A lovely picture of our local MP

I found this lovely picture of our rather handsome Hendon MP. No wonder the ladies swoon before him

http://order-order.com/2010/10/04/handbags-in-the-hyatt/#comments

Future Shape of Barnet Council - Is this it?

There is a story in the Hendon Times today which I simply must share with you. As you are probably aware,  BARNET COUNCILseeks to get rid of all its in house care functions and contract them out to private companies. How do these companies operate? Please read this as I think it gives you a pretty good idea. I've got a few potted highlights below.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/8430824.Care_company_calls_for_more_caregivers_to_tackle_winter_shortfall/

What alarms me are the following statements in the article - although you may well take a different view and think it sounds marvellous :-

"We are looking for experienced carers, but that doesn't mean people have to have been employed, they could have cared for a family member or their own children."

Home Instead offers personal care services to people with dementia and Alzheimer's, home help services and companionship services

The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, although caregivers will start on a zero hours contract and be paid for the time they provide to clients

Bosses at Home Instead Senior Care, based in High Road, North Finchley, are hoping to attract up to 50 new staff members as demand for their services increases heading into winter.

So there you go. Make up your own mind. Would I feel comfortable if this concerned my Mum, Dad, Grandmother or Grandfather who is suffering from Alzhiemers or Dementia? 

Oh and if you see the care of loved ones as a fantastic business opportunity, then this page on the company website will be of much interest to you on the company website -

http://www.homeinstead.co.uk/Business_Opportunities.do

Whatever you think of these arrangements, good or bad, you can be sure that as far as the Conservative administration in Barnet are concerned, this is a good example of the

 FUTURE SHAPE OF CARE IN BARNET 

Library Closure Program : Book Collection for Dim Tory MP's

Barnet Council is have a "strategic review of the Boroughs Librarys". It is also having "A Strategic Review of the Boroughs Property" with a brief to sell off librarys. The Leader of the review is Council Robert RamsBottom. He has already stated that he believes that books should be "ordered online and collected from Tescos" or "read in Starbucks" (no stitch up there then?).

In response, the people of Barnet have launched a petition. We have over 500 signatures on the paper copy and the online version is also growing at a steady rate (please click on the sidebar to sign, if you haven't already).

As this blog believes that books are a joy and libraries are the symbol of a civilised society, we had a collection of books for councillor Robert Rams - to be presented to him at the next Council Meeting.

We will be holding four stalls in various Town Centres in Barnet this weekend. This time we are collecting books for our dim Tory MP's to try and encourage them to read more and to broaden their minds. I have donated the first book - see picture at the top.

On a completely different subject, we hear that Hendon MP, Matthew Offord is starting a campaign to "Save old Hendon". We here at the Barnet Eye hope that he includes Hendon Library as one bit of Hendon he wanted to save. Sadly when Mr Offord was in the Council Cabinet, he had no interest whatsover in saving a very important part of Old Hendon - Hendon FC's football ground. We wonder what exactly qualifies in Mr Offords mind as "old Hendon"?

Leaky Barnet Council - Memo to Nick Walkley : Thanks for the free advertising

Dear Nick,

Thanks for the free advertising - 130  hits from Barnet Council IP address on Friday - now I know why. My cunning plan worked, now everyone knows where to send all of the stuff they want to leak. Are you trying to deluge me.

Cheers

Rog T
The Barnet Eye

Naughty blog rumours of drunken Tory behaviour

The Barnet Eye spotted this little blog entry on Guy Fawkes blog -

http://order-order.com/2010/10/04/handbags-in-the-hyatt/#comments

Who can these naughty young men be? Getting pissed and "pushing each other", all over a "young lady".

I'm sure that the names suggested in the comments are completely made up and the person starting such scurrilous rumours are beastly individuals.

Barnet Eye Weekly Roundup

Perhaps the most interesting thing I've found this week is a series of Youtube videos giving advice on techniques for protestors making non violent protests. Here's an example. I suspect that as the spending cuts come into force, we'll see more of this in coming months and years. Interestingly for me, it doesn't seem that we need to resort to such measures to get signatures for the Library closure petition. People are coming to us to ask. I've had a fair few people emailing me for hard copies of the petition, so they can collect signatures from their neighbours. Anyway, take a look at this. Food for thought indeed.


