Guest Blog - Richard Cornelius and "Those People" by Ruth Kutner

Dear Sir

This morning Cllr Richard Cornelius accepted the BBC's invitation to appear on their Sunday Politics Show.  In contrast, he did not have the courtesy to send any kind of response to the invitation to appear before his potential supporters at the public meeting organised by the Barnet Alliance for Public Services.  In addition to his disdain for those hosts, on live television he referred to the participants at the meeting as 'those people ...' for which he was upbraided by Jeremy Corbyn who expressed shock at Cllr Cornelius's contempt for the voters of his borough.

Does anyone really want such a person to represent them and organise their lives?  Borough councillors are supposed to be the representatives of all the residents, rich and poor, able and disabled, workers and retired, employed and unemployed.

Although Cllr Cornelius not appear at the meeting, he nevertheless felt able to comment (incorrectly) on what went on stating "Occupy disrupted the meeting".  Members of the Occupy campaign were indeed present but contrary to disrupting the meeting, they were actually a great help in quietly removing a UKIP so-called supporter who was the one trying hard to disrupt the meeting.  Is their no end to the arrogance of Richard Cornelius and the party he represents.

I cannot understand why any decent person would vote for such a party and I implore all of Barnet's voters to put their cross by any other party on 22nd May.

Yours faithfully,

Ruth Kutner (Ms)

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Ms Ruth Kutner is a Barnet Resident

The Barnet Council Corporate Risk Register -

Barnet Council has published its Corporate risk register. You can view it here -

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s12085/Appendix%20E%20-%20Corporate%20Risk%20Register.pdf

We've loaded it up onto our blog for your perusal. I must confess that reading this document is profoundly depressing. We live in what is perhaps Londons wealthiest Borough, at a time when the UK Economy is growing faster than the USA. Please have a look at the challenges facing us. Below I will give my commentary

  Barnet Council - Corporate Risk Register by Roger Tichborne

Risk 1. Homelessness in Barnet. The council concedes that this is set to rise. I work with a Homeless charity as a volunteer. I was disturbed to read the causes that the Council think cause homelessness. Although the reasons they list are factors, they completely misunderstand the main causes. There is no mention of family breakdown, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and migration issues are the main causes in Barnet. The fact that the council mentions none of these mean that the action plan they are developing is doomed to failure. I am shocked that the Council clearly haven't got a clue about the issue.


Risk 2. Waste management and sustainability. It is clear from the risk register that this has been allowed to get out of control and we are likely to have to see Council tax rises to deal with this mismanagement. The register states  "Procuring value for money waste disposal and managing waste collection services both need to be considered in order to ensure quality services at an affordable price delivering optimum customer satisfaction."  Now lets get this straight. The Tories have been running Barnet for eleven years, yet they have not considered sorting this out until now? This is truly scandalous. This is a truly horrendous admission by the Council.

Risk 3. Demographic Change and Population growth. The council has admitted that it is unprepared for population growth, despite having a corporate plan to increase the population of Barnet from 320,000 to 380,000. They are the people who have approved the Brent Cross, Stonegrove, Colindale, Mill Hill East etc developments and now they say they are unprepared for the consequences. This is scandalously incompetent.

Risk 4. Welfare and Benefit reform. What's this? Barnets Tory Council have admitted that the coalition policies are ill thought out and cause "unintended consequences". In the councils own words "Consequence: potential to negatively affect those economically disadvantaged within the community." I suppose it is good that the Tories in the Town Hall acknowledge that the Tories in Whitehall are dangerous to our community. The Good Lord only knows why the Labour Party in the Town hall have not mentioned this?

Risk 5. People. I had to chuckle when I saw this title. I though Barnet Council must be the only Council in the world which views people as a risk? What do they want? Daleks? Actually the risk is that they've got rid of all the people in the Council who know what they are doing, as a consequence of the One Barnet program. Now they have realised that they are up Le Creek de la Merde and they have mislaid the paddle. In their own words "Consequence: The consequence of failure in this respect and the escalation of risk will be a skills/knowledge/competence gap in the organisation that will result in poorer service performance in the medium term and/or longer term strategic failure."

