The female vote will swing it for Sarah in Finchley and Golders Green

I live in the Hendon Constituency. The election campaign here is really rather boring. There is a straight choice between Matthew Offord, who has been the MP for the last five years or Andrew Dismore, who was the MP for the thirteen years before that. As such we all know what they are like, what they will do and how they will do it (or not do it). As in the vast majority of seats we have two rather dull white middle aged blokes trading insults as politely as they can. In short, it is a very boring contest, which even the local Tories expect Dismore to walk.

Breaking the mold of the old boys club

However in our neighbouring constituency of Finchley and Golders Green, one which I have strong ties with as I went to school their and my son still attends the local school, the contest could not be more interesting. The encumbant is Mike Freer, who is perhaps Parliaments highest profile LBGT candidate. Mike won many plaudits for his support of the same sex marriage bill, which when passed he took full advantage of to get married to his partner. I suspect that whatever happens on Thursday, Mike's speech will be the pinnacle of his political career. It is fair to say that Mike is not without strong local support in certain sections of the community. Prior to becoming MP, Mike was the Leader of Barnet Council and was the force behind the One Barnet program, which saw the council outsource its services to Capita. As this has been a bit of a disaster for local residents, with cock up after cock up, Mike has not been keen to claim credit in his campaign. A recent Ashcroft poll put his Labour opponent ahead, and Mike immediately did what Mike does when he's under pressure. He says stupid things. In this case, he suggested that he can represent Jewish people better than a Jew!

Which brings us to his opponent, Sarah Sackman. As you've probably guessed, Sarah is not a white middle class bloke either. She is a very effective and capable barrister, who has got stuck in to local issues. Where Mike has managed to sniff out support in some areas not normally strong in support for the Conservative party, Sarah has also reached out far beyond the typical Labour core vote. Appearances at events organised by the Federation of Small Business has given her the chance to explain her family background of small business and hard work. At recent event, everyone I spoke to was highly impressed by her. Not all will vote for her, but even the fully committed Tories told me she was an excellent candidate. She has a monumental task in trying to overturn Mike Freer's 5,000 majority, but I believe she will. Talking to many local family and friends in the community, she has one massive advantage over Mike that I've not seen mentioned anywhere. Sarah connects extremely well with female voters. Not only that but she has spent the last year or so working extremely hard for their concerns. I first met Sarah through the save Friern Barnet library campaign. At the time she wasn't a candidate, just a local person who wanted to save an important community asset. Then she became involved in the successful campaign to Save Mapledown school services for handicapped people. It was 100% clear to everyone that Sarah was right. Her arguments were compelling, and the services were saved. What was interesting though was that the person who broke ranks with other Tories to save the school was Tory Councillor Maureen Braun. Whilst I thought her case was strong, Braun picked up on the fact that Sarah was appealing for hard working mothers to be given help. On an emotional level, this swung it. As Braun is a hard nosed Tory councillor of many years, I was amazed at this. However having seen Sarah in action, I have come to realise that with female voters she has an especially strong appeal.

This view has been reinforced by her performance at various hustings and meetings I've attended, where the men felt she made a good case, but the women thought she was a brilliant candidate. I personally dismiss opinion polls in tight seats, they mean nothing. I don't dismiss the evidence of my own eyes. In 2010, Mike Freer was fighting Alison Moore, the Labour Council Leader. Moore is a poor public speaker, an uninspring candidate and her campaign had the air of simply going through the motions. She got exactly what she deserved at the polls. A sound trashing. Since then, we've had the Tories try and shut Friern Barnet Library, decimate the High Street businesses with crazy parking policies, upset core Tory voters with the CPZ hike, the attempted closing of Mapledown school services, the attack on nursery provision in Finchley and the cock up that is the One Barnet outsourcing. Add into this mix an intelligent and hard working campaigner who is an excellent public speaker and you soon realise Mike Freer has a serious fight on his hands.

I wasn't too sure how the votes would go until I found out about the local Tory smear campaign against her. She is being attacked for all manner of completely irrelevant reasons on the doorstep by rather naive Conservative canvassers. I was chatting to a couple of locals and they were telling me that a rather fresh faced Tory canvasser told them she "wasn't local" as if this was big crime. As Sarah had played a massive part in the campaign to save a local nursery school (a campaign Mike Freer studiously ignored), they simply found this insulting. They also were rather wound up with how Mike Freer had hijacked the campaign to keep the No 13 bus. The problem with making silly claims is that people see through them and actually find the person concocting the wild stories to be untrustworthy. The Tories tried the same tack with Tony Blair, claiming he was really very left wing and would hike taxes. They tried this in 1997 and people saw straight through it. They tried it again at the next two elections and it failed equally miserably, especially as people knew Blair was more right wing that half of the Tory party.

What I find quite fascinating is whilst most male voters simply see these attacks as "par for the course", the female voters I've spoken to are really put off by the whole attack dog mode of behaviour. Many in the Finchley area have not forgotten the way the local Tories initially closed ranks against Helen Michael when Brian Coleman assaulted her. It was only when the BBC showed the CCTV footage of the attack that many privately admitted they'd been hoodwinked. Sadly for the local Tories, Mike Freer's failure to condemn Coleman for his assault is an albatross around their neck with local female voters.

