Burnt Oak, Punk rock and basic decency

Due to my holiday in France, work commitments and life, I completely missed the fact that there is a play on at the Leicester Square Theatre called (and about) Burnt Oak. Here is an interview with the playwrite Laurence Lynch on the Robert Elms show on BBC London 94.9.

I have booked tickets to see the show next week. I am really very excited about it and will write a review here. Laurence has a great story. He grew up in Burnt Oak, became a plumber, moved to Soho, became the plumber to the stars and one day showed a friend a play he'd written years before. They thought it was great, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

There is a little bit more to Laurence's story. Back in 1979, there was a burgeoning music scene in the area. As any regular reader will know, my band - The False Dots - were one of many who took up Mark Perry's call to war to learn three chrods and form a band. At the time, one of my best friends was a schoolmate at Orange Hill, Joe Malone, one of a large family of Irish descent, who lived up the road. The three elder Malone brothers Twins Joe and Chris, with slightly younger brother Dale, also were in the process of forming a band. Joe shared my tastes in Punk rock. His favourite band was art punk outfit, Wire. Joe was higly influenced by a show we saw at the Jeanette Cochrane Theatre. Wire staged a show with four acts. Even more interestingly, they had no visible amplifiers. It is fair to say, Joe was pretty blown away by the gig and thought he'd seen the future of new wave music. The program for the show was more like a theatre show and had the acts summarised. Other arts were also featured. Joe took his ideas back to his band. The Malone brothers were the original customers of Mill Hill Music Complex. They were so paranoid that people would rip off their ideas, that everyone was soon banned from their rehearsals. My band, the False Dots liked visitors (especially female ones). Joe was so protective of his ideas that he even had a punch up with the lead singer of our band, Pete Conway, over who'd been the first person in Mill Hill to wear bondage trousers. Such things were highly important.

It is fair to say that the rest of us were intrigued. Joe had a reputation. He was highly unpredicatable and was given to grand gestures. When playing for the Orange Hill School football team, he once ran the entire length of the pitch and banged a superb goal into his own net, in protest at the atrocious performance of his team mates. Even the name of the band was secret. We christened them "The Mojes" a sort of bastardised anagram of Jo Ma and the name stuck. In 1980 I organised a series of gigs at the Harwood Hall in Mill Hill. As Joe was a mate, I asked him if they fancied playing. Joe said "Yes". I was quite excited. I asked what the Band is called "We'll tell you on the night". I explained to Joe that it didn't work like that. We had to let people know who was playing etc.

One of the people Joe had recruited was none other than Laurence Lynch. Like all other members of the band, he was sworn to secrecy. I knew Laurence's sister Barbara (Babs). It is fair to say, I thought she was lovely. We used to all meet on the 113 bus back from gigs at the Marquee. I was intrigued to find out what the Mojes were up to, but even Babs was in the dark.

The Mojes took the show extremely seriously. Demand after demand came in. No recordings, no photos, no videos, their own sound man, an intro tape, to be played, no one in the dressing room before they plated, so they could prepare. Eventually Joe relented and announced the name of the band - Kabuki - this is the Japanese word for a form of dance drama. Had anyone else in the world come up with the name, I'd have sniggered, but as I said, the Mojes had an aura.

On the day of the show, five local bands assembled in Harwood Hall. A mate of mine, Dermot Fanning, had agreed to DJ. He just loved playing records. Kabuki were on third out of five bands. I'd been rather keen to make sure that as headliners, we didn't directly follow them, as I thought they may be good. I'd been intrigued by the whole secrecy thing, as had everyone else. The hall was packed.

When time came for them to emerge, their plan went into action. Every light in the building was turned off. 130 people stood in darkness. Then the sounds of Opera singer John McCormack, eerily ghosted over the PA as we all stood in the dark. In this day and age, this probably doesn't sound that unusual, but in 1980, local bands just stood their, picked their nose and played badly. As the tape finished, a couple of ultra bright spotlights clicked on and their stood the Moje brothers band with Laurence, in what can be best described as crusader style outfits. As I recall brilliant white with red crosses painted on them (not in  a BNP sort of sense), it reminded me of a bleeding red cross. The band was absoletly brilliant. The whole audience just stood and stared for the whole show, not knowing what to make of it. At the end they got a raptuos response.

