Kentucky Fried Freer - The chicken flavoured candidate

I was alerted to the fact that Conservative candidate for Finchley and Golders Green Mike Freer  has been dodging election hustings meetings by this tweet.

Gez Sagar ‏@brilliantname Apr 3

Letter in Ham&High says @Freer4FGG was a no show at Mencap hustings. Didn't come to Finchley Society either. #Zipped

This is extremely  disrespectful. It can mean only one thing. Is Mike Freer not proud of his voting record and his performance as an MP? What has he stood up for during his term in office? Surely he believes he has a body of work to demonstrate what a great MP he has been? Surely he believes his hard work over the last five years gives him a strong mandate to continue? Freer has been the MP for five years, his actions are on public record.

Mike Freer's voting record

Sadly as you can see from the infographic, Mike has done little for hard working families and ordinary voters. His main focus has been to protect millionaires and big busienss. His actions are a tacit admission that his Labour opponent Sarah Sackman is a far better candidate and Freer knowns his record is poor.



Anyone who has seen Sarah Sackman in action, as I did at the FSB business hustings will recognise that she is an excellent candidate. It is quite clear tha Freer has also drawn this conclusion and so has chickened out. It is always far easier to look good when there is no one to debate with and no one to mention the more embarrassing aspects of your record (such as support for the Gaddafy family).

My memory is drawn to a business breakfast back in 2009, when Mike Freer was leader of the council. He invited Tom Nathan, CEO of Brent Cross to address us. Mr Nathan was excellent. He said "My philisophy is to keep my friends close and my enemies closer". Freer replied that he preferred to not engage with his opponents, whilst staring sternly at me. It seems Mike has never enjoyed public scrutiny.

Finchely and Golders Green is a marginal seat, being a Labour seat until 2010. Freer benefitted in 2010 from the retirement of Rudy Vis, the popular Labour MP. He also had the massive bonus of being opposed by Labours Alison Moore who was a very unimpressive candidate and has been a disaster as leader of the Labour group in the council. This time he has a decent candidate and he's scared to death.

Back in 2010, Freer even banned filming of hustings, as  he didn't want anyone to see if he screwed up. This tweet from pro Tory Barnet Bugle exposed his behaviour

Barnet Bugle ‏@barnetbugle 11 Apr 2010

@ma499 What happened to the video of the Finchley Mosque hustings? Did Mike Freer ban recording? He did at #hamandhigh one. #fgg #ge2010

 The question the Barnet Eye asks the people of Finchley and Golders Green is quite simple. Do they really want to vote for a man who is so scared of engaging in debate or even letting people share recordings of it? Do you really want to vote for a chicken?