The recent Ashcroft poll which put Sackman ahead in Finchley was flawed in several ways. One of which is that the poll asks what party people will vote for, not by candidate name. It has been shown time and time again that when voters recognise the name, they change their preference. Sackman has worked hard to build confidence and trust and I believe this will give her at least another 3-4% of the vote. It is quite noticable when you look at the twitter comments for Freer and Sackman, just how many more female voters seem drawn to Sackman. The pictures on the street also look far less "staged" and there seems to be a bit more warmth in the pictures with locals.

Have a look and see for yourself

Mike Freers twitter picture feed
https://twitter.com/search?q=%40freer4fgg&src=typd&mode=photos

Sarah Sackman twitter picture feed
https://twitter.com/search?q=sarahsackman&src=typd&mode=photos

They say every picture tells a story.

As we move into the last day of campaigning and it becomes ever clearer that Mike's campaign is in deep doo doo, I expect all manner of scare stories and bizarre, unsubstanciated allegations from Mike Freer's camp. It is what the Tories do. When I was standing in 2010 in Mill Hill, the Tories put a leaflet out claiming I wanted to build a massive football stadium on the Green Belt at Copthall for Kentish Town FC. Given that Kentish Town FC are in a very low league and get an average crowd of 30, this was clearly nonsense (what they didn't tell anyone was that they'd lined up Saracens RFC to go into Copthall in a 10,000 Rugby stadium). It did however scare a few people into voting Tory. So if you see some wild, unsubstanciated stories eminating from Mike Freer and his friends, I suggest you take a few pinches of salt with them. Things are going to get very interesting. 

Brian Coleman Conservative Membership - Local Tories exposed as total incompetents

The Barnet Eye has spent the last two days trying to get to the bottom of whether Brian Coleman is a member of the Finchley Conservatives or not. Following a tweet by Coleman saying he'd been let back in, we have been frantically trying to ascertain the truth. Usually trustworthy sources assurred us that he wasn't a member, whilst Mr Coleman was tweeting that he was.

When directly challenged by the Barnet Eye to produce evidence, he did. He tweeted a picture of his membership card.

Brian Coleman @BrianColeman251  ·  1h 1 hour ago

apologies please from @Barneteye with promise never to tweet about me again as for @rozgab you are just a silly boy



Having been assurred by various members of this association that Coleman wasn't a member, I was actually quite upset to have been mislead. So I tweeted to the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives and asked what was going on. They responded quickly on Twitter.

It appears (if you believe the letter) that when Coleman was expelled, he didn't cancel his standing order to the party. As a result, he was "automatically" issued a new 2015 membership card.

F&GGConservatives ‏@Finchleytories

The letter in full to @BrianColeman251 and his membership.



As far as the Barnet Eye is concerned this is anything but a plausable story. Firstly how can a membership card be sent to someone not on the membership list. Secondly, if this process is automatic, then presumably he'd have been sent a new card last year as well. There must be a list of current members with details of where cards are to be sent as address details are not passed with standing orders.

So it is pretty clear that Colemans name was never expunged from the list. It seems likely that as far as the branch were concerned, he was paying his dues and was a member all along. The explanation in the letter is simply not credible. It is not as if Coleman and his antics were a secret. Given the nature of his expulsion, one would have expected an efficient organisation to have procedures to ensure situations like this cannot happen.

As far as the Barnet Eye is concerned, the only reasonable explanation as to what has happened is that on the eve of an election, a rather embarrassing situation has come to light.The party have simply sent the letter and the cheque out as damage limitation.

If as they state Colemans standing order was never cancelled, why isn't the cheque for his 2014 subs as well? The situation is quite clear. If the Barnet Eye had not started asking questions, Brian Coleman would be paying his subs, be on the membership list and have a membership card for the Finchley and Golders Green Conservative party.

This begs a few questions.
1) Has Coleman been working for the party organisation & Mike Freers election campaign/
2) Has Coleman been attending meetings and fundraising events for the Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives
3) Who is responsible for maintaining the Finchley and Golders Green membership register
4) Who issued Brian Coleman with a membership card and when was it issued
5) Did Mike Freer check with his membership secretary when Colemans claims came to light

It  appears that several senior local members of the party issued denials of his membership without actually bothering to check the situation. The Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives are currently campaigning to convince the electorate that they are capable of running the country.

This whole episode shows that they'd struggle to run the local whelk stall.

Have the Conservative Party let convicted woman beater Brian Coleman back in? *** Updated 3/5/2015

Of all the local Politicians in our neighbourhood, none is more infamous than disgraced former Conservative Mayor Brian Coleman. Less than two years ago, he was expelled from the Conservative Party after being convicted of a vicious, unprovoked assault of Cafe owner Helen Michael at Tally Ho Corner. Coleman received a large fine for the assault and his disgrace was completed last year when he lost his seat on Barnet Council, receiving a mere 265 votes when standing as an independent councillor in the elections. Despite the fact that Coleman was exposed as a complete liar at the trial, having spent six months telling all manner of porkies to the Police and denying the assault, until the CCTV footage showed the vicious assault. Coleman eventually pleaded guilty to the "assault by beating" of Ms Michael, having wasted months of Police time.

