were acting in a stealthy manner. 

The idiots who did this have caused massive damage to their own cause and the more moderate and sensible elements in their movement.  I never thought I'd see peace in Northern Ireland in my lifetime, when bombs were going off. Things can change, but it requires people to be civil and respectful and for there to be dialog. People who act like this make such things all the harder. They are not on the side of anything good. 

The Tweets of the week in the London Borough of Barnet - 16th May 2021

 So here we are again, at the end of the week. Today is the first Sunday off that I've had since the start of the year, so it is noce to be able to chill out and enjoy the rain! It is nice to have a cup of tea and enjoy putting this together in a leisurely fashion for a change, whilst watching the recording of Match of the day!

Anyway, here's our selection of the very best tweets from the nicest tweeters in our neighbourhood,

1. Lets start with a nice drone shot of the new Brent Cross West Station (and a little advanced warning that we'll be covering this in more detail later in the week)

Another stunning pic of the Eastern Overbridge installation, this time from a drone camera overhead. Read more about the works here https://t.co/LUlrBWop2S pic.twitter.com/66ypZC8Syl

— TransformingBX (@TransformingBX) May 14, 2021

2. A big shout out to these wonderful people. Don't let anyone tell you we don't have a fantastic community here

Brilliant turn out today! More than 30 volunteers of all ages joined forces to keep the Welsh Harp looking clean and green! Found any sort of litter, collected over 70 bags of rubbish. It's been a great community effort! 👏🏻Thanks everyone!🌿🚮 pic.twitter.com/UYlsDTXsoz

— Friends of the Welsh Harp (@welshharpies) May 15, 2021

3. I love this tweet. I can recall the picture being taken, it caused quite a stir. The Kwan Yin made a big play of being the first Chinese restaurant outside of the West End. (note the actress is Imogen Hassell).

August 8th 1970, & actress Imogen Halsall is sitting on the grass at Simmond's Mead, Mill Hill to celebrate the 12th year of the Kwan Yin Restaurant. Various celebrities attended the event that day. The restaurant went onto become the Good Earth.

Keystone/Alamy image. pic.twitter.com/8MhvVQSqCR

— NW London TimeMachine (@time_nw) May 15, 2021

4. Interesting tweet on the abandoned Railway works to the north of Edgware Station

The abandoned London Underground line that would have connected to Hertfordshire https://t.co/L30HPizDZJ

— 🌹 Rosie Greene 😷 #RipOffNUIG #FreeBritney (@cnbcwatcher90) May 16, 2021

5. A little bit of old Colindale history

#fromthearchives Old Colindale c.1950 #nctc100 pic.twitter.com/hcCUL3bWCo

— The National Collection of Type Cultures (@NCTC_3000) May 11, 2021

6. Wish I'd known these fine people were at the station when I visited yesterday. What a fine job they do

❤️#Cricklewood. Cricklewood Station looking good thanks to all the wonderful volunteers this morning. @TLRailUK @13milepost @cipcricklewood @MarieHa72890130 @anne_clarke pic.twitter.com/VLPvNPMZsu

— NW2 Res Association (@NW2_RA) May 15, 2021

7. If you are an EU citizen living in the UK, it is vital that you do this as time is running out

If you’re an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen or their family member living in the UK (resident in the UK by 31 December 2020), you have less than 50 days to apply to the EU #SettlementScheme. Apply today at: https://t.co/Mf33rHLTmf pic.twitter.com/ukIKQZ5kyE

— Barnet Council (@BarnetCouncil) May 16, 2021

8. A fascinating tweet from the Mill Hill Historic Society

At the bottom of Highwood Hill where it turns into Lawrence Street near the green by the Forge some vegetation has been cleared away for a development revealing an Anderson air raid shelter - see it before it's removed! pic.twitter.com/ITN0mL4wJr

— Mill Hill Hist Soc (@MHHistSoc) May 13, 2021

9. A little bit of Hendon history

The Chequers pub, once located at 20 Church Road, Hendon. Closed in 2016 and was converted to a children’s nursery by 2018. #lostpubs #pubhistory #hendon #nw4 pic.twitter.com/2ogBBPWgFa

— Saving London Pubs (@PubsSaving) May 9, 2021

10. A Mill Hill Landmark disappeared this week. We do hope he comes back soon!

Looks like St Joseph is going on a little trip, be careful boys it's the most iconic statue that looks over Mill Hill pic.twitter.com/wlojUgfSpM

— Inside Mill Hill (@InsideMillHill) May 10, 2021

That's all folks. 

