3. 2nD Edgware Scouts out on their first ever hike! Lets give all the group leaders, helpers and volunteers a big shout out for organising such great community activities
6. Mr Reasonable thinks this sign at Chipping Library needs some TLC, we agree!
So @BarnetCouncil, you kept Chipping Barnet Library shut for months spent a fortune downsizing but couldn't be a***d to clean the sign. pic.twitter.com/GFYuzBFnIG
9.Bee Keepers never sleep! Great Tweet from Finchley Horticultural society
Settling the #bees for winter. Medication against #varroa added, bees made more wax comb. Wax comb removed. Bees snuggling up. Happy 🐝🐝🐝 pic.twitter.com/ZUhim0WkvM
Today is a big day for Saturday Lists! It is the 150th Edition! I never thought the series would make it to 150. I didn't realise that there were so many things that I could make a list about. To celebrate reaching 99 lists, I made a complete list of my lists, so if you want to pick and choose your top ten from the first 99, it's quite easy.
A group of Barnet politicians recently attended a session on sexual health and wellbeing. The rather charismatic course leader said "The first thing we always do is a little icebreaker, to try and work out what the group is like and what their interests in the subject are. So we will start with a little question for all of you. According to a survey we just completed, ninety percent of all people masturbate in the shower. Interestingly, the ten percent that don't sing a particular song by The Beatles" The group sat back in thought. The therapist shook her head course leader then said "So can any of Barnet's finest tell me what song they sing?" The group all scratched their heads and one by one exclaimed "No." The course leader then said, "I didn't think so." Have a great weekend!
All you need to do is put in your postcode and you can find out who your representative in Parliament is. MP's are elected to represent you. There is all sorts of interesting information on this site, such as who has been giving donations to local MP's and their local parties. Sometimes it is quite interesting. Sometimes it is banal, here are some recent examples of donations to Mr Offord and his party. I am sure a few local residents will find some of these mildly interesting.
Register of Members’ Interests
Last updated: 11 Sep 2017.
2. (a) Support linked to an MP but received by a local party organisation or indirectly via a central party organisation
Name of donor: Mr Daniel Green
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £5,000
Donor status: individual
(Registered 04 July 2017)
Name of donor: Mr Andrew Reid
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £700
Donor status: individual
(Registered 04 July 2017)
2. (b) Any other support not included in Category 2(a)
Name of donor: Bestway Wholesale Ltd
Address of donor: 2 Abbey Road, Park Royal, London NW10 7BW
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £2,000
Date received: 10 May 2017
Date accepted: 10 May 2017
Donor status: company, registration 01207120
(Registered 04 July 2017)
Name of donor: Mr Andrew Reid
Address of donor: private
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £3,000
Date received: 11 May 2017
Date accepted: 2 June 2017
Donor status: individual
(Registered 04 July 2017)
I personally think it is rather touching that people think Mr Offord is doing a good job and feel inclined to donate cash towards the expenses he has incurred running his campaigns. There are more historical donations here - https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=24955
Sadly for Mr Offord, not everyone in the Borough is quite so impressed with his efforts. I was alerted to one such person by none other than Brian Coleman, formerly a local Tory bigwig, until he rather blotted his copybook. Brian posted the following tweet yesterday.
I was intrigued. A few months ago, Local Mill Hill Councillor Val Duschinsky had told me that "there was a person with mental issues who had launched a malicious complaint against Mr Offord". I had sympathised with Val, as clearly people in public life and MP's especially are at risk, as the the tragic Jo Cox case demonstrated. In light of this I was intrigued and clicked through to the article.
What greeted me was not what I expected at all given the headline and quite interesting. The headline in Mr Coleman's tweet implied that Mr Offord had been cleared of all bad behaviour. On reading the article, the detail painted a slightly different picture. The commissioner had said that the complaint was outside their remit. This is a completely different to being cleared. I was intrigued. I looked up the name of the complainant and found they were on Twitter. Not only that, they were a University Lecturer. As a blogger, it struck me that there may be a story. So I pinged the person a message and asked if they would talk about it. In light of Vals comments, I was a tad surprised to find out that the reply I got was sane and rational. I enquired what she wanted to discuss with Offord in general terms. The reply "Some issues with our street, some issues about local business development, and his voting record - particularly related to welfare reductions."
It all sounded very run of the mill, I couldn't for the life of me see why Offord and his staff had become so difficult. And how did the Times hear about the complaint? This is answered by the complainant in a comment.