On a happier note, I went up to the Adam and Eve pub for their open night on Thursday. The new owners were rather surprised at the strong turnout. The Barnet Eye gives a big thumbs up to their plan. Check their blog, it's in the worth a look list in the sidebar.

Other interesting news from the area. It appears that yet again this weekend we had the BNP collecting signatures for a bring the boys home petition. As I rather suspected, many people didn't  realise it was a BNP petition. I received an email from a resident who spoke to the guys collecting the petition. What they told me was rather disturbing. It seems that even the people collecting the petition this week were not doing it out of any great love of the BNP. They were just trying to do something for our boys and so had agreed to do it on this basis. They said that they didn't support many of the BNP policies. Sadly they were unaware of the Stop the war coalition. When it was suggested that collecting for Help for Heroes would be a better cause, as the money would actually help servicemen, they agreed. Whilst I'm sure there are a few committed BNP activists around, it is clear that their current strategy is based on taking advantage of peoples good nature. Can I suggest that if you want to help our boys, you contact help for heroes - http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ - this organisation is run by honest and decent folks who are doing it for our boys, not as a way of duping people into joining extremist organisations. Perhaps the saddest thing I heard was a tale of one pensioner who'd given a donation to the BNP to help "our boys". When he was informed that his donation would be used for political campaigning for the BNP rather than for injured soldiers, he was gutted. It's a free country, if people really want to join the BNP or give them money, that's their business, but I was under the impression that taking money under false pretences was illegal. If you see anyone donating money at such a stall, make sure they know what they are giving it to. If they have donated under false pretences, ask for the cash back. If this doesn't happen call the police as it is fraud. It strikes me as a rather Un-British way to carry on.

One other thing, just in case you missed it, we relaunched the Barnet Future Shape Leaks website this week. We've had nearly Five hundred hits since Friday. Not bad going - see the sidebar for the link.

I put a link on the new site to Windsor Councils openness policy. This is a Tory Council who are doing things the right way. I'd suggest all Tory Councillors check this out. Barnet Council expend a massive amount of money and energy trying to thwart bloggers such as me. If they followed the example of Windsor, they'd not have to bother

Save Barnets Library Service - 500 not out

Great news. Following our stall on Mill Hill Broadway today, we now have over 500 names on the petition to save Barnets Librarys from Tory Councillor Robert Rams plans to close them as part of the Future Shape / One Barnet project. Having been in Mill Hill for two consecutive weeks, we are now planning to move to different locations next week. We have had enough offers of support to run stalls in four town centres, which we will do if we can organise the logistics.

If you do not want Barnet Council to shut libraries, there are three ways in which you can help.

1) Sign the on line petition at - http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39319/signatures.html - Please forward this link to any friends or family you have who may also wish to sign. The campaign has only been running for 8 days, so to get 500 signatures so far is just a start. Most of these so far are on paper, but far more people have access to the on line petition, if they know about it.

2) Help us collect signatures. If you email me BY CLICKING HERE, I will email you back a word document so you can print a paper copy of the petition. You can then get all of your friends, family and neighbours to sign it. It doesn't matter if you only get a couple of signatures (although our experience shows that nearly everyone wants to sign up). If everyone who read this blog signed it, then it would be the London Borough of Barnets largest ever petition.

3) Email your local councillor and tell them that if the Conservative administration close the Libraries they will be out of power for a generation in Barnet. This link gives you the details of your local  councillor -

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/council/listcouncillorname.asp?intSubSectionID=13&intSectionID=9

If enough people email them, they will sit up and listen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Council is currently undertaking a review of the Library service. Councillor Rams has publicly stated that using a Library is a "lifestyle choice". He has stated that people "could order books online and collect them from Tescos" and that "people can read books in Starbucks".

If enough people let him know that they disagree with his crazy ideas, then the policy will be dropped. If you tell your councillors that you are fundamentally opposed to Robert Rams and his crazy ideas, then he will be forced to climb down. I must tell you that one of the Mill Hill Conservative Councillors told me today that he was privately opposed to the closures, but he refused to sign the petition.  Once enough people tell them, they will back down.

It will cost you no more than five minutes of your time to sign the petition, email it to your friends and email your local councillor. I can't believe that there is anyone who reads this blog who can't spare that.