I was really pleased for them. I've always been supportive of my mates bands, and thought they were destined for great things. At the end, none of them wanted to discuss it, they packed up and left. A couple of days later, I saw Joe. I told him the show was brilliant.  He was infuriated. "No it wasn't, I knew we weren't ready, we should never have done it there". As far as he was concerned, it was terrible. It later transpired that as he'd gone on Dermot had said about the intro tape "That's John McCormack isn't it". Joe had replied "Yes". Dermot had then said "Yes, that's my Dad's favourate opera singer". Dermot said Joe seemed gutted.

I think that is probably the last time I saw Laurence. I can't remember if Kabuki knocked it on the head immediately or where they went from there. I still see the Malones up the road. I should say that all of this is my personal memories of the time. At the time I knew Joe far better than the rest of the band, I'm sure that they all had a big say in it, it was a band not his project - Please don't take this as a definitive history of their band. As we were all banned from the rehearsals, I guess we'll never know. It would probably make a great follow up play. All I can say is that I'm really chuffed that Laurence has gone on to get his play staged in such a prestigious venue.

Recently there has been lots of bad news happening in Burnt Oak. Murders, stabbings, brothels etc. I am chuffed that this play has come out now. It is a great reminder that the vast majority of people in Burnt Oak are decent people who just want to get on with their lives. The snooty members of Barnet Council etc look down their noses at the estate. As my grandparents lived at 55 Milling Road for most of their married lives, I hate such snobs. It was great hearing two Burnt Oak boys - Laurence and Robert Elms - discussing the estate on BBC London 94.9 in such warm positive terms. I just hope that in 30 years time we're talking about a new generation of people who've used their positive experiences on the estate to do great things.

The Friday Joke 5/8/2011

With all of this weeks pronouncements regarding rat infestation etc, from Councillor Daniel Thomas, there can only be one Friday joke

Q: What is the difference between a used car salesman and Councillor Daniel Thomas

A: A used car salesman knows when he's talking bollocks

Have a pleasant evening

Barnet Council Datagate Scandal : O Danny boy, can you hear the pipes a' leaking?

Councillor Daniel Thomas is the Barnet Council Cabinet member responsible for the physical security of Barnet Councils computer systems, under his portfolio of Resources and Performance. He is the man who is responsible for the atrocious state of which Barnet Council finds its computer services department. And you know what? He ain't up to the job. Both of our local newspapers have covered the Datagate Scandal in some detail. Both have completely inane comments from Councillor Thomas. First lets see what he told the Barnet Press in this article :-

http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/news.cfm?id=28890&headline=Report%20damns%20council%20over%20safety%20of%20data

“I won’t comment on any issue that could put us or the taxpayer at a financial disadvantage on contract negotiations. The council deals with issues and manages risk on a daily basis and takes the appropriate measures.”

Well all well and good, but the report specifically states that the Council hasn't managed risk and hasn't taken the appropriate measures. The council has let things degenerate to a state where pipes leak, rats eat cables, sprinklers need to be turned off and confidential data is stored in clear view. The biggest thing that puts the tapayer at a financial disadvantage is having a schmuck in charge. If Mr  Thomas wants to protect the taxpayers interest, then he should resign, because he is clearly out of his depth. Mr Thomas should realise that we need more than meaningless platitudes. We want evidence that he's got a grip.

Lets see what he told the Barnet Times?
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/9175446.Council_s_aging_computers_could_hit_front_line_services__report_says/?ref=mc

HereCouncillor Daniel Thomas, deputy leader and cabinet member for resources and performance, said:

“The council deals with issues and manages risk on a daily basis. I hope people understand that the way we do this is to identify these and take appropriate measures."