Risk 6. Financial Position. It is clear that the council do not understand economics or maths. The narrative says "Demographic changes mean that the Council faces a growing population, an ageing population and increasing numbers of young people, which adds further to the pressure and demand on services." Firstly the population growth has been driven by their own planning policies. They were the ones with the grand masterplans to add 60,000 new residents. This growth is almost exclusively going to be made up of immigrants of working age and their children. All of the new rabbit hutch flats being thrown up around the Borough are not being put up for Barnet residents. There is no baby boom in Barnet, so it is clear that this population growth will be one fuelled by migratory labour. They are not council houses for local people. I am not anti immigration in the way UKIP are. The prosperity of the UK is built on immigration. The trouble is that Barnet Council have not understood the consequences of their plans. Mike Freer and Richard Cornelius are the men who have presided over this planning failure. It is entirely the responsibility of the political Leadership of Barnet Council.

Risk 7. Information Management. This is incredible. The Council admits it doesn't understand the data it holds or its sensitivity. It says "Cause: Variable accessibility and quality of data means we don’t know what information we hold, its value or sensitivity. " What does it plan to do about this? "Beginning to understand data sources and constraints on them". It is incredible that the Council can admit that it has only just identified the fact that it doesn't understand the data it holds and is only now beginning to try and get to grips with it".

Risk 8. Barnets position as a prosperous suburb. This is a truly incredible admission from the Conservatives after eleven years of mismanagement. They now admit that they have placed our prosperity at risk. The consequences of their policies? "Consequence:  Barnet becomes less desirable as a place to live and work "

All of the above risks are High or Medium High. The Conservatives have been in charge for eleven years and this is where their policies have brought us.

There is one further risk, which is "Medium Low",

Risk 9. Resident engagement. What does this mean? "Consequence: Consultations not contributing to service design, do not deliver the services resident want, lack of transparency on outcomes, customer satisfaction declines. " In effect, after five years of writing this blog, Barnet Council has admitted that we are right, they have failed to engage and consult residents properly. The reason we held the "Your Choice Barnet Week" was to highlight the fact that the Council weren't listening. If nothing else, at least they have admitted it.

What is interesting is the fact that there is not a single issue that this blog hasn't raised at length. I will be emailing this commentary to our local councillors for comment. As I said at the start of this blog, I am disturbed by this. In the past, my team of lovable Trolls have pointed out that a "risk register is only a document to identify what might happen". As far as I am concerned, if the risk is "High" or "Medium High". Of these nine risks, one is "almost certain", two are "likely" and the rest are "possible" (whatever that means). Note that Possible is not unlikely. I believe that there should be a full public consultation to try and sort out what has gone wrong. To me, this document is a tale of corporate failure and mismanagement. If you are a Barnet resident, please read this document. The council have clearly released it during the holiday season to try and make sure we didn't see it whilst the mulled wine and mince pies were doing their work. Of course they failed to recognise the fact that when people are off work, they have more time to read blogs !

Ricky and the Stooges Live at Barnet Town Hall

Don't be deceived. This is the season of goodwill, the fourth day of Christmas, but already some of us in Barnet are looking forward to May next year. There will be council election, where we get to decide who will administer the contract with Capita to run Barnet Council. In 2010, I stood for the council, as I believed it was the most important election ever facing the people of Barnet. Unlike the majority of people in the Borough, I was fully aware of the plans to turn Barnet into "Capitaville", surgically removing all democratic accountability from local people and turning provision of local services into a commodity. Now the contracts have been signed. There are 63 councillors, but in truth there is nothing much for them to do. We've signed a ten year contract with Capita and so they can sit back and count their allowances. Of course there are still plenty of civic receptions to go to, with plush buffets. There are still the perks of the job, such as free parking permits. There is just nothing much for them to do. Capita are responsible for administering licensing, cemetaries, business licensing, collection of council tax, call centres and planning. Areas such as Social care have been outsourced to Your Choice Barnet. Parking control has been outsourced to NSL.Even the running of the legal side of the council, which adminsters all of this has been outsourced to Harrow Council. In short, the Council no longer exists in any real sense of the word. If Barnet have done the job properly with the outsourcing, they shouldn't really have any employees left in any of the above areas.