Barnet Council Special : Telling the truth is unprofessional

Yesterday I saw another huge spike in hits on this blog. Analysis showed that this was almost entirely due to hits coming from Barnet Council. The stats showed huge numbers of searches for things like "One Barnet project" "Future Shape" and "Leaks". How odd I thought. Maybe as it's Friday afternoon, they haven't got much to do. This morning, the reason became clear. I was sent the text of an email, which I'm told was sent to Barnet Council workers by CEO Nick Walkley. My correspondent had clearly taken the wise precaution of sending this via a home email. Whilst I am always pleaased to receive leaked information, I urge workers to be rather careful as Nick is clearly on the warpath and they can trace and monitor email sent from work. It is often safer to copy documents, then scan them at home and send them. Anyway here's what my correspondent tells me Nick had to say

I am immensely proud of the professionalism with which staff in this authority carry out their work and provide support and services to our residents.  Maintaining that professionalism requires a commitment from us all to behave in a way which respects colleagues’ work.

Earlier this week, a copy of a council document relating to a One Barnet project was published on a blog.  It was a fairly unexciting document showing officers getting on and doing their job.  But I am deeply upset about this leak - not because of its content, or its impact in the wider world. But by what it says about the attitude of at least one member of staff to their colleagues and employer. Leaking a document suggests to me that at least one employee thinks that trying to undermine the work of colleagues will shift how the council deals with challenges we need to confront if we are to continue to provide good services at a time of extreme financial stringency. Instead it simply illustrates a lack of professionalism which undermines us all.

That lack of professionalism contrasted strongly with a group I encountered having an end of season beer whilst I was on holiday. They regularly give long hours at high personal risk for little or no financial reward and were being rightly thanked by their community for their work and their contribution to local life.  Of course the lifeboat men of St Ives are all volunteers but no one doubts their professionalism, or the valuable role they play. At the time that got me thinking about the balance between what the Council does and what the Community do - a One Barnet theme. I hadn’t expected it would also cause me to reflect on the professionalism (or lack of it) of some of our own staff.

I know that the vast majority of staff show their commitment to our standards and values on a daily basis and I trust everyone will take pause to think carefully about the impact that they have on their colleagues as well as the Council as a whole in the difficult times ahead. 

Nick

I have this response to Nick. Barnet Council workers are working for the people of Barnet, we pay their wages, you don't. We are the bosses, we'll be here long after you have gone to your next assignment. You are merely the custodian for the tenure of your reign. Council workers recognise this. It is clear that the Council is suppressing information and it would be unprofessional of staff to let this happen. You talk about the RNLI lifeboat men and there professionalism. Would they abandon drowning people if the boss told them to? Of course not. That is why staff oppose the warden cuts and the privatisation. Do you suppose the RNLI men would sit idly by if the boss decided to outsource the rescue service to Green Flag because it was cheaper and only 10% of rescues would be affected.

People leak info because they care. I don't pay a penny for info. I don't get paid to blog. You get £250,000 a year to do your job. I pay your wages. Open administration is honest administration. That is professional. Sadly you don't seem to understand this

An important question for every Barnet Citizen - Do you want a free dinner with Brian Coleman

As you know, the Barnet Eye is run by humourless lefties. As such we never, ever allow any whiff of humour into the blog and every single full stop is written in line with the principles of Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx. As such I'm sure you'll realise that there is no hint of irony whatsoever in this particular blog entry. As such, I thought I'd have a little competition and a little poll, which judging from the results of the Robert Rams poll, is likely to prove most popular. Anyway first the competition. For once this has a really fantastic prize. I am prepared to pay for dinner for the lucky winner, with the Barnet Tory of your choice at the restaurant of your choice in Mill Hill. The only condition is that the said Tory has to agree to come along with you. I will email them when the poll closes with full details of the offer. I'll pay for any starter, main course, side dish and pudding for both of you + the cost of one bottle of wine under £25. What an offer. Given that our local Tories are known to be partial to a nice free dinner, I'm sure they will be only too keen to participate. If they don't, feel free to give them a piece of your mind. Anyway what do you have to do to win? It's simple, you simply have to add a comment saying which Barnet Tory you'd like to spend the evening with, why you've chosen them and which fine Mill Hill restaurant you'd like to go to. Don't worry, I will keep well clear, so if you fancy a canoodle with Coleman over a curry or some rumpy with Ramsbottom over a roast, you won't have me around to spoil the party. So fire away.

