The Friday Joke - 22/5/2015

If you have a friend who is a vegetarian, but they eat fish, what do you buy them for Christmas?

A dictionary

Have a great weekend

Bring back Reginald Bosanquet

I came across this clip on Youtube. It is a fairly random clip, a few adverts , a trailer for a UEFA cup tie (Johann Cruyff's last) and a few minutes of News at Ten with Reginal Bosanquet. When this clip was aird I was sixteen. At the time we had three TV channels. My Dad had a Ford Capri, which was probably as good as it got for a working man.


 I found it fascinating.watching the clip. It is interesting watching Reginal Bosanquet read the news. I realised that at the time the Newsreaders on News at Ten were real superstars. I don't think I could name a single one now. Was Reginal Bosanquet better at reading an autocue than the current lot? Ws Gordon Honeycomb sexier than the bloke on BBC news as I write this?

In truth, no. What has happened is that our viewing habits have changed. The thousands of channels we have has diluted our ability to pay attention. On BBC London today there was was a discussion as to whether we have a shorter attention span than a Goldfish. I suspect we have. When I was a teenager, I'd listen to albums (vinyl) all the way through. Now my kids get bored, even with tracks they like and are constantly fiddling with their iPADs. Why I wonder. The answer is because they can. I do wonder if any of us can focus for more than 20 seconds on anything. It occurs to me as a musician that I should maybe release an album of 20 second long songs.

The Fall sang a song in 1977 called 'repetition'. The Hook was "there's repitition in our music and we're never going to lose it". It is pretty clear to me that Repetition and drudgery is out of vogue. If Reggy Bosanquet had been a newsreader today, the only way we'd have heard of him had he been selected for Big Brother or I'm A Celebrity. It is odd the way the world evolves. In 1978, I assumed that by 2015, we'd be taking holidays on the moon. I sort of thought we'd have 24 hour news channels, having been vaguely aware of cable TV in the USA, but I assumed this would spark a deeper interest in News and foreign affiars. In fact, what happens is we watch the news channel for 2 minutes when something else finishes, before the next program starts, As such the news channels are trite and bland. The clip shown, we have a lead story about a second rate cabinet minister in dispute with the British Waterways Board. Can you imagine that making the news today? It was only watching this I realised just how dumbed down we've become. Now its all style over substance.

Come Back Reggie - all is forgiven.

No Excuses Please

Every day, I walk my two dogs around the various pleasant parts of Mill Hill. Typically there are four main routes we take. A circle from Millway, thru the Broadway, up Hale Lane (possibly stopping at the Railway for refreshment), up Selvage Lane, down the Hendon Way and back down Millway. The second is a circuit of Mill Hill Park via Station Road and Flower Lane. The third is a circuit of Arrandene open space via Lawrence Street, the St Joes Footpath Birkbeck road, the Mill Hill School footpath. The fourth is the same as the third with an added leg to the Adam and Eve for refreshments.

There is someething which I've noticed more and more and is getting worse now that the weather is warming up. I find it disgusting just how little respect people have for our open spaces. Both Arrandene and Mill Hill Park are constantly awash with litter. What is especially bad is family groups who have picnics and barbeques who simpy can't be bothered to put their rubbish in the bins provided in the park, or take it with them at Arrandene.

Even worse, it seems that some people think that the purpose of beauty spots such as Arrandene is to serve as a dump for flytipping. In recent months, I've seen beds, household waste and all manner of items dumped by the entrance to the area. I find it sickening. For householders, the council operates a recycling facility at Summers Lane in Finchley, where items can be dropped off free of charge. This is set up for just this purpose. The cost to the council of having to send a van out to collect dumped rubbish is enormous in comparison. We as taxpayers all pay.

In the park, I find it especially galling that people simply leave plates, cans, bottles and bags to blow about. What message does this send to the kids who play there. I recently politely asked a teenager to pick up a can that they'd dropped to put it in a bin that was about 20 feet from where they were standing. His response "Get a life, ****". At this I informed him that I knew his parents and that if he didn't I was going to call them and ask them whether they thought he should pick it up. At this he complied, but not with good grace. I mulled over whether I should have a word with them anyway. I am pretty sure they would be less than impressed. I decided to simply say "listen son, you doing that means that I have to pay more council tax, because someone has to clean up your mess, and it spoils the park for everyone". I doubt that this had much effect, but I felt I had to make some comment.

When it comes down to it, there really is no excuse. Is there.

