The Barnet Eye News Round up

Firstly the sad news about the passing of Lux Interiors - Lead singer of THE psychobilly band - The Cramps. This band were hugely influential. Many things will be written about them, but all I can really say is that if you didn't get The Cramps, you probably didn't get Rock n Roll. RIP Lux.

Next up, a story which caught my eye. The Tornado, the first main line steam engine to be built for 50 years entered service this week. This was built from public donations of £1.5 Million. I suspect that Great Britain is the only country in the world where we'd spend this sort of money reviving a century old technology for something which will go straight into a museum. We are an odd bunch really aren't we. Mind you, I wouldn't have it any other way.


A story which made me chuckle was that of a fellow Manchester City fan who had the face of Brazilian Footballer on his chest, only for his transfer to fall through. The dangers of being a football fan.

A couple of stories I couldn't let pass without comment. The Carol Thatcher "Golliwog" and the Jeremy Clarkson "One eyed Scottish Idiot" comments. The response of the BBC seems to me to mirror that of the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross comments. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of what was said, it seems to me that the strength of the sanction is related to the individuals worth to the BBC. Ie Thatcher and Brand were marginal figures who didn't bring in much revenue, so they could be disposed of. Ross and Clarkson are major figures who bring in cash, hence they must be retained. I think the BBC actually used the return of Ross to boost the ratings. As to my personal opinion. I think Thatchers comments would be perceived as very insulting by many black people, but I suspect she intended no offence and didn't understand why Adrian Chiles and Jo Brand took such offence. If someone has such a lack of sensitivity, should they be on telly? I suspect that in this day and age no. As to Clarkson. He has a huge cult following, built on such inflammatory statements. I generally don't have a problem with politicians being insulted, but the quip about Gordon Brown's blindness was really nasty. By all means call him an idiot, and yes he's Scottish, but implying that blindness impairs his abilty to be Prime Minister is, in my opinion, not acceptable. Clarkson has apologised, but I think if Thatcher has been banned, Brand has been banned and Ross has been suspended, there is a lack of consistency. Personally I'm not into censorship, so I'd not have banned any of them, if the comments were made outside of prime time TV. I think it is down to the viewers to vote with their feet. I suspect that "banning" Clarkson would have the same effect as banning the Sex Pistols did. They went straight to number one and are still earning a fortune on the back of their notoriety.

One final story. The Nurse who was suspended for saying a prayer for a patient. Lord help us. Is this the sort of society we've become? It seems to me that there is a tendency towards becoming thought Nazi's. I'm a Roman Catholic, but I was an agnostic/Athiest for about 20 years aged 14/34. If you don't believe then saying aprayer is like saying a poem - where's the offence? If you are of a different denomination then so what, we all believe in the same god. Even if you are a member of the Bretheren of the Sacred Rock of Arrandene, then if it's a prayer to a different god, surely it doesn't hurt? I could understand if the Nurse in question had asked an Imam if he wanted a prayer said then brought the pope in to bless him, but a private prayer? A friend of mine had a tumour diagnosed a few years ago. He happens to Jewish. I brought him back a bottle of water from Lourdes ( a Catholic shrine with a spring producing water which has reputedly got healing qualities). On returning I gave it to him and he drunk it. His view as he drunk it "same God, if it works great, if it doesn't I've lost nothing". His tumour has behaved itself since and I've brought him back a few more bottles. If he'd said he didn't want it that would have been fine with me. He's never going to become a Christian, but he swears by it's healing properties. None of us know how these things work. If they help, great. I can see no plausible explanation that they'll cause any harm. I'd never ever advocate the use of such things instead of conventional medicine (neither does my friend) but if you are the one in a million it cures, then great. If someone proffers a prayer and you are offended, then really you should ask yourself this "Am I taking this all the wrong way". I believe there are good people and there are bad people. We each have a slightly different path Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Zoriastrian, Humanist, Athiest. If it works for you then that's what matters. Be tolerant, be open in your thought process, respect other people's traditions and ask them to respect yours. When I put out our Christmas dinner this year, around the table we had 5 Jews, 4 Roman Catholics, 3 C of E's, 2 Agnostic Athiests and a Partridge in a pear tree. We had a great time. That's how it should be.

The Hendon Residents Forum

Being a good Catholic boy, having spent the week being rather beastly to the Leader of Barnet Council here, I thought I'd do my penance and take myself down to the Hendon Residents Forum at Broadfields Junior School. I'm not really someone who enjoys meetings, but there were a few issues on the agenda which I have an interest in, so off I trotted. There was a rumour that fellow Barnet blogger Vickim57 was putting in an appearance to grill the council on Future Shape, which swung it for me. I was interested to see Vicki in action & hear what she had to say. I'd not met Vicki before, so I was playing a little game of "Spot the Vicki" as various members of the public appeared. I knew here age from her blog profile, but by the time the meeting started, there were still three possible suspects.

Anyway our host for the night Councillor Brian Gordon kicked off the meeting, ably assisted by Barnet's very own Jedi Knight Councillor John Hart. I had a few preconceptions about Councillor Brian Gordon, but last night I noticed a strong similarity between the good councillor and a good mate of mine from my days at Orange Hill Senior High School. My good friend, like Councillor Gordon was from a strongly Jewish background. I still recall my friend bemoaning to me in the common room as we ogled the cover of the New Musical Express "If you brought Debbie Harry home and introduced her to your dad as your new girlfriend, he'd say - well done son - If I did, it would be a family disaster". I don't think either of us ever brought Debbie Harry home so the problem was rather academic.