I hope people understand that the reason the Council are in this mess is because they've totally ignored all of the warning signs. Things do not get into such a state because risks are being managed on a daily basis. They get into such a state because they aren't.

But please, don't take my word for it. The report which Barnet Council released to me under a Freedom of Information act release is here to read in full :-
http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/07/barnet-council-scandal-foi-documents-is.html

It is the most shameful and damning report I've ever seen for any IT operation or any organisation. It is just a catalog of failure and mismanagement. If you are a Barnet Council Taxpayer and you want to know how competent our council is, read this. Pass it on to your friends. Then reread Councillor Daniel Thomas's response to it. That tells you everything you need to know about Mr Thomas. Can I tell you the most incredible thing about him. His fellow Tory Councillors recently elected him to be Deputy Leader of the Council. If he's the best candidate they've got to be deputy Leader, lord help them. Don't the Barnet Conservatives have anyone who can at least appear to be up to the job?

Oh and one final point. It would be rather nice to see a response to this report from the Labour Group in Barnet appear in the local press. I circulated this to all of the councillors and they should be screaming down the phone to the local papers just how appalling this is.

Brian Coleman and Boris Johnson stick two fingers up at St John The Baptist !

"collect no more tax than what you have been ordered to"

This was the commandment John The Baptist gave to the tax collectors when they asked how they could go to heaven. Another piece of advice :-

"be content with your wages"

Given that this blog usually concerns itself with the machinations of Barnet Council, you may wonder why we've come over all biblical today? You may also wonder why there is a picture of a nice little bit of urban green space? What has this got to do with the price of fish (and loaves)? You may wonder.

Well this is the church garden beside the Church of St John the Baptist in Chipping Barnet. I was astounded to read that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has awarded over £400,000 to "do this up", reported in the Barnet Times here -
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9177454.Church_green_investment_to__bring_buzz_back__to_Barnet/

I must confess, my first reaction was total incredulity. We've seen sheltered housing wardens cut to save this amount. Church Farmhouse museum closed and is under offer for sale. We've seen childrens centres cut. We've seen the grant cut to the Barnet Museum, which is virtually next door. We've seen Friern Barnet Library under threat of closure. All for less than this amount. We've seen all manner of charities, doing fantastic work, losing their grants or having them cut. Trifling amounts compared to this huge sum, but amounts that make a huge difference to all manner of lives in crisis.

So why has this perfectly adequate church garden been given nearly half a million quid for a makeover? Over to our favourite councillor - who gives the game away (to quote the article).

Councillor Brian Coleman, London Assembly member of Barnet and Camden, said: “This investment is excellent news for Chipping Barnet. It shows that Boris was as good as his word when he said in 2008 that he was not going to be just a Zone 1 Mayor.”

Yup, there is an election next year and the Tories are chop, chop chopping budgets left, right and centre. Boris and Brian have done NOTHING for Barnet up until now. Can it be a coincidence that all of  a sudden, they're splashing the cash and Brian Coleman, who is seeking election next year is running around claiming the credit.

I rather like St John The Baptist and his philosophy. He had a rather inclusive view of heaven. Anyone could come in so long as they did their job, played their role in society and didn't take the piss.

What would he have made of Councillor Brian Coleman, who earns over £114,000 a year for a string of part time jobs. Who charges thousands of pounds for taxi expenses back to the taxpayer. Who lives in a flat owned by the Methodist Church on a controlled rent. A flat designed for families on low wages?  Given all the free dinners Brian Coleman has munched his way through,  what would St John, who famously lived in the desert on a diet of locusts and honey have made of Coleman and his plutocracy?

Barnet isn't short of schemes and charities that could make a power of difference for £400,000. Sadly Brian Coleman and Boris Johnson aren't interested in these, as they won't give photo grabbing headline opportunities.

Whether or not you've heard of St John the Baptist or agree with his teachings, can anyone in this day and age think £400,000 to do up a perfectly adequate Church Garden is a good way to spend public money. Is there any way that such extravagance at a church named after a man dedicated to a lifestyle of poverty, can be seen as anything but two fingers up at one of the most important biblical figures? Especially when it is purely being done as a cynical pre election bung for one of the wealthiest parts of Barnet.