The Garden Bridge - The mother of all vanity projects

Blackfriars Rail Bridge - A proper bridge

There are a few things you probably didn't know about me. I guess two of these things are that I love gardens and I love bridges. I love gardens so much, I even made a pop video about my one (and here's a shameless plug for my bands gig at the Midland Hotel in Hendon on Saturday, Free Entry) when I was learning how to use video editing software, using an out take track that I'd co written. As for bridges, being a keen fan of architecture I find bridges fascinating. London has some of my favourite, I particularly like Blackfriars Rail Bridge. There is not a bridge in the world with a finer view, it is green with solar panels to power it and it is functional. I also rather like Tower Bridge. It is quirky, iconinc and does a very useful job. It is a symbol of London. I always get a thrill walking over it and love any film with a car chase where they jump the opening bridge.

If you walk down the South Bank of an evening, many of the Bridges are illuminated and look terrific. I particularly like the view of Southwark Bridge from the Anchor Pub in Park Street, with St Pauls as its backdrop, I'd urge any of you to stop for a pint to appreciate it!

So you may think I'd love Boris's latest bonkers idea, "The Garden Bridge". You would be completely wrong. Since Boris secured a second term and decided to become Tory leader on the back of his two stunning victories as Mayor, he's dumped the idea of being a sensible Tory Mayor and has set about transforming himself into Pharoah Boris, trying to leave as many monuments to himself as possible, from a few nicely painted painted lamp posts in North Finchley (courtesy of a £1,4 million Boris fund grant) to the mother of all vanity projects, the £175 Million Bridge. 

How anyone, least of all a Tory Mayor, can justify spending £175 million on this at a time when we are all suffering from austerity, when we can't 'afford' after school services for disabled children and we are imposing huge cuts on welfare for the poorest people in the country. What I find even more odd is that one of Boris first acts was to can the Thames Gateway Bridge. This bridge had a sensible business case and served an identified economic need. It would bring cost justified benefits and would generate economic activity that would more than offset its cost.

The Boris Garden Bridge serves no useful purpose at all. London already has many fine parks. Putting one in the middle of the Thames at huge expense is crazy. It seems that groups of more than 8 people will not be able to use it and it will be closed between midnight and 6am. It will obscure some of the best views of St Pauls from the South Bank and will cost £3.5 million a year for ever. The plans state that it will be used for 12 events a year. I for one cannot see the logic in making London even more congested and delivering nothing. 

As I said, I love Bridges, but as an engineer, the thing I love most about them is that they are functional. A bridge in London that can't carry cars, can't take bikes, groups of more than 8 people can't cross and which is shut between midnight and 6am is anything but functional. The fact that there are so many things in London which sorely need £175 capital investment and £3.5 million a year for ever, that would make a difference, surely is a no brainer even for the most lovestruck of the Boris groupies.

If you want to see fantastic gardens, I'd recommend Kew Gardens. If you want to see fine Bridges walk down the South Bank. Both of these you can already do for free.  Why on earth anyone wants to spend £175 on a useless eyesore is beyond me. I suspect Boris sees a few votes in luvvy endorsements from the likes of Joanna Lumley. Personally I think that most Londoners see the bridge for exactly what it is. A monolith to the golden haired one, paid for by his loyal subjects.

The Barnet Eye - An announcement and an invitation

Firstly an announcement.

Following the general election on May 7th, I have decided to take a break from political blogging. This is not a retirement, simply a refocussing of my priorities. I put a huge amount of effort into writing this blog, usually spending 2 hours a day on writing and researching blogs and given the fact that the next council election will be in 3 years and the next general election will be in five years, there is little of value to add for a very long time.

This does not mean I will not be supporting campaigns that are required for the good of the London Borough of Barnet, but this will be on a more ad hoc basis than before. I will also be inviting the people of Barnet to submit guest blogs and I am trying to see if we can get a few regular guest bloggers from across the political spectrum to fill the gaps. If you are interested in becoming a regular guest blogger, please get in touch! We will be retaining a few regular features, such as the Friday Joke and the Tweets of the week.

None of this means that the Barnet Eye is going away. To the contrary, I will be focussing on a few other aspects of life. The most significant will be the #SaveLondonMusic campaign. This campaign is trying to preserve the musical heritage of London and get proper protection from developers for music venues and studios. I will be tirelessly lobbying our local MP's to support the campaign, as ultimately we need an act of parliament to resolve the issues. Over the next few days I will spelling out in more detail what is needed and how we can achieve the preservation of Londons Music scene.

I will also be looking at local life and places of local interest in more detail. We live in a great place, lets appreciate it.

Finally an invitation. If you have nothing to do on Saturday evening, please join me at the Midland Hotel, by Hendon train station on Saturday night, for my long delayed 50th Birthday party. It is free and is part of our campaign to save London music. There will be three bands, including my band, the False Dots, featuring the brilliant vocal talents of Allen Ashley on vocal, Fil Ross on bass and Gray Ramsey on drums. Here is a clip of one of my songs, Feelings from Fridays recent rehearsal. This was filmed on my iPAD hence the quality. If you think you might enjoy a bit more of this, please come down and say hello. The other bands are Hamptons and Misdemeanour


Hope to see you for a chat and a drink on Saturday.