You may ask what the council still does? Well it runs schools and it has kept household waste collection in house. So the question is, why do we need 63 councillors. The question becomes even more interesting when you consider the way that these councillors have voted since the last election. To the best of my knowledge, only on one occasion has a Conservative Councillor not voted the way they were told to by the whips. That Councillor was Kate Salinger. In August 2010, she decided that the decision by the Tory Councillors to award themselves a payrise was immoral. She refused to follow the Party whip. Lets be 100% clear. This wasn't a policy that the Tories had put in their election manifesto. This wasn't a policy they'd discussed on the doorsteps. Nope, they simply got back into power and decided that "hey ho, we can vote ourselves a pay rise". What happened to Councillor Salinger. In open Council, all her Tory chums vindictively stripped her of all responsibilty in a succession of votes. Which brings us back to the question "Why do we need 63 Councillors, when the Council doesn't do anything". The answer is we don't. They are a bunch of Stooges, a bunch of passengers. Are you familiar with the lyrics of "The Passenger" by Iggy Pop

Oh, the passenger

How, how he rides

Oh, the passenger

He rides and he rides

He looks through his window

What does he see?

The sad truth is that this bunch of passengers have spent the last four years riding around the Borough, closing their eyes. They have seen nothing. When they raised the cost of CPZ parking permits, they closed their eyes and didn't see the huge pain and expense this was causing local residents. They closed their eyes, so they didn't listen when local campaigners told them it was illegal. As a result, they lost a court case and tens of thousands of residents were entitled to CPZ refunds. They closed their eyes when they hiked High Street parking charges and scrapped Pay and Display parking. Local businesses were driven to the wall. The local Conservatives stuck their fingers in their ears and shouted "La La La". Then in may 2012, there was an election for the GLA and the local Tory, who previously had a massive majority, was uncermoniously booted out. After some panic, High Street parking charges were cut and pay and display restored. Then there was the cuts to Adult Social care, brought about by the Your Choice Barnet botched privatisation. This company is a private company, fully owned and controlled by Barnet Council. This has been a fantastic resource for some people in Barnet, namely the directors and executives of this company, who's pay has been removed from democratic oversight. Sadly for the local disabled people, reliant on its services, it has been a disaster. Cuts are order of the day. Front line staff are subject to wage cuts. Services for people reliant on the council have been slashed and some of the most vulnerable people in Barnet have had their quality of life decimated. How did the passengers react? Well despite all of their distortions, the truth came out, when Your Choice Barnet required a £1 million payout to stay afloat. An emergency committee of councillors was set up to sort the mess out. A meeting was held, where these councillors took representations from local carers, people such as John and Ida Sullivan who have hundreds of years experience at the coalface of caring for the disabled. What did the passengers on the committee do? They shut their eyes, closed their ears and shouted "la la la", ignoring all of the representations of the local residents.

The leader of the Council is Richard Cornelius. In many ways he is a very pleasant chap. Unlike some, I don't believe him to be Evil. I don't believe he spends his days planning new ways to harpoon the disabled with new schemes, designed only to drive them from the Borough. I suspect he'd be horrified if he knew the just what some of the parents of local disabled people had said to me about him and his intentions. I just think that Tricky Ricky is in many ways a passenger and all of this has simply passed him by. He is relatively well off and he moves in the upper echelons of Barnet society, so how can we expect him to understand the plight of the people he is meant to have a duty of care towards. When the likes of John Sullivan speak of the distress that the Council policies have caused his disabled daughter Susan and her friends and peers, Mr Cornelius thinks "Here we go again". He doesn't listen. People may say he doesn't care, but how can you care if you don't bother to listen and you don't know the story. We are all guilty of not listening and not caring to some extent, but whilst most of us can't do anything about it and most of us aren't paid to care and listen, Tricky Ricky is paid to care and he is paid to do something about it.

So what has been the response of the local Conservatives to the plight of the disabled in Barnet? Well the local Conservative machine is a very efficient political organisation, that has delivered some stunning election results at the last general and council election. Two Labour MP's seats in parliament were taken and the on the Council, gains were made. The local Tory Councillors like the perks of their job. Who can blame them? Allowances are generous and there are plenty of opportunities for social networking. Now it wouldn't be very nice to openly attack people such as John Sullivan and Tony Solomons, who have disabled children and clearly simply want the best for them. There are however, other ways to cook an egg. Two weeks ago, the local disabled community took over this blog. They spent two weeks publishing blogs describing the issues they were having with Your Choice Barnet. John Sullivan organised this, contacting many people in the disabled community and getting them to document their experiences.