Anyway the first three items were petitions. I was about to speak about item 2 when the guy who organised the petition for Item 3 spoke up. After a brief debate about parking in Sheaveshill Avenue, I jumped up to ask my question about point 2. It seems that having received assurances from Council Leader Mike Freer that the road through Montrose Park was dead and buried, the answer to petition 2 implied that it was back on the menu. Could the Council clarify this. The official to Councillor Gordon's right (sorry no nameplate) said that the road was back on the agenda. It was further explained that although the road went through the park, technically it didn't which was why Mike Freer gave his answer. I was assurred that it wasn't a ploy to distract the protestors. Am I reassurred? I'll leave that to you to decide.

At this point things got rather confused. A lady arrived and asked what item we were debating. Councillor Gordon replied Point 2. She said "Ah good, I've not missed point 3". Councillor Gordon responded that we'd already debated that. The lady got upset because Councillor Gordon hadn't anticipated her arrival and Broadfields School had adopted stealth mode, making it invisible, so she'd arrived late. Councillor Gordon responded that it wasn't his fault she was late. She clearly thought that she'd been nobbled, sadly it was cock-up rather than conspiracy. She then announced she was representing Andrew Dismore and he sent his apologies. Councillor Gordon rather wittily responded that he was "always happy to receive an apology from Andrew Dismore". As I finished off making my point, Councillor Gordon commended me for my witty write up of the September forum in the Edgware Times. It makes a welcome change for a local Tory to make a comment about a blog under his own name in public, so he definately moved up in my estimation (even if as I suspect he was humouring me).

Next up point 4. A Raymond Raven stood up and gave us a sales pitch for an electric bike. The assembled mob were not too impressed. Councillor Gordon, seeing his chance to inflict some pain on us riff-raff, ruled the point in order and let Mr Raven drone on. I helpfully suggested that if we had to listen to sales pitches, maybe the companies could provide tea and biscuits. As various members of the audience got more agitated, Councillor Gordon started to enjoy himself. Next up another local blogger DONT CALL ME DAVE with a whole raft of points detailing the various failings of the council. Councillor Gordon adopted his sarcastic Schoolmaster persona. You know the approach "Yes David, Marvellous point, next". Being a lawyer, Councillor Gordon is ideally suited to this role. As for poor John Hart, I suspect his main concern was whether to start with red wine when he got home of go straight to the fine Islay Malt Whisky. I suspect that John Hart is very pro these forum's but he just wishes a better quality of people would come who would ask more interesting questions. I suspect that John would much rather the questions were of the form "We're having Venison for dinner on Sunday, could the council recommend a full bodied red to compliment the rich texture of the meat". Maybe I'll ask next time?

Question 7 from David extracted the most interesting answer. Councillor Brian Gordon assurred us that Council Leader Mike Freer "Isn't shy". I asked whether the failure to respond in time to FOI requests was "because they were incompetant or hiding something" Councillor Gordon responded "Neither" but couldn't really suggest an alternative explanation other than "these things take time"

Question 8 was about why votes at council were not recorded. Councillor Julie Johnson (Labour) asked why electronic voting wasn't used. Councillor Gordon respond that Labour wouldn't like it. Poor old Councillor Johnson looked suitably perplexed by this. For those of you who are interested, I can offer this helpful guide. If the motion says the Tories are marvellous the 33 Tories all vote for it and the opposition all vote against it. If it says the Tories are rubbish, the opposite happens. If the Lib Dems propose anything, the Tories all vote against it and the Labour Councillors ignore it.

An interesting aside came during the course of this debate. A member of the public asked Councillor Gordon why he skived off early from the last Council meeting. Councillor Gordon looked rather sheepish. He responded that this was the first ever meeting he'd done a bunk from and it was due to a family wedding. The questioner (rather strangely) shouted "Lies". Councillor Gordon responded "I can assure you I'm not" I helpfully suggested that he got a note from his mum. Councillor Gordon ignored my attempt to help him.

Question 10 was about hire vans parking at Apex Corner. John Hart said he'd counted 7 of them, it was terrible and the council could do nothing.

The next raft of questions were from Stonegrove Campaigner Myk Tucker. The drift of them was that due to the credit crunch, we're all doomed. The Council officers responded that we're not and it's all on track. It was one of those rather surreal debates, where none of us have a clue what's going to happen so we all pretend we are 100% correct. Myk challenged the council's assertion that the scheme was well supported. "Where's the evidence?" Councilor Gordon responded "Well it's not here". I suspect that the Stonegrove redevelopment is popular in the same way as syphilis. Tonight plenty of people will catch syphilis. They will enjoy catching it, but it's not what they wanted and they will regret it once the full impact becomes clear. It's all a question of how the question is presented. If I said "would you like a night of passions with your ideal partner" You'd say "not half". You may change your mind if you knew you'd catch the clap, but if you weren't told? As Barnet is concreted over, quite a few of us are realising that we weren't told the whole picture.