Election fallout 2015 - What future for the Barnet Lib Dems?

This will be our final word on the General Election 2015. I am sure you will all be pleased to hear that. I am going to be taking a break from political blogging for a while, as I've a couple of music projects I really need to concentrate on (more of that later). This isn't a "Don't Call Me Dave" style retirement. If something major blows up, of course I'll be back on the keyboard, but as wev've got no general election for five years and no council election for three years, I have to conclude that my time would be better spent writing about things I enjoy. As ever guest blogs are welcome. I am especially pleased to see the amazing response to Stephen McKenzies blog about the Hendon Conservative campaign. As Stephen is a teeneager, it is great to see talented people come through in the next generation.

Anyway, enough of that. I left the Lib Dems till last as I think this is the logical tailend to what I've had to say. In Barnet, for general elections, there is a seeming 2 way face off between the Tories and Labour. In the council the picture is rather different. Until 2010, the Lib Dems had 6 councillors. This consisted of 3 in Childs Hill, 2 in Mill Hill and 1 in High Barnet. Going into the 2010 election, the Lib Dems had high hopes of taking even more seats, hoping for increases in Mill Hill and High Barnet. As the date of the Council election coincided with the General Election, a huge turnout saw these hopes blown away. The group was cut down to 3. In the 2014 election, the anti coalition backlash saw this cut to 1, the veteran Jack Cohen. This near wipeout was mostly due to Labour targetting Childs Hill in a completely idiotic attempt to try and take advantage of the situation. The net result was that the Tories gained 2 seats and retained control of the council.





In the General Election, Lib Dem voters gave Andrew Dismore and the local Labour party payback for this and defected en mass to the Tories, delivering a huge increase in vote for Matthew Offord. What Dismore had failed to appreciate was that whilst Labour leaning Lib Dems were savvy enough to vote Labour aready, Tory leaning ones (or Labour disliking ones) simply jumped to the Offord boat. Given that Offord is hard right, hating same sex marriage and the EU, to back Offord was clearly a big jump, but one that Dismore had pushed them to. His atttude to the Lib Dems had been patronising and had rubbed many up the wrong way. The Lib Dems had chosen an excellent local candidate in Alasdair Hill. As I attended the hustings, it was clear to me that I'd rather have Alasdair than any of those on offer, if I was the sole voter. His efforts for the Library campaign have been fantastic. He is honest, decent and sensible. Sadly for Alasdair, he was standing for a party that the electorate had chosen to give a right good kicking to, for the coalition.

Personally I despaired of the Lib Dem national campaign. If I'd have been head of their National Campaign, I'd have had one simple message. If the Tories win an outright majority, they will lurch to the right, destroy the NHS, clobber the poorest and most vulnerable members of society and give their super rich billionaire backers a huge tax cut, despite running a huge defecit. The message I would have sent to Lib Dem voters is "If you don't vote for us on May 7th, six months later you will regret it, when the Tories start ripping the country apart".  We are seeing the first signs of this, with George Osborne setting a new budget, just a couple of months after setting one with the Coalition. If anyone believes that this is anything other than George implementing a hard right agenda, they need to wake up and smell the coffee. There is no point moaning about what Osborne has done. The Tories did not campaign on a "If we get a majority, we'll carry on as if the Lib Dems are still there" slate. They said they wanted a majority, so they could enact truly Tory policies. I believe these policies are socially divisive in a way the coalition never was. What really saddens me is that arts and creative budgets are likely to suffer most. The Tories are phasing out funding for arts foundation courses and slashing budgets. Creative industries generate £8 million an hour for the economy, yet they are seen as "not serious subjects".

The truth is that the Tories knew that the best way to win was to knock out what they saw as the soft Lib Dem votes, which they did spectacularly well. The Lib Dems were just to stupid and nice to do anything about it. Many commentators say "What is the point of the Lib Dems?". Well as far as I can see, both at a local and national level, the case has been made but people have simpl not bothered to notice. When the Lib Dems were in council in Mill Hill, they had active and highly motivated councillors, who looked after the neighbourhood. The Tories have been a disaster. The worst example of this is the "Saracens CPZ exclusion zone". This monstrous scheme has seen hundreds of local residents clobbered with fines and forced to park miles away when visiting friends. Despite hundreds of protests, our local councillors did nothing to stop the scheme. This simply wouldn't have happened if the Lib Dems had been councillors. Unlike the Tory councillors, who simply toe the party line and do what they are told, the Lib Dems had a strong record of fighting for local residents and ensuring local issues were top of the agenda. Sadly in 2014, the Lib Dems didn't even bother running a proper campaign in Mill Hill, despite holding 2 seats only four years before. This was in part due to well respected former councillor Jeremy Davies having personal matters to deal with and partly due to a complete lack of activists.