A promenent local Conservative ex Councillor, used their twitter account to propogate a succession of lies about this. They suggested that this blog had been "bought". They suggested that the local people who participated in the series of blogs were orchestrated by the Barnet Alliance for Public Services and they suggested that the authors of the blogs were "CRANKS". First this person posted this message to me

So who's bought your blog for next week? Unions? Other cranks? Labour Party?

This was followed up by another tweet to me saying

Clearly been taken over by the cranky 'anti Tory' @barnetalliance this week. Maybe you waive ur fees to SETs?

As you can see,  the author of this text made 100% clear, he believed the "Your Choice Barnet week" guest blogs to be the work of "Cranks" associated with the Barnet Alliance. Anyone who didn't know the people involved would clearly be mislead. As John Sullivan is not a member of the Barnet Alliance and clearly not a CRANK, to imply such things is truly despicable. Mr Sullivan was truly enraged when he saw these comments. He contacted the person who placed the comments and demanded an explanation. He received a response, which was truly unbelievable. Despite claiming it was clear that the Barnet Eye had been "taken over by the cranky 'anti Tory' @barnetalliance" the author of these tweets claimed they'd not actually bothered to read the blogs (so much for accuracy). Furthermore, having been completely caught out, the author of these comments then challenged Mr Sullivan to state whether he was a member of the Barnet Alliance Executive ( I should also make clear that the Barnet Allliance simply an organisation for local people who are opposed to the destruction of public services. It is also part of a wider campaign of denigration to portray them as "Cranks"). Mr Sullivan is not a member of BAPS or on its executive. He has a full time job caring for a disabled daughter. It was quite interesting to note that when challenged, the rather cowardly individual, who had previously been so bold and sdrident in his comments about the YCB week, actually asked Mr Sullivan, who contributed two blogs for YCB, including one on the day of the offensive Twitter messages, to prove the comments referred to him. Mr Sullivan is a man in his '70's and in very poor health. The author of these messages also accused Mr Sullivan of "trying to intimidate him" by requesting a face to face meeting to correct any inaccuracies. It all left Mr Sullivan rather bemused. His response to me was to ask why someone would bother posting offensive messages on Twitter, when they hadn't read the blogs, and why someone would claim to be terrified of someone who was so ill he couldn't even address an important council meeting recently (there is Youtube footage of Mr Sullivans speech being delivered by a friend on his behalf, to the Council meeting). I can only speculate. Were the comments simply an off the cuff remark or were they part of a wider agenda against Mr Sullivan and the other carers fighting for justice? After much thought, I have decided that we shouldn't be shooting the messenger. If it was a stupid off the cuff remark, made by a complete idiot, then it is probably best to ignore it. If however, the messages were planted as part of a more sinister agenda, it is not the monkey we should take issue with, but the organ grinder. Which means ultimately that Richard Cornelius has to distance himself and his administration from such comments, if he wants to retain credibility.

This is the Barnet Conservative Party in 2013/4. We have detached councillors, who don't listen to the people most in need of Council services. We have marginal figures on the fringes, doing the dirty work, for reasons we can only speculate.

As I said at the start of this blog, given the long contracts with suppliers and the destruction of the in house teams, the next Council elections will not be as significant as the 2010 elections. Rather than making a series of key decisions, affecting the long term future of the Council, the next administration will simply be "managing the decline of Barnet".  That doesn't mean that it is not important. Do we want a council with a proven track record of ignoring the concerns of residents and riding roughshod over their requirements? Do we want a council to be run by a party which uses third party proxies to attack those who say things they don't like.

I must admit I have completely lost faith in most of our local politicians. I have seen no evidence at all that the people of Barnet and their needs are being met either by the administration or the opposition. I was at a social event recently and a very senior local Tory told me that "all the proper opposition is actually within the Conservative group". Whether this is true or not I have no clue, but it is clear to me that if it is, this "internal opposition" is equally ineffective.

What we really need is a whole new crop of councillors. There is too much dead wood being paid too much money and not doing their job. A truly brave and honest Council would slash the number of councillors to reflect the fact that at the Council doesn't actually exist anymore. I invite any Councillor of any Party to submit a guest blog detailing why they deserve to keep their job. As with all guest blogs, assuming it isn't defamatory or libellous, I will publish it without comment. Will any have the balls to actually take the offer up? Or is the situation as I suspect. Do we have Ricky and the Stooges at the Town Hall, giving the longest ever performance of  "The Passenger" in history. For those of you, like me who are partial to a decent tune, here is the Ig with his fine rendition.