The end of an era - The last Inter City 125’s at Cricklewood

One of the things I most enjoy about writing this blog is the opportunity to document and record key moments in the life of our community and environment. I was quite honoured yesterday to get an invitation from Robin Morel of Network Rail to visit Cricklewood Railway depot to see the final visit of the iconic Inter City 125 trains working scheduled services to and from London. These iconic machines hold the world speed record for a diesel powered vehicle, having reached 148mph.

Robin was keen to see the moment recorded for posterity. East Midlands Railways, the operator, had given one of the engines a special lock of paint, with one engine being returned to its original BR livery and another having a brand new EMR design.

These units have thundered between St Pancras, Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham and Manchester (for a short period) since 1982. As my house backs onto the line, I’ll miss the distinctive roar of the engines. Robin sent me this information about the trains.

Robin also kindly said a few words about them. I tweeted this out yesterday and got a huge response. It is great to see so many people appreciate this icon of British Engineering .

Here are some videos, one of the final London bound service passing Cricklewood on its way to St Pancras

Here is the last Inter City 125, with its special paint job, arriving at Cricklewood.

services arriving for their rest before the final journey back from St Pancras to Leeds. The unit with the retro paint job is off to the National Raiwlay Museum. It would be nice to see them back occasionally on charter services, which I am sure will happen.

Here is the full album of photos from the day. Once again many thanks to Robin Morel, Network Rail and EMR. I will be posting a blog later in the week, detailing some of the other things we saw on the visit, including the soon to be demolished waste terminal and the works for the new Brent Cross West station. 

The Friday Jokes 14 May 2021

As the studios have got busier and I'm working long solo shifts, I've had less time to blog recently. So this week I've decided to cheat a little bit and nick a jokeor two from  my favourite Tweeters who's content gives me a bit of a laugh. These stood out this week.

I left my last job because of what my boss said to me.

He said, "you're fired."

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) May 13, 2021

And Claire Cheesecake found this gem from Bob Golen

pic.twitter.com/oLJUrfgTRh

— Claire J Cheeseman (@cjcheesecake) May 12, 2021

BTW Claire is raising cash for Alcohol change UK in memory of her brother, a worthy charity supporting those living with alcoholism. If you have a few spare pounds, please consider a donation.

207 pounds now to go thanks to you lovely angels, hopefully when I check after work it will be there xxxxxxx Claire Cheeseman is fundraising for Alcohol Change UK. Check out their @JustGiving page and please donate if you can. Thank you! #JustGiving https://t.co/j0zABqrcTq

— Claire J Cheeseman (@cjcheesecake) May 14, 2021

Have a great weekend

Why Manchester City winning the league should give fans everywhere hope

Man City - 7 times Champions 

Back in 2003, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and boldly claimed he would make them the premiere team in the UK. As an oligarch with billions in the bank, the world of English football gasped. Many people claimed that it wasn't right that Chelsea should be allowed to buy the title. As my team, Manchester City were languishing mid table in the Premier League, having had two decades of being a badly run yo yo team, I was actually secretly pleased. To me it meant that maybe we'd be spared the crowing of Manchester United, who were the Kings supreme of the Premiership, richer, more powerful and more arrogant than the rest of the league put together. 

Lets have a look at who won the Premier League in the decade before Abramovich. Manchester United won the title seven times, Arsenal won it twice and Blackburn won it once. The Premier League was set up to make the rich clubs richer. United had a hegemony on the title and apart from the season where Blackburn, bankrolled by Jack Walkers largess, ruined the party, won every year apart from a couple of seasons, where Arsenal snuck in as United rebuilt ageing teams. 