Question 12 lead to a rather interesting debate. It seems that a couple of Barnet Council officials went to a conference in Cannes at a cost to the taxpayer of £4932.74 each. Now you could go on a 6 week cruise up the Amazon for that, so it seems a bit excessive. Councillor Gordon looked embarrassed. Councillor Hart had a silly grin. I suspect that the mention of Cannes had conjoured images of Sophia Loren and Brigit Bardot, which were infinately preferable to cold damp meetings in Edgware.

After David and Myk's questions we got the star of the meeting, Mrs Cohen. If you read my previous blog, you'll know that Mrs Cohen is not someone to be trifled with. Last time she'd wiped the floor with Councillor Gordon, this time he was prepared. As with the last time, out came the long speech. I stared intently at Councillor Gordon, waiting for his concentration to crack and Mrs Cohen to pounce. I thought, "He's been practising in front of the mirror". As she finished he agreed it was terrible and that the council would be responding tomorrow. He demanded that he be copied on the council's response so he personally could make sure she was dealt with correctly. Councillor Hugh Rayner had snuck in and he piped up that he wanted a copy as well. Councillor Gordon strangely looked rather put out by this. I suspect that he want's the final victory over Mrs Cohen to be all his. He helpfully suggested that as she has such and excellent and hard working Councillor in Julie Johnson, she direct all her enquiries through her.

Next up Vicki Morris. This was the moment I'd been waiting for. Of the 3 possible Vicki Morris's one had left. I had a 50/50. I guessed wrong. I was gutted. Vicki started. She revealed that £650,000 had been spent on future shape. This figure was challenged. Vicki responded that these figures were taken from minutes of council meetings. Then a rather disturbing thing happened. Councillor Richard Wieder stood up. He interjected that Vicki Morris was a council employee, so she shouldn't be allowed to speak. The assembled audience were affronted. Vicki stated that she was a local resident and that she had every right to speak. Councillor Weider persisted. At this point John Hart whispered something to Councillor Gordon. Much to his credit Councillor Gordon announced. "She's a local resident, she's every right to speak, there's nothing to hide here". What particularly disturbed me was this comment left on my blog about Vicki prior to the meeting :-

04 February 2009 12:31
do call me dave said...

Umm doesn't Vickim work for the Barnet's TUC and run an anti blog? Funny old world...

It seems to me that maybe Councillor Richard Weider's interjection was not entirely spontaneous. Much credit goes to Councillor's Gordon and Hart for having nothing to do with this attempt to cow and intimidate Vicki. She made her point well. At this point, I had to leave. I had to play 5 a side football at 8.30.

A strange thing happened. Councillor Richard Weider, clearly gutted at being slapped down also got up to go. We walked down the corridor, him with a face like thunder and myself not relishing the company of this slimy toady. Then I thought "He's clearly a fan of Future Shape, I could use this opportunity to ask a couple of questions" as we made our way out.


Richard Weider



ROG T : "So councillor do you think that £650,000 is money well spent on future shape consultants"

RW : "Yes, it will save millions"

Rog T : "How can you possibly say that?"

RW : "Look at Gas and Electricty privatisations"

Rog T : "They are completely different to local authorities. Do you really think that the £1,000 a day consultants understand the workings of the council"

RW: "You are out of touch, they cost much more than £1,000 a day"

Rog T : "What do you know about outsourcing, what do you do for a living"

RW : "I know all about it, I'm a civil servant. What do you know?"

Rog T : "I worked for a few years for BT in the division which provided outsourced service solutions for the Government. I worked on some of the largest outsourcing projects. I've also worked on evaluation of outsourcing tenders for other companies. Don't you think there is a conflict of interest taking a director of BT on secondment to draw up the outsourcing contracts"

RW : "That would be true of any consultant such as PwC"

Rog T : "PwC don't run outsourced solutions in the way BT do. That director's future bonuses and career will be defined by his work for Barnet. I can't believe you can't understand that there is a conflict of interest"

RW : "Um, Er, goodnight"

Rog T: "Goodnight Councillor"

At that point we both made our way to our cars. As I drove back, I pondered on what I'd seen tonight. A few decent councillors from the various parties doing their best for the local community. Then I pondered Councillor Richard Weider's clumsy attempt to bully Vicki Morris. I rather hope that he learned something from his wiser and more senior colleagues. Given the look on his face as we bade each other good evening, he clearly wasn't happy. For your own sake Richard, please heed this advice. No one likes a bully.

Mike Freer Blog Scandal - It's OK to criticise Waitrose, just not Freer

Those of you who have followed the story of Mike Freer's taxpayer funded blog and how he censors critical comments may be interested to see this - http://leaderlistens.com/2009/02/03/hurrah-for-waitrose/. It seems Mike is quite happy for critical posts to be left, so long as they are not about him. Having lauded Waitrose for giving out 240 pints of milk to vulnerable residents, Mike is quite happy for a blog suggesting Waitrose were a bit stingy to be left. Here's the comment :-
------------------

One Comment

1.
Magda
Posted February 4, 2009 at 8:07 pm | Permalink

Couldn’t Waitrose have stretched to a loaf of bread for all the publicity they have got out of this? More to the point, couldn’t the council have forked out for some decent food for people stuck at home in the cold? Where is your ambition?
------------------

I think that this comment is a bit unfair on Waitrose, if all the supermarkets got together and set up a system of distributing food at times such as this it would be a great gesture & highly appreciated. If I was Freer, I'd have been straight on the phone to tesco's etc suggesting they did their bit and named and shamed those that didn't chip in, but then again that would require a bit of thought and effort. Waitrose at least did something, so lets lay off Waitrose.

