Oh No, not me I never lost control. You're face to face with the man who sold the world.
As I saw the video of old chubbychops Brian Coleman in action at Hendon Town Hall on Tuesday evening, I contemplated making a video of the old David Bowie song with Coleman on. The sad truth is that until May 2006, we had a vaguely sensible Conservative Council. Then Brian Coleman orchestrated the putsch which deposed Councillor Brian Salinger as Leader and selected Mike Freer. I was no fan of Salinger, but I had no idea of what Freer was like. He was unknown and introduced as a "hard Thatcherite". Freer wanted to make a name for himself. As such he started the "Future Shape" project. The idea is simple Thatcherism. Privatise everything. Just have a few people doing the things required by law.
Now what many people don't realise about Thatcherite Privatisation was that it was never about saving money for the taxpayer. It is about the destruction of the power of the Unions. By fragmenting services, it becomes harder to take effective action. Staff know that if they work for a private supplier and they strike, they are far more likely to lose their job and be thrown onto the dole. As private companies exist to make money for shareholders, a profit must be turned. Whilst this is referred to as efficiency, it usually means paying staff less. Whilst public services often have a degree of spare capacity, this is not always the case in private companies. Whilst it results in cheaper operation, when someone is ill, it means jobs don't get done. If a private company runs a sandwich bar and a member of staff is ill, a queue forms at lunchtime and people go elsewhere. If a community care worker is ill and can't work, if there is no spare capacity, someone gets left without care. Often agency workers will be brought in to cover who are not familair with the needs of the people they care for and are solely motivated to collect the cash and go.
A sensible Council, wishing to embark on a program of privatisation would look for services which are not delivering, analyse why and if a private supplier could be demonstrated to perform the service better, give them the contract. What haas happened in Barnet is that they want the whole shooting match privatised. This has created a mad rush, with corners cut. The Council's own auditors Grant Thornton issued a damning report highlighting the fact that no proper project plan existed and no effective controls were in place.
The crazy thing about the whole project is the fact that it is demonstrably a vanity project for the local Tories. A sensible pragmatic Tory would seek to "cherry pick" projects to ensure that successful outcomes were achieved, each building on the success of the previous ones. A methodology for implementing outsourcing would be developed based on real world problems. Expertise and skills would be developed and as each department was picked off, they would be able to cite past success.
What they have done is go big bang. As the wheels are coming off and the Unions find more and more holes. Sadly for the Tories, this lack of proper planning is likely to ultimately destroy the whole case. Legal challenges will follow and rather than making a sensible business case, they will end up destroying forever the concept of flogging off services. Anyone who has read any of Dexter Whitlock's analysis of the Future Shape / One Barnet model would have to conclude that it is rapidly becoming a replay of General Custers last stand.
The sad truth is that it has cost millions in consultants fees. On Tuesday Barnet implemented a program of vicious cuts to front line services in the Budget. Rather oddly, they could have avoided all of this if they'd cancelled Future Shape and worked with the in house teams for greater efficiency. There would still have been cuts, but many of these could be directed to the layers of management which have been developed to handle the Easy Council model. There are many services which could have been made had council workers on salaries over £75,000 pa had a 5% salary cut and those on over £120,000 had a 10% cut. This would most definately saved enough to save the Lollipop service and sheltered housing wardens.
Barnet Council have adopted a bizarre stance on the whole issue. Councillors are being whipped in scrutiny committees. They have taken to declaring this at the start of the session. What this means is that they are forbidden from demanding further work on projects they no to be defective. It is completely crazy. If they see something needs fixing, they are not allowed to say. What could be more bonkers than shutting people up who are on your side and are trying to make your schemes work properly.
In
Mrs Angry's blog about the Council meeting on Tuesday, the final paragraph explained why we are in the mess. Councillor Barry Evangeli had been elected as Deputy Mayor at the fractuous meeting. Amid all the scenes of Security guards manhandling residents, police, Councillors and Officials disagreeing over who could do what, Mr Evangeli emerged beaming with joy. He was chuffed. Why? He'd managed to snaffle a load of cakes, which had been left over from the buffet. If ever Brian Coleman falls under a bus, it seems we have a ready made replacement (note : it's the bit before the Weds update). The Tories in Barnet may "Sell the World" - you and I will have to pay the price.
