A one handed blogger

In amongst all of the hubris concerning Barnet Council Leader Mike Freer's comments referring to his opponents as "One Handeded Bloggers" a point which initially completely escaped me. I've got a friend who is an amputee and he pointed out that Freer's comments were extremely disrespectful to the disabled. I did a quick Google of "One Handed Blogger" and the top hit was this site - http://www.onehandedblogger.com/ - Unlike Mike Freer's Leaderlistens.com, this site is a rather inspiring blog, detailing the efforts and achievements of the author in overcoming his disability. As I've said before regarding Mike Freer's comments, I think they show extremely poor judgement and poor taste. One of the main functions of figures in public life is to behave with dignity and to set an example for others to follow. Of all the examples I've seen recently, that I may choose to follow, the "One Armed Blogger" is possibly the finest and he certainly shouldn't be denigrated in this fashion.

It strikes me that Mike Freer has very little empathy with people generally if he can make such comments. I get the impression that he has a complete lack of respect for everyone apart from his close circle of friends. One such example of this can be found at his website - http://www.finchleyconservatives.com/photo-gallery.html - if you go down and right click on the second image of Mike Freer at Golders Green Swaminaryan Temple and select the "Save as" option, it displays the name of the file as saved on Mike's website.

This picture of Mike Freer, the Swami (an important religious leader in Golders Green) and his assistants has the title "mikeandasians2". I've taken the trouble to save a screenshot so that you can see what I saw - if you double click on the picture you will see it in full detail. Now if I was saving a picture of a meeting with an important religious leader, I'd like to think I'd show him and his assistants rather more respect than just describing them as "asians2". To then put that picture up on a public website is stunningly disrespectful and rather incompetent. If you were wondering why I was saving this picture, earlier this month, I wrote a blog called "Religion in Barnet" about how local politicians seem to be using the various faiths in the Borough for their own ends. When I write blogs, I usually look for suitable pictures to make them more interesting. When I saw the title of this picture, it only reinforced what I was saying about politicians locally using religion as a way to garner a few extra votes.

At the very least, I would expect an explanation and an apology from Mike Freer to one handed bloggers and to the Swami of the Golders Green temple for these horrible insults. Maybe he can put the Leader Listens blog to some proper use for this apology.

*** Update 10:30 09/03/2009 - Just a quick note to show the Barnet Eye gets things done. NO apology yet, but at least he's changed the offensive filename for the Swami picture

Lord Peter Mandelson in custardy

Mandelson proves his green credentials

I guess that it is no surprise to any regular Barnet Eye readers to find out that I'm not a fan of the Peter Mandelson brand of Labour politics. I was completely enraged by his comments in the Observer concerning the privatisation of the Post Office. It prompted me to run the poll at the side of the blog.

Today an anti Heathrow protester got a trifle hot under the collar and gave his Lordship a dousing down with green custard. The media reaction has been rather interesting. Worthies such as John Prescott (himself recipient of eggs, buckets of water, etc) have been screaming "throw her in the slammer". They scream "What if it had been Acid"?

Well the point is that it wasn't. If I was Mandelson, I'd secretly be rather thankful. For the price of some dry cleaning (doubtless covered by some allowance), he'll get a full security review and should Al-Quaida be planning to get him, I'd say their chances of succeeding just diminished considerably.

I think that anyone doing such an action, so long as the recipient of the custard pie, egg, tomato or slime is a public figure, should be told off by a Policeman and sent on their way. If the recipient chooses to react in a Prescottian fashion and punch the perpetrator, I'd also say fair game. It adds to the gaity of the nation. You can be sure that the proprieters of the Daily Mail, Express and Sun are not enraged, whatever their papers say. There will be a big circulation boost tomorrow.

As I said above, I'm not a fan of Peter Mandelson, but I rather admire his response. I'm sure he wasn't happy, but he was quite measured and sensible in not screaming blue murder. He seemed to accept it goes with the territory. I understand he hasn't made a complaint to the Police. It hasn't changed my mind about his suitability for the award we're running though !