MetPro urgent questions for Barnet councillors – survey results

Five Barnet bloggers who exposed the scandal of Barnet’s Council’s relationship with the MetPro companies emailed nine questions to the 62 Barnet councillors on 13 July 2011. (The questions are printed at the end of this document.)

The questions sought to gauge councillors’ knowledge of the MetPro scandal, and their views on what the bloggers thought were the main issues raised by it. We did this in the wake of a damning internal audit report on the issue. Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, had paid tribute to the efforts of bloggers in uncovering the MetPro scandal. We thus felt the survey would be useful to Barnet residents, and told councillors we would publish the results.

We know that the vast majority of the councillors received and read the email. We chased up non-response with a second email on 21 July. Not all Labour councillors had replied by that date but we did not email them chasing a response, since Barnet Labour group had by then sent a group response. (Available at: http://alturl.com/dbyoy)

We have produced two tables to summarise the results of the survey:

Table 1. Response rates by party.

Table 2. Labour and Lib Dem councillors’ answers to the questions. Several councillors also made comments.

Results

Table 1. Response rates by part

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6126/6004696395_912e4f8608_b.jpg
Table 2. Labour and Lib Dem councillors’ answers to the questions

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/6005242616_dd32c466d5_b.jpg

The Conservative councillors did not respond to the survey. We therefore do not know what they think about the questions asked. A handful of Conservative councillors did reply to our initial email. The replies we received were:

Brian Gordon: I'm not wasting my time answering bloggers.

David Longstaff: Please remove me from your mailing list. As to your ‘urgent’ emails regarding procurement, which I found slightly manipulative, I’ll decide what’s urgent in my life, not you.

Hugh Rayner: I am not going to complete my questionnaire. I am a member of the Audit Committee and have (and will) express my views and opinions in that forum.

Table 2. Labour and Lib Dem councillors’ answers to the questions



Bloggers comment

The refusal to respond by Barnet’s Conservative group is extremely disappointing. The Coalition government has made a point of talking about empowering local government and about councillors’ accountability to residents. Barnet specifically has been mentioned as a borough that has not done this well lately, and this was a chance for the Conservative administration to start to make amends. They failed.

The response of the Labour and Lib Dem groups shows a better attitude to accountability. They have taken the trouble to tell residents what they think about these issues, and their replies to some of the questions show them agreeing with the reasonable expectation that councillors keep up-to-date with important issues (Q1), seek to affect events (Q7) and read important reports (Q8). It is disappointing that no one has answered that they have approached the Leader of the Council about the issue (Q4); neither, probably, is this only a result of the recent change of leadership. It would have been interesting to see whether Conservative councillors had spoken to the (Conservative) Leader, or whether this was just a matter of parties.
In comments, and in the Labour group response, opposition councillors referred to their wish to have more influence over the Council, and their sense of frustration that the scrutiny process was not working well. We share these frustrations and want an end to Leader and Cabinet government in Barnet which does not work well for local accountability.
The views of the Labour group and the responding Labour councillors and of the Lib Dem councillors on the substantive issues (Qs 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9) coincide with those of the bloggers.

Q2: In our view, the Council should have responded to the MetPro scandal with an independent inquiry that also included consideration of the security aspects of using MetPro. These were not addressed by the internal audit and show no signs of being addressed voluntarily.

Qs 3 and 9: Barnet Council’s Internal Audit needs more resources if it is to do its job properly; this is particularly important given the failings in Barnet Council’s procurement and contract monitoring, exposed by the MetPro internal audit and the Internal Audit Opinion on Barnet for 2010-11. We oppose the recent decision to cut staff from the procurement team, and to outsource procurement.
Q5: We believe that there are many more problems to be discovered in Barnet Council purchasing and we are submitting a number of FoI requests to uncover some of them, and continuing our own investigations.
Q6: We are opposed to the One Barnet Programme (OBP) and call on the Council to abandon it. We doubt that the advertised savings will materialise and we are alarmed at the cost of implementing the Programme and that Barnet Council is giving up control over vast, important areas of its services. But, in any case, we strongly believe that the Programme should be halted at least until Barnet Council’s outsourcing and procurement practices are improved substantially.



