The Friday Joke - 5/9/2014

As we all ramp up for the weekend, here is the traditional Friday joke

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Qantas one year ago, you would
have £49.00 today!

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would
have £33.00 today.

If you had purchased £1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago,
you would have £0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased £1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all
the beer, then turned in the aluminium cans for recycling refund, you
would have received £214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink
heavily & recycle.

A recent study found that the average British man walks about 900 miles
a year. Another study found that the British man drinks, on average, 22
gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, The British get
about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you damned proud to be British!

Barnet Mayor Hugh Rayner cleared by his Tory mates

Lets put all tribalism aside in our comments. Lets pretend for two seconds that we have no axe to grind and we are totally objective observers in the whole sorry business of the "Leaders panel" hearing into the case against Barnet Council Mayor Hugh Rayner. This hearing was held on Wednesday evening and this panel cleared Hugh Rayner of all wrongdoing. The panel had a natural Conservative majority and by all accounts was split in its deliberations, presumably on party lines. The panel had three Tories, two Labour and one independent (non voting member).

I am not going to pass comment on the verdict. Turkeys don't vote for Xmas. What I will say is that I believe this committee is flawed and has done no one, least of all Mr Rayner, a favour. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, there is no way a partizan committee such as this can be impartial. Whatever happens, no fair minded person could really believe Mr Rayner has actually been cleared. There will always be a question mark. Lets suppose for a second that GLA rep Andrew Dismore has in fact really been unfair to Rayner. A truly independent and impartial panel could have said so. Sadly for Rayner if this is the case, there was no point in the committee saying it, because the committee has no credibility.

The situation is lose/lose for Barnet Council. If Mr Rayner is innocent and Dismore has been beastly, no one will believe it, because the committee is clearly partisan. If Mr Rayner has broken the rules, then the Council has shown itself to be so deeply flawed that it has turned a blind eye.

I am sure when Richard Cornelius set up the new system, he didn't envisage this mess. The mind can only boggle at what would have happened had this committee had to deal with the numerous breaches Brian Coleman made of the standards code. The big winner in all the is is Mr Andrew Dismore. He has all the ammunition he needs to portray the Tories as the villians of the piece. I suspect that in a years time, when Mr Dismore is back in Westminster, Matthew Offord will have wished that a proper independent panel had adjudicated and saved the local Tories from a year of bile. I suspect that the most a truly independent adjudictor would have done to Rayner, had he been found guilty of technical breaches of rules, would be to send him for training and to re ratify the votes. It seems to me unlikely, given the Tory majority at the time, that any fair minded person would say Rayners non disclosure was anything more than a technical breach and would have had no result on the actual decisions. I am not seeking to excuse it, but in practical terms that is what it was.

As it is, Mr Rayner and the local Tories can expect a winter of discontent. 

Thursday Music Special #2 - Spizz Energi

Today we are looking at Spizz Energi and Spizz Oil. For many music followers, Spizz was a bit of a one hit wonder with the quirky chart hit "Where's Captain Kirk"



Whilst this was the height of their chart success, the story is far more interesting. Their Wikipedia entry explains

Spizz attended Arden School, Knowle, near Solihull, a comprehensive school in the West Midlands, and was inspired by the burgeoning punk rock movement. After a Siouxsie and the Banshees gig at Birmingham's Barbarellas club ^[3] he jumped on stage and sang into the microphones on the back of which was given a recording deal. He was already performing (solo) by 1977. Spizz soon got together with like-minded guitarist Pete Petrol (real name Pete O'Dowd) with whom he released a few singles during the height of the punk's popularity. In 1978 Palmolive, drummer with The Slits, joined the band, then named Spizzoil, for a few gigs.

 I first saw the band around 77/78 as Spizzoil, as a twopiece. They may have been supporting the Damned at the time. I was fascinated. They were the most truly bizzare act I've ever seen. I was entranced. Judge for yourself from their first single "6000 Crazy"


For me their act and this single was a huge inspiration for my musical career. At the time I couldn't really play the guitar, didn't know how to write songs. This was probably the first song I ever learned to play on the guitar and it was the first song the orignal False Dots (myself and Pete Conway on vocals & bass ) played together.

Given the completely anti commercial stance of Spizzoil, I felt like my wife had run off with the milkman when they "sold out" and released "Where's Captain Kirk" becoming pop stars overnight.

I guess I am one of the few people on the planet who wishes that "6000 Crazy" had been their big hit. Having said that, I was recently at a party and the DJ played "Where's Captain Kirk" and I had to admit that it's a damn fine pop song. It even made the Mojo magazine list of best ever punk singles. Despite all that, "6000 Crazy" was probably the nearest a song ever came to ever catching the mood of insanity in my brain at the time. There is absolutely nothing about the song which is easy or nice, but somehow I love it. I can remember once sneaking a girlfriend back to my parents house, playing her the song about 20 times on the trot and getting really cross with her when she told me she didn't like it and asked to listen to "something decent".  I think she probably told everyone I was a lunatic. At the time, I'd latch on to songs and they'd become the most important thing in my life and I'd see all manner of strange things in them that I doubt even the writers saw. In "6000 Crazy", their are a couple of sections with strange screeching noises (an overdriven echo unit). For some strange reason these took on a deeply mystical meaning for me at the time. Probably just a sign of how disturbed I was back in 1978. The thing is that this is one of the songs that got me through a difficult time and convinced me that there were other souls in the world who felt some of the things I was feeling. I suppose that the idea that there were 5999 other crazies out there somewhere was deeply reassuring.