The GLA Hospitality register for 2009

If you click HERE you can view the GLA gift and hospitality register. This details any gifts/ hospitality that your GLA member may have had, where the value of the gift is over £25 (please note that some members declare gifts under this value as well).

You can click on your own member's name and sort to see only their entries.

I thought I'd post the entries this year for all members. It is quite normal for public figures to accept an amount of hospitality, so their is no implied criticism of any member here. I am merely posting this to illustrate the fact that The GLA has this information on line. I personally would like to see this practice followed for all public figures.

Name Date of gift Detail of gift
/ hospitality

Richard Barnes 08-JAN-09 The London Government Dinner The Lord Mayor of London
Roger Evans 08-JAN-09 The London Government Dinner City of London Corporation
Nicky Gavron 08-JAN-09 London government dinner at Mansion House
City of London
James Cleverly 08-JAN-09 London Government dinner, Mansion House,
London EC4N 8BH
The Lord Mayor Alderman Ian Luder
Brian Coleman 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner at the Mansion House
The Lord Mayor of London
John Biggs 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner at the Mansion House
The City of London
Caroline Pidgeon 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner at Mansion House,
London, EC4N 8BH Lord Mayor, Alderman Ian Luder,
City of London
Michael Tuffrey 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner at Mansion House,
London, EC4N 8BH
Lord Mayor, Alderman Ian Luder, City of London
Victoria Borwick 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner at Mansion House
Lord Mayor of London
Gareth Bacon 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner
Lord Mayor of London
Richard Tracey 08-JAN-09 London Government Dinner
The Lord Mayor of London
Tony Arbour 08-JAN-09 Local Government Dinner at Mansion House
Lord Mayor of London
Kit Malthouse 08-JAN-09 Attendance at the London Government Dinner, Mansion House
City of London Corporation
Jenny Jones 09-JAN-09 Payment for interview techniques training for
interviewing UK senior police officers
National Policing Improvement Agency
Brian Coleman 09-JAN-09 Lunch at the Haven Restaurant in Whetstone N20
Ms Emer Coleman
Victoria Borwick 12-JAN-09 Centenary Celebration reception
plus miniature bottle of whiskey.
Balfour Beatty
Richard Barnes 13-JAN-09 Travel, Accommodation, 4 x Lunches,
4 x Dinners and Local Transport to
venues at Lessons From 9/11 and 7/7
For a Safer Mumbai Conference in
Mumbai, India Bombay First
Brian Coleman 13-JAN-09 Dinner at the Toby Carvery Motel,
Borehamwood Mill Hill Rotary Club
in return for speaking engagement
Nicky Gavron 14-JAN-09 Taylor Wessing sustainability report
launch dinner Taylor Wessing
Brian Coleman 14-JAN-09 Lunch at Strada, More London
Tim Donovan, BBC London
Nicky Gavron 15-JAN-09 The London Film School dinner
The Lord Mayor of Westminster
and The London Film School
James Cleverly 15-JAN-09 Lunch at the Blueprint Cafe,
Shad Thames, SE1 David Amess MP
Nicky Gavron 19-JAN-09 Green Alliance Dinner Green Alliance
James Cleverly 20-JAN-09 Greater London Region Conservatives
annual dinner, Radisson SAS Hotel,
London W1 Four Communications Group plc,
London WC2
Roger Evans 20-JAN-09 2 Bottles of Wine Cavendish Government
Relations and Communications 30 Percy Street
London W1T 2DB
Kit Malthouse 21-JAN-09 £30 donation to Metropolitan Police Combined
Benevolent Fund from Ipsos MORI on behalf of
Kit Malthouse for participating in a survey of
London Politicians Ipos MORI
Victoria Borwick 21-JAN-09 Seminar and lunch Politeia
Jenny Jones 21-JAN-09 Donation to Roadpeace on behalf of
Jenny Jones Ipsos Mori
Nicky Gavron 22-JAN-09 Rushlight Awards dinner Eventure Media Ltd
and supporting partners
James Cleverly 22-JAN-09 Rugby Kickz dinner, New Scotland Yard, SW1
Asst Commissioner Tim Godwin,
Metropolitan Police Authority
Kit Malthouse 22-JAN-09 Drinks and Dinner at New Scotland Yard with the MPS
and RFU to discuss Rugby Kickz.
Metropolitan Police Service
Kit Malthouse 23-JAN-09 Transport and Hospitality from St Pancras International
to Ebbsfleet and by return from Ashford Eurostar
Kit Malthouse 23-JAN-09 Lunch on Dredger during visit to Thames Estuary.
Worldwide Deep Sea Mining, Dredging International,
Marine & Waterway Contractor D.E.M.E nv Haven 1025
- Scheldedijk B 2070 Zwijndrecht, Belgium
Caroline Pidgeon 23-JAN-09 Dinner at Cantina - Vinopolis BBC London
Caroline Pidgeon 26-JAN-09 Interview with Ipsos Mori for TfL
Ipsos Mori donated £30 to nominated charity
Trees for Cities
Richard Barnes 31-JAN-09 Dinner at Bal Polski
Federation of Poles in Great Britain
James Cleverly 05-FEB-09 Reception at House of Lords on behalf of
Raleigh International Trust
General the Lord Ramsbotham
Nicky Gavron 05-FEB-09 Broach, for participating as a judge for the
Earth Awards 2008.
The Earth Awards (http://www.theearthawards.org/)
Kit Malthouse 09-FEB-09 Lunch Associated Newspapers
Victoria Borwick 09-FEB-09 Dinner Politeia
Victoria Borwick 10-FEB-09 Planning for a better London Reception.
Development Securities PLC
John Biggs 10-FEB-09 Dinner Citizen Organising Foundation
Richard Tracey 10-FEB-09 Dinner Junior Chamber of Commerce
James Cleverly 17-FEB-09 Reception at Glaziers Hall, London SE1
Nick Wilkie, Chief Executive, London Youth
Valerie Shawcross 19-FEB-09 Lunch JC DeCaux
James Cleverly 19-FEB-09 Diner at Leathersellers' Hall, London EC3
The Leathersellers' Company, London EC3
Jenny Jones 19-FEB-09 Barrel of beer donated for Green Party Group reception
on 19 Feb 2009 John Barker,
Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) member
Kit Malthouse 20-FEB-09 Lunch News International
James Cleverly 23-FEB-09 Silver-plated presentation trophy cup for display purposes
London Youth, Pitfield Street, London N1
Richard Tracey 23-FEB-09 Boat trip London Bridge to the O2, tour of O2 and lunch.
AG/Thames Clippers
Brian Coleman 24-FEB-09 Dinner at the Bulgarian Embassy Dr Lachezar Matev,
Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria





One member you won't find on the register is Richard Barnbrook of the BNP. It seems no one likes him, so he's had no gifts at all.

Bob the Builder

Bob the builder, can he park here?
Bob the builder, yes he can

This extract comes from a press release on the Barnet Council website

Barnet Council, renowned for its forward thinking parking policies has introduced a proposal to enable builders carrying out works within any Controlled Parking Zone across the borough from April 2009 to apply for a special parking permit. Currently, residents living within Controlled Parking Zones who employ the services of a builder are required to use their allocation of visitor vouchers to avoid penalty charge notices being issued.

Traffic supremo Councillor Andrew Harper has brought the scheme in as a way to help hard pressed tenants and firms. Now from what I've seen of Councillor Harper in action, he seems like a sensible chap, who has a real interest in making Barnet a better place. At the various Council meetings I've attended, if Councillor Harper stands up to say something, it's generally sensible and said in a non confrontational way. I suspect that generally he listens to criticisms and takes things on board.

Well, I'd say that this scheme is what I'd call a "Two cheers for Councillor Harper" scheme. That means that in as far as it goes, it's a good idea, but it could be improved significantly. As I read this press release I thought to myself, Builders and religious leaders can get parking permits under these schemes, but there are plenty of other trades which need to visit homes can't. Let's have a look at the type of people which may require a permit. Gardening contractors, TV repair men, Fridge repair men, voluntary helpers visiting the elderly & disabled. It's not clear to me whether drain cleaners, plumbers, etc are covered.