Barnet Council announces first new council housing building program for 30 years

On Tuesday Barnet Council announced that it was to start a small scale project to build council houses. A total of 41 houses are planned for the next three years. You can read the news here on the Barnet Council website.

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/news/article/318/barnet_council_confirms_first_new_council_housing_for_over_20_years

Now you may expect this blog to react hysterically to the news. In fact we welcome the news. Unlike so many of the plans the council has made, whilst we would like to see a more ambitious project, it is eminently sensesible to start by testing the water. 38 Houses will not scratch the surface of the problem, but as the council has lost all of its experience in such schemes, dipping the toe in first is clearly a good way to start.

What is perhaps troubling is the statement by the Leader of the Council -

Cllr Richard Cornelius, Leader of Barnet Council, said: “Central Government now gives councils greater freedom to spend our housing income as we think is wise so we can create these new family sized homes along with a number of fully wheelchair accessible homes.

“There is no doubt that London needs new homes and I think council housing will be part of that mix.

“They will, however, be very different from council housing as we have known it in the past.  I don’t see that there will be large estates and we plan that council housing will be available to a family for a particular period in their lives. It won’t mean a house for life.”

The last sentence about the properties "not being a house for life worries me. What exactly does the leader mean? Does he mean that at some unspecified point families will be evicted? I am all for people moving out of Council accomodation when they can afford to move, but what when they can't? Do we really want to see people turfed out on the streets?

I suspect that the statement is actually just a nod to the more right wing loonies in the Barnet Tory party. I don't really think Richard Cornelius is someone who is so heartless as to sling people on the street, when through no fault of there own, people  find themselves in times of hardship.

There are thousands of people on the waiting list for council homes in Barnet. The council has no policy to address this problem. All this can be seen as is a green shoot of common sense. People on the left should resist the urge to react antagonisitically to something which indicates a modicum of common sense is being displayed. We should remember that there was a period from 1997 until 2002, when Barnet had a Labour Council and the country had a Labour government, when no council houses at all were built in the Borough. 

Even worse, this period lumbered us with Barnet Homes, which if it was being launched today would have the local BAPSters and other groups on the left protesting outside the town hall. Sadly as Labour brought in this awful organisation, no one said a dickybird. I sincerely hope that the local Labour group has learned. We do ourselves no favours by shutting our eyes and pretending it is all marvellous, because this leads to a complete cock up. Sadly the local Tories learned nothing from the acquiesence of the Labour hordes to stupid and misguided policies and so have embarked on equally stupid ones with One Barnet. 

An open letter to Richard Cornelius, Conservative leader of Barnet Council

On Friday 3 May Councillor Brian Coleman pleaded guilty to the charge of common assault by beating of Helen Michael, in the High Road in North Finchley. Evidence from CCTV was shown in court and proved incontrovertibly that this incident was nothing less than an utterly indefensible act of aggression. It resulted from Councillor Coleman being caught parking in a loading bay, trying to evade the hugely controversial parking payment scheme he had imposed on residents in this borough.

Despite the fact that he has now been convicted of a criminal act of assault, Barnet Council has refused to comment, absurdly claiming that this is unnecessary as the attack did not take place while the Councillor was on council business.

Indeed local Tory members, including leader Richard Cornelius, openly continued to support their fellow member after he was charged, and were privately informing others that the story of the assault was false.Councillor Coleman was suspended from the party only after intervention from Conservative Central Office. Since the conviction, local Conservatives have issued no statement.

By his own actions Councillor Coleman has shown himself to be unfit for public office: such bullying behaviour, dishonesty and hypocrisy are not acceptable in an elected representative of the community. We demand therefore that he stand down from his seat in Totteridge, and that the Conservative Party expel him from membership.

We call on Richard Cornelius, as leader of Barnet Council, and on behalf of the Conservative Party in this borough, to apologise to Ms Michael, and to dissociate himself and his colleagues from this appalling incident. 

To remain silent is not an option: to remain silent is to condone an act of violence against a woman, and this was and must always be absolutely unacceptable.

Signed:

Derek Dishman

John Dix

Vicki Morris

Theresa Musgrove

Roger Tichborne

One Barnet passes scrutiny

In a move that surprised no one, the Barnet Conservatives used their block vote to ensure that the One Barnet Capita contract was not referred back to cabinet by the scrutiny committee. I did not attend the meetings. I have been told that it "would sail through" because all of the Conservative Councillors were "onside".

