The Glorious 12th - Some Barnet Tories prefer to beat bigger birds than Grouse !

Yesterday was the Glorious 12th. This is a momentous date in the calendar for a number of reasons. It is annual persieds meteorite shower, a major event in the astronomical calendar. It is also the start of the grouse hunting season. On large estates up and down the country, teams of beaters were out driving semi tame, hand reared birds into the air to be ritually slaughtered by the great and good. Apparantly it is jolly good fun and the birds love it! They have a lovely mollycoddled life, compared to the poor old battery hens which are in that tasty KFC you munched on when you came out of the pub last night.

I was amused to read the Guardian today. In the Diary section on page 29, Hugh Muir takes great schaudenfreud in the demise of former Tory bigwig and convicted criminal Brian Coleman. Muir recalls how Coleman went in the space of a little over a year from being one of the highest paid politicians in the country to being a crumpled figure of ridicule in a party of two (him and his mum). As Mr Muir recalls, the major cause of his demise was his penchant for beating birds! Unfortunately for Mr Coleman, the bird he chose to beat up was feisty cafe owner and leader of the local traders in North Finchley, Helen Michael. Coleman rather inadvisedly chose to indulge in his favourite sport outside a cafe packed with her loyal customers, on a busy hight street, in full view of a CCTV camera. (Some people may object to the term "bird" to describe Helen. Coleman prefers more colourful language to describe the local female populace, such as old hags, screaming harpies and Finchley fishwives being some of the playground insults dished out.)

When the CCTV footage was shown in court, there was a visible gasp at the sheer brutality of the thuggish violence of the unprovoked attack, by the odious oaf Coleman. His lawyer rather bizarrely announced that "the video footage is not how Mr Coleman recalls the incident". In other words, he is such a liar that he's even lied to himself.

Brian Coleman was one of the most promenent members of the Chipping Barnet Tory Party. During the period from 2009-2012, the Chipping Barnet Conservative association saw a 43.9% decline in membership.  Whilst it is clear to all and sundry that many people would not wish to be associated with a party that is run by woman beating oafs, Mr Coleman yesterday sought to blame someone else. He posted these rather bizarre tweet

Sunday Times reports Chipping Barnet Con members down from 787 in 2009 to 441 in 2012 This is the period when Richard Cornelius was Chairman
— Brian Coleman (@BrianTotteridge) August 11, 2013

@BrianTotteridge it has since fallen further over Europe,Gay marriage and supporters of mine leaving . Whole branches have ceased to exist
— Brian Coleman (@BrianTotteridge) August 11, 2013

Only Brian Coleman could claim that whole branches of the Conservative Party have ceased to exist in protest at him being thrown out for being convicted as a criminal ! Coleman clearly failed to spot the fact that during the period he chose, he was flying high for most of the time and was still technically a member at the end of 2012, as he was suspended awaiting a criminal trial. What is also rather bizarre in his tweet was the observation that people have left over the Tories policy on gay marriage. The Tory MP leading the parliamentary charge on this issue was Mike Freer. Mike Freer came to promenence as Leader of the Barnet Council. His takeover was engineered by his buddy Brian Coleman in a palace coup 24 hours after the 2006 council elections, replacing popular Brian Salinger as leader. As both are high profile gay politicians, it is perverse to assume Coleman was unaware of Freer's views when he thrust him to the helm of the Barnet party. As ever Coleman conveniently forgets his own role in the promotion Mike Freer and thus giving his views a wide platform. Mike Freer has gained much respect nationally for his honest and compassionate views on the subject. Coleman doesn't mention the dire position of the Hendon Tory, where Matthew Offord has come out against his old buddy Freer as a staunch opponent of gay marriage. Surely if his analysis were correct, the Hendon party would be seeing surging membership.


Whilst I am not exactly impressed with the policies of the Tories under Council Leader Richard Cornelius, I doubt a single person resigned as a member of the Chipping Barnet Tories because they were appalled at the behaviour of Richard Cornelius. On the other hand, I've spoken to dozens who were deeply shocked at the way oafish Coleman has conducted his business. He still seems to be in complete denial as to what a pariah and laughing stock he is becoming. As Hugh Muir wryly observes of Coleman "A twerp is still a twerp".