You may think that Coleman would be a bit repentant having gone from being one of the leading Tories in London to a shamed convict. You would be wrong. Only this week, Coleman stated on Twitter that he should have been given the freedom of the Borough for his attack on Ms Michael. Here is the exchange. Steve Ciobo tweeted his disgust at the execution of prisoners in Indonesia. See what you make of Colemans response

Steven Ciobo ‏@steveciobo Apr 28

There are few greater displays of abuse of State power and regressive thinking than the death penalty. #RIP

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 Apr 28

@steveciobo complete rubbish , well done Gov of Indonesia for standing up to pathetic liberals like you

Rog T ‏@Barneteye Apr 28 Walthamstow, London

@BrianColeman251 @steveciobo Brian, just out of interest, what is an appropriate punishment for a man attacking a women in the street

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 Apr 28

@Barneteye The Freedom of the Borough in my case clearly !

As you can see Mr Coleman thinks his attack was clever. The Barnet Eye believes that there is no place in public life for such a person. We happen to think that assaulting women is something which only a coward would do and only a complete idiot would boast about. Sadly though, Colemans Tory friends such as Mike Freer, the Tory candidate in Finchley and Golders Green take a rather different view. Despite Coleman admitting his guilt, Freer has never spoken out about Coleman. The two are good friends and go back a long way. Coleman engineered the palace coup at Barnet Council which made Freer council leader, propelling him into the position where he was elected MP for Finchley and Golders Green. Whilst Freer has been very vocal about issues such as same sex marriage, where he personally has benefitted from the legislation, he has been far less vocal on the subject of violence against women, something his friend  seems to think is a laughing matter. 

To my complete amazement, yesterday Brian Coleman tweeted that he's been readmitted to the Conservative Party.  Helen Michael, who had been a Tory voter until Brian Colemans parking policies wrecked her business and then assualted her, was paid a visit by the Labour candidate Sarah Sackman, with Labour front bencher Ed Balls. Unlike Mike Freer, Sarah Sackman takes the issue of  violence against women seriously. Ed Balls told Helen he wanted to show that not all high profile male politicians are thugs who beat women up and some actually want to put a complete stop to such horrible behaviour. 

Barnet Blogger Mrs Angry tweeted a picture of Helen receiving flowers from Mr Balls. Coleman, as is his want, immediately started taunting his victim Ms Michael. What followed was an exchange of tweets between myself, who was disgusted at Colemans continual harrassment of Ms Michael and Coleman, where he suggested the Tories have let him back in

Mrs Angry ‏@BrokenBarnet 22h22 hours ago

Flowers for @BuzzingHelen from ed balls pic.twitter.com/jTXg74iWrV

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 18h18 hours ago

@BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen well , well , well ........people will draw their own conclusions

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 18h18 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen Brian you may be a cock but unlike Helen you have no Balls & dont use your Ed!

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 17h17 hours ago

@Barneteye @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen #labourstooge

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 17h17 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen #ToryEmbarrassment

Rog T ‏@Barneteye 17h17 hours ago

@BrianColeman251 @BrokenBarnet @alan_s01 @BuzzingHelen cleverest thing the Tories did was kick you out of the party

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 17h17 hours ago

@Barneteye and indeed readmit me

I was completely amazed by Brian Colemans claim. Could the Torys really want to be associated with Coleman? Are they so desperate for members that they would let such a complete pariah back in? We immediately started making enquiries. We sent messages to friendly sources in the local Tories, who usually are pleased to confirm the truth of stories or set the record straight. None replied. We tweeted to Mike Freer. No reply. We contacted friendly sources in the press to see if they could find out. They contacted the Tory CCHQ, who promised to get straight back to them. As of now, none of these sources have got back. In fact our press sources seemed to suggest a certain world weariness at the request, indicating that they realised the car was going over the cliff. Given that Coleman launched a scathing attack on all his Tory Council chums when he was kicked out, we are completely amazed that they would consider readmitting such a nasty, convicted felon to the party. Of course Coleman may be lying, if he could lie to the police about assaulting Ms Michael, he can clearly lie about anything. Surely though if this was the case Freer and the Tories would have denied it immediately.

If Coleman is telling the truth, we can only speculate as to why Freer would take such a risk. Being associated with Brian Coleman is election poison. One has to assume that Freer understands the risks, so what would make such a risk worth while? Given that Coleman clearly has no base of support following his Totteridge Council debacle, what benefits could Freer possibly get? Well Mike owes Brian big time, for his patronage. When Freer was council leader, he protected Coleman when he was found guilty of breaking the councils code of conduct.  Despite this only being the first of a whole string of breaches, Freer never said a dickybird. When Coleman launched the crazy parking policies that lost him his seat on the GLA, Freer defended him and his policies. Even after Coleman assualted Helen Michael and was arrested, the local Conservative party did not suspend him. It was only when the national party stepped in that his membership was revoked.

