Is Mike Freer registered on Second Life?

Mike Freer in Israel working hard

Mike Freer Says
"Anyone who knows me knows I am a worker and that is what this constituency needs."

Rog T says

Unless Mike Freer is registered on Second Life and runs a virtual council where everything runs smoothly and he does a great job, he is clearly a fantasist.

If he's such a hard worker, how com the following has happened when he's leader :-

Barnet lost £27.4 in dodgy investment schemes in Iceland? He says he never checked them (Very hard working).

The latest budget attempted to raise the charges for burying dead children by 10% because neither Freer nor his scrutiny cabinet bothered to read it. They only realised when David Miller started a campaign. Freer's equally hard working lackey, Brian Coleman commented " none of the council officers told me about it"

The Aerodrome road Bridge project went Millions of pounds over budget, gobbling up Council resources. Less than a year ago, on his blog in the Edgware Times, Freer said it was on budget and he'd done a great job. He's in charge of Barnet resource management.

His last job, which he clearly worked so hard at was as a banker. Under his stewardship, Barnet Council borrowed hundreds of millions of pounds. This is now sitting in accounts earning minimal interest, meaning the Council taxpayer has to pay the difference to make up the interest. Even in his chosen field of excellence he fails.

I thought I'd dig a bit deeper and have a look at Mike's website (or Should I say the Finchley Conservatives website, which has morphed into a Mike Freer Hagiography).

Clearly if he's a hard worker, he'd be running lots of local campaigns and have lots of pictures and stories of him standing up for local people. There would be lots of pictures of him with smiling old ladies who'd had their taps fixed through his efforts. So what do we get - Click HERE TO SEE.

Yup, what we get are six campaigns

1. A link to the Central Conservative website urging small businesses to take up rates relief - No input from Mike. Interestingly, elsewhere on his website he has a picture of his launch of the Barnet bond. This is a stealth tax on businesses. I suppose it should also be noted that when I last appealed my business rates, it took nearly three years to be heard. Eventually I got a few thousand pounds back - so much for helping small companies.

2. A note about the Equitable Life scandal. Mike posted a letter on his website. As best I can tell, he seems to say Theresa Villiers has done a fine job on his behalf chasing it up in parliament.

3. A campaign to keep some post offices open. He's asked us to send him an email. Part of the national Tory campaign against post office closures.

4. A few paragraphs saying Mike doesn't like the Council tax revaluation and disagres with the Government on HIPS. Again a national Conservative Party initiative.

5. A few paragraphs about his support for the national Tory campaign against bin tax.

6. A link that doesn't work about Gordon Brown getting his sums wrong.

All in all, whatever you might think about Mike, surely there are real local issues in Finchley and Golders Green he should be campaigning about. If he was, surely he'd post them on his website? Surely he'd have a few testimonials from people he's helped? I don't know if the issue is he's got a rotten website or that he's as lazy as it appears? Either way, given that he's clearly a bright guy, you'd expect a hard worker to be on top of this.

One final example of the hard work of Mike Freer. Check out the LEADERLISTENS.COM blog. Mike Freer got this vanity project set up by the Council at a cost of over £400. This year he's posted one item on it. Not exactly prolific. As a contrast Conservative GLA member and deputy mayor for young people - James Cleverly - has a free blogspot blog, which he's posted to 14 times. Now I'm a Labour member so I don't agree with much of James Cleverly's policies, but it's a good blog (and it's free to taxpayers). I've also got a link at the side to Tory GLA member Roger Evans blog, again worth a look to see how it's done. I should also note that these guys always seem to respond to comments, Mike has not moderated at least 50% of the comments I've left. Now there are plenty of Councillors, etc who don't have blogs, so it's not a "must have". I would however say that if you get one set up at cost to the taxpayer, you should as a minimum a) update it regularly and b) respond to your comments. If you can't be bothered, don't go around boasting about how hard you work.

Mind you he's been recognised for this achievement with a "Banker of the year award" from Private eye, for elevating incompetence to new levels. The only areas of Barnet Council which run smoothly are the ones he leaves well alone, such as education. Everything else is in turmoil due to his "Bonkers" future shape scheme.

Cleverly Coded Criticism of Coleman !!!!

