First the good news (for Barnet Council). My car has packed up. This meant I couldn't make it to the town hall last night as Mrs T (the missus, not the blogger) had far more important things to do with her car. As a result, I completely missed all of the fun to be had watching Barnet Council completely ignore the people they are supposed to represent. A petition with seven thousand signatures was presented. This was summarily dismissed. Councillor Dan (AKA John) Thomas called it "trivial".
In truth, the real action is happening outside of the Town Hall. A Barnet resident, Maria Nash has launched a legal challenge to the One Barnet outsourcing program. Maria and her story gets half of page 7 of the Guardian today http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/22/tory-council-challenge-high-court . This blog has warned Capita on numerous occasions what sort of publicity they would receive if they signed this deal. The contract cannot now be signed until the legal challenge has been heard. Whatever the outcome, this will affect the cashflow and profits of Capita, as revenue they have accounted for in their business plan, will not arrive. Should the legal challenge prove successful, then we can expect similar challenges up and down the country. That may have catastrophic effects for the company.
Councillor Thomas welcomes the fact that the process has been "fast tracked". Maybe he should have spoken to Council lawyers about why Ms Nash is challenging the council. The case is not frivalous and to get this far, the expectation is that there will be an absolute minimum of a 50% chance of a positive outcome for Ms Nash. Being a betting man and given Barnet council and their history with legal challenges, if I were Councillor Thomas, I'd not be taking these odds. I know many top lawyers, my sister is a barrister, and it is fair to say that the view is that the case is rather strong.
Like many things at Barnet Council, the one element missing in the way the Council are behaving is common sense. All down the line, the One Barnet program has been swathed in secrecy. What makes it worse is that the alleged "One Barnet principles" espouse the opposite. If the council had said all along "complete secrecy is vital to ensure the success of such a complex project" they may have been able to blag the judicial process. As it is, they talk about "a new relationship with residents". In my experience, when a relationship consists entirely of one side dictating the rules, ignoring the considerations of the other side, not seeking consent for actions affecting the other party and using intimidation to force through actions, it is not a relationship at all. It is a rape. This is exactly what has happened with the Barnet Tories and the people of Barnet. Their 2010 manifesto mentioned nothing of One Barnet and wholescale privatisation. Even one of the Tory Councillors, Sury Khatri stated this in a meeting of the Tory group. At last nights Council meeting, the Leader of the Council even expressed objections to the Trades Unions publicising the fact that our services are being decimated. His view seemed to be that Unions are fine as long as they go along with whatever Barnet Council wants to do. Many a rapist will use the defence that "she wanted it" or "she asked for it". This is exactly the same sort of thing our local Conservatives are saying about One Barnet. They have never sought a mandate for One Barnet, they have never consulted residents on their views on outsourcing. Petitions have been ignored and attempts to publicise the effects have been derided. Yet despite not asking us what we think, they say "this is what the people of Barnet want". when all of the evidence available says the opposite. They tell us that because people voted for a commitment to keep taxes low, we want the destruction of public services. This is like a rapist saying "because she dressed up in appealing clothes, she asked for it, that was her consent". Well I'm sorry, but there is no mandate and there is no consent.
I am sure that some people will be offended by the analogy I've drawn here. How can you ever compare the horror of a rape with the restructuring of public services? Well if you read what Maria Nash tells the Guardian about the sleepless nights, the fear of being cut adrift, the worry that she will lose her independence, maybe the two things are not so different in their effects. Maria Nash will have her rights to independent living threatened. She is not the only one. These changes will throw local people out of work and will remove democratic accountability from local services. As I have repeatedly asked "where is the mandate for this, where is the consent of the people of Barnet?".
The Barnet Alliance for Public Services collected 7,000 signatures and presented them to Council last night, asking for a local referendum on One Barnet. If the local Conservative administration believed that the proposals were popular and would win the consent of local people, surely they would have jumped at the chance to get a specific mandate. It would have killed the arguments of BAPS and the Unions if they won.
They voted to reject the call for a referendum. They voted to specifically reject the opportunity for the people of Barnet to grant consent. Here is what BAPS asked for at the meeting and what the local Conservatives rejected. They are completely anti democratic and lack any semblence of common sense.
