Sunday 6 February 2011

Time to Kick Out Coleman

I am going to make an offer which will go back on every principle I've ever held today. I am doing this because sometimes you have to do the right thing, even if it's wrong. The biggest cancer in the political scene of the London Borough of Barnet is Councillor Brian Coleman. He has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't give a stuff about the people who elect him. He recently announced that he "never knowingly undercharges residents". I am afraid that I've had quite enough of the man. The time has come to get rid of him. Unfortunately he is a Councillor in Totteridge Ward, which is as safe and true blue as it is possible to get. There is no prospect of any non Conservative Councillor beating him, no matter how appalling he is.

I have therefore decided to launch a "Kick Out Coleman" campaign to replace him WITH ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE. The plan is simple. If there is a single decent Conservative in Barnet who realises that Brian Coleman has got to go, I call on them to announce that they are standing as an "Independent Conservative" for the next Council election in Totteridge. We need someone who is a member (or was until very recently). They will state that in the event that they beat Brian Coleman, they will accept the Tory whip and work as part of the team as best they can. They will announce that they are standing for the good of Barnet, because Barnet deserves better than Brian Coleman.

The Barnet Conservatives must learn that they can't take the people of Barnet for granted. My choice for the job would be Adrian Murray Leonard. If there is a single principled Tory who will take the plunge, I will offer the full backing of my blog to them and deliver leaflets and assist in any way I can. Although I fundamentally disagree with Conservative Politics, it is time for all of Barnet to Unite and get back to decency in Politics. Only then can we move on. The Barnet Conservatives need a huge shake up. I've been told this by Councillors, Activists and ordinary voters. They would never vote for another party, but surely they will vote for an honest and decent individual who shares their principles? If they won't, God help us all

8 comments:

baarnett said...

More power to your elbow, Roger.

Don't Call Me Dave said...

There is a problem with an “anyone but Coleman” campaign. First, the local Conservative association has effectively been taken over by the councillors, thereby ensuring that Lynne Hillan, Brian Coleman and their cronies will always be re-selected, irrespective of how bad a job they are doing.

Second, there are a hard core of Conservative voters who, through absolute loyalty to the party, will only vote for the official Conservative candidate. There is a standing joke that some people would vote for a dog if it was wearing a blue rosette (and in fairness, there are some staunch Socialists who similarly vote only for the candidate wearing a red rosette).

There are also a very significant numbers of voters in Totteridge who are totally oblivious to the day-to-day actions of individual councillors because they don’t follow the blogs and their servants do not bring them the local papers to read. If they hear that Coleman has upset a few Socialists, they will probably think he is doing a job - ignoring the facts that he is upsetting traditional Conservative voters in other parts of the borough.

Labour activists never canvass Totteridge because they consider it to be a waste of time. That is true to some degree, but there is no reason why voters cannot be reminded that they do not have to use all three of their votes at the next council elections. True blue voters should be encouraged to simply vote for the two other Conservative candidates and leave it at that. I am really not sure that an independent Conservative would draw the votes away from Coleman.

But step 1 of a campaign to remove him from the council would surely be to ensure that he is defeated at the GLA election next year? If he consolidates his power base at the GLA then he is unlikely to be ousted from the council as well, notwithstanding the conflict of interest on serving on these two bodies simultaneously, as Mr Hope has previously reminded us.

On the subject of Brian Coleman, and given the increasing frequency of his offensive outbursts, does anybody know how many training sessions he has attended ever since he was found guilty by the Standards Committee?

Stats for Lefties said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rog T said...

Well there is always next time Elliott

Mrs Angry said...

I absolutely agree with you, Rog: time for an independent candidate in Totteridge. This would be enormous fun, apart from anything else. But DCMD is right too: there is no need for any determined Tory Totteridge resident to endorse all Tory candidates: they should be advised of their right to abstain from a third choice, and do us all a favour. Coleman will get a kicking in the GLA elections and I am sure we all look forward to 2012with much anticipation.

baarnett said...

Remind us who the other two Conservative candidates are.

Are they any good? (I know they MUST be better.)

Jaybird said...

Mr and Mrs Cornelius

APML said...

With respect Jaybird i think they are referring to people with brains and common sense.I too would choose Murray-Leonard...