Praise where praise is due. If I see a politician, whatever the party doing something the right way, I'll praise them to the hilltops. There are plenty of decent men and women in all of the parties, doing the job as best they can. I am sure the excesses of politicians like Brian Coleman must privately enrage them. His £8,231 taxi bill last year no doubt caused much squirming amongst his colleagues on the London assembly. It rather looks to me as if one of his colleagues, James Cleverly has had enough of Brian Coleman's excesses and has decided to take a principled stand and send him a powerful message. In his blog http://www.jamescleverly.blogspot.com dated yesterday he says :-

22 January, 2009
My expenses

Jimmy, a regular commentator on this blog, makes a valid request. In my last post I wrote about MPs expenses and he feels it only fair that I'm open about mine. Fair point.

Before I reveal the figure I think it only fair to explain that Assembly Members and MPs expenses work in very different ways.

Firstly because London is a physically tight area none of us need second homes. All our staff, IT equipment and office equipment is paid for centrally rather than being paid by or bought by the MP, as is the case in Westminster. I also get an annual travel card so I can get around London for meetings, visits etc. This all keeps our expenses lower and more simple than MPs.

Now here is the good bit. Based on my expenses since being elected in May of last year I calculate my annual expense claim for the municipal year 2008/9 will be £0.00

I can't promise it will always be this low but I'll do my best.

Well Done James. Another Tory who's style I quite like is Roger Evans. I suspect that he's very close to Brian Coleman politically, but he can make his point without coming over as being arrogant or offensive. Wheras Coleman dismissed the Brent Cross Railway as "A bonkers scheme devised by men with train sets in their attics" (or words to that effect, Evans puts his opposition to Cross London Tram in far more measured and sensible terms in a reply to a question I asked him on HIS BLOG. He says :-

One of these was Brian Coleman who made his presence felt by objecting to the tram proposal, to the extent that his efforts were - I believe - reported by some of the pro tram bloggers, after the meeting. I was also present and I raised an objection on the grounds of cost. I can think of many better ways to spend £1.3 billion...

I don't agree with Roger Evans at all on this subject, but it seems to me that his approach is far more sensible. There even seems to be a tacit acknowledgement in his comment that the Brian Coleman approach doesn't really help move the debate forward.
I don't expect Colemans fellow assembly members to go public with open criticism, but it certainly seems to me as if they have realised that his approach does more harm than good. The James Cleverly attitude towards his expenses is a breath of fresh air and there are many politicians of all parties who could take a leaf out of his book.

Mike Freer : Take my advice and get yourself Rogered

Well that got your attention didn't it. What filthy little minds you have! Being one of the global fraternity of Rogers, I object to the common usage of the term "Rogering" and I want to reclaim it to reflect the many and varied talents of the Rogers of the world, not just our renowned virility. It has come to my attention that one of the many talents us Rogers seem to have is that we write exceptionally good blogs. There are many examples of this prowess (apart from my own humble effort, but probably my favourite is Ramblin with Roger, by Roger Owen Green - http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/. I don't know what it is about us Rogers, but we seem to be prolific in the blogging realm and the range and depth of subjects on various blogs is truly amazing. I think you'll agree we're also rather handsome chaps !!!!



So what's all this got do with Mike Freer? Well probably the best Tory blogger I've come across (as it were) is GLA Member Roger Evans.


His City Hall blog is interesting and informative. He doesn't mind a bit of a row with various commenters and it is well put together and interesting. As one would expect from a Roger, if you check his profile, he runs a total of Four blogs !!! All on blogspot Free of charge. He puts old two blogs Freer to shame. I noticed that Roger also runs a mentoring service (with associated blog) for prospective Tory Candidates. Now he doesn't say what he calls this service, but as I said, I want to reclaim the phrase "Rogered" so in this blog if I say someone needs to be Rogered, I mean given guidence on how to write a decent blog. It seems that Messr's Evans and Owen Green have a lot to offer the wider blogging community.

It strikes me that given the quality of his four (free) blogs, Roger Evans should most certainly give our Council leader Mike Freer a few lessons in writing a blog. Mike Freer's sorry effort (click HERE) merely seems to carry rehashed Council press releases. What is our Mike so scared of that he can't say what he's actually been up to? If Roger Evans can put a decent blog together for free, then surely Mike owes us a bit more effort and commitment. I'm sure that if Mike contacted his Tory Colleague, he'd be more than happy to take him in hand and sort him out. My Advice Mike - Get on the phone and get yourself Rogered.