The  situation is quite clear. The Conservative Party have to come clean about Brian Coleman. Have they let him rejoin. If this is simply another example of Coleman telling porkies, why has it taken so long for anyone to say?

Does Mike Freer think violence against women is funny?

As the picture in this weeks Jewish News shows, Mike clearly is not too concerned with sensitivity around this issue. One would rather hope that such prehistoric attitudes had been buried in the past. The blog was started by a tweet from local blogger Mrs Angry. I will give her the last word as well. I think it is 100% clear how the local Tories should have reacted to the whole Brian Coleman issue. It is time for them to bring their attitudes into the 21st Century

I wait to see what the Tories have to say about Colemans comments. I trust the good sense of the people of Finchley and Golders Green to consider what sort of party they want to see representing them.

Regardless of all of this, it is clear that a vote for the Conservatives in Finchley and Golders Green is an endorsement of Brian Coleman and his behaviour. Mike Freer has had many opportunities to take a stand and say that violence against women is unacceptable. He also had many opportunities to set the record straight regarding his views on Brian Coleman and his attack on Helen Michael. I googled Mike Freer to see if he'd made any parliamentary interventions about violence against women. The only thing I could turn up was where he contribiuted to a debate on the subject of domestic abuse to remind everyone that it can occur in same sex relationships as well..

Mrs Angry @BrokenBarnet  ·  41m 41 minutes ago

@Barneteye @rozgab @David_Longstaff Such silence speaks for itself: & if it is true that it is even possible for the Tories to readmit him..

Mrs Angry @BrokenBarnet  ·  40m 40 minutes ago

@Barneteye @rozgab @David_Longstaff this says everything you need to know about the innate moral vaccum & misogny of the party.
 

*************** Updated 3/5/2015 *************
The Plot thickens. Yesterday a whole bevvy of local local Conservatives privately and publicly contacted me to say Brian Coleman had not been readmitted. The most categorical of these was from Gabriel Rozenberg who is a Conservative Councillor for Hampstead Garden Suburb. I believe Gabriel to be a honest and trustworthy guy so I pretty much took this tweet at face value and was preparing to update this blog saying as much. Here is what Gabriel had to say

Gabriel Rozenberg @rozgab  ·  16h 16 hours ago

OK, I can confirm that Brian Coleman has not been re-admitted to any local Conservative party. AFAIK he hasn't asked; if he did we'd refuse.

So that seemed to be that. As I was out last night, I got up preparing to update the blog when I noticed this tweet from Brian Coleman in response to Gabriel

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 1h1 hour ago

@rozgab you are of course misinformed

As I said above, Mike Freer is a friend of Brian Coleman. He could settle this matter for once and for all by speaking to Brian and clarifying the matter with a public statement. The matter is quite clear. Either @RozGab is "misinformed" or Brian Coleman is telling outright porkies to damage the local Conservative party, who clearly want us to believe they want nothing to do with him. Brian Coleman has put Gabriel in a difficult position. Mike Freer must either back Gabriel and expose this as a Coleman porkie or make sure Gabriel is given "accurate information". 

What is it to be Mike?

********* Updated 14.30 **********

 Brian Coleman just tweeted this. Seems like our local Tories have mislead us. We look forward to seeing what the Tories have to say, having assurred us he wasn't a member. I feel rather mislead

1. 1. Brian Coleman ‏@BrianColeman251 6m6 minutes ago

      apologies please from @Barneteye with promise never to tweet about me again as for @rozgab you are just a silly boy 

      
      

      
      

      
      

      

Why Sarah Sackman would be a great MP for the local Jewish community

Last night at the Finchley and Golders Green hustings, it seems Sarah Sackman was given a hard time over the Labour Party positionon Israel. Here is just one example tweet

Jonni Berger ‏@jonnibgood 10h10 hours ago

The damage to the labour vote for @sarahsackman in #finchley due to their unilateral support for Palestinian statehood evident tonight

Many people in the local Jewish community have justified fears about the what a Labour government may mean to UK policy towards Israel. It seems to many that Ed Miliband has courted the "militant student vote" in drawing up Labour policy. Given the record of Hamas in the Gaza Strip I can well understand the disquiet. It is clear to anyone who is any way familiar with the area exactly what would happen if Hamas ever had the opportunity to get the upper hand militarily with Israel.  This is the fear which the local Tory Party are using to ensure that the community are soundly Tory. 

What the community should consider is that the election will not be decided in Finchley and Golders Green. If you accept the proposition (which I personally don't as the Foreign Office largely set UK foreign policy), that the Tories would be universally good for Israel (again a proposition I don't really believe facts and history support), then surely the logical position is to ensure that as many strong advocates for Israel as possible are elected in the Labour Party to ensure that should a Labour government transpire, there will be effective voices for the Pro Israel lobby.