To celebrate the destruction of public services in Barnet and the loss of 300 jobs, next week is going to be CAPITA WEEK in Barnet. The blogs of Barnet will be featuring the work Capita has done up and down the country, just so we all know what we can expect.

What I find depressing is the fact that the more sensible and sane local Conservatives know that One Barnet is risky and they are signing a contract which could blow up in their faces and cost the local taxpayers a fortune. I have a theory that the Barnet Tories have realised that they will be slung out in 2014 and so are on a mission to wreck public services and public finances. That way, when Labour get in, they will have to take drastic measures, hike council tax and the Tories will then use this as a stick to beat them with. Having heard all of the lies from our local Tories, I have no doubt at all that this is their plan.
I was trying to think who the Tories and their whipping procedures reminded me, then it occurred. The Ant Hill Mob. What we need is King Klong to save us !

The Friday Joke - 29/11/2012

I wasn't in a very jokey mood this morning so apologies for the lateness of todays joke.

Here are todays efforts

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Leader of Barnet Council Richard Cornelius who got up at  last nights council meeting and announced 

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to fully fund all of our executive pay scheme for years 2013-2020" 


"The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

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The Leader of Barnet Council shocked the community when he announced that he was resigning as Leader and retiring to his Chateau in France. After the session, a very distraught lady came to the Richard with tears in her eyes, "Oh, Richard, we are going to miss you so much. We don't want you to leave!" Richard, clearly touched,  replied said "Now, now, don't carry on. The Leader who takes my place might be even better than me".

"Yes", she said, with a tone of resignation in her voice, "That's what they said the when the last three leaders left. "
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Of course Richard isn't really resigning, is he?

How

So hopw long does a One barnet procurement take to assess? If you are Barnet Council there are two answers.

If you are part of the One Barnet team and you are employing a contractor to assess the relevant information it takes eight to ten weeks as a full time job.  They have just appointed a contractor for ten weeks according to their website

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s6573/1861%20-%20Appointment%20of%20Evaluator%20for%20DRS%20Procure.pdf

Apoointment of Evaluator for DRS Procurement

If you are a councillor on a scrutiny commitee, according to the Leader of the Council, Richard Cornelius a few hours of "giuided reading" of the 8,000 page contract is ample.
You can hear him defend this by clicking this link and advancing to 1.04.10

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p010grlf/Drivetime_with_Eddie_Nestor_Councillor_Richard_Cornelius_and_prisoner_votes/

"You can bet your bottom dollar that if this plan works, you will see this in a council near you"

Richard Cornelius admits he's not up to the job of Leading Barnet Council

Dr Evil (AKA Richard Cornelius) has just admitted to the Barnet Times that he's not up to the job of being Leader of Barnet Council. When talking about the (lack of a ) decision by the Barnet Tories to suspend Brian Coleman, he said:

I’ve never dealt with anything like this in the past before but equally I’ve only been group leader for a year. I have found it very difficult to deal with because I know and like Brian. These allegations have come along and I’ve found it very difficult to handle.

What a complete plonker. Does he not have any press advisers. He has admitted dithering because "he likes Brian". What about if it was a member of the team who he didn't like. What about the reputation of the Barnet Conservative Party and Barnet Council?

Leadership is about making tough decisions, which come out of the blue. Saying you've never been in the position before or you've only been leader for a year is a complete dereliction of duty. At the moment, Barnet Council is making a monumental decision about outsourcing a billion pounds worth of business to private contractors in the One Barnet Program. Richard Cornelius has never presided over a Obne Billion Pound Gamble with our money before either. He's only been Leader for a year and hye clearly finds big decisions tough.

It doesn't exactly make you feel confident, when you know that all of the senior Council officers are telling him "there is no alternative", does it?

Read the Barnet Times story here - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/10018130.Council_leader_found_events__difficult_to_handle__in_run_up_to_Coleman_suspension/

Day of reckoning for Oddjob Coleman

Today is a  big day for Brian Coleman. Six months ago, Brian was riding high. He was the GLA rep for Barnet and Camden, he was the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), being wined and dined by the good and the great. Today may well be the day when it all ends in tears. The downfall of Brian Coleman has been rapid. In May, he lost the GLA election, his majority in 2008 was over 20,000 in may this figure was reveresed, with Labours Andrew Dismore sweeping in. Even more galling for Coleman was the fact that Boris Johnson got over 50,000 of the vote in the Mayoral election, showing that it was a purely anti Coleman response. Coleman lost his £53,000 allowance.