On the national scene, only time will tell if I am proven right, but I beleive that once we've seen the full force of Tory policies and cuts, many will realise that giving the Lib Dems a kicking was a terrible mistake. Whilst I disagreed with much of what the coalition did and was particularly disgusted by the tuition fees U-Turn, I awoke on May 8th to face the harsh reality that like many former Lib Dem supporters, my walking away from the party had ulimately given the Tories carte blache to run riot.

This has been borne out by a huge surge in Lib Dem membership. Apparently the party has gained 10,000 new members since the election. As I mentioned at the top of this blog, I am stepping away from politics for a while to concentrate on music and other projects. I have decided that in October, I will consider my options and may rejoin a political party. I was a member of the Labour Party from 1983 until 2009. I joined the Lib Dems in 2009 and resigned in 2011, when my membership was up for renewal in disgust at the tuition fees debacle. In October, my five year ban from the Labour Party is up. I cannot rejoin if Alison Moore is still the Leader of the group on Barnet Council. By then, they will have a new Leader, and so we need to see how that goes. As things stand, I would join the Lib Dems and try and help the party rebuild their local base of councillors. I believe that this will only be done with a long campaign and lots of hard work.  I really can't see any circumstances where I would join the local Tories. I was asked if there were any circumstances I'd vote Tory and the answer was yes. I would always vote for them tactically to keep UKIP or the BNP out. Whilst they are completely hell bent on destroying art and culture in the UK, they clearly will be pariahs with anyoe who cares about these issues. Having said that I will be seeking a meeting with our local MP's to try and convince them to change their stance on support of arts and music. I believe there is a hard economic case for this and that they should at least be prepared to listen. I will be asking for their support for the #SaveLondonMusic campaign in the House of Commons. It is worth noting that only Alasdair Hill, the Lib Dem candidate publicly supported the campaign, which is one reason I feel he is an excellent candidate.

With the first past the post system, tactical voting is the only way to prevent parties you do not want from getting in. I favour a move to PR and only the Lib Dems support this. I believe it would give us a far more healthy parliament. I'd like to see a system rather like the GLA with local MP's and a list, so there was still a chance for quality independent candidates (such as Martin Bell) to get in. I do believe that there is a role for  3rd parties, but they have to be sensible and pragmatic with their targets. This is why I have an issue with the Greens in Barnet. I cannot see any way they will ever succeed in either council or national elections. At present the only green votes that count are in European and GLA elections. I'd love to see them do well in these, as I think that the Green agenda is important, but the fact that they have continually split the progressive vote in Barnet is, to me, a constant source of irritation. When I was canvassing for the Lib Dems in 2010, there was a council election and a general election. My message to all voters on the doorstep was the same. If your top priority is to keep the Conservatives out, then in the Council elections only the Lib Dems will do this. In the general election, realistically only the Labour candidate will.

For the Lib Dems to be able to say that in 2018, will require a huge amount of hard work. I don't know whether I will be part of it or not, a period of reflection is required. But I hope that whatever happens, the party picks itself up off the ropes. 

Election fallout 2015 - Time for the Greens to grow up?

We've looked at the post election fallout for the local Conservatives and Labour Parties. Today we turn our attention to the Greens. Like many people (if not all) in Barnet, I find the Greens to be a bit of  a conundrum. I doubt there is anyone who is totally opposed to the Green agenda. Even David Cameron promised to be the Greenest Prime Minister ever when he took power in 2010 (that went well, didn't it Dave). Whilst all of the other Parties can elicit a strong negative reaction, the Greens generally just get one of bemusement from opponents. As I stated in a blog earlier this week, I believe it is a travesty that the Greens can receive millions of votes and get a solitary MP. I have no doubt at all that a stronger Green presence in Parliament would be a force for good and keep Green issues on the agenda. I also believe that the Green Party should be a great motivator for young people to use their vote. The Greens have a message that appeals to those of us not haggard and worn down by the harsh realities of life and I for one am all for idealism.

However that is where it stops for me with the Greens. When it comes down to it, the cuddly idealistic concept of the Greens and the reality are two different things. A quick visit to their Barnet Party website soon reveals that the Barnet Greens are a million miles away from a credible and sensible Green alternative. They have a web page "10 ways to be Green in Barnet", which I've reproduced below.

10 ways to be green

TEN WAYS TO BE GREEN IN 2015

Eat British fruit and veg – or better still grow your own

Everyone in Barnet needs to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions they cause and adopt a more sustainable way of life, to help in the worldwide fight against climate change.  Here’s some tips on cutting  your carbon footprint and how to have fun going green!