Here's my suggestion. Rather than lots of seperate schemes, have a scheme for anyone who has a genuine requirement. The recipient of the permit puts it in the front window of their car when they are on business. It has a big number on it and if you see it being abused you report the car to Barnet. If they abuse it they lose it. You fill out an explanation of why you need the permit and if there is a need you pay your fee and get your permit. That's fair and equitable.

The Lord of the Flies

Just a very quick question. Has there been a better moment in British cinematic history than the scene in the 1963 classic where the navy officer turns up and you realise that these horrible scary monsters are in actual fact just little kids?

Mike Freer Hypocracy Update

For those of you who have followed the story of Mike Freer's Leader Listens Blog on these pages, you may want to check out his latest leaderlistens.com post. Regular readers will know that Mike Freer has repeatedly failed to post critical (but legal, decent and honest) messages left by myself (and other bloggers). You will also know that he said the following on a podcast this week :-

I have a group of followers what I call the 'one handed bloggers' erm, I'll leave it to your own imagination what the other hand is doing. But it is largely because they are seeking to attack the Council's record, now that fine if it is a genuine resident, but when you have got two or three people who are just following a vendetta, I now ignore them so I moderate them out. If it is a genuine resident who's got a beef - great! it allows me to respond directly and I do respond, Dominic does not do my responses i do them all myself and if clearly something comes through for moderation I will sometime say "no, I know this person, it is just an axe to grind - we will not respond.

Anyway, thought I'd try a little experiment. I posted a message where I stated that I agreed with him. Guess what? Not only did he publish it, but he responded to the comment as well. Double click on the image above to see for yourself.

Now have a look at our little poll in the sidebar, go on don't be shy - I'm sure you can find one nominee you like there.

The Picture Matthew Offord would rather you didn't see

Councillor Jack Cohen details on his excellent blog how Matthew Offord has tried to blame Councillor Andrew Harper for the problems at Aerodrome Road and the cost overruns. It seems now that it's a failure, Offord wants to wash his hands of it. It wasn't always thus - check out his website -
http://www.hendonconservatives.org/index.php?sectionid=3&pagenumber=63

This picture used to be on his website, of him inspecting the works (strangely removed today). Oh and just in case he twigs and removes the link to his web page above, I've saved it for you here as well. I suggest you download it and keep it forever. If you double click on the screenshot, you can see it in it's full glory.

From what I've seen of Councillor Harper he seems like a decent bloke, trying to do his job.

How Councillor Offord can say it's not his fault when he clearly was quite happy to take the credit when it looked like a success is staggering. There's only one thing worse in a council than a ruthless careerist. That's a failed ruthless careerist !

This is the guy who wants to be the MP for Hendon

Three Star Council, So what is Barnet Council really like?

I awoke this morning to find that Barnet Council has been downgraded by the audit commission from a four star council to a three star council. Now I couldn't find anything on the audit commission website that tells me what this really means to me. There is no definition of what extra services we should expect from a four star council. I had a look at the English Tourism website to see what the differences between a 3 and 4 star hotel is. This is easy enough for a dunce like me to grasp

At a hotel you will find: (in addition to what is provided at ONE, TWO and THREE STAR)

• Accommodation offering superior comfort and quality; all
  bedrooms with en-suite bath, fitted overhead shower and WC.
  
• The hotel will have spacious and very well appointed public areas and will put a strong emphasis on food and drink.
  
• Staff will have very good technical and social skills, anticipating and responding to your needs and requests.
  
• Room service of all meals and 24 hour drinks, refreshments
  and snacks.
  
• Dry cleaning service available.

