Councillor Robert Rams forced to back down over A Tale of Two Barnets poster ban

A right Rams FACup

Councillor Robert Rams bowed to public pressure and lifted the ban on posters advertising A Tale of Two Barnets at local public libraries. This was revealed in a Tweet in response to the Barnet Eye. Here is what Rams tweeted
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Cllr Robert Rams ‏ @CllrRobertRams

@Barneteye I will not allow the leaflets as in easy reach of children, but happy for the posters to go back and have informed officers that

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It is quite clear that he takes responsibility for censoring the posters and leaflets. It is also quite clear that he has bowed to the immense public pressure in reversing the ban on the posters.The excuse for the ban was  leaflet distributed by the Barent Alliance for Public Services BAPS. The exact text that Rams says is offensive goes as follows :-

“As a user of social services my view is that Barnet councillors don't give a sh...t about disabled people and their carers; how would they feel if they were in our situation?!" (a disabled person)

For the sake of clarity, the two .. in the word Sh..t were present in the leaflet. The Barnet Eye believes that Councillor Robert Rams is using a very lame excuse for imposing an ill thought out move. I asked Barnet Council to provide guidelines as to what leaflets and books could say in a Barnet library. They have not responded. Maybe tomorrow I will borrow Lady Chatterlys lover from Mill Hill library. I can assure Mr Rams that there is far more eye watering langauge in this book than any leaflet BAPS have issued. Maybe Councillor RAms would care to tell me whether the book is suitable?

The pronouncements and policies of the Barnet Tories get stranger by the day. I sometimes wonder if Rams and his chums are secretly a bunch of Trotskyite infiltrators, hell bent on destroying the credibility of the Conservative party in Barnet. Did he really believe he'd get away with such a Stalinist attempt at censorship without the staff in the Library service telling anyone. Surely Rams realises that of any department in Barnet Council understand the value of free speech it is the Library service. does he realise what a TW..T he looks?

The Barnet Times censor my comment about First Capital Connect

How very odd. I left a comment on the Hendon Times website about this story where First Capital Connect were defending their performance


http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/4859766.Train_firm_defends_franchise_after_government_threat/?ref=mr#commentsList

Guess what? It's gone. I didn't save the text, but as I recall I simply suggested that the Times should do a story where they talked to commuters about the problem and also highlighted the No 10 Petition to get the Government to strip First of the Thameslink Franchise. As I recall, there were no swear words etc.

I rather hope that someone from the Times will explain to me why the comment was dropped. I must confess that I'm mystified as to why they should. Anyway if you haven't signed the petition and you are unhappy with First Capital Connect, I suggest you do. There is a link in the sidebar. We are 67 signatures short of 4,000 with over 1,000 signatures in a week. Let's hope that even if the Times are censoring us, the message gets through loud and clear to Trasnport Secretary Lord Adonis.

More Censorship at the Times?

There was a rather interesting story on the Edgware Times website yesterday.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/hendonnews/4297208.Jobless_protestor__making_quick_buck__from_police_abuse_claims__says_assembly_member/

I'd bookmarked it, but it seems to have disappeared.

I wonder why?

Carbona Not Glue

It's Caroline's fault I am this way
Mom and Dad want to put me away
From the early, early morning to the late, late show
When it's over there's nowhere to go

June 6th 1977, I saw the Ramones, Talking Heads and the Saints at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. My life changed & I suddenly got music. More than that, I got a life! I got a guitar and I got a band. My sister Caroline had a spare ticket and dragged me along. My mum warned her that if I turned into a wrong 'un, it would all be her fault. This clip was made less than a month later. It sent shivers down my spine to see it. They really were the world's greatest live band and I guess I saw them 20 or 30 times.

Shortly after I bought Leave Home by the Ramones. Carbona Not Glue was my favourite track and I used to sing the above lyrics to my Dad to annoy him (and stay out of thumping distance). I turned my best mate Dermot on to the Ramones as well. He asked me to get him the album which I did. When we played his new copy, guess what? Carbona had gone, to be replaced by the drippy track "Babysitter". I asked big sis what was going on. She replied that a Tory MP had kicked up a fuss so it had been banned. To this day I've never forgiven the Conservative Party. Dee Dee Ramone said in one interview that he couldn't believe an elected politician would be so stupid to see that it wasn't satirical. He said that anyone stupid enough to sniff cockroach spray, wouldn't be influenced by the Ramones. I agreed with his view that Ramones fans are the highest, not the lowest form of human life !

Anyway, as my music career has gone from strength to strength and the studios see the likes of Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, The Damned, The Beautiful South etc pass through, she reckons that by my mum's reckoning, I owe her my fortune as it's all her fault.

Anyway, the moral of this story? Beware of Tories pretending to like the Ramones. They banned Carbona ! I've loved this track for 32 years and I've not turned to the gluepot or the roachspray yet.

Just for the record, here's the real lyrics.

Carbona Not Glue

Wondering what I'm doing tonight I've been in the closet and feel all right

Ran out of Carbona Mom threw out the glue
Ran out of paint and roach spray too It's TV's fault why I am this way

Mom and pop wanna put me away
From the early morning movie to the late late show
After it's over nowhere to go And I'm not sorry for the things I do

My brain is stuck from shooting glue I'm not sorry for the things I do

Carbona not glue

The Ministry of Truth Lives on in Barnet - These Chickens ain't headless

Wanna see some first class media manipulation & censorship in action in Barnet?

Just in case you haven't anything better to do and you want to see a graphic example of what a bunch of censorious chickens are running the Council, go to Google and type in the following search exactly as I've written it (CUT & PASTE it for ease)

"ROG T" blog -claimant -orton barnet

Now when you've done that go to the third page. Around the 5th entry down is a link to LEADERLISTENS.COM

Don't click this just yet, click the Cached button under the url.

See the comments there :-
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Comments:
Richard Logue
I will post my comment that is still awaiting moderation at Mike Freer's leader listens blog:

What do you mean by business as usual? If Mill Hill was anything to go by it was definitely NOT business as usual. Ungritted roads and pavements and hardly any shops were open. I could not get to work as there were no buses. Many shops in Mill Hill Broadway were closed. So sorry Mike, it was NOT business as usual. Hasn’t anyone else posted about this or do you only publish praise like the first comment??
Rog T
This is the comment that Mike Freer won't post on his "Business as Usual" blog entry in Leader Listens - leaderlistens.com/2009/02/02/business-as-usual-despite-he...

Mike,

I had to take a day off work as my three kids at three different schools were all at home as the schools were shut. Barnet knew for a week about the snow. Half the shops in Mill Hill Broadway were shut. The manager of Leyla’s Turkish restaurant told me it took 4 hours to drive from Barnet to Mill Hill.

The one thing anyone who lives in Barnet knows is that today WAS NOT business as usual.


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Now click on the main LEADERLISTENS.COM link - Notice how the comments have magically gone? It's called censorship and it's the first sign of a weak and desperate regime.

Justin case they disappear from the Cache, here's a screenshot I prudently took (sorry it's pretty blurred. It's not just me they don't like, I see they deleted Richard Logue's comment. Sorry Richard, seems if you agree with me you airbrushed out of Barnet

Draw your own conclusions