I think that maybe Waitrose have learned the hard way what happens when you are no longer useful to Mike Freer. It seems he's the only one who is above criticism on LEADERLISTENS.COM

By the way Mike Freer has edited the comment he left on his "Business as Usual" blog on leader listens. He now says the following :-

MikeFreer
Posted February 3, 2009 at 6:26 pm | Permalink

Thank you for taking the time to reply Mary - it is appreciated.

The work of our gritting teams, who have worked tirelessly around the clock since Sunday evening to target main routes, town centres and transport hubs, cannot be underestimated and my thanks go out to them and the other Council staff from other departments who despite the suspension of public transport by Transport for London managed to get to work to keep the Council operating as many services as possible.

While some local authorities have ordered their schools to close in the adverse weather conditions, Barnet Council did not and the decision was taken independently by Heads in consultation with the Chair of Governors, as schools themselves are best placed to decide whether their grounds are safe and that they had adequate staff cover.

It goes without saying that people in such extreme circumstances will have experienced some difficulty, that goes without saying but in comparison to our neighbouring boroughs with significantly smaller road networks we stand head and shoulders above the rest. As a comparator, Barnet is roughly 35 square miles in area, compared to Islington which is around 5 square miles. We are one of the biggest and best.

--------------

Well their you go. Ever the brave leader, he's now blaming all of the Schools heads for closing. I bet he's the first to bask in the glory when they do well - If it's good news, Mike's done a great job - if it's bad news it's down to the heads. He's the Leader of Barnet Council, many roads weren't gritted. No schools opened on Monday, two schools opened on Tuesday. Most shops in Mill Hill were shut on Monday as staff couldn't get to work. Most Council services were affected. Mike Freer posted a blog saying "business as usual". He just can't admit he's wrong. He can't take criticism. All he can do is moan about everyone else and how many roads we have in Barnet. That's your job Mike, if you can't do it hand it to someone who can.

One final point I will make. I've had more response about this than any other blog I've ever posted, here or on the Times. People are truly disgusted and that goes right across the political spectrum. No one likes a coward and no one likes a liar !!!!

Brian Coleman Exclusive : Coleman the dangerous hypocrite is exposed

Here's a question for you. What is a higher priority for the London Fire Brigade

a) Attending to a house where a Mother with young children thinks the Boiler is about to explode.

or

b) Providing a nice story for a Conservative MP's website & publicity material.

Well I know what I think is more important. What does Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority think ?

a) "It is an utter disgrace that Lynne Featherstone rang 999 for fire fighters to come her home after she reported a knocking noise coming from her central heating system."

b) "I am delighted that under my leadership, all Barnet Residents are entitled to a free Home Fire Safety Visit. Theresa has led the way in having one and I would encourage all Barnet Residents to do likewise. "

So what is the difference between Lynne Featherstone and Theresa Villiers. Villiers is a colleague of Brian Coleman. She's the MP for Chipping Barnet and the Shadow Transport spokesperson. Lynne Featherstone is a Liberal Democrat MP and an opponent of Brian Coleman. Brian Coleman is prepared to sacrifice issues of public safety to score cheap points at the expense of opponents. In this case opponents who were behaving rather sensibly. Lynne Featherstone details the incident in her blog - http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2008/12/brian-coleman-and-fire-brigade.htm . I found this whole story completely disgusting. The crass sexism of Coleman's comments were appalling. I would go as far as to say he brought his committe into disrepute and should be sacked from his £25,000 a year post as chairman of the committee

So ask yourself this. If your neighbour in the flat above you thinks their gas system is about to explode and the neighbour below you want's a visit from the fire brigade to advise them on home safety, which would you rather they attended to first?

Don't get me wrong, I think it is good that the Fire Brigade do home safety visits. I even think it's good that Theresa Villiers used her website to get a bit of publicity for herself and the brigade to publicise the service - http://www.theresavilliers.com/article/?id=367&PHPSESSID=95f90abf3176c5d36cd5f0593e719a50 - I just can't stomach the way a man in public office twists the role to help his friends and harm his enemies.

Kentucky Fried Freer - He ain't just Chicken !!!!

I love a good row. On my blog you can say anything about me you like and so long as it's not got rude words in it or breaks the law in some way shape or form, I'll leave it there. You may well get a few insults hurled back, so if you don't like the heat don't step into the kitchen. All I require is that you are a registered blogspot user.

You might not want to insult me, just point out what a moron I am and that my arguments don't hold water. That's called a debate and thats how we learn things, so even of I don't like it, it's good for the soul and I welcome it.

You might want to correct me on a mistake I've made. If I have I'll correct it and apologise.


I'm merely a dyslexic punk rocker from Mill Hill who's life's work is to run a studio. That's enough for me. Now if you want to stand for parliament, you should show yourself to have a bit of backbone. You should stand up and be counted and defend your case. You should admit it when you are wrong. If you are a democrat, you should welcome and relish an argument. You should be someone who the people who vote for you can trust. Who they know has the backbone to argue their corner.