No one can criticise Sarah's credentials in this matter. Anyone who has seen her campaign for Frien Library, Mapledown disabled school, etc will realise she is an extraordinarily effective operator.  She is a barrister by trade and a very eloquent and brilliant speaker. Surely it is better to have Sarah in the Miliband government tent making the case than Mike Freer on the outside, screaming in vain?

Ten Reasons to vote for Mike Freer

Earlier this week I posted  ablog highlighting the appalling level of support which local Tory Councillors were giving the general election campaigns of Mike Freer and Matthew Offord.  One of the best of the new intake of Tories took what I said to heart and admitted I had made a valid point. Gabriel Rozenberg who is a Hampstead Garden suburb Tory has impressed me with his willingness to engage in open and sensible debate and to not always simply appear to be a "yes man". I predict he will go on to better things in politics. He certainly seems the most intellgent of the current crop of Barnet Tory Councillors. He also is reasonably robust and doesn't throw his toys out of the pram, even when being cruelly wound up. This is almost a unique charictaristic in the Barnet Tories and one which sets apart the real prospects from the overblown egomaniacs.

Anyway, Gabriel (much to my surprise, if I am honest), posted a tweet saying he agreed with me. He then tweeted ten reasons why he believes Finchley and Golders Green residents should support Mike Freer, the Tory Candidate.

Here are his tweets agreeing with me.

Gabriel Rozenberg @rozgab  ·  Apr 20

I admit it: @Barneteye makes a reasonable point. I haven't been exactly noisy on Twitter recently on behalf of my beloved @Conservatives.

Gabriel Rozenberg @rozgab  ·  Apr 20

So, I thought I would share with the Twitterverse my own Top Ten Reasons why I will be voting for @Freer4FGG on May 7th. #MikeForFinchley

  

Gabriel then tweeted his top ten reasons. As Gabriel had done me the rare honour of a Tory admitting I was right, I thought I'd repay the honour by giving my take on his reasons. For each of them I will give Mike a mark out of ten. So if Gabriel has ten unarguable reasons, Mike will get 100%. If he gives ten completely silly reasons, he will get zero. Of course none of this really matters as it is merely my opinion of Gab's opinion of Mike

1) Gay marriage. Coalition's great social justice win. Mike fought for it, convinced waverers, earned respect on all sides.

Well I was pretty impressed with Mike's speech in Parliament. I was tempted to give Mike 10/10 for this one. However on analysis I will knock him down to 8/10 (still a decent mark). The reason being that there is one big blot on the story. Gabs completely forgot to mention that Mike had completely failed to convince his friend and former deputy at Barnet, Matthew Offord, who is an implacable of opponenent same sex marriage. Not Mike's fault but I felt Gabs post was deficient in implying universal agreement.  - 8/10

2) No MP works as hard as Mike for his constituents. He is on it 24/7. Super fast and helpful replies to residents' emails. 

Sadly this is a big whopper. It is true that Mike worked hard for the Gaddafi family when pro democracy activists squatted in their vacant properties. As someone who has been involved in several popular local campaignsin FGG constituency, the truth is Mike gave his constituents no help and support at all. The CPZ campaign which got CPZ charges overturned in the High Court had no support from Mike. The Save Friern Library had no support from Mike.  The campaign to stop the abolition of pay and display cash parking got no support from Mike (even though he's now admitted the council and Brian Coleman were wrong). I am very sorry to say I have to give Mike 0/10 on this as simply supporting rich and powerful friends is no use at all. Now I am sure Mike has helped some people, but I've seen no evidence of it. 0 /10

3) Henlys Corner. Once a death trap, now transformed. Prosaic but crucial. Mike's legacy to Barnet as Council Leader.

Given that this achievement was not actually anything to do with Mike's role as being an MP, I was tempted to give another zero. It struck me as Gabriel really scraping the barrel. However it was improved, so I will give him 4/10.

4) Mike knows F&GG inside out. He was first elected to the council for Finchley in *1990*. And yes, he actually lives here.

Again not exactly a great reason to vote for someone. Is that really the best reason. I would vote for the person who did the best job whether they lived next door or in a Soho brothel. As to Mike knowing the area inside out, if this was true he'd have supported the CPZ campaign, which was largely run by natural Tories appalled at a huge injustice.  Sorry Gabs, got to be a big fat zero as an excuse to vote for Mike 0/10

5) He resigned his front-bench role on a point of principle.