 Food and clothing:

 1/ Eat food grown in Britain when you can, to save ‘food miles’ — the energy used to bring imports. Eg, don’t give up bananas but if you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

 2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

 3/ Grown your own food. If you can’t get an allotment, grow fruit and vegetables in your back garden or even on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. And if you live in a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

 ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap them with your friends instead of buying new garments that take

Go by bus instead of car – and you can have a drink if you want

energy to make and import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!

 Transport:

 5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it saves money and you will see

sights and hear sounds you would have missed in a vehicle.

 6/ Use Barnet’s many bus services or train routes instead of going by car. You relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or have had a drink or two!), public transport is the best way home.

 ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can find a way of avoiding travelling by air, which has a very high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it’s luxurious and your ticket for a weekend away can be as cheap as a bargain flight.

 In your home:

Don’t turn up the heating. Sit under a duvet – with a friend

8/ Close your curtains at night. You can save the biggest amount of money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade double glazing, but day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can also help cut your gas and electricity bills.

 9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking in a microwave uses half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

 ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

- See more at: http://www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk/10-ways-to-be-green-in-2014/#sthash.iwyPbB0H.dpuf

10 ways to be green

TEN WAYS TO BE GREEN IN 2015

Eat British fruit and veg – or better still grow your own

Everyone in Barnet needs to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions they cause and adopt a more sustainable way of life, to help in the worldwide fight against climate change.  Here’s some tips on cutting  your carbon footprint and how to have fun going green!

 Food and clothing:

 1/ Eat food grown in Britain when you can, to save ‘food miles’ — the energy used to bring imports. Eg, don’t give up bananas but if you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

 2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

 3/ Grown your own food. If you can’t get an allotment, grow fruit and vegetables in your back garden or even on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. And if you live in a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

 ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap them with your friends instead of buying new garments that take

Go by bus instead of car – and you can have a drink if you want

energy to make and import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!

 Transport:

 5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it saves money and you will see

sights and hear sounds you would have missed in a vehicle.

 6/ Use Barnet’s many bus services or train routes instead of going by car. You relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or have had a drink or two!), public transport is the best way home.

 ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can find a way of avoiding travelling by air, which has a very high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it’s luxurious and your ticket for a weekend away can be as cheap as a bargain flight.

 In your home:

Don’t turn up the heating. Sit under a duvet – with a friend

8/ Close your curtains at night. You can save the biggest amount of money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade double glazing, but day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can also help cut your gas and electricity bills.

 9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking in a microwave uses half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

 ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

- See more at: http://www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk/10-ways-to-be-green-in-2014/#sthash.iwyPbB0H.dpu

TEN WAYS TO BE GREEN IN 2015
Everyone in Barnet needs to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions they cause and adopt a more sustainable way of life, to help in the worldwide fight against climate change.  Here’s some tips on cutting  your carbon footprint and how to have fun going green!

 Food and clothing:

 1/ Eat food grown in Britain when you can, to save ‘food miles’ — the energy used to bring imports. Eg, don’t give up bananas but if you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

 2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

 3/ Grown your own food. If you can’t get an allotment, grow fruit and vegetables in your back garden or even on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. And if you live in a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

 ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap them with your friends instead of buying new garments that take energy to make and import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!


 Transport:

 5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it saves money and you will see sights and hear sounds you would have missed in a vehicle.

 6/ Use Barnet’s many bus services or train routes instead of going by car. You relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or have had a drink or two!), public transport is the best way home.

 ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can find a way of avoiding travelling by air, which has a very high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it’s luxurious and your ticket for a weekend away can be as cheap as a bargain flight.

8/ Close your curtains at night. You can save the biggest amount of money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade double glazing, but day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can also help cut your gas and electricity bills.

 9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking in a microwave uses half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

 ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

This list completely sums up the fact that, as far as I am concerned, the Greens are not a grown up and sensible Political Party.  Firstly, none of the points raised have any particular significance to Barnet. Secondly, to be frank, it is a crap list. There are ten opportunities here to show why you should vote Green, but they fail to do so and in some ways show an appalling level of hypocrisy. Lets analyse their list and see why

1/ Eat food grown in Britain when you can, to save ‘food miles’ — the energy used to bring imports. Eg, don’t give up bananas but if you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

Now don't get me wrong, I always Buy British where possible, but this point is an example of just how stupid the Greens are. They say "Buy British". What they should be saying is "Buy local". Let me explain. The logic they use is that it uses less energy to get an Apple from somewhere in Britain to your shop than from "abroad". In actual fact this is nonsense. Golden Delicious Apples grown in Normandy, France and sold in shops in London would use far less energy and may well have a far shorter journey than ones grown in Scotland or Northern Ireland.  The Greens should be campaigning for produce to be labelled as locally grown (ie within 50 miles of where it is sold). Sadly where they could make a good point, they fail miserably.


