The more sharp eyed readers will have noticed a relative lack of activity on the Barnet Eye over the last week. There is a very good reason for this, I've not been being lazy. I've been in Portugal with my good mate, music maestro Boz Boorer mixing the brand new album by The False Dots. Boz lives in Monchique in Portugal, up a mountain. It is the perfect location to get totally immersed in mixing an album. This is pretty much all I did for four days!
All of my creative energy was pretty much used up on the job at hand, and I didn't want to start getting sidetracked. It was nice being in the sunshine, away from the everyday distractions and the news. I deliberately avoided the news etc.
I travelled back yesterday, got a takeaway curry then got home watched the news and BBC QT. Blimey.....
My first thought was I wished I'd stayed up the mointain! I'll give a short round up of what caught my eye.
The Artist formerly known a Prince Andrew. What on Earth can anyone say. I did a quick google to see how much he'd earned as a Royal from the Taxpayer (well it says from the Queen, but we all know where the cash really comes from "Total Official Funding: Over his roughly 40-year career as a working royal, he received an estimated £13 million (roughly $17.5 million) in public and royal-household funding.". For most people I know that would be plenty. He got free housing and accomodation. I recall his wedding well. I was workin in an office on Buckingham Palace Road. The Police and SAS used it as a hub, as the top two floors were empty. At the time he was a National Hero, a helicopter pilot from The Falklands. He was marrying Sarah Ferguson. She wasn't a beauty in the classic sense. I actually thought "He's a decent boke, clearly values personality over looks". He was a handsome Prince and I assumed he could have his pick of attractive young ladies. I recall a mate of mine saying "what's wrongw ith him marrying her?" I said "maybe he wants someone who will be a life partner and be on the same wavelength as him"..I suspect I was right, but not in the way I thought. In many ways, his life is a modern day Shakespearean tragedy. All Prince Andrew ever had to do was not be a complete twats and we'd have forgiven him anything.
I got an inkling what he was actually like 20 years or so ago. A friend was having a 40th Birthday party at a club in Notting Hill Gate. Prince Andrew was at a party downstairs. He got very drunk and abusive and a couple of friends, witnessed him throw a tantrum. We can all have bad days, but what I heard was that this was the norm, not the exception. With every revealation, it becomes worse. Being involved with a dodgy paedophile is never good. Supplying one with dodgy information, so he can make millions is even worse. I have always been a republican. I said that out of respect for her Majesty The Queen, any decision on their future could wait. Butthe horrific truth is that had The King fallen off his horse in 1969 and killed himself, Andrew would be the King. Andrew has done more to undermine the Royals than every UK republican in the last 100 years. But the horrific truth is that The Queen, Charles, the lot of them all knew what he was like.
Reform. Last night I watched BBC QT. WTF is going on at the BBC. They had Tories, Labour and Reform in QT last night. Where were the Lib Dems and the Greens? The bloke who was their spokesman was Robert Jenrick. A bloke who was a Tory until he decided that Reform had better career prospects. A man with no principles and no honour. Reform have more MP's who defected from the Tories than were elected. The truth is that the country is in a mess because of 14 years of Tory misrule. Jenrick was a big part of that. The only vaguely compelling argument for Reform was that they were untainted by the failure of Tory and Labour governments. Taking the worst of the Tory Party is IMHO a massive mistake.I have an aversion to people like Jenrick, but to me he came across as smug and irritating. A man who stabs all his former mates in the back to further his career is no good at all.
Immigration. Journalist Jon Sopel made a fascinating revealation last night. Net immigration to the UK is at a record low. I googled it and it appears to be true. Jon Sopel explained that if current trends continue, the UK may not actually be aable to function as a working economy in ten years. There simply won't be enough people to do all the key jobs. It would be the biggest irony of all, if Reform win in 2029 and have to increase immigration to stop an economic collapse. I need to do a lot more research to properly understand this, but should be the biggest story, as the wellbeing of the economy affects us all. No one seems to know.
Arsenal. This is one story I did know about. I always follow the football result. At Xmas, it looked like Arsenal were romping to the league title. Now they are having a serious wobble, dropping points to a team that had a single digit points tally with twelve games to go. I know, only too well, that you can't celebrate until the trophies are in the cupboard. It is clear that the Arsenal we are seeing in Februrary are a very different beast to the one we saw in December. Winning the Premiership is hard. Pressure is a funny thing and football puts pressure on teams like no other sport. When Wolves scored the equaliser, every Arsenal fan would have felt sick in their stomach. As to how the players felt. Ifyou want to be Champions, you need to pick yourself up and go again. I have seen many Arsenal fans starting to question Arteta. Careful what you wish for. You are still top of the league and it is still in your hands. I hope you lose, as a Mancheser City fan, but Arteta has done an amazing job and anyone who thinks that he's the wrong man should look at their nearest neighbours or City's. If you press the panic button every time things go badly, you end up in a mess. I actually quite like Arteta, tribal allegiances aside. He is a pragmatic manager, who gets results. He sometimes gets criticised for being over cautious, but he has to work with what he has got. Arsenal have far less resources than Mancheste United, but look at the difference in points. It is not Arteta's fault that he is competing against the best manager on the planet, with owners with the deepest pockets. Arsenal fans will hate me for saying this, but for Arsenal to win the league, CIty have to have an off season. And when I say a season, I mean 38 games. City have not been brilliant thus far, but they have a track record of doing the business when it matters.
And finally....
It's Friday, so as is the tradition in Barnet blogs, here is a Friday joke. This made me laugh, which is probably a terrible indictment on me!
Always check the height of a ceiling fan when carrying a toddler on your shoulders.
— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) February 14, 2026
Don't ask me how I know this.
Have a great weekend
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