Anyway, on to our poll. A local Tory said I'm always nasty and horrible about them. Here's proof that nothing could be further from the truth. Which other blogger has offered them such a fantastic chance. This is open to Councillors as well, so if Graham Old says "I'd like dinner at the Good Earth with Lynne Hillan, so I can Brown Nose her in the hope of a promotion", he might just win. I will be the sole arbitor and anyone who says "I'd like Dinner with Brian Coleman at the Chinese Medical clinic so they can stick acupuncture needles in his eyes" will be disqualified and if it's rude or contains anything illegal I'll delete it.

On to our poll. As the Barnet Eye editorial team contemplated this marvellous prize, we pondered the question of which Barnet Tory we'd least like to spend an evening having dinner with. Now after much deliberation we came to our decision, which we'll detail below, but we thought we'd give you the chance to vote from our selection. Anyway here's a few candidates and our bad dinner partner rating (10/10 means rubbish dinner companion, 0/10 means marvellous company). These are our candidates, for the poll

Councillor John Hart - 1/10 - Unlike most Barnet Tories, John can be quite funny (if you don't do PC). He also is rather fond of a tipple, so unlike most of them, you would probably get good value for money from John (especially if you are a leggy blonde).


Councillor Hugh Rayner - 2/10 - Hugh likes to think of himself as a racontour. He enjoys a tipple and likes a good joke (he must, he voted for Lynne Hillan in the Leadership contest).


Councillor Lynne Hillan - 3/10 - Now this rating may surprise you. The Barnet Eye has it on good authority that once the doors are closed, the curtains are drawn and the bottle of plonk has been opened, Lynne is by no means the stuffy haridan that some leftie bloggers like to portray her as.


Councillor Brian Coleman  - 5/10 - Now I bet you were thinking the Barnet Eye would put our Bwian as the last choice. Not a bit of it. We bear no grudge against Bwian, having taken him to the cleaners in our standards case, where he had to pay a huge legal bill. I can think of nothing better than spending an evening hearing how he ever thought he'd win.


Councillor Robert Rams - 8/10 - The man voted a twat by the Barnet Eye readers. Unlike his mentor, Brian Coleman, I can't really think of too many reasons why I'd want to spend an evening in his company. Certainly not his wit or his intellect. There is always the chance that if enough alcohol was poured down his neck, he might spill an indiscretion or two about Coleman, which would be good blogging material.

And the winner - The Tory Councillor which the Barnet Eye would least Like to spend and evening with is........

Councillor Graham Old - 10/10 - unlike the lot above, he really has no redeeming features whatsoever. He's the man who declared Kate Salinger as his hero, but let her be stripped of all her priveliges for her principled stand against the allowance rise. He has no backbone whatsoever and his support for Hillan in the 19/18 Leadership vote is the reason why Barnet Council still has Hillan at the Helm. A man who used the whole sorry debacle as a means to further his own career in the Barnet Tory Party. Whatever catastrophys befall Barnet Council from now on under Hillans awful leadership are the fault of this man, more than any, as he knew full well she had to go and he bottled it. I rang up my favourite Tory Councillor and asked if he could name a single redeeming feature of Graham Old. His response "erm, I'll have to think about that". He's still thinking.

Anyway, it's your turn now -vote away

Exposed - Barnet Council and the art of cheating in public tendering

Barnet Council Future Shape tendering - this is quite unbelievable :-

Go to this link

http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/reports/reportdetail.asp?ReportID=9648

Open the PDF and go to page 20 -  The Scoring system is clearly distorted. Read the notes  - not exactly biased are they?

The whole documents is full of assumptions , contradictory statements and more future shape gobbledegook.

It insults staff by stating “But it is also very clear that the services require a fresh injection of intellectual capital..”

Why have they hidden the figures this way I don’t know but it is in  public document so at least we now know.

It's bad enough that Barnet Council are distiorting the process of bidding for public service contracts. What is worse is the fact that they are too dim to realise we'd catch them and they insult us by calling their employees thick in the process. If I was going to start with a fresh injection of intellectual capital in Barnet, I'd suggest they start with the leadership.