The questions

1. Are you aware of the issues concerning the MetPro security companies and Barnet Council?
2. Are you satisfied that the Council has managed the issue properly?
3. Do you agree with Lord Palmer that Barnet Council’s Internal Audit is under resourced?
4. Have you spoken to the Leader of the Council about your views on the MetPro scandal?
5. Besides the MetPro scandal, do you believe that there are other serious problems with purchasing in Barnet Council?
6. Do you think a halt should be called to the One Barnet Programme while investigations continue and basic procedures in procurement and contract monitoring are improved?
7. Do you think councillors have a responsibility to prevent such scandals arising in future?
8. Have you read the internal audit report into the MetPro scandal?
9. Are you happy with the decision to remove nine staff from Barnet Council’s procurement team?

Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

Barneteye - site redesign

If you are a reqular visitor to the site, you will notice that some things have changed. We've done a bit of a revamp. We've got rid of the garish green and replaced it with a subtle grey. There are two reasons for this a) It's easier to read and b) You are less likely to get spotted skiving reading the blog at work with a more toned down colour.

I've also rearranged the various links, so that they are all together, tidied up the titles, removed some obsolete links and generally done a bit of housekeeping. I've also changed the titles of the Twitter feeds, as people were commenting that they didn't know who these people were (a worrying sign really).

I've also added a weather forecast for London from the BBC. I hope it's easier to navigate around. And in reply to Mr Mustards question, does the change reflect a new, austere Barnet? Nope. If I'd done it to reflect Barnet I'd have chosen brown for the colour, as that most accurately reflects where we are with this council.

And if you don't like it. Tough.

Barnet Datagate scandal - How many Barnet Councillors bothered to read the email

Just a quick update. You may remember that at the weekend I emailed all Barnet Councillors regarding the problems with the Datacentre (rats eating cables, sprinklers switched off, no disaster recovery, data insecure).

How many have so far actually read the email (I put a read response on and asked that they respond).

Tories  - 19 (52%)
Labour - 11 (47%)
LibDem - 3(100%)

I believe they all get blackberries, tablets and laptops as part of the package for being a councillor. A very poor show generally, given that it was marked urgent. Details of the emails here. Three Councillors returned out of office responses (all Tory)

http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2011/07/barnet-eye-emails-all-barnet.html

Good to see Mike Freer MP promoting local business on Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/mikefreermp/statuses/97314188824821760

Shame he has to slag other ones off at the same time. Mike Freer has a history of using public forums to slag off people he doesn't like. Not really very appropriate, or am I just old fashioned.

Other raddenfisk Borough special : The robber barons of Westminster Council

I just heard that Westminster Council have decided to impose car parking charges on a Sunday. The official reason? Because more people want to park than on other days of the week. The real reason? Because they will raise £4 million.

This is absolute daylight robbery. Brian Coleman, the Stealth tax king of Barnet, who "never knowingly undercharges" would be proud of them. So why do more people park on a Sunday? Because public transport ceases to function properly in London. For many, a car is the only practical way to get around. Take Thameslink, my route of choice for journeys to London. There has been no through service in London for a couple of years, the Northern line is often also disrupted as are the Met line, Jubilee line, District Line & Circle line. My season ticket has gone up every year above inflation & the service has just got worse and worse.

What about the businesses, struggling to survive? What about the low paid workers struggling to survive? The Federation of Small business identified parking charges as one of the biggest threats to small traders. Do Tory Councils or Tory Councillors care? No chance.

Barnet Council Datagate Scandal - "Not none of them really know what there role is on any of these projects"

One of the reasons the bloggers of Barnet have proven so effective in exposing the utter crapness of Barnet Council, is because we work together and share information. I am endebted to Mrs Angry at the Broken Barnet blog to pointing out something that little old me missed whilst reviewing the "action plan" from Barnet Council, which was disclosed in response to a (sort of) FoI request last week.