This is a hard one for me to mark. It is clear that Mike resigned because he knew that to carry on could damage his electoral campaign, in a tight race. Having said that, he was elected to represent his constituents, and in this instance he clearly was. So I think 7/10 is fair. 7/10

6) This very personal and incredibly brave speech. youtu.be/mKUpNj4ukRE

Oh dear, Gabs has started to run out of steam and as started recycling reasons to vote for Mike. Back to his support for Same Sex Marriage. Having given Mike 8/10 for the first occurrance in the list, to give him any more for the same reason would be highly silly. So sorry Gabs, this is 0/10 for being cheeky and not even managing 10 different reasons. 0/10

7) Local priorities: campaigning for a breast screening unit at Finchley M; free schools; and against Labour's Mansion Tax

Ok, so totally agree with the Breast screening unit as an example of a good reason. If Mike had opposed the bedroom tax, which attacks poor people on benefits I may have scored him higher, but he only really seems to care for the well off, so 5/10

8) Mike fights against racism and intolerance. He stands up for the many minority communities who make their home in F&GG

Now it is clear Mike stands up against intolerance, as a long time supporter of LGBT rights (although this is the third time this particular chestnut has been recylced). Not quite so sure I've seen any evidence of leading campaigns against racism locally. He has a decent record on anti semitism, so I will be generous and give him (it would have been higher if Gabs hadnt yet again snuck in the same sex marriage argument by stealth) 5/10

9) Mike lives in the real world. He's worked his way up: Pizza Hut, Barclays Bank, House of Commons. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Freer#Early_life 

If Gabs truly thinks that having had a job in Pizza hut and a bank is a reason to vote for someone, he's off his rocker. He's clearly run out of puff and is floundering 0/10

10) A vote for @Freer4FGG is a vote for the Conservatives: growth, progress & job creation. Don't let Labour-SNP wreck it. 

Gabs has given up. Reason no 10 is not a reason to vote for Mike at all. It is an imploration to vote for the Tories and if Fred Flintstone  was the candidate this would be the same. Gabriel knows Mike well, but clearly cannot find ten good reasons to why anyone should vote for Mike the person, rather than Mike the Candidate. A rather poor reflection oin him 0/10

All in all 29/100. My guess is that there are plenty who would give Mike 100/100 in Finchley and Golders Green and vote for him without hesitation. Sadly it is clear that this only because he has a blue rosette and even his close friends and allies struggle to find five good reasons, let alone ten. 

Tory Councillors abandon Matthew Offord and Mike Freer to their fate

I am truly bemused as to the behaviour of some of our local Tory Councillors in respect to the two local Tory MP's currently involved in a massive battle to retain their parliamentary seats. In years gone by, the Tories would have thrown the kitchen sink at the job, but they just don't seem to be bothered.  At time (noon Sunday) of writing a quick trawl of twitter reveals the following



Leader of the Council Richard Cornelius

https://twitter.com/CllrCornelius

No Tweets at all about the general election campaign


Deputy Leader of the Council Daniel Thomas

https://twitter.com/TrueBlueBarnet

No tweets for Mike Freer or Matthew Offord this month

Senior Councillor David Longstaffe

2 retweets this month mentioning Mike Freer

https://twitter.com/David_Longstaff

New Hampstead Garden Suburb Councillor Gabriel Rozenberg

One retweet of a Boris video supporting Matthew Offord and one tweet promoting Andrew Dismore?? as best as I can tell

https://twitter.com/rozgab

Mayor of Barnet Hugh Rayner

No tweets on election. May be due to ceremonial role of Mayor?

https://twitter.com/50MayorofBarnet/with_replies


It seems that the Barnet Tories have no interest at all in social media. Is it because they don't understand it or are just scared to death of saying stupid things? I find it massively disheartening that the local Conservatives are completely shunning the opportunity to engage with the electorate in this manner. If I were running their campaign I'd insist that all councillors had twitter accounts and as a very minimum retweeted key points of interest to their friends and followers.

In my street (Millway, NW7), in the 1970's and 1980's elections we'd see dozens of boards at the top end of the road (where the richer people live) with the "It's Gorst of Course" message on promoting the local, well liked ex MP John Gorst. We'd get knocked up at least 3 or 4 times and there would be a Tory stall every week on Mill Hill Broadway.

What we now see is a largely geriatric party, which has no desire to get out and engage with younger voters or develop new channels to get their message across. The only semi active Tory COuncillor who blogs is Cllr Dan Thomas - http://truebluedanthomas.blogspot.co.uk/ -  who hasn't bothered to post a blog since January. Does he feel that the Tory MP's are so toxic that he doesn't want to associate with them.

In the whole of Barnet, the only active Tory blogger is maverick ex Councillor Daniel Hope, who writes the Barnet Bugle blog.  Hope fell out with the local party when he was deselected in Brunswick Park in 2006. Given hs history with Freer and Offord it is unsurprising that he is less than enthusiastic about their campaigns. Hope turned up at the FSB business breakfast at Cafe Buzz with his video camera, but no footage of Mike Freer has made it onto his blog. One has to wonder whether this was because he thought it would be unhelpful to Freer to list him talking about cheese liberalisation and that he thought the UK would vote to stay in the EU? Only Dan can tell us and he's keeping his counsel (unusually).

On a more general note, it is interesting to see that the majority of tweets expressing a genuine interest in Freer are from the LBGT community - https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=freer4fgg&src=typd - which Mike has done an excellent job in representing. It is telling that nearly all pictures etc of Freer are shown with the same rather small band of supporters.

Matthew Offords general twitter coverage has been slightly more interesting - https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=offord4hendon&src=typd - with a few decent pictures in pubs pulling pints etc and his dog seems to be a real winner in the engagement stakes.