"I contacted the Times as I was hoping that as a local paper they would be interested in the refusal of Mr Offord to respond to requests for a meeting, or to give details about his surgery hours. I am university lecturer (having worked at Middlesex University for a long time), a mother of a small child how goes to School in the local area, and a long-time resident of Hendon. When I contacted Mr Offord's office I said that I did not want to share my concerns over email, but would rather meet personally. I was never told that this was the issue preventing Mr Offord from giving me details about this surgery hours - and I have emailed this morning (12.10.17) giving three specific reasons why I would like to meet with him. This should calm Mr Offord's fears about his personal safety. All Hendon residents should be concerned about the lack of communication from Mr Offord about a simple request for surgery hours. They should be more concerned that the parliamentary complaints commission CANNOT follow up on MPs who refuse to respond to or engage with their constituents. Finally, I will be contacting the IPSO if the title of the article is not changed - as to suggest Mr Offord is 'vindicated' is misleading."
So it seems that the matter was as simple as a constituent trying to contact an MP, not getting a satisfactory response and making a complaint in frustration. The Times clearly realised that the original text was misleading and changed the text & title, giving Dr Sanders-McDonagh her correct title and removing all reference to Mr Offord being vindicated.
I do hope that Matthew Offord now makes the effort to meet his constituent. The reason the information portal for finding info on MP's is called "TheyWorkForYou" because they do. It took me five minutes to find out that Dr Sanders-McDonagh is a well respected University lecturer. I would have thought this is just the type of person Mr Offord should be chatting to. Given his staff stated they had declined the request on the grounds she is dangerous, surely this is now not a sustainable argument.
Back in 2008, I requested a meeting with my then MP, Andrew Dismore. I had decided to quit the Labour Party and I wanted to discuss the reasons with Mr Dismore. There were many issues, with him, with the constituency and with the Labour Party that had disillusioned me. I wrote to him, explained my issues and requested a meeting. It was a very difficult meeting for Dismore, at the end of which I informed him I was leaving the Labour Party. It is fair to say that we did not part on good terms. Despite all of that, I still respected him as he had made the time and bothered to listen. In short, he did his job and explained in detail his actions.
Mr Offord should learn from the example of Dismore, who has never ducked out of difficult meetings, hid behind staff or misused police guidance to avoid difficult conversations with clever academics. He should do his job and if someone who is much cleverer than he is, gives him a hard time, he should embrace the opportunity to learn something. After seven years it is sad that Mr Offord still doesn't seem to really understand what his job should be.
For many people in the Borough, the Thameslink Railway is a daily experience. The service is reaching the end of a massive programme of investment. This started in the early 1980's. Prior to 1988, trains on what was formerly called the BedPan line ran between Bedford and London (St Pancras and Moorgate). A disused link was opened between Farringdon and Blackfriars, allowing trains to cross through London. City Thameslink Station was opened in 1990, allowing the closure and redevelopment of Holborn Viaduct Station. A new station was built under St Pancras, in 2007 replacing the old Kings Cross Thameslink Station. Both of these new stations were built to accommodate 12 car trains, and over the next few years, various other stations on the network were upgraded to accommodate 12 car trains as well. Only three stations on the route were not upgraded, two of these were in the London Borough of Barnet (Hendon and Cricklewood). Over the last year, the new trains have finally arrived. Over the last year, the 30 year old 319 stock has been replaced by the new Siemens 700 stock. The 700 series stock is formed of trains of 8 and 12 coaches. It is worth noting that if you board a train to Hendon, you have to be on the front 7 coaches to get off. For Cricklewood and Kentish Town, you need to be on the first 8 coaches. Sadly like many infrastructure projects in the UK, there are gaps that result in hassles and difficulties for passengers.
Local commuters are now familiar with these new trains. It is probably fair to say that for many, the jury is still out. The biggest immediate issue are the issues with air conditioning. This selection of tweets shows the ordeal being endured.
@ToastedbyTL ever wondered why @TLRailUK trains are all so hot? Follow this account!
This has resulted in a Twitter account being set up called @ToastedbyThameslink dedicated to putting pressure on Thameslink to fix the problems. If you are affected, I suggest you follow this account. Their account profile says "The campaign to get @tlrailuk to actually fix the not-fit-for-purpose air conditioning on Class 700 trains."