Mike Freer is council leader. He's standing for parliament in Finchley. He has a blog paid for by you and I - the taxpayer (unlike mine which is free). Yesterday he made the statement "Business as usual" in Barnet on his blog. I posted a comment saying he was talking nonsense. He won't put it up on his website or respond, wheras he has posted and responded to one which agreed with him (from one of the Friends of Freer). One good feature of his blog is that you can see your own unmoderated comments as well as the approved ones from other people. Here's what I see when I log in

-------------
# Rog T
Posted February 2, 2009 at 11:47 pm | Permalink
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

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.
#
marysimns
Posted February 3, 2009 at 11:18 am | Permalink

Can I just say thank you for gritting the roads and making life easier for those of us who rely on our cars to get to places.
#
MikeFreer
Posted February 3, 2009 at 6:26 pm | Permalink

Thank you for taking the time to reply Mary - appreciated.

-------

As you can see from the time, my message was posted first, so he saw it but was too cowardly to post it. It would be bad enough if it was a free blog, but I'm paying for it. Are you allowed to use a publicly funded service to promote yourself and your friends and exclude other comments?

Now you can see my comment. It's not offensive, contains no bad language, it's just critical of Mike Freer. Does a man who lacks backbone and misuses a public service in this way deserve to be a candidate for a major party? If I was David Cameron, I'd want more robust candidates. I'd want people with a bit of integrity. I'd want people who could fight their corner.

If Mike is so "Frit" (to quote a venerable former Tory MP from his seat) of a dyslexic Punk Rocker from Mill Hill, what on earth will he do when he stands up against Dennis Skinner, George Galloway or any other left wing bruisers? How will he cope with the withering analytic skills of a Vince Cable. What possible use could such a cowardly man be? As far as I'm aware, David Cameron doesn't have a shadow minister for cuddly toys, which seems to be about all Mike can cope with at the moment.


Check it out for yourself
http://leaderlistens.com/2009/02/02/business-as-usual-despite-heaviest-snowfall-for-a-generation/

Stupid new laws - Part 1.

Today is the first sitting of the committee stage of the Police and Crime Bill. Part two of the Bill deals with prostitution. This bill is one of the most badly drafted and stupid pieces of legislation that I've ever come across (excuse the schoolboy pun). Let me give you a few examples. Clause 16 will require that the prostitute to have 3 meetings with an undefined official for rather vague reasons. If they don't go they'll go to prison or be fined. What will these three meetings achieve? I suspect that there won't be too many cases of hookers suddenly saying mid conversation "So that's where I've been going wrong all of these years. Now I can become the managing director of Barclays Bank". If there was an option to attend drug / alcohol rehabilitation courses, with proper monitoring & mentoring for young girls, I'd say fine. 3 Meetings with an official? Ill thought out and badly drafted. Clause 20 gives the Police the power to close a brothel for 3 months. Now if you are living in the flat below Mrs Whiplash and you are kept up all night by the sound of naughty high court judges getting a good thrashing for being naughty boys, then you may be rather pleased. What puzzles me is why 3 months. Personally I'd license brothels and make sure they were properly run, but if you are going to close them down, why pick a random number out of the air? We all know what will happen, the police will do what they already do and the brothels will do what they already do. Will the problem go away? I doubt it. If the establishment was licensed and the owners knew they'd lose the lot permanently, the chances are they'd run it in such a way that no one knew they were there. Then there is the question as to what the prostitutes do. Do they run off and become nuns, devoting their life to prayer? I doubt it. They either find another brothel and the problem moves or they go on the streets and make life even worse for residents. Girls don't become prostitutes because their life has turned out how they wanted. It is driven by circumstance and need. Many of the prostitutes working in London are girls who have been trafficked. Many are living the lifestyle of slaves. Many brothels are poorly run and girls are treated far worse than the average family dog or cat. Many prostitues face daily violence as a condition of employment. Many take hard drugs to escape the horror of their situation. Given that prostitution is the last resort of desperate women, it is clear to me that this bill is just a knee jerk reaction to a symptom. It won't solve the problem, it will just make people unsafe. Passing Laws which make bad situations worse is the height of stupidity. I hope it gets thrown out. It seems to me that this bill is yet another example of laziness in the process of scrutiny. I wait with interest to read what MP's made of this bill and I will be following this up. The most sensible comments I've seen regarding this bill have come from the MP for Bedfordshire - Nadine Dorries on her blog - http://blog.dorries.org/Blog.aspx?Y=2009&M=Feb&d=02#02 It seems she's a former nurse, so presumably has had a little bit more experience of life than many of our cossetted career MP's. We need more MP's from this sort of background and a few less former lawyers and Bankers.

If this is business as usual in Barnet, God help us !!!!!

I thought I'd see what the Leader of Barnet Council, Mike Freer has to say on his Leader Listens blog. I had a very nice day off. I had to look after all the kids as when I woke up all Barnet's schools were shut. I enjoyed towing my little boy on a sledge from my house all of the way to Flower Lane Park. Past all of the uncleared and ungritted roads. Later on we had a rather tasty lunch in Leyla's Turkish restaurant on Mill Hill Broadway. Unfortunately some of the teenagers were clearly in rather too high spirits, as there was a little bit of trouble, bins being thrown at cars. We initially wanted to have lunch at Pizza Express, but there was a sign up saying "Sorry we're shut, staff couldn't get in due to ungritted roads". The owner of Leyla's turned up half way through our lunch. He was fuming "4 Hours to drive from Barnet. Don't they grit the roads" he exclaimed. Shops such as W H Smiths were also shut. We just got a message to say my mother in law's urgent appointment at the hospital for tomorrow has been cancelled and the kids are off again.