In 2008, Abu Dhabi group bought Manchester City. Like Chelsea, huge investments were made. It took three years for City to win the Premiership, as a bunch of also rans were transformed into serious contenders. Whilst you wouldn't need to be a genius to expect City to do well, winning five of the ten titles in the ten year period, the league has become more competetive. Chelsea, perhaps usurprisingly won two titles, but we saw Liverpool and Leicester also win titles, without any of the largess of a huge benefactor. Even United managed a title in the period, for the swansong of Sir Alex Fergusson.

Back in 2003, before Abramovich, the fans of City, Chelsea and Leicester would have laughed the prospect of a decade where their teams outperformed the once mighty United. But football is about dreams. The club which seems to have suffered most has been Arsenal. They have slipped from being the team that were the natural challengers to Manchester United, to being a very mediocre mid table team. As Leicester a likely to qualify for the Champions league for the second time in five years, having won the title in 2016 and having reached the Champions League Semi Final in 2017, no fair analysis would conclude that the woes of Arsenal are anything but the result of mismanagement. 

This season, Manchester United are likely to have one of their best post Ferguson campaigns. The club are likely to finish as runners up and win the Europa League. They have a hugely expensive squad, despite the owners taking a billion pounds out of the club for dividends and racking up huge debts. Every reasonable person recognises that United have been asset stripped. Would all of the United fans who scream about how unfair it is that the owners of City and Chelsea have invested their billions really believe that a bunch of asset strippers with no care for the club, its fans or traditions, really want to see the approach of the Glazers succeed? 

I personally wouldn't mind seeing an end to the practice of billionaires buying clubs, but ending the ability of foreign owners to asset strip is surely far more important. The owners of Chelsea and City were never more than luke warm about the ESL. They don't need it and just wanted to be left behind. The owners that were up for it, were the debt ridden Spanish clubs and the toppled English clubs, who have failed to face up to their own failure. I'd be more than happy to see compulsory fan representation on the board, it would end the ESL type fiasco's. But it won't happen any time soon. United fans should recognise that if the Oligarchs and the Oil money went it wouldn't make the Glazers disappear, it would just make it easier for them to mine the pockets of the ordinary United fans. Is that really what they want? I don't think so.  

Barnet Tories lose a councillor as Shimon Ryde quits the Tories!

 This morning I was just checking to see whether Barnet Council had updated its website to add the two new councillors in Edgware and East Barnet and I noticed a very strange thing. Childs Hill Conservative councillor Shimon Ryde is now listed as an Independent Councillor. 

There are no further details on the Council website, any press website or Twitter. As I don't know Councillor Ryde I cannot comment further. I have heard rumours through the grapevine that certain Conservative Councillors are very upset that former councillor Brian Coleman, who was convicted of assault by beating of Helen Michael in 2014, was the guest of honour of the Tory GLA candidate Roberto Weedon-Sanz at the GLA count at the weekend. Could this be the reason for the departure of Shimon Ryde or is there some other reason. This has clearly happened very recently as he is still listed at the councillor for Childs Hill on the Barnet Tories website.

The Barnet Eye calls on Councillor Ryde, The Barnet Tories  and Barnet Council to explain what is going on. The people of Childs Hill need to know who is representing them and what they stand for. If Councillor Ryde has quit the Tories in disgust, they need to update their website and he needs to come clean with voters.

*** Update 16:30 ** The Barnet Tories Twitter account claim that Councillor Ryde has stepped aside from the group to 'deal with a personal matter' This is the first time in 13 years of writing a blog that we've seen such a statement.

Cllr Ryde has stepped back from the Conservative Group to deal with a personal matter, and we hope to welcome him back to the Group in the future.

Cllr Ryde has made clear that he continues to fully support the Leader and Conservative administration.

— Barnet Conservatives (@BarnetTories) May 11, 2021

It is not clear whether he will continue as the chair of Strategic Planning in Barnet. We can understand why a councillor may wish to stand aside from being a councillor for personal reasons, but to step aside from the Conservative Group seems very strange. One would assume the Conservative Group would wish to support their colleague through a personal crisis?