 2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

Where do I start with this one? There are dozens of points that the Greens could make here, to do with healthy living, but they have chosen purely to focus on the energy issue. So lets consider that. They say that a Kilogram of Beef uses ten times more resources to produce than the equivalent amount of vegetarian food. This is nonsense of the highest order. a kilogram of organic beef, produced on a local farm is actually far greener than the asparagus and beans you buy in Tescos that has been flown in fresh from Kenya. If you buy the steak at your local butchers, the packaging will be far less wasteful (you can even bring your own), than the plastic and expanded polystyrene that your asparagus will come in. What the Greens should be saying is "if you are going to eat beef, buy high quality, locally produced organic beef, as it will taste better, be better for you and has a far smaller energy footprint".

3/ Grown your own food. If you can’t get an allotment, grow fruit and vegetables in your back garden or even on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. And if you live in a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

This one infuriated me and shows just how out of touch the Greens are in Barnet. Anyone with half a brain would realise that the greatest threat to the environment in Barnet is overdevelopment and the tens of thousands of flats going up. None of these have gardens or patios to "grow tomatoes, peppers and chillis". We grow vegetables in our garden, but that is because we are lucky enough to have one. They have an ideal opportunity to show why developments should be sustainable and green, yet they miss a completely open goal. To me this betrays the middle class and cossetted nature of the party, failing to realise that for many, this aspiration is impossible.


 ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap them with your friends instead of buying new garments that take energy to make and import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!

 What can I say? The Greens are meant to be a serious party. To be honest, I find the concept of swapping underpants with someone else vaguely repulsive. There are many charities which are supported by shops which recycle unwanted clothes. The Greens could have said "Support local charities and less well off members of society, by giving unwanted clothes in good condition to Charity shops and ensuring ones which are not in good condition are recylced. This will reduce energy consumption, support good causes and give local people who are hard up a good source of cheap clothing".

5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it saves money and you will see sights and hear sounds you would have missed in a vehicle.

On the face of it I agree with this sentiment. With regards to walking, yes this aspiration is spot on. With regards to cycling, they have completely failed to make the point that Barnet is one of the worst places in the UK to cycle. I used to cycle everywhere, bit after nearly being killed by a juggernaut on the North Circular Road, who deliberately cut in on me after overtaking, focing me to throw myself off my bike into a fence at the roadside, I lost the confidence to cycle on main roads. In short, cycling in Barnet on 'A' roads is a risky business. How the Barnet Greens can waste the opportunity to make this point is beyond me.

6/ Use Barnet’s many bus services or train routes instead of going by car. You relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or have had a drink or two!), public transport is the best way home.

Ever tried to get from Mill Hill to Barnet General by public transport? Or the Royal Free? Or Chase Farm Hospital?
I put a query into the TFL website to see how long it takes to get from Barnet General to Mill Hill. This was the next service

Option 1: walking, 263 bus, walking, 251 bus, 57 mins

• Walk to Barnet Hospital
• 263 bus to Athenaeum Road  
• Walk to Totteridge & Whetstone
• 251 bus to Mill Hill Broadway Station

Departs 08:44

Arrives 09:41

Total time: 57mins

Detailed steps for journey 1

Time	Mode of Transport	Instructions
5 mins	walking	Walk to Barnet Hospital
21 mins	bus	263 bus to Athenaeum Road
	Disruption	Status alert for route 263
3 mins	walking	Walk to Totteridge & Whetstone
27 mins	bus	251 bus to Mill Hill Broadway Station

The journey takes 10 minutes by car.

I travel on the train or buses nearly every day, but getting around Barnet on public transport is a nightmare. It is true to say that there are good rail and tube links into town, but cross borough travel is terrible, as demonstrated by the TFL planner. As to being able to relax on trains on the way home after a drink, if you do that you tend to end up in the train sidings in Bedford. Often the hardest part of the journey is staying awake.


ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can find a way of avoiding travelling by air, which has a very high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it’s luxurious and your ticket for a weekend away can be as cheap as a bargain flight.

This point enraged me with its hypocrisy. At a recent hustings, the Green Candidate spoke out against the HS2 rail link to the North of England, yet here they are urging us to shun air travel. The Greens oppose air travel, they oppose new rail lines (which would be required if we all abandoned air travel) and they oppose new roads, which would be required to cope with the traffic generated by failure to build HS2. What opponenents of HS2 are too thick to realise is that one of the main drivers for the line is to free up capacity on the existing lines for additional freight and slower local services. Railways are not like motroways where it is easy to overtake. A train can only go as fast as the one it is following. If a train is travelling at 200KM/H and the train in front has to stop at a station, then it has to stop as well. The logic for HS2 is to move the fast inter city traffic to the High Speed lines allowing, better local service and freight. The Greens should support rail developments, but sadly they simply want us to go back to the stone age.

8/ Close your curtains at night. You can save the biggest amount of money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade double glazing, but day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can also help cut your gas and electricity bills.