So I ask, should

a) All Council Houses have decent baths, showers and toilets. I certainly hope so.
b) Lets hope that with Brian Coleman being mayor, he uses his experience to give us these "very well appointed public areas and will put a strong emphasis on food and drink."
c) If the staff don't "have very good technical and social skills, anticipating and responding to your needs and requests" I certainly hope the council up's the training budget.
d) Council room service? A great idea. Now thatwould be innovative.
e) A council dry cleaning service? Just think, leave your washing out with the recycling and it comes back next day all nice and clean. Marvellous

You are probably thinking "That Rog T, he's off his rocker, what's he on about?" Well this is actually my point. How can stars mean anything in regards to an organisation as complex as a council? For a hotel, it's pretty easy to apply a star rating, but how would you compare Cumbria with Tower Hamlets. What does it mean? I attended a meeting to discuss future shape last night at in Hendon, I didn't count but I'd guess maybe 100 people turned up who were worried about the council. Maybe 50 were members of trades unions (who organised the event) I'd guess that 50 weren't. I suspect that of the 50 who weren't, most were people who'd had a bad experience with the council and felt they weren't being listened to. I think they were hoping that the meeting would give them an opportunity to shape the way the council delivers services for the better. The consensus seemed to be that this wasn't by privatisation. I know Council Leader Mike Freer reads this blog, so I'd say this to him. By all means fix those services which aren't delivering, but in your own blog today you say that the council is delivering. Therefore you risk the destruction of something which works well. Change always carries risk and if you really believe the words of your own blog, which is that the council is delivering four star services everywhere but at one museum, then you are crazy to change the way it's delivered.

There are two areas I can think of where Barnet has outsoured services previously. The refuse collection service was privatised in the late 1980's under a previous Tory Council. This was a disaster with rogue dustcarts regularly ramming cars and driving off and rubbish collections become sporadic. The Lab/Lib Council brought it back in house (the Tories didn't moan as they knew that it had fixed their mess). Even at the future shape meeting last year, Mike Freer himself said refuse collection was "excellent" - why go back to the dark days of the previous service?

Then there was meals on wheels. This was outsourced to Sodexho in April 1997. I know all about this as it badly affected my dearly departed mum. It was one of the things that got me blogging. She started using the service following a stroke and a fall. It allowed her to live indepenently for 2 years, when otherwise she may have needed to go into a home. She couldn't get out and she couldn't cook beyond the level of toast and tea. She relied on the service for lunch (we provided her evening meal). She had two days with no lunch when the service changed. The quality deteriorated markedly. The stress of the two weeks where lunch deliveries were sporadic as the new service was shown to be failing nearly killed her. Fortunately my sister was visiting from America and was able to stay with her. I suspect that many old dears with no one to fight their corner were killed by the stress. When I spoke of this last night at the Future Shape meeting, everyone paid attention. Afterwards people told me that what I said was moving and they hadn't really thought of the issue on a human level in that way.

Mike Freer described me as a "Lunatic One Armed blogger with a vendetta" (to paraphrase) in a recent podcast as because I criticise the way he runs the council. You can judge for yourself whether thats true. I'll say this though. If someone was so incompetent that the service they oversaw nearly killed your mother, who you dearly loved, would you think they were marvellous or would you criticise them? If you'd seen the sharp end of the stick with which they were poking your mother to save a few quid, would you sit by and let them poke other people's vulnerable relatives in the same way.

Barnet Council are in the process of abolishing the Warden service for many sheltered homes. A few are being retained. It is widely reported that Lynn Hillan who is the councillor responsible for this service moved her own mother to a place where the warden is being retained. I've had plenty of experience of dealing with Elderly relatives. I know what happens when the slightest change is made to their routine. They get upset and some die because of the stress. In the mid 1980's a friend of mine worked in an old folks home. One day she came back in tears. The council had cut the budget so the old folks were no longer getting a biscuit with their afternoon tea. They had all gone mad and she'd been completely stressed out. It ended up with low paid staff and relatives providing biscuits, but she told me a couple of lovely old people had strokes that week due to the stress.

I've no comment at all here about Barnet losing a Star. The system is mad and Mike Freer is as right this year to point out the stupidity of the system as he was wrong last year to trumpet getting four stars. It means nothing.