It is rather sad for Capita shareholders that this is who they have got into bed with.
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Rog T's Cancer Blog - My Bucket List
Please be warned. The next person to ask me what my bucket list is, is likely to get my fist banged straight into their eye. Well actually they are not, because I don't do violence, but they damn well should. I find the whole bucket list concept ridiculous personally. Having said that, I did once prepare a bucket list of sorts. I found it amongst some old papers. I think I was 18 at the time. My band were doing an interview with a magazine and we were asked to prepare for it by answering a few questions and making a list of the ten things we most want to do. Perhaps more telling than my bucket list, was the bucket list of my good mate and former bassplayer Paul Hircombe. In response to their request to prepare ten things he'd like to do Paul managed three
1. Take as many drugs as possible
2. Have sex with two lesbians in a bath full of Swarfega
3. Eat a whole bunch of grapes in one go
Another question which he answered was "How old do you think you'll be when you die? Paul replied 15. He was sixteen at the time. Paul died last year from cancer of the Oesophagus. I think maybe he succeeded in the first item from his bucket list. Sadly the drugs he was taking at the end of his life, though plentiful, brought him no pleasure. They were simply there to block out the excruciating pain which he was suffering from. I discussed the list with him when we wrote it. I was a bit irritated that he wasn't taking the interview seriously. His view was that the whole thing was a load of bollocks. The journo asked him about the two lesbians in the bath full of swarfega with the glee of a dirty old man finding himself on a bus full of schoolgirls. Paul replied "It's the only thing I could think of that I haven't already done". In truth there were plenty of things he wanted to do. He just didn't want to write a list full of them and he didn't want to tell anyone. He told me that it would take the magic away from his fantasies to write them down in English, which he thought was a bit of an ugly language. Paul at the time was going out with a beautiful French girl. He thought everything sounded sexy in French. If a French woman likes something he says "Oh La La, Tres Bien". We say "yeah, its OK". It amazes me that the French have managed to preserve such a sexy language living next door to Germany, whilst us, with the channel between us took all the dullest Germanic words as the basis for our language. Paul didn't want our language to corrupt his dreams.
As I sifted through the old papers, I saw a whole raft of memories I'd forgotten about. Pauls list and mine could not have been more different. His was short sharp and misleading. Mine was long, and obvious. In some ways, it was like our respective cancers. We both got our diagnosis within the same year. Pauls killed him, mine just lurks like a death shadow over my shoulder. I have no symptoms, I feel healthier than I have done for years, but I know deep inside me, there is a lurking malign presence. I looked at my bucket list from 1981 and was horrified. Have a guess what age the 18 year old me thought I'd die at? Twenty seven. Yup, the answer trying to be terribly cool. Thats when Hendrix and Jim Morrison died. Wouldn't that be cool. Well I'm fifty now. Would it really have been so cool to have been dead for 23 years. Would it have been cool for my mother to have buried me? Would it have been cool for Clare (Mrs T to those of you who don't know us) to have had to watch me die and go to my funeral. By now, I'd have just been a faded picture she would try not to look at or think about. In truth, teenagers are terribly selfish. When we say "I hope I die before I get old" we don't think of what that really means. And when we find out we are not immortal, it is a massive shock. In truth, shortly after I did the list, I went and lived in Sweden and grew up a hell of a lot. I wonder what the list would have said had I written it a year later?
So you may ask, what was on the list?
1. Go to John O'Groats
2. Own a VW camper van
3. Own a Fender Stratocaster Guitar
4. Own a Fender Twin Reverb Amplifier
5. Buy a record I've played on in the Virgin Megastore
6. Go on tour with my band
7. Make a low budget film
8. See the Steve Miller Band in California
9. Have sex with three women at the same time
10. Eat a tin of pineapple chunks whilst the sun sets on the Millfield
So how have I got on?