Again, this belies the "middle class ivory towers" attitude of the Greens. Sure closing the curtains is a good idea, but how can families struggling on benefits, who can't make ends meet, ever hope to raise the thousands of pounds needed to fit double glazing and insulation. Most of these families are in rented accomodation and there is no incentive at all for Landlords to improve the energy efficiency of the properties they let out. Energy poverty is a huge issue for millions of people in the UK and to suggest it can be solved by drawing the curtains at night is quite insulting. Sadly for many, they need to keep the curtains shut during the daytime as well in winter, simply to avoid freezing to death. This is a huge issue and one which is far too serious to be dismissed like this.

9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking in a microwave uses half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

Where to start? I really wonder what planet the Greens are on. How on earth can you cook a roast chicken or a casserole in the microwave? There are plenty of very tasty ready meals that can be popped in the microwave, but with all of the packaging and preparation are these really as efficient as baking a nice vegetable casserole? I suspect that in this suggestion, the Greens are doing what they do with many things. They ignore the fact that for most of us, we want to live on a more tasty diet than microwaved rice and carrots. Food is a pleasure and we should appreciate the ingredients and why it is important to eat healthily and properly.  I really don't think that microwaving everything is the answer to a healthy diet. It may save a kilowatt or two, but the Greens really have to consider the bigger picture (ie healthy eating). This is something they've completely failed to do.

ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

What more can I say? Why not turn off the telly completely and read the Kama Sutra with your friend, far more healthy and you'll warm up far quicker. The exercise will also do you some good!

 If that was the end of the matter with the Barnet Greens, I would probably not bother blogging on the subject, but there is a deeper and darker side of the Party. I was drawn to "Poppies Blog" on the Green website. Poppy was the Green Party Candidate in Chipping Barnet. On her blog Poppy states

• Labour bloggers described Green votes as Tory votes and smeared Greens outrageously.

This was a direct reference to this blog. The sad thing is that this is an outrageous lie and Poppy knows it. I have known Poppy for many years and I had taken her to be a highly principled and decent person. Poppy knows for a fact that I am not a "Labour Blogger". To say such a thing in her blog is far below what I would expect from her or her party. Poppy knows that I am not a Labour member and have no affiliation, official or unofficial with the party. The implication is that this blog is in some way under the direction of the Labour Party, which is a complete untruth and one which Poppy knows.

Poppy takes issue with the fact that I consider Green votes to be Tory Votes. If we had a system of PR, such as we do in the London Assembly, this is not the case. Sadly in the real world of First Past the Post politics of Barnet Council and the General election, it is true. Every person who doesn't want a Tory government, but votes Green in Barnet has effectively given permission for the Tories to win. That, to me is bad enough, but perhaps even worse is the fact that the Greens keep bigging up their "election boost",  which is clearly an attempt to persuade people their chances are greater than they really are.  I have yet to hear a single sensible argument to persuade me of any positive purpose for progressive Barnet Politics for a Green vote in the Council or General elections, where there is n chance of them winning and every chance of them taking votes from progressive candidates who may actually win. For the GLA the rules are slightly different as that has aPR element.

In truth, all of this is about trying to get Poppy a seat on the GLA, where she'll get a nice £50,000 a year allowance and an office to further the green agenda. This is a distinct possibility as the GLAgiven the system of PR for members. On the Barnet Green website, the true nature of the game is revealed in this quote

In Barnet, we will immediately begin the selection process to find the best possible Green Party candidate for the Barnet and Camden constituency section of the London Assembly vote.Whoever is chosen in the postal ballot of Green Party members in the two boroughs will be able to start the campaign on the front foot by highlighting Poppy’s strong performance as Barnet and Camden Green Party candidate in 2012.

Poppy won the votes of 17,904 people, while only 13,800 backed the Liberal Democrat and the UKIP representative Barnet Greens join the #ReclaimBarnet protest at Barnet Council's AGM Barnet Greens join the #ReclaimBarnet protest at Barnet Council’s AGM polled just 7,331.

The outrageous smear that so enraged Poppy, to write the above in her comments,  was a line in a blog I wrote, where I said that I thought the "Greens were not interested in People". This so enraged Poppy that she posted a tweet saying she was "unfollowing me".

What she didn't do was ask why I wrote the line. If she had, I'd have told her. I do not mean that Poppy or any of her colleagues do not have anything but the finest motivations for Planet Earth or its population, but when it comes down to it, none of their policies address the issues facing the poorest, weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. As you saw from the above list, there is nothing about the disabled, the elderly and thos suffering social exclusion. In fact I couldn't find anything on the Barnet Greens website about any polices to address any of these issues. It seems to me that Green Politics is all about grandstanding on issues only of interest to middle class people with nice homes and big gardens.