Boris Johnson, realising that Coleman was electoral poison, sacked him as leader of LFEPA, removing another £27,000 from his income. The reason for Colemans demise was mainly down to his disasterous parking policies, which have not only bankrupted dozens of businesses, alienated tens of thousands of staunch Tory voters and linled the pockets of private contractors, but have also left a million pound black hole in the Barnet Council budget. Coleman was sacked as cabinet member for parking, but in a bizarre move, which undermined any vestige of authority, Council Leader Richard Cornelius made him chair of the Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee, ensuring that he wasn't out of pocket in Barnet (He gets £15,000 for chairing a committee which meets a few times a year).

Whilst the electorate were showing Coleman what they thought of him, he went on the rampage against the residents of Barnet. Abusive emails were sent, resulting in Coleman being deemed in breach of the Barnet Council standards code (for the second time for the same offence). In most walks of life, this appalling lack of judgement would have spelled the end. In Barnet, he was merely asked to apologise, something he refused to do.

Even more worryingly, he got involved in an altercation with Helen Michael, leader of the parking protests which lead to his election loss in May. Mr Coleman was arrested and charged with assault and parking offences. Finally the leader of the council decided something must be done.

Tonight, the Conservative group on Barnet Council votes on whether to suspend Brian Coleman from the party. In a rather cynically timed move, Brian Coleman finally apologised to the recipients of the abusive emails yesterday.  Coleman is desperately trying to hang on to what little power he has left. On the day of the GLA elections Coleman had an income from all his oddjobs of over £120,000. What is he earning now?

Some locals are saying they feel sorry for Brian, with his sudden demise. I don't. All he had to0 do to avoid this was be civil to the people he was supposed to represent, listen to the concern of residents and business owners and do his job. Sadly all of these things were beyond Oddjob.

For those of us who are James Bond fans, we remember that Oddjob was arch baddy Goldfinger's sidekick. In a delicious irony, Council Leader Richard Cornelius, who last week cast himself as arch baddie Dr Evil, has the same job as Goldfinger in the bond movies. We wonder if the Barnet version of  Oddjob and Goldfinger will meet their demise tonight. Word on the street is that there is unrest in the Tory camp and that Councillor Dan Thomas is lining up a leadership bid. Those of us who have seen Mr Thomas in action, who has all the charisma of a Building society under manager (which is his job), will despair if he finds himself in the driving seat.

The Barnet Conservative group really should realise that what they need to do is not indulge in musical chairs, but dump the dangerous and divisive policies which are destroying the Borough. I await the outcome of tonights meeting with interest.

Exclusive - Dr Evil exposes himself - The Movie

On Monday night, ITV Tonight exposed the identity of Dr Evil, who has been stalking the streets of Barnet, shutting libraries, employing tax dodgers, charging the disabled £1.20 for a cup of coffee, destroying High Street businesses and letting his cronies tour the rampage through the Borough, insulting people and getting themselves nicked. Here is "The Barnet Eye" remix of the interview.

Black Monday for Barnet Tories

Yesterday was the day when the Barnet Tories hit rock bottom. Things really could not have been worse for them. They made ITV London news with two successive items. You can watch the piece about Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble here - http://vimeo.com/51935140

and the main article is here -

http://www.itv.com/news/london/story/2012-10-22/barnet-on-film/


 The first was about the film Barnet The Billion Pound Gamble. I produced this film with acclaimed US director Charles Honderick.  The film exposes the effects of the councils policies on the local community. Yesterday we had the Premiere of the film at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley. Despite atrocious weather and major disruption on the Northern Line, over 200 people paid to come in.

Over 200 People packed into the Phoenix Cinema

I took this picture on my mobile phone as people were still arriving. We had to delay the start time by 30 minutes to allow latecomers to arrive.  After the film there was a debate with three local bloggers, Mr Reasonable, Mr Mustard and Mrs Angry as well as Martin Russo from the Save Friern Barnet library campaign.