1. Go to John O'Groats - Went there in 1987, a long way to go, not much to do, but glad I did it
2. Own a VW camper van - Bought one in 1994 - thing was an unreliable rustbucket, but fun
3. Own a Fender Stratocaster Guitar - Bought one in 1984 and still love it
4. Own a Fender Twin Reverb Amplifier - Bough one in 1994, piece of crap, took it back demoralised
5. Buy a record I've played on in the Virgin Megastore - Did it in 1982
6. Go on tour with my band - Did it in 1981
7. Make a low budget film - Did it (twice) in 2012
8. See the Steve Miller Band in California - Did it in 2008
9. Have sex with three women at the same time - Sadly not even come close to this one !
10. Eat a tin of pineapple chunks whilst the sun sets on the Millfield - Strangely, the easiest of all - Unfullfilled
Now what is odd is that I've done eight out of ten. Perhaps the easiest one (no 10) is the one I've not done. I'd completely forgotten my need to go to John O'Groats. The reason for this is that my brother had hitchhiked there and so I thought it was a cool place to go. The answer that intrigue me is number nine. In hindsight, I think Paul was taking the piss out of my reply with his number 2 choice, and probably rightly so. In truth I'm not 100% sure that it was an honest choice, I just thought it was a rock and roll thing to say. For an eighteen year old bloke, it would be something to brag about, and if it ever had happened I am sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed it, but was it something I ever fantasised about? I don't think so. In truth, my idea of a night of passion has always been far more intimate and sensual than a situation involving a mini orgy. I am sure that in truth I'd have preferred a gothic castle, a big open fire, a bearskin rug, a bottle of champagne with Debbie Harry. I wouldn't need her two ugly sisters to complete the fantasy. Now when I was eighteen, I definately wouldn't have said that. It would have sounded far too dull and un "rock and roll".
Having ticked off eight of the ten, established that the ninth wasn't an honest choice, that leaves choice ten. You may wonder why that made the list. Well when I was a kid, pineapple chunks to me were the best thing in the world. I wanted to call the band "Pineapple Chunks". The rest of the band overruled me, and we settled on the False Dots.Watching the sun go down on the Millfield, is something I've always loved. It has romantic connotations for me. In a strange sort of a way, I've always felt that if I actually went to the Millfield and watched the sun set whilst eating pineapple chunks, then there would really be nothing left at all in the Universe to fulfill my soul. I would have to just curl up and die. But then again, I've completed my bucket list (apart from the one that we've established was really a lie), so I can go and eat my chunks and pass on anytime I like.
Well that would be the case, if I hadn't found some reasons to live in the intervening 32 years. I've found lots of reasons to live actually. Having found that I may have a nasty little warped bit of my DNA that wants to kill me, I've realised that the last thing I want to do is consider my own mortality, and draw up a stupid list. In fact the only reason I drew up the stupid bloody list when I was 18 was because I thought I was a God. I thought I was immortal. I thought no one and nothing could touch me. I had youth and vibrance and I took it for granted. People who've read the various dyslexia blogs I've written may be confused. Well at the age of 18 I was actually very happy. I had come through a bad time at school and I was confident. I had ultimate faith in my band and I had the confidence of invincibility that teenagers have, when they know Mummy and Daddy are there to pick up the pieces. For all my bluff and bluster, three years later, when I had a major health crisis, I was back home being looked after by Mummy and Daddy and playing the spoilt brat.