The Madman speaks

I've had a pretty difficult few days. You may have noticed that I've been a bit busier than usual here on the blog. That's because I've been at home when I'd normally be working. The reason? My dear mother in law passed away from lung cancer early on Tuesday morning. Whilst my beloved has been mourning, I've been doing the running around after the kids, which has given me ample time stuck in front of the computer. Plenty of time to read that the council leader thinks I'm a one armed blogging lunatic.

Tonight the Barnet Trades Council organised a meeting to discuss Future Shape. I'd always intended going, but in the circumstances felt that I should be at home. At around 5pm my wife said "Aren't you going to the meeting". I replied "I don't think thats appropriate". She said "yes it is" So off I went. Now normally I prep up for these things and know exactly what I want to say. I planned to say nothing and then go home. Vicki Morris, a local trades union organiser kicked off the meeting and introduced the good Professor Dexter Whitfield from the European Strategy Centre. The good prof outlined the background to future shape and why it's a bad idea as private companies fall like dominoes.

Vicki then invited questions. One local resident asked "Who are these people, how do we sack them". At this someting clicked. I stood up and introduced myself. I felt every person in the rooms eyes on me. They had a look of apprehension. Having not shaved for a few days and wearing my oldest clothes, they clearly thought "The Town Loonie is here"I explained the recent history of the local Tory Party. How Salinger won the election & got deposed immediately. How Freer took over and launched huge spending on Future shape. How it wasn't in the manifesto. I explained about what happened to my mother when Meals on wheels were outsourced by Barnet. I also explained how Freer had called me a one armed blogging lunatic. They laughed - with me or at me. I wasn't sure. I guess I looked like a one armed blogging looney.

Vicki indicated to me I'd had my time and I sat down. I got a big round of applause. Did they still think I was a lunatic - who knows. A few more suggestions, the best of which was a rather well spoken chap who suggested civil insurrection and occupation of council offices. He didn't look like che Guevera but he'd read the manual !

We had a few more questions, then a little speech from the UCW guys about Post Office Privatisation. It seems this is even less popular than Future Shape. Local Labour MP Andrew Dismore stood up to try and explain the logic behind Post Office privatisation, but the crowd were having none of it.

Vicki then cut Andrew off and we got a further 5 minutes from the Prof. He recapped on why privatisation was a bad idea. The crowd then convened into two workshop groups. Various campaigning suggestions were discussed. Due to circumstances at home, I left early.

As I drove home, I pondered on the meeting. It wasn't filled with what I'd call the usual suspects. People are genuinely worried and upset by the proposals. If we can organise a campaign that exploits that we may succeed in reversing this crazy policy. I was struck by the number of people who I wouldn't expect to see at a trades union meeting. A rather nice lady spoke about the contempt with which Freer's council had treated her and her residents group. They should have invited a few of the backbench Tory councillors along. I suspect these are the people who will ultimately kill this proposal, when they realise that their own core vote are upset.

As I left a couple of people came up to me and said they were rather moved by what I'd said. Maybe I'm not a nutcase after all?

Congratulations to Councillor Brian Coleman

The Tory group on Barnet Council voted en mass to appoint Brian Coleman as the next Mayor of Barnet. Now it would be so easy to focus on the negatives, but lets concentrate on the positives on this joyous day.



* Brian Coleman will get the Mayor's car and Chauffeur. Presumably we have to pay for this anyway, so COLEMAN'S TAXI BILL will diminish.

* The Mayor has to eat lots of FREE DINNER in his ceremonial role. Brian is uniquely qualified for this.

* One of the Mayor's jobs is to present awards to the Borough's top Sports Stars. Brian Coleman took a keen interest in the GB OLYMPIC TEAM. This should drastically cut down the number of Sportsmen and Sportswomen wanting to attend civic events and save some money.

* Brian loves dressing up in bling and he'll get lots of opportunities as Mayor.

* It means that when it comes to possible candidates for Mayor, the Tories really have reached the bottom of the Barrel, so unless they appoint Mike Freer the next Mayor can only be an improvement.

If anyone else can see any other reasons for this, feel free to comment.