They fielded all manner of questions. It was encouraging to see that all walks of society joined in.  The panel were asked about their political affiliations. Mr Mustard and Mr Reasonable have none. MArtin Russo said he usually voted Labour and Mrs Angry said she'd reecently joined Labour as she felt there was no alternative. As for myself, I don't belong to any party. I stood for the Lib Dems in the 2010 Council elections, but as I fundamentally disagree with the policies of the Coalition and was disgusted by the decision to break the pledge on tuition fees, I have left the party. I am banned from being a member of Labour, so I am an Independent. As for Charles Honderick, he's a supporter of the Democrats being from the USA.

Everyone who spoke to me after the film said they thought it was a good film and got the message across well. Some right wing commentators have dismissed the film as a "Left Wing Polemic". This is both unfair and untrue. I don't believe that outsourcing services is a "right wing" policy. Sadly many Labour Councils also do this. If what right wing commentators are saying is they believe in poor services, bad administration, library closures, anti business parking policies and the destruction of the High Street, then yes it is left wing, but I am sure these are not policies most Tories really want.

I made the film, not because I want to destroy Barnet Council. I made the film because I want the administration to see sense. ITV London Tonight came to the studios and interviewed myself and Charles Honderick. They then went to Cafe Buzz and interviewed Helen Michael about how the Car parking policies have damaged her business. Their last port of call was the Leader of the Council, Richard Cornelius. Richard told ITV that Barnet is "A successful London Borough with lower than average unemployment and better than usual services". It may shock you to hear that I agree with Richard. The problem is that One Barnet will export jobs, damaging the unemployment figures locally. We've already seen this with the outsourcing of parking to NSL, the first major One Barnet project. This exported 26 jobs to Croyden. As for the better than usual services, why is Mr Cornelius trying to fix something that ain't broken? The evidence is clear, One Barnet will destroy jobs and services and in five years time, whoever the leader of Barnet Council is, they will not be able to make the proud boast that Richard Cornelius made about the in house services.

Mr Cornelius also acknowledges that he hasn't seen the film. He states that it doesn't portray the real Barnet. Sadly it does. All of the people we interviewed are real Barnet residents with real problems. None of the people interviewed had to be coached or guided to make things up. They are just real life victims of poor policies. ITV interviewed Helen Michael at Cafe Buzz. She explained how the Councils parking policies lead to a 40% drop in trade.

Ironically, as they were interviewing Helen, Councillor Brian Coleman was being charged with assault, for an incident involving Helen outside her business in North Finchley in September. The story is on the ITV website here -

http://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2012-10-22/ex-barnet-mayor-charged-with-assault/ 

Back in 2009, I took Brian Coleman to the Standards Committee. I won a judgement against him, proving he breached the Barnet Council code of Conduct. At the time, I wrote that I had done it because I felt Brian Coleman needed to learn to respect other people. As his colleagues in the local Tory Party refused to take any action about it, in effect they encouraged him in an ever more self destructive mode of behaviour. In May 2012, the people of Barnet punished Mr Coleman. They sacked him as GLA representative in the elections. Whilst Boris got over 50% of votes in Barnet, Coleman was slung out on his ear. Coleman learned nothing. He sent more rude emails, losing another standards case. He then insulted women in the public gallery of Barnet Council chamber, calling them "Hags".

Sadly Barnet Council Tories took no action. Now he awaits a trial on the 5th November. Incredibly, his colleagues still refuse to suspend him. On Thursday, he will chair an important committee meeting for the Council. How can the local Conservatives fail to acknowledge how poor this makes them look?

In the 1980's, the Labour Party was nearly destroyed by "Looney Left" councils. In Barnet we have the "Rabid Right". Every day the news gets worse. The question everyone now asks about Brian Coleman is "What does he have on his colleagues that makes them so scared to take action?". I don't know.  Only a fool would think his continued presence in the party is anything other than a millstone around their neck.

At a recent meeting with Barnet Council officials, I explained that Barnet will always find itself in the eye of a media storm whenever it screws up. The reason for this is that more TV producers, newspaper editors and reporters, film directors and producers and other media people live in Barnet than anywhere else in the Country. These stories are on their doorstep. Richard Cornelius says in his interview that "No one likes being Dr Evil". Sadly no one thinks Richard is Dr Evil. They just think he is a weak and ineffective leader who is not up to the job. He has a stark choice. He can man up and start behaving like a leader or the Barnet Tories will, sooner or later, sack him as an act of self preservation.

The bad news stories will not go away until someone on the benches of the Barnet Conservative Party sees sense. Let's just hope that whenever that is, it is not too late for the people of Barnet.