The truth is that having cancer cells in my body has made me think very long and very hard about life. Whilst four years ago I'd have simply dismissed that scrap of paper as teenage silliness, I now sit and analyse it. I try and work out my motivations. Some are easy, such as the guitar, amp and van. What troubles me is not what is on the list, but what isn't. You see, the whole thing was totally selfish. There was not the slightest acknowledgement of anyone or anything else. The three women I wanted sex with were simply anonymous shadows in my mind. I didn't want to go anywhere or do anything with friends, or make anyone else happy. It was all about glorification of objects simply for the sake of it. Perhaps the biggest reason for not wanting to buy into the concept of a bucket list, is by definition it is selfish. I hope I'm a lot less selfish a person now. I hope that having cancer cells withing my body has in some small way facilitated the process. The last proper conversation I had with Paul before he passed away, he said that "cancer is a bastard, there is nothing good about it". I'm not in his dire position. If I found out tomorrow I was, maybe I would re-evaluate again. As it stands this morning at 1am as I write this, I think for me personally, I have got something. I have got my soul back. I have confronted the things about me which I don't like and realised I am in some ways a very selfish person. Realising that and realising that I don't like that gives me the opportunity to change that and to try and make amends. Last week, I met up with someone for breakfast. As we talked, he suddenly apologised because the first time we spoke, he'd been rude to me. He was worried that I'd been offended and felt the need to make amends. As it was, I remembered the incident and wasn't offended, because he'd simply been honest about his feelings at the time. By discussing what happened, we were both able to move on. I have realised that I have a hell of a lot of things to do before I can fully move on. But as the saying goes, today is the first day of the rest of my life
Monday, 21 January 2013
Letter to Councillor Andrew Stronglou
Over the weekend I've been doing my bloggers homework on forthcoming Council meetings. My attention was drawn to a sudden burst of activity from one of the slightly "more laid back" members of our local Tory party. Councillor Andrew Stronglou has until now only attracted any attention for his habit of wearing sunglasses in Council meetings and not actually saying anything. His appearance at committee meetings reminded me of the dearly departed former bassplayer of my band. He'd always wear shades and say nothing. In his case, it was usually because he was exploring planet Zob under the influence of LSD, whilst the rest of us had to actually do the talking to the interviewer. In one such interview with the Hendon Times, when asked about the recent edition to our band of two dancers, he replied "It's a philosophy of life". Now whilst I'm sure that Councillor Stronglou has never taken anything stronger than a chocolate biscuit, his past record of actually contributing to meetings has been no more enlightening. It seems this sleeping giant has awoken from his torpor. He has asked a whole string of questions regarding the way the council funds Barnets Trades Union activities.
I would suggest that if you are serious in your role as a councillor, rather than ask questions of the leader of the council, you should speak to a trade union branch secretary and find out exactly what he does. This would enable you to ask sensible questions which would potentially assist the running of the council. I am sure that if you were to have a cup of tea with the Barnet Unison branch secretary John Burgess, he would be more than happy to explain the role of the unions and why they deliver value for money.
I hope that Councillor Stronglou takes up the suggestion to have a chat with John Burgess. In light of the response to one of the questions, I have today emailed Councillor Cornelius regarding his response.
I will be interested to see the response (if any) and will keep you informed.
Question 15 Councillor Andrew StrongolouCould the Cabinet Member please tell us how much support the council gives to the trade unions?Answer by Councillor Richard CorneliusThe council provides pre-agreed release time. In 2012-13 the budget is £113,320. This represents a cut of 65% from the 2009=10 budget.In 2012-13 £43,000 is budgeted to assist with the One Barnet programme. This will cease. There is also some un quantified, pre-agreed ad hoc release, use of offices, notice boards and meeting rooms.
Question 17 Councillor Andrew StrongolouDoes the Cabinet Member know how many council employees are members of Unison, Unite or any other trade union organisation within the council?Answer by Councillor Richard CorneliusThe Council does not hold this information as not all Unions utilise payroll deduction facilities.
Question 29 Councillor Andrew StrongolouDoes the tax that goes towards supporting the trade unions provide as much value for money as other council expenditures?Answer by Councillor Richard CorneliusUnions have a historically useful function but I would hate to feel that tax payers resources were being applied to political activity.
Now whilst it is always nice to see formerly "relaxed" Councillors taking a bit more interest in Council affairs, it seems that Councillor Stronglou doesn't really understand what the role of Trades Unions in the workplace is and how they have helped the nation develop socially. The Barnet Eye is never keen to see people make them make complete berks of themselves. We therefore felt compelled to email Councillor Stronglou and make a few helpful suggestions. Here is the text of my emailQuestion 33 Councillor Andrew StrongolouCould the Cabinet Member please tell us who has paid for the wrap around advertising in the local newspapers in the name of BAPS?Answer by Councillor Richard CorneliusI cannot say who has paid for these advertisements however the names of several unions appear on the BAPS website claimed as supporters,Question 41 Councillor Andrew StrongolouDoes the Leader feel that giving tax payers money to trade unions is a good use of public finances?Answer by Councillor Richard CorneliusNot always.
Dear Councillor Stronglou,
I noticed that you have asked a string of questions
regarding the activities of Trades Unions and their funding at the full