If you listen to 6000 Crazy and don't get it at all, maybe there is one thing you can take from this. It got me through an extremely difficult period of my life ( I am sure puberty is hard for all of us). If your kids, or friends are obsessively listening to really crazy stuff, maybe it is because they need to, just to stay sane. Maybe they are getting some much needed solace from the music. I know I  was.

When I decided to do this series of blogs, I originally started by trying to make a list of the songs I liked and the artists I liked. I then decided that this was a bit of a bland and uninteresting list, and decided to try and chronologically list the musical influences of my own musical career. So strictly speaking, 6000 Crazy should be no 1, but I'm quite happy with the mighty Prince Buster introducing the series, so here we go with Spizz.

As to the format of this series, I'll try and feature two clips from each artist, their "greatest hit" and the song which influenced me. I hope a few of you out there enjoy these. It is a bit left field and I guess my approach is a tad self indulgent, but hey ho, if like me music fascinates you and is a "bit of a journey" I hope somewhere you find some new gems and enjoy the ride. I have.

The Peoples March for the NHS is on it's way to London - Join the march in Barnet to save the NHS

JOIN US. DO A MILE, DO 10 MILES OR MORE. VOLUNTEER OR COME TO A RALLY.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

SATURDAY 6th Sept 3.30pm

LONDON RALLY STEWARDS

We need volunteer stewards to help run the London Rally. If you think you can work ith 250 dedicated helpers in a fun, friendly and calm manner and would like to help this event to be a safe, enjoyable and memorable please get in touch.

 
 

 

Thousands of people have marched with us and supported us. The People's March is growing every day. Click on the dates below to find out more about the People's March in your area and how you can join us.

The march started in Jarrow in protest at cuts and privatisation in the NHS. The march arrives in comes through Barnet on Friday 5th, on our St Albans to Edmonton leg. We are aiming to lunch in Ravenscroft Gardens between 1 and 2. 

Our website is here:

http://999callfornhs.org.uk

And Facebook event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/250607991792741/

If you can, please come along and give your support
 

Barnet - A great place to do business?

I've run a business in Barnet for 35 years. We are one of the leading studios in London, if not the world. Many world famous artists started their careers rehearsing and recording at our studios. One thing which has struck me over the years is just how bad our local council is at telling the story about what a good place to do business the London Borough of Barnet is. We have great tube and rail connections to London and to the rest of the country and we are ideally placed on the road network as well. We have a great mix of urban developments and green belt, making the borough a great place to live and work. Contrary to the myths of the time, economic prosperity is not generated by housing. It is generated by jobs and business. without this, there would be no economy to support the mortgages and rents. Therefore it is vital that Barnet Council should play its part.

In Barnet, we have a vibrant branch of the Federation of Small Business. Every month, on the first Monday (Yesterday), they hold a networking meeting at Cafe Buzz in Finchley. The meeting is free to attend and dozens of local traders turn up to exchange details and discuss matters. There is a presentation. I was pleased to see a representative from the council at yesterdays meeting. I've recently been lobbying the council to do  its part and amongst the suggestions I've made have been]

a) Improve the visibility of business services on the council website
b) Have pictures on the front page of the site talling what a great place Barnet is for business
c) Business friendly parking policies.
d) Better and more identifyable corporate branding
e) Details of local businesses and services in the Borough on  teh council website

You may think that point d) is irrelevant, but the NHS style corporate logo for Barnet is tired and looks like the NHS logo. It is ideal for a sick borough. I'd like to see Barnet Council encourage businesses based in Barnet to display the Barnet logo on their website and have a link back to the council pages on what a great place Barnet is to do business (which don't currently exist).

There are many challenges facing the London Borough of Barnet, but local businesses providing local jobs will make a significant difference to solving them. For single parents with school age children, often a local job is the only realistic option to benefits. The more such jobs we create, the less tax we'll all pay. Surely our Conservative cuncil should recognise this and proactively be promoting policies to which create prosperity? Making it easy to do business in the Borough and telling our story would be a good place to start. Every job on the highstreet is potentially one less person claiming benefits and every job destroyed by bad policies such as the Brian Coleman era parking regime is another call on your wallet in tax.

I would like to invite the Leader of the Council, Richard Cornelius to the next Cafe Buzz business network meeting in October, so he can see for himself what the council should be doing and who they should be talking to.

Guest Blog - David Cameron and the enemy within - by John Sullivan

By John Sullivan


Cameron attempts to frighten us with ISIS the enemy within , and there is no doubt we have much to fear from the likes of ISIS.

What Cameron fails to understand is for millions of us he and his millionaires cabinet and his wealthy backers that he is handing over our public services and our NHS to further line their collective pockets, represent a far greater threat to British working people than ISIS.

They have brought poverty, starvation, homelessness, slave labour , part time employment they call employment, a hatred for the poor and the disabled , suicides and unnecessary early deaths due to benefit cuts and bedroom taxes. I for one fail to se what we have to fear from ISIS who threaten sudden death. Rather than the slow painful death of poverty and despair Cameron and his ilk have brought us in such a short space of time..

Cameron should be careful what he wishes for, his cry to stand and fight ISIS, might encourage us millions to take up arms against our true enemy within, which is Cameron and a few hundred pocket lining MPs of all political persuasions, us millions verse those hundreds. Be careful what you wish for Cameron, we might decide to reinstate the democracy in our country you have destroyed by your non mandated cruelty to the many, whilst lining the pockets of the few.
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John Sullivan is a Barnet resident and carer for his daughter Susan. Guest blogs are always welcome