Anyway, as I said, I thought I'd see Mike Freer's take on the day. The title of todays blog entry? "Business as usual despite heaviest snowfall in a generation". If you don't believe me click here to see for yourself - http://leaderlistens.com/2009/02/02/business-as-usual-despite-heaviest-snowfall-for-a-generation/

What can I say? If Mike Freer thinks this is business as usual, god help us all. I can understand a Council Leader wishing to put a positive slant on a major event, but to say it was business as usual in Barnet? Unless he's on holiday in Bermuda and a council lackey told him a few porkies, then I'm sorry to say he's completely lost the plot. Nice as it is to have a day off with the children, business was anything but usual in Barnet. You know that, I know that, everyone in Barnet knows that - apart from Mike Freer, who is supposed to be in charge of the Council.

P.S Mike, if you really think it's business as usual here, please send me a cheque for all my lost income today.

---------------------------------------
Update
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Just screenscraped this from the Barnet Council website - info concerning Council Services on this "Mike Freer business as usual" day !!!!

Click on Link for the page - http://www.barnet.gov.uk/highlights/adverse-weather-services.htm



Update Monday 2 February, 4:25pm
Leisure services

Church Farm Swimming Pool is now open and has resumed normal programme.

All other centres run by GLL will closed at 7.30pm this evening. Queen Elizabeth Leisure Centre has been closed by the school and will not open at all. Compton Leisure Centre will remain closed all evening, as the outdoor pitch is unoperational.

Update Monday 2 February 4.15pm
List of schools that are confirmed as closed tomorrow Tuesday 3 February.

Update Monday 2 February 12.24 pm

Housing Benefit and Council Tax

Telephone lines are closed today.
Environment

All vehicles and available staff will be directed to grit roads and keep footpaths clear:

* no refuse collection
* no school transport today (2 February 2009) and tomorrow (3 February 2009).

The main priority at present is to keep the main arterial routes flowing. Side roads will be tackled as soon as practicably possible.
Parking

Restrictions across the borough remain in force.
Education

Most schools across Barnet are closed.
Housing

* A skeleton staff from the council’s housing team is operating from Barnet House.
* Homeless services are operating on an out-of-hours basis, Tel: 020 8359 2000.

Environmental health

Members of staff from the environmental health team are in the office and will be answering calls.
Corporate Governance

* The council’s switchboard, CCTV and Priority Intervention Teams are in operation as essential services.
* Callers to the switchboard may experience delays due to the volume of calls and staffing levels.
* Emergency planning team are in as an essential service

Children’s Service

Staff from Children’s Service are maintaining skeleton services and are contactable by telephone. If you know the telephone number of your social worker please call them directly as office phones have been diverted to mobiles. An emergency cover service is available and if you need to speak to someone please Tel: 020 8359 4066.

If your emergency is outside office hours please call 020 8359 2000.
Adult Social Services

As only essential journeys can be made support is being targeted to those most vulnerable i.e. those living on their own with personal care needs without any other form of support. In the case of an emergency situation, we are providing a social work duty service where you can speak to a social worker if you have been advised that essential services for you cannot be provided because of the weather.

The duty teams can be contacted on the following numbers:

* Older people, Tel: 020 8359 2440
* Physical and sensory impairment, Tel: 020 8359 4652
* Learning disability, Tel: 020 8492 5473

In order to ensure that these essential services are provided, we will be closing the following day services tomorrow (The Space, Flower Lane, Rosa Morison, Flightways). We will keep the website regularly updated and we hope that normal service provision will be resumed from Wednesday, 4 February. In the meantime, we would urge everyone who has a vulnerable family member or neighbour to make contact and ensure that they are well.

Meals should get to everyone who is very vulnerable today. Providers are contacting anyone else to whom they cannot get meals to discuss the situation.
Registrars

The Registrars office is closed. An emergency service for death registrations only will be provided and is accessible by calling 0208 359 2000.
Barnet Homes

Barnet Homes have messages regarding their services.
Council meetings

There are no scheduled meetings on 2 February 2009, but it is the intention that the Hendon, Finchley and Golders Green and Chipping Barnet Area Planning Sub-Committee meetings scheduled for 3 February 2009 will proceed as normal.

The Mill Hill Music Complex Top 10 customers

Today feels like an old fashioned Christmas holiday. The Kids are all off school, we're going tobogoning soon up at Flower Lane park. I love the snow and I love spending time playing with the kids in the snow. Even our Boxer dog is enjoying it !!!

As such, with the extra little bit of time on my hands, I thought I'd compile a little list of my top ten Mill Hill Music Complex studio customers. We have between 500 and 1,000 musicians a week through the door, so here's a pick of some of the most famous and a few notes about them. To qualify for this list you have to have had a chart hit, they are listed in a sort of Chronological order of when their association with us began.

1. The Polecats
2. The Foundations
3. Morrissey
4. The Damned
5. Amy WineHouse
6. Madness
7. Kate Nash
8. Eddie Floyd
9. David Soul
10. The Black Kids

1. The Polecats
Our very first paying customers back in 1979. Boz and Phil were at Orange Hill School with me and they needed a place to rehearse. Still good mates with them all.