Then there is the issue of performance. This remains poor. Thameslink provide various stats on their website, including daily and monthly statistics. The latest daily statistics at time of writing showed that only 67% of trains were running on time (Tuesday 10th). There is also a link to more detailed monthly reports on this page.
Another issue is that the new trains, in 8 car formations have less seating than the old 319 stock. There is more space, but this is for standing passengers. The seats are also largely arranged in "airline style' arrangements, allowing far less leg room. The general view is also that the seating is less comfortable, being harder than the seats on the old 319 stock.
Next year, the program will finish, there will be a new timetable. You can check how it affects your journey. There will be more trains from Mill Hill to St Pancras, here is the morning rush hour peak.
Click for a more readable version
So it seems that things will improve, at least in terms of service frequency. We will continue to monitor the progress of Thameslink.
Last week, we generated a huge amount of interest about the proposed North Finchley regeneration project, which was up for discussion at Council last night. As previously mentioned, I put a series of five questions in and also requested to address the session. I was one of five members of the public who asked to address the meeting and there were also numerous questions. Also being discussed was Barnets transport strategy, but we won't cover that here. Two members of the public from local residents associations, along with Helen Michael, from the North Finchley Traders. The residents had a whole set of concerns about the impact of the plans on residents. Traffic, disruption, overcrowding and overdevelopment were key themes. Helen Michael was worried about the impact on local businesses of construction and loss of parking. Various councillors asked questions. It emerged that there was a cross party consensus that the previous attempt at North Finchley regeneration and the Town Team was seen as a failure that had failed to deliver real improvements, despite a huge grant from the Mayor of London. My address was to request that papers for such meetings are put on the Council website earlier. There was only three days between the publication of the papers and the closure date for questions. With so much in the reports, it is simply not feasable to read everything properly. Councillor Cornelius, council leader, agreed that this was something that could be looked at. I stated that I did not oppose the plans, I wanted the job done properly.
This scheme, backed by the developers of Brent Cross is a step change. There will be huge changes, including new building, a multi story car park in Lodge Lane, a new traffic layout, parking changes and lots of new residents. All parties agreed that North Finchley needs improving. No one stated that this scheme was bad. The questions were around the detail. Blogger Mr Reasonable asked where the social housing tenants of Barbara Langstone house would go. Councillor Cornelius admitted he didn't know. He suggested that it wasn't a nice place to live. Mr Reasonable stated that for the tenants it was the only choice and if it was going, the issue had to be addressed. There was discussion around the bus garage. Where would the buses live if the aspiration of closing the garage was achieved. Conservative Councillor Tony Finn suggested that the selection of shops in North Finchley was pretty good. There was much good humoured mirth at his comment that there was a very good "specialist shoe shop". His colleague Tom Davey suggested that the only way to improve town centres was either more parking or lots of rich residents. He worried that the scheme wasn't viable. His Boss, Councillor Cornelius "shot him down from the right" by saying that the developers knew what they were doing and wouldn't spend cash if there was no business case.
Labour Councillors, some of whom were ward councillors were generally supportive. They wanted more detail. It emerged that a transport survey had not been done. Cllr Houston suggested that this was vital to properly understand the scheme. This seemed to have been adopted. Cllr Houston also suggested that the six weeks consultation seemed short. There was some discussion and the reason was to complete it before a meeting in February. No one asked if the meeting could be moved back a month. It was agreed that six weeks would be initially set as the period, with a 'pragmatic' approach and an extension if local interest warranted it. Councillor Schneiderman was worried that existing traders would be forced out. It was suggested that the developer may wish to come up with some ideas to prevent this.
The committee unanimously agreed to take the proposal forward to the next stage. My overall view is that there is recognition that the area needs improvement. There is consensus that the concept of the scheme is good. It is at a very early stage and the detail is far from clear. We will follow this and when the consultation starts, will ensure that readers of this blog are kept fully informed.
One final comment. I must congratulate Cllr Cornelius on how he chaired the meeting. Public comment and questions went overtime by ten minutes. Unlike some committee chairs, he recognised that this was useful. He treated all of the questioners with due respect and courtesy. The committee also debated the issues with a far greater degree of common sense than many debates I've seen. I was pleased to hear that Cllr Finn had bothered to go and have a look around. Even some rather strange comments by Cllr Davey were treated with good humour and respect by the Labour Councillors. When he got too excited, Councillor Cornelius gently brought him back to reality. I am not sure whether it is the election looming or a more general recognition that the "Coleman era rudeness" to residents and taxpayers has been counter productive, but it very much seems to me that the regime in Barnet has adopted a far more sensible approach to such meetings of late. Lets hope that this conversion survives the next election, whoever wins.