Poppy has, to her credit, been very involved in the campaign to stop the evictions of Sweets Way residents. As with many local campaigns, Poppy has been highly active and a hard working activist. Sadly, most of her Green colleagues tend to be invisible between elections.

Having said that, I don't think her involvement has been completely helpfull. What concerns me is that the commentary on the Green Website of the Sweets Way campaign is very dishonest.  On the article Poppy says

“It is sickening to see the poorest in society being evicted from their council homes and removed to squalid emergency accommodation or to places as far afield as Birmingham, Luton and Watford – unless they make a lot of noise, as did those evicted from Sweets Way this week,” says AM Poppy, Green Party candidate for Chipping Barnet constituency, which includes the Sweets Way estate.

This blog is 100% supportive of Sweets Way tenants and their campaign. We believe that it is simply out of order for tenants to be thrown on the street and moved to places miles away, especially when this means disruption the childrens education. We do however believe that you have to be honest about the situation. Sweets Way is not a Council Estate as Poppy implies. It was MOD housing accommodation that was sold to a private company, when it was no longer required following defence budget cuts. The company that acquired it, thenlet the homes to a housing trust and people on the Barnet Council waiting list were housed in Sweets Way as a temproray measure. Clearly the problem is that there is not enough council housing and that homes owned by the State were sold for private development. Clearly the Council has a duty of care to those familes and should have had other accomodation, of a suitable and decent standard lined up. Clearly the families are quite right to protest and it is also heartening that so many people have supported the campaign.

But what Poppy has done is wrong. She has publicly stated that the properties are "council housing". They are no more "council housing" than any other privately owned accomodation, which is rented by Barnet Council to house people. I passionately believe that Barnet needs more social housing and I don't believe that anywhere near enough is being done to address the crisis. What has happened is that by Poppy making misleading claims, some of the more obnoxious right wing political commentators, have used this to attack the genuine issues. Housing is a massive issue and it is a disgrace that Barnet Council do not have enough homes available for its residents. The Sweets Way residents, quite clearly, should have been housed in Council housing in the first place. The Council cannot have been unaware that this was coming and any responsible organisation would have started planning to avoid it. That is the issue, but by "bending the truth" the whole campaign has been undermined. The sad truth is that if you put public housing stock in the hands of private developers, this is what happens. It is called Capitalism.

Clearly when this blog is published, we'll hear the sound of many more toys leaving the Green Party pram in Barnet. Recent messages on Twitter have revealed that the Greens do not appreciate criticism. If they are to be a grown up party, they really need to learn to take it on the chin and not get the hump. I have said many things which local Tories don't like. They are however grown up enough to recognise that it is not personal, it is simply what happens when you get involved with politics. Often, they will read the blog and adjust their policies, as the intelligent response to criticism is to improve. So my advice to the Greens, and this is well meaning is this. Take a long, hard look at yourselves. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Put the weak, the vulnerable and the dispossessed at the heart of your campaign. Make your website relevant and be honest when dealing with people. I find the whole issue of the Green Party in Barnet profoundly depressing. They all seem to be quite pleasant people in person, but they take little responsibility for just what effect they've had on the realities of the political situation.

The Friday Joke - 15/5/2015 - And it's a cracker

An older, balding, grey haired,  shooter from Yorkshire, walked into a jewellery store this past Friday evening with a beautiful much younger gal at his side.

He told the jeweller he was looking for a special ring for his girlfriend. The jeweller looked through his stock and brought out a £5,000 ring.

The man said, ‘No, I’d like to see something a little more special.’
At that statement, the jeweller went to his special stock and brought another ring over. ‘Here’s a stunning ring at only £40,000 the jeweler said.

The lady’s eyes sparkled and her whole body trembled with excitement.

The old man seeing this said, ‘We’ll take it.’

The jeweller asked how payment would be made and the man stated, ‘By cheque.

I know you need to make sure my cheque is good, so I’ll write it now and you can call the bank Monday to verify the funds and I’ll pick the ring up Monday afternoon.’

On Monday morning, the jeweller angrily phoned the old man and said, ‘There’s no money in that account.’

‘I know, it's so sad’ said the old man, ‘But let me tell you about MY GREAT WEEKEND!’

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Just a thought, but reading all the promises the SNP made their electorate, I just wonder if they'll end up feeling the same as the pretty young girl in the above story?

 

Remembering Kiyam Prince

Please show support and come to Power League Mill Hill on Sunday the 17th of May where we remember Kiyan 9 years on. Kiyam was a gifted football, who's life was tragically cut short in the playground of Edgware School, a victim of senseless knife crime.

Let us celebrate the gifts he gave us and make sure that his memory is one which brings positive things to our neighbourhood.

(Ed's note: My nephew was a school friend of Kiyams and witnessed what happened. He is loved and remembered by all his friends).