One has to wonder just what is going on at a national level with the Conservative Campaign. This is being overseen by alleged election guru Lynton Crosby. Given that both Hendon and Finchley changed hands at the last election, one would assume that they should be considered marginals. The Conservative party is a well funded organisation and I know that whenever I've run a campaign there are certain basics that you observe. One of these is to ensure that you use whatever tools you have at your disposal. Getting your local councillors (who get a minimum bung of £10K from the taxpayer, purley because they wear your rosette) to support the campaign is surely a complete no brainer.

The fact of the matter is that the Tories should be continually tweeting that they are canvassing in certain roads, getting pictures of smiling members of the public, quotes saying how marvellous they've been, smiling councillors with the MPs etc. Social media is free, so it is exempt from campaign rules. Clever messages can go viral and can reach place in ten minutes that a week of door knocking won't achieve.

If the local Tories wake up in May to an electoral route, they have only themselves to blame. Both Matthew Offord and Mike Freer have been busier blocking people such as me on Twitter than they have in promoting their message. Their stance is idiotic, as probably at least 40% of people who follow my twitter account and blog locally are Conservatives. They often don't agree with what I have to say, but they value the fact that I raise local issues. By refusing to engage with me (and even the Tory leaning Barnet Bugle) they are missing a huge opportunity to get people involved in their campaign.

When I look at the current Conservative election campaign, it reminds me of a conversation I had with an IBM mainframe computer salesman in 1984. He told me that IBM would always be the worlds largest computer company because corporations always consider the FUD factor when buying. I was bemused. "What was FUD?" I asked. He replied "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt". He explained that in corporate computing anything except IBM was a risk.

What he didn't realise was that the world of computing was evolving. Now when we talk about IT we talk about Google and Microsoft as the big players. IBM still make mainframes for corporations, but the world of IT has long since passed them by and they are bit part niche players. I suspect that with the Tories head in the sand attitude, they will have to evolve or face the same fate.

Hendon Tory Candidate Offord claims he can represent "Humans in Hendon better because he isn't one!"

The Barnet Eye has learned from usually reliable sources (down at the Bridge Pub in Mill Hill) that as part of his campiagn to secure human rights for dogs, Former Hendon Conservative MP Matthew Offord has got his Jack Russell terrier Max to take his place as Conservative Candidate for Hendon. It appears that Boris Johnson (Pictured with Max) was so impressed with Max's ability to woo the crowds that he has persuaded Matthew to step aside and let Max run as candidate.

Usually reliable sources have informed the Barnet Eye that Max was unsure at first, until he heard Mike Freer's explanation of how Non Jews can represent Jews in Parliament far better than Jewish people. After a long chat with Boris, Mike and Matthew, Max was won over.

His spokesperson said "After listening to Mike Freer's impeccable logic, Max realised that it was best for the people of Hendon if they were represented by a non human. As everyone knows, people trust dogs far more than politicians and they are recognised for the qualities of loyalty, faithfulness and doggedness". Max was also able to explain that he has massively improved Matthew's fitness, ensuring that rather than sit around drinking and eating cakes, he gets Matthew off his ever growing posterior and out for some walkies.

Max also explained that dogs exemplify "true Tory values". Unlike Socialists who are driven by the rather bizarre concept of "communal good", dogs will do anything for a nice treat. Max is on the liberal wing of the Conservative party, believing that if he wants to lick his testicles in public, why should anyone have the right to stop him.

Max explained that wheras Socialists believe in equality and fairness, dogs follow the Conservative mantra of following the pack leader and the biggest doggie gets the biggest dinner! Like his owner Matthew, Max is not a supporter of Same Sex Marriage, explaining "why should I want to get married when there are so many nice chair legs out there?"

The Barnet Eye approached Mike Freer for a quote about whether his logic applied to dogs representing humans in Parliament, but he seemed a tad unwilling to respond. A spokesperson who may be close to Mike replied "whilst at first Mike was sceptical about Max's abilities to represent the people of Hendon, on balance he felt that he'd be a more sensible candidate than Matthew".

The Barnet Eye was able to speak to Max in Mill Hill Broadway today and asked how the campaign has been going. Max replied "Rough".

The Barnet Eye has spoken to contacts within the Labour Campaign about the sudden change of Tory Candidate. An unofficial spokesperson for Andrew Dismore stated that it was worrying because unlike his owner, Max had charm and charisma and people like dogs.

UKIP were unable to confirm whether their latest candidate in Hendon has been replaced by this rather nice moggie, pictured with the UKIP national director of operations (left).

Mike Freer and the Finchley & Golders Green pantomime

A very strange thing has happened in the Finchley and Golders Green election. In the space of three days, Tory candidate has gone into meltdown. On Monday I wrote a blog saying that being an MP seemed to be agreeing with Mike as he looked younger and far more relaxed than he did six years ago when he was leading the Council. Little did I know that a storm was brewing and Mike's notoriously thin skin was about to be stretched to the limit. The cause of the meltdown was former Tory Chairman Lord Ashcroft & respected pollster pollster who is now predicting that Labour will take the seat.