2. The Foundations
Alan Warner is an old friend. We recorded our first few demo's in his studio (as did the Polecats!). A great guy and a great band.


3. Morrissey
As Boz Boorer is Moz musical director, much pre production of various albums has been done with us. A true genius.


4. The Damned
As I'm a punk rocker and the Damned released the very first Punk single "New Rose", it was a real buzz to hear this blasting out of room 7. Nice guys


5. Amy WineHouse
Amy rehearsed with us for the year or so before she went big time. She's lovely. When she received her first big cheque from the record company, she marched into the shop and said "wrap that blue guitar up for me" When we asked if she wanted to try it, she said "No I trust you" - three weeks later she was playing it on Top of the Pops.


6. Madness
Lee Thompson is a long standing customer and a great guy. He did a charity gig for me last year, where we raised £3,000 for the MacMillan Trust and Teenage Cancer Trust. Threw his heart and soul into it and sorted out the venue.


7. Kate Nash
Kate is very special. Her dad Steve is a good mate of mine and we sold Kate her first Electric guitar, when she had a broken leg. She still comes down. She's down to earth, looks after her friends and loves her family. She was in the reception chatting to me about her dad's bad leg before Xmas. When she went back to the rehearsal another customer remarked "She looks just like Kate Nash". No airs and graces at all !!!


8. Eddie Floyd
Flew in from the States, had a three hour jam with his band and then immediately set off on a 21 date UK tour. It was great to hear "Knock on Wood" blasting out. Nice guy.


9. David Soul
David came down to a rehearsal with his girlfriends band, who he was doing some singing with. Posed for pictures with all sorts of people. A real gent. Of all our customers, he's the one who EVERYONE instantly recognises.


10. The Black Kids
Flew in from the states and rehearsed with us for two weeks before their first UK tour. A nice bunch. It was great seeing them on the Jonathan Ross Show the day after their slot finished.


Not a bad little list. A good smattering of world wide hits, Brit awards etc. Some days I enjoy going to work !!!!!

How to cut your council tax bill by 50%

Are you struggling to make ends meet? Would you like to instantly cut your council tax bill by approx 50%. If like me you are paying band F in Barnet, you could save £1019 per year. This saving can be achieved perfectly legally, it's all perfectly above board. What do you have to do? Move to Wandsworth. I found this website which gives you comparisons for the various boroughs. Here's a link for Barnet and Wandsworth


http://www.net-lettings.co.uk/London/Borough-Guide/Wandsworth.html


http://www.net-lettings.co.uk/London/Borough-Guide/Barnet.html

Now I'm not a Tory, I don't subscribe to their politics or policies, but I thought that for you, dear reader, I'd pretend I was, just for the day. As I understand it, the Tories are for low taxes, so surely Edward Lister, Wandsworth Council Leader is the best Tory in London. Lets compare how he runs the show, with our good friend here in Barnet, Council Leader Mike "No one saw that coming" Freer.

Lets start with the local campaigns the Wandsworth Tories are running on their website :-

http://www.putneyconservatives.net/issues.jsp

Now imagine my shock (real Rog T shock, not Tory for a day Rog T shock) -

A campaign for a new local Bus Route
A campaign for a new train line
A campaign for improvements on the district line
A campaign for better local station facilities at Earlsfield
A campaign for better financial Transparency
A campaign to improve the Northern Line


To name but a few. Strangely, all things I thoroughly agree with and all real local issues. No wonder Wandsworth Tories are popular !

Now lets visit Mike Freer's Finchley conservatives local campaigns website

http://finchleyconservatives.com/local-campaigns.html

We get

A letter from Mike Freer about the Equitable life scandal
A campaign to keep some post offices open
The National Dump the Bin Tax campaign
The "Shame on Labour" campaign with this lovely quote from Mike Freer

The Government should be doing more to keep Council Tax down, not finding new ways to tax hard working local residents.

Quite staggering really. The Tory Leader of Barnet Council, rather than ringing up his mate at Wandworth for a few tips, wants Gordon Brown to come and tell him how to run the council.

Now as regular followers of this blog will know, I've been rather critical of Mike Freer's Leaderlistens.com blog, paid for at the taxpayers expense. I thought I'd have a look at Wandsworth's leader blog. Guess what? He hasn't got one, he's too busy running the council.

Now you may wonder what interested me about Wandsworth. Well one of Barnet's Councillors elected at the last election, Jane Ellison decided to up sticks and move to Putney (in Wandsworth) to stand for Parliament. Now Jane decided that she'd not have time to be a Barnet Councillor and a PPC, so she resigned from Barnet Council. I decided to see how she was getting on and to be quite honest I was shocked by what I saw. It seems that not every Tory London Borough is plagued by the problems we have in Barnet. Wandsworth is in many ways quite similar to Barnet, but it seems that they seem to know what they are doing. The Council Leader gets his head down and gets on with it. Personally I cannot understand why two boroughs, both with Tory administrations can possibly have such a massive Council Tax difference. I cannot understand why Barnets Tories are so dead set against anything to improve Transport, whilst Wandsworth Tories are running a whole host of campaigns. Doesn't it occur to the plonkers running Barnet, that the borough is full of commuters?