I had a walk around the other side of Mill Hill at the weekend. I live just off Mill Hill Broadway, so I thought I'd have a mosey around Millbrook Park, the huge development on the site of the former Inglis Barracks. This was where the Royal Engineers were based. What struck me was the lack of infrastructure to support The community. In the Broadway, we have all manner of facilities. The scheme is building 2,200 new homes. On the Linden homes website, it lists local amenities (strangely showing an airport on Lawrence St). What is alarming is the total lack of amenities on the site. No shops, pubs, secondary schools, non faith schools, medical centres, restaurants, leisure facilities, or restaurants.
This has two big downsides. Firstly how will a local community ever develop? Without communal activity there can be no sense of belonging. Secondly everyone will need a car to do anything. Compare and contrast with The Watling Estate, built with 4032 homes in the 1930's. It came with shops, schools, youth centres, pubs, restaurants, churches with church halls, a new tube line, football fields. To compliment the main Watling shops, there were smaller parades such as Deanesbrook.
In short, the planners in 1920's understood the concept of community. How on earth can Barnet planners allow such a desert of cultural activity to have been built. The nearest pub, the railway engineer has been allowed to shut. The nearest tube station, Mill Hill East has had its direct service to London decimated. The one school on site is a CofE faith school.
There is a big problem for new residents. The roads are not adopted by the council. This means you pay Council tax, but they don't maintain your road. This is just not fair or equitable.
3. Once again, thanks and appreciation to the brave lads and lasses of the fire brigade, keeping us safe and putting their necks on the line, rescuing people in Colindale fire.
7. Today is a notably anniversary in local history. This is a great picture. Not how most of us remember Lady T.
On 8 October 1959, Margaret Thatcher (aged 33) became Conservative MP for Finchley, in north London. Her rise to power had begun. pic.twitter.com/l7qeydnx4z
We've all been there, haven't we? You know that awful feeling when you just want the world to swallow you up, because you've managed to make yourself look like a prize fool. Well I thought I'd share my top ten with you. So here we go!
1. Cricklewood Hotel, Sat 30th November 1985.
This was the night of an infamous Falde Dots gig. This was a big gig for us. We had just returned from Belgium and were on a bit of a high. The venue was packed. What could possibly go wrong? Well unfortunately for me, the stage was made from beer crates. Half way through a guitar solo, it collapsed beneath me and I was left looking like a prize berk. Even worse, I broke my guitar. Fortunately, I had a spare, but no one let me forget it.
2. SPL International offices May 1984.
I was working for an IT company called SPL International. My job was as the computer system manager. They developed software and I often used to nip in to do maintenance jobs at the weekend, that I couldn't do during the week. My ex girlfriend accompanied me on one occasion. The office was always deserted at the weekend. I had the run of the place. My girlfriend had managed to spill something on her skirt. I suggested that she wash the stain out and dry the skirt on the radiator. I assured her no one would come in. She did this and was sitting there in her knickers, when my boss happened to walk in. He was suitably amused, but she was not!
3. Cromwells Bazaar, Burnt Oak, 12 May 1983.
You may wonder how I remember the date so well? It was my Ex girlfriends birthday. I offered to buy her some new Levi's jeans. She wanted to go to Brent Cross to choose some, but I persuaded her that Cromwells Bazaar in Burnt Oak had a better selection (the fact it was cheaper played no part in the equation). She found a pair of Levi's she liked the look of. She went to the changing room, came back and asked the question every man fears "does my bum lookbig in these?". I said "no", but clearly there was a slight inflection in my voice and I received the look forged in the fires of Hades, that women give you when you know they have taken a slight. I realised that she was not going to be giving me a birthday treat later. But how much worse could it get? Well much worse. When she went back to the changing room to try another pair, she found that the zip was stuck. The Jeans could not be removed. It turned out that the Levi's were manufactured to the highest quality. No amount encouragement could budge the zip or prize them off. Eventually, the manager of the shop had to nip down the road to a hardware store, to purchase a Stanley knife, to chop her out. Not only was it highly embarrassing, but I knew that there would be a heavy price to pay!