Mike reacted to this news in the way he always deal with difficult news. He got nasty and tetchy. He told the Guardian that his opponent, Sarah Sackman would jump on any bandwagon, in reference to her efforts in campaigns to save local libraries and retain funding for disabled childrens support services. Given that all of the campaigns Sarah Sackman has fought are highly emotive local issues, where even local Tories disagree with the Council, I found it hilarious that Mike would actually draw attention to them in the local paper. What exactly would Mike expect her to say if accused of "jumping on a bandwagon" when fighting for the rights of disabled children. Should she say "Oh, I am sorry I should have let their services be cut, so that Mike wouldn't insult me?" Heaven only knows what he was thinking.

 As if this wasn't bad enough, he has made an even more bonkers gaffe today.He has told Jewish News that he can "represent Jews better than a Jew".  He said  “A non-Jewish MP is able to represent Jewish constituents more forcefully as I can’t be accused of any vested interest. People know if I’m arguing for the Jewish community, it’s what I believe and what constituents want.” 

It appears that Mike is seeking to adopt the "Ali G" approach to the question of race. If it wasn't so hilariously stupid, it could be deemed offensive and patronising.Let's consider Mike's claim in a bit more detail.  Given that Mike isn't from the Finchley and Golders Green area, one has to assume that his interest in Jewish politics arrived at around the same time as he decided he wanted a career in politics. Like many politicians, Mike clearly looked at the demographics of the area in which he lived and decided it was a good move to get onside with various local communities. Now there is nothing wrong with trying to understand your electorate and representing them, but to claim that you can do the job better than someone who has grown up within a culture is completely ridiculous. A few years ago I went to a charity fundraising dinner, where a Jewish friend of mine from Orange Hill School was speaking about the need to support the charity, which raises money for local elderly Jewish people, who need care. My friend is a successful businessman and I'd never really put him down as a great orator. When he spoke, he talked about his family, how his parents and grandparents had fled Germany, how many of his uncles and aunties hadn't and how they'd perished. He talked about how his family had struggled, about how anti semitism had destroyed half his family. He talked about how his grandparents and parents had worked night and day to ensure their children had a future. He told how that by the time he was born in 1961, the family had a successful business, built from nothing. He talked of their sacrifices and the sadness in their heart for lost family members. He then explained how they needed specialist care as they reached the twighlight of their lives and how important the work of the charity was. They needed an environment that understood their social and cultural needs. The dinner was a great success raising a huge amount of money. 

When I read Mike Freer's comments, my mind went back to that. Is there any way that Mike Freer could start to put across the case so passionately? When he is in Parliament, he may speak well if he's had a briefing on a subject, but does he instinctively understand the cultural implications of what is being discussed? Whatever Mike Freer may say about Sarah Sackman, it is clear that having been born and raised in a community, she instinctively will recognise any threats or attacks, without a briefing from a friendly member of the community. To her credit, Sarah hasn't played this card, which in a seat with 22% Jewish electorate could make a huge difference. Mike Freer has. Having had the chutzpah to make such a claim, he now has to watch it crash in flames. Let me give another example of why Mike has been hoisted by his own petard. By any judgement, his finest moment in parliament was his speech about same sex marriage


It should be clear to anyone watching that the reason that Mike could put his case so effectively is because he is representing the gay community. The issue affects him directy and he was able to make a brilliant speech putting his case forward, calling on his own personal experiences. Mike was widely congratulated for this speech and it was widely accepted that the personal element that he referred to helped him make the point.

Sadly however Mike feels that Jewish people clearly can't use their personal experience to the same effect. They need "Big Uncle Mike" to make the case for them. As far as I am concerned, the idea that Sarah Sackman, who is an extremely eloquent barrister, would be less able to represent the Jewish community than Mike Freer is laughable.

The trouble with Mike is that he just doesn't seem to really be clever enough to see the contradictions in his own arguments. In truth he's in a state of panic. His campaign has become like a pantomime, with Mike shouting "Where's my Parliamentary career" and the electorate shouting "It's behind you".

The following tweet seems to sum up the general reaction to Mike Freers statement

Noa Lessof Gendler ‏@NoaGendler 18h18 hours ago

@sarahsackman @Freer4FGG A Jewish MP who'll stand up for human rights is better placed to represent anyone... (1/2)

Noa Lessof Gendler ‏@NoaGendler 18h18 hours ago

@sarahsackman @Freer4FGG ...than someone who'll defend Israel for the sake of his own votes (2/2)

I think that this statement from Mike could be the defining moment in the Finchley and Golders Green election. Whilst I am sure that some people would vote Tory even if a donkey was standing, many will be put off by what Mike had to say. I doubt that anyone in the Jewish  community thinks that only Mike Freer can represent them successfully. I think some may actually be rather disgusted by the implication that a Jewish MP may be perceived as less honest than someone who has simply turned up and grubbed for a few votes, when representing the people they've spent their life growing up with. 

The most illuminating thing about Mikes panto act is the fact that he has chosen this as his battleground. How desperate is that?