Are you enjoying the hot weather? I certainly am, or I would be if I didn't have to work!
Matt is one of my favourite cartoonists and he is dead on the button today. As is the tradition in Barnet blogs (should that be singular as the rest seemed to have stopped blogging about Barnet), I thought this would be a superb Friday funny. It ticks a few boxes!
My latest cartoon for tomorrow's @Telegraph
— Matt Cartoons (@MattCartoonist) June 18, 2026
Buy a print of my cartoons at https://t.co/ILFJjPmckx
Original artwork from https://t.co/bVPAkgE34y pic.twitter.com/b4MsbSQzCT
And on to the local music round up. First the news you've all been waiting for! The False Dots next gig will be a free gig at The Jester Festival at Fortune Green on Saturday 4th July. The band will be premiering their brand new album "We don't live in America" which is released that day, to celebrate independence day. There are some other fine bands on the - CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SCHEDULE
This week we have an exciting array of gigs on locally. Here is the local gig guide courtesy of Mill Hill Music Complex Studios.
You can follow Mill Hill Music Complex for the weekly gig guide and also follow The Barnet Music Facebook page.
Now normally, I don't do anything about news or politics on a Friday, but hey ho, rules are meant to be broken. There are a few things that have gone on in the last few days that warrant a word or two. Firstly the success of Andy Burnham in the Makerfield By Election. Burnham has been the Mayor of Manchester since 2017, winning three Mayoral Elections. It is no secret that he wants Sir Keir Starmers job. Unlike Starmer, Burnham comes into the job with a degree of experience of holding executive responsibility. Although Boris Johnson demonstrated that this doesn't necessarily mean he'll do a good job, he has had to make tough calls.
Andy Burnham is one Labour politician I quite like. He has been steadfast in his support for the Hillsborough victims for decades. Unlike Nigel Farage, who dons an England shirt as a fashion accessory, Burnham is a proper football fan. HE understands, unlike Farage, that supporting a football team is not just about wearing a shirt, drinking a beer for the cameras and cheering when they score. Burnham strikes me as a bloke I could have a beer and a chat with in the pub. There are very few Labour politicians I feel that about. More than that though, he has demonstrated that he can build alliances across party lines, working effectively with former Tory Mayor of Birmingham, Andy Street. He seems to understand that Labour has become too discinnected from its core supporters. He has also shown that he is prepared to take risks. RUnning in Makerfield, where Reform have polled well was a big risk. He got more votes than the rest put together. Does this mean I will be re-applying to join Labour? No. I feel that it has become the party of incompetent stuffed shirts. Burnham will have to do a hell of a lot to convince me that Labour is a party I could align with again.
And then we have Donald Trump and his deal in Iran. The monumental incompetence of Donald Trump has made the world a very dangerous place. Iran has shown that the USA does not have the military power or political will to defeat it. Trump has let Iran seize the world economy by the gonads, closing The Straits of Hormuz and made Trump sign up to a deal that he would have derided as treason had another leader signed it. The money will flow into Iran now. Trump has made it all about Iran's nuclear programme. The Iranians have shown they have a far more effective weapon in cutting off the worlds oil supply. Trump has given everyone a lesson in the limits of US power. He has alienated allies, empowered enemies and enriched his inner circle. For me his one redeeming feature during his first term was that he didn't start any wars. Even this fig leaf has gone. Not only did he start a war, he lost.
Which brings us onto the situation in Israel. Trumps capitulation and his falling out with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is perhaps the most significant aspect of the failure of Trumps middle east policy. I have no idea whether Netanyahu has a strategy to move forward and save his political skin from the debacle but he now faces a situation where he is facing an Iran that will have the financial clout to be very difficult towards Israel. Iran have demonstrated that you can bomb them, kill their leaders, assasinate their local proxies, but the threat remains and it will be more, not less of a threatgoing forward. Israel's biggest worry was Iran getting a nuclear bomb. I've always believed that this was a smokescreen for the Iranians to distract Israel from what their real agenda and threat was.
Iran has shown itself to be resilient as well as tacitically and politically astute. They have also managed to somehow come out on top against a superpower. This is not unprecendented, but unlike Vietnam, there are implications beyond the immediate region. I was talking to a local member of the Mill Hill Shul earlier, who is as hard line a Zionist as you can find. When Israel and the USA attacked Iran, he was telling me that Trump going to go down as the greatest US president of all. He believed Trump had the balls that Obama, Clinton, Bush, etc lacked. The terrible truth is starting to dawn. Trump is not a genius and when you get into bed with him, you are only their for one reason and that is not particularly pleasant.
Anyway, finally, it's the weekend, so I didn't want to end on a sour note. Here's a suitable tune by The False Dots for a Sunny weekend in June!
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