I'm sure that Wandsworth has it's problems, but I couldn't find a barrage of criticism for the council in the way we see here. Sadly for me, I'm a local lad. Moving to Wandsworth is not an option. I'll just have to stay here and make life miserable for Freer and Co until they actually appoint someone who can do the job properly. From what I've seen of the way they run the show, I can see why Jane decided that she'd be better off being a Tory in Wandsworth.

Act drunk - your passport to anywhere

I have a unique power. I can make myself invisible. Now reading this you'll be thinking, "That Rog T has finally had one too many and flipped". I don't mean invisible in the classic "The Invisible Man" sense, but over the years I've developed a knack of being able to blend in to the furniture and not be noticed, if I want to. I was reminded of this listening to the Vanessa Feltz show yesterday. They were talking about television in the 1970's. The subject of the steamy series "Bouquet of Barbed Wire" was discussed. Vanessa Feltz recalled how her dad always used to send her out of the room during the steamy bits. In my household similar things would happen. Generally my next oldest Sibling Caroline would be told it's bedtime or she had to go out. For some reason my parents would neglect to notice me sitting in the corner. I can remember getting quizzed at primary school for singing the theme tune to "News at Ten" as the teacher felt children should "be in bed by half past eight". Strangely enough my sister seemed to be rather more immune to my power of invisibility than the rest of the family. She would protest "Why aren't you sending HIM to bed" (She's 4 years older). My Mum would weakly retort "Oh, we forgot about him".

When I reached my teens and developed a liking for punk rock music, the power came in quite useful. I had an uncanny knack of spotting openings at gig venues to slip in for free. For some reason I'd always manage to slip in and whoever the poor sod who came with me was would get caught and be made to pay the entrance fee. The time this came in most useful was at a CRASS gig. Some of the anarchist following of Crass had decided to throw glasses at the police outside. The Police had tried to storm the pub and shut the gig down. Unfortunately (for them) the Police couldn't get down the narrow stairs due to a hail of missiles whenever they tried. Eventually a compromise was reached. The police would let everyone go home if the gig stopped. Unfortunately for the attendent mob, the police reneged on the deal and beat everyone up once they emerged. I rather suspected this would happen, so I suggested to my friend that we hide in the ladies loo. I figured they'd not check there. Sure enough the police came down, arrested all those left and off they went. This included the barman. When it all went quiet, we emerged to find ourselves in a completely empty pub. We decided to do the only sensible thing and help ourselves to a few beers. Eventually the Landlord emerged to find a pair of paralytic herberts in his pub. When he asked us what we were doing we replied "Minding your pub for you". He'd not had a good night, so he adopted the "If you can't beat them join them" approach and we sat drinking free beer until the early hours. Unlike everyone else who attended the gig, we had a great night.

By 1988, I'd discovered a great addition to my arsenal of invisibilty. I was talking to an old mate of mine who'd become a policeman. He told a story of his first night on the beat. He'd come across a harmless drunk and arrested them for being drunk and disorderly. On arrival at the station, the duty officer berated him for his stupidity "he wasn't hurting anyone and now we'll have to put up with him all night." A night of singing, shouting and vomiting followed. He never made that mistake again. It occurred to me from the tale that if you appeared drunk and harmless, you were far more likely to be left alone. This came in rather useful when I visited the the Soviet Union that year. Now unlike a visit to the UK, you'd get a visa for a particular city. You couldn't visit anywhere else. One of the places we were visiting was Minsk. I decided I'd quite like to get the train to Vilnius in Lithuania (then still part of the Soviet Union). A Russian friend got the tickets and off we went. We agreed that if anyone else was around, I'd just play the incoherent drunk. It was a really interesting visit. Once there we got talking to many Lithuanians. They were very anti Russian and very bitter about the political situation. I never for one minute thought that in 2009, they'd be independent and part of the EU. On the way back to Minsk, a rather attractive girl came and started chatting to my Russian friend. I sat in the chair swigging beers and staring out of the window. After about 2 hours, she got off. I said to my friend "She was quite nice, who was she" He said she was a KGB official and that if she'd realised who I was we'd have really been in trouble. I asked if she had an inkling. He responded "She said you were a disgusting Belarus peasant".

As a socialist, I found my travels to Russia quite depressing. Unklike Sweden which has a successful society run on very socialist principles, the USSR was a monster. Although it may be no surprise today, I was shocked by the racism I saw towards Cuban students in the local beer bars. The censorship was suffocating and the way citizens were treated was terrible. There was a two tier retail system. The one for the ordinary citizen, where you could buy nothing and the one for the party and the Toursists where you could get more or less what you liked. My Russian friends were great, but the system was so oppressive that huge problems of alcoholism were rampant. I laughed a couple of years ago to read a page in the annual reports of Scottish and Newcastle breweries. It said that the companies Russian subsidiary, Baltika Brewery was benefitting from the Russian Governments push for healthy drinking. You may ask how this could happen? Well it seems that the government were encouraging people to drink beer instead of Vodka or Samogon. I feel really sorry for the ordinary Russian people. It seems to me that it doesn't matter who's in charge, they get a lousy deal.

When right wing commentators choose to have a pop at Socialism, they invariable state the case of the USSR. Strangely they ignore more successful models such as Sweden. I've spent time in both countries and they are like chalk and cheese. To my mind it's not a question of what the system is so much as how it's run. One thing I can safely say is that I'd far rather be a poor person in Sweden than in the USA.