4. The Washington Square Hotel, New York City, October 1991
I arrived at the Washington Square Hotel, straight from a flight. I checked in, then went out for some refreshments. I found a rather unfriendly Irish Bar, where the barman hated the British. I always refer to him as Mr Plastic Mc Paddy, when I retell the story. He was extremely rude to me. At first I couldn't work out why, so I asked him if I'd offended him. He replied that "all Brits offend me". I realised that this poor soul, who had never set foot in Ireland, personally blamed me for the centuries of British persecution of the Irish. At this I became indignant. My family has strong republican credentials. So I said "For your information, I'm probably more Irish than you and my grandfathers cousin was Kevin Barry". Events took a turn for the worse, when, to my complete surprise, Mr Plastic replied "who the f.... is Kevin Barry". At this, a gentleman who was sitting at the bar and it transpired was something to do with the local IRA went ballistic at him for insulting a republican martyr. After that I was treated like a celebrity and drank free Guinness all night long at the barman's expense. I staggered back to the hotel, stripped off and fell asleep. Later on, awaking and being drunk and disorientated, I staggered to what I thought was the bathroom. As I steppred in and the door slammed behind me, I realised my mistake. I was standing naked on the landing of the Washington Square Hotel. I had no key and no choice but to go to reception and get them to let me back in.
5. Centrefile, Aldgate, January 1992.
This one was a slow burn. I was interviewed for a job as a freelance IT Consultant. At the interview, the chap interviewing said "I see you used to work for BACS Ltd, what sort of things did you do there". I proceeded to explain how I'd taken some software that was really badly designed and used to take 23 hours to run and managed to fine tune it to run in four minutes. I assumed the interview went very well as I was offered the post. About six weeks later, I was in the pub with my new colleagues and one started to say "tell him John, go on" to the chap who interviewed me. After much sniggering, I was informed that he was the guy who designed the software I'd spent ten minutes rubbishing. I felt awful.
6. SPL International. March 1984.
At the time, the company was based in Windmill St, W1, just off Tottenham Court Road. We used to play five a side football on a Tuesday. We'd being our kit in and change in the office, then walk up to the pitches, which were behind Warren St. My colleagues were amused by the fact I didn't have a sports bag. I just used to pop my kit into a Budgens carrier bag. On this particular occasions, I went to get changed and found that I'd made a slight mistake. When my ex girlfriend had got up, she'd put the kitchen waste, which was also in a Budgens bag, by the front door. I'd brought this in to work. My colleagues found this hilarious.
7. Mill Hill, August 1979 .
This was meant to be a key moment in The False Dot's career. We were being interviewed by Baj from XPert I Punk fanzine. We were due to support the UK Subs in Derby. The interview was all set up. He'd come and watch us rehearse and then have a chat. What could possibly go wrong. Everything. Two days before the interview, Dave Edwards, our drummer was attacked in Mill Hill Broadway. He was thrown through the window of WH Smiths and severed a tendon. There was no way we could perform the gig and no way we could perform at the rehearsal. I said to Pete Conway that we should cancel Baj's visitm, but he said "no, we'll play him some tapes and have a chat. It's a better story". On the day of the interview, Pete turned up late and drunk. Baj was already in a foul mood because he'd come to see a rehearsal for a band playing in Derby and that wasn't happening. He asked Dave why he was thrown through the window. He replied that he'd been mistaken for Pete Conway. At that Pete walked in and started to misbehave. After five minutes Baj left. The interview was published. We'd played him a badly recorded cassette. He suggested that 'their music is as immature as their behaviour". A week later we split up. If anyone has a copy of the mag, I'd love to see it again!
If you've never met me and only read my blogs, I suspect that you will be a tad surprised, should you ever have the misfortune to spend some time with me. I try my hardest to be polite and nice to people, to put people at ease and to genuinely try and give them the benefit of the doubt. I am well known for enjoying the craic as they say where my Grandad was born. I try my hardest to present a cheerful demeanour to the world and to make people smile. I always enjoy putting together the Friday Joke. It is a bit of light relief and I hope that the readers of the blog enjoy it.
I am, therefore always highly fed up when I have to miss printing one, unless it is to promote a gig, or some other great local event. I believe that we should strive to make life joyous and a celebration. Once in a while, however, my sunny demeanour is disturbed and I feel a joke is not appropriate. Today is one such occasion. The source of my ire? A completely dishonest tweet from the Barnet Conservatives, in response to a Tweet from the Save Barnet Libraries campaign.