If you want to know just how bad things are at Barnet Council, the title of this blog forms part of an action plan, written to address the mess which the Barnet Conservative administration has landed us in.

You can read the whole action plan here - http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/07/barnet-council-scandal-foi-documents-is.html - the text in the title is in the issues section. It forms part of the second bullet point in the application support section. The whole text is as follows :-

Staff and Team Leaders involved in a huge amount of projects  with the business not none of them really know what there role is on any of these projects.

 Lets consider this a bit more carefully. I'm dyslexic, so I missed the awfulness of what was written, until pointed out by Mrs A. I then showed my wife, who has a language degree. Her response? "Did you write that?". No, I replied, that is part of an official council action plan. Now just think this through. Who wrote the action plan, which is dealing with some of the most fundamental problems in the council? Now I'd hope that such an important report would be written by a senior council official. Maybe it was written by a highly paid, expert consultant on £1,500 a day? I don't know, I've asked the question in a follow up FoI question. Whoever wrote it, I'd say it's pretty worrying, wouldn't you. But that isn't the half of it. This report was issued to address fundamental problems within the Council. Again, I don't know what they do with these reports, but one would assume they circulate them for review, prior to issue. Presumably people are paid to check them and make sure they are correct. Who reviews them? Highly paid Council officials? Highly paid counsultants? Now I'd assume that they would want to get the report right, wouldn't you. What does this report tell me? That either the people who reviewed the document are all semi literate or that they didn't actually bother to read it. Now consider this. All of these people are PAID by the taxpayer to write reports and review them. What does this tell you? My assumption is that the report was reviewed by senior people on high salaries. Wouldn't you?

This action plan is meant to be the answer to the IT problems in Barnet Council. Who recieved it when it was issued? The senior manager who commissioned it should have read it and sent it back with red ink all over it. He should have checked the timesheet of everyone who was meant to review it and called them to account. Did Barnet Council CEO, Mr Nick Walkley read the report? Did he think it was ok? Do we have a Council who are so shoddy that that this is OK? Well Mr Walkley, do you think it's OK? I don't.  Did the senior officers who get paid over £100,000 per annum and saw it think it OK?

I sent the following FOI request to Barnet yesterday, because this is important. We are paying people a fortune and they are clearly not doing their job to a professional standard, are they? I want to know exactly who they are. I want to know how much they were paid. Why? Because I am a taxpayer and I'm paying them. Is it too much to ask that the people who's wages I pay do their job properly?

I've long suspected that teams of highly paid consultants spend all day writing reports, knowing no one will ever read them properly. I've no idea if this is true, but can there be any other explanation for such a grammatically awful sentence in one of the most important documents produced by Barnet Council.

When it comes down to it, accidents happen when people don't pay attention to detail (Iceland, Aerodrome Road, Metpro). I've long wondered why the OneBarnet project has achieved so little and cost so much. I happen to believe I now know the answer. I ask one question. If this is action plan shows the level of accuracy Barnet are prepared to accept in such an important document, what on earth will happen when they start writing contracts for the £750 million One Barnet contract, which is currently being tendered. Lord help us all.

This is my FOI request (and apologies for all the bad grammar above)

----- Original Message -----

From: Roger Tichborne

To: FOI Barnet

Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2011 2:04 PM

Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Request - Council Action Plans

Dear Ms Humphreys

 

Thank you for the information.

 

I have a further request. Please can you supply the following information regarding IS Plan action Final (redacted).pdf

 

Please can you supply the following (regarding the source document, not the redacted one you supplied me) :-

 

Who prepared this report

What costs were incurred in preparing the report

Who was on the original circulation list for the report

On what date was the report issued

Would the document have been seen by the Leader of the Council, Barnet Council CEO, Head of Audit, Head of Legal, prior to being released in redacted form to me as an FOI request

 

Regards

Roger Tichborne