Thanks for drawing attention to our £7m investment in new tech & refurbs to keep all libraries open! @BrentLabour closed 1/2 theirs instead. https://t.co/xVufwSIzg7
When you give evidence in court, you are asked to give three things. The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth. If you do not do this a Judge, Jury or Magistrate will deem you to be untrustworthy. Your evidence is likely to be discounted and you may well find yourself in trouble for perjury.
So how does the @BarnetTories tweet stand in this respect. Well if you apply this test to the statement, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that the Barnet Tories have done a marvellously good job as the custodians of the jewels that comprise Barnet's library service. But does the tweet tell the whole truth? Would M'Lud conclude that they are reliable, honest and decent witnesses? Or would he conclude that they are a tad shifty?
Lets present the evidence.
They state that unlike Brent, which is run by Labour, no libraries have shut on their watch. But they are playing fast and loose with the truth. Lets take a look at Mill Hill Library. As a toddler, my mum would take me there and I'd select Thomas The Tank Engine books from the marvellous childrens library section on the left had side. Mum would bring these home and read them to me. This cycle was repeated with my own children. It is not in my nature to boast, but I believe that this is a critical factor in the incredible academic success of my children. The children's library had been refurbished and was a very child friendly place where youngsters could enjoy books while mums socialised. There are many reasons why you don't really want children and toddlers sharing a space with adult
library users. Hopefully I don't really need to spell these out.
Sadly, the childrens library in Mill Hill has shut. It has been taken over by the Mill Hill Hub. This provides all sorts of marvellous things, such as hot desking facilites for business people, a cafe and a space for performances. In many ways it is a good thing. But it is not a proper childrens library. There is still a library, in Mill Hill. It is 50% of the size of the previous library. Some libraries have had their size cut by far more. If you cut a library's size down by 50-75%, that means that there are a half or a quarter as many books. It means that more people are crammed in and the environment is less conducive to work. Now that is bad enough, but if you sack the librarian and let untrained volunteers run the show, it ceases to be a library. I have shelves of books in my house and I know what they all are. But is my house a library? Of course it isn't.
Now I have a degree of sympathy for our local Conservative administration. The government has put them in an impossible position with budget cuts. Whilst I believe that they are misguided to cut library provision, I can see why they have made such a decision. If they were honest and said "We would love to keep our local library service, but the government has cut our budgets to the point where it is unsustainable", I would applaud them for their honesty, if nothing else. But they can't do that because they know it would make the local Tory MP's, all with wafer thin majorities, even more vulnerable. So what do they do?
They do something which is despicable and dishonest. They put out leaflets which are misleading and dishonest. They have only "not closed libraries" if you think that children don't matter and that a room with a few books in it and a few people hanging around to tidy up is a library. To run a library, you need to be qualified, as in study and have exams. This means that when members of the public come in, you can answer their queries.
And then there is the opening hours. In 2012 these were the opening hours
Click for a more readable version
And what are they like today?
Click for a more readable version
So there are two different models of cuts, both of which I believe are short sighted, bad for our communities and unfair on residents who use libraries (typically, the elderly, young families and those with financial difficulties). The Brent model where you close half of the libraries, but keep a decent service at the rest or the Barnet model where you close half of the space, get rid of the staff and provide a service run by untrained amateurs (who are clearly decent and publicly minded people).
Not only that but many Barnet libraries are self service. These are closed to children and minors. In Barnet, children don't really seem to matter at all to our Conservative councillors, which may well be why OFSTED issued such a damning report of childrens services. Despite the prosperity in Barnet, many live in poverty and many students and young people use the libraries as a quiet space for study and revision. I used to myself when revising for exams. There is no telly, no distractions. If the space is not open, it is shut. As you can see, your local library is shut far more regularly.
There is an ancillary matter as well to consider. They say they've spent £7 million on refurbishment and "new techs". None of this has been spent on libraries, it has been spent on making the space suitable for other purposes. So is this statement "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".
So when the Tories say "Thanks for drawing attention to our £7m investment in new tech & refurbs to keep all libraries open! @BrentLabour closed 1/2 theirs instead. ", is it the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". I'll let you, the jury decide in May next year
God bless the child, but not in Barnet. Here we bless vested interests. I can't lift your mood with a joke today with a joke, I apologise. But here is some truly awesome music that sums up how I feel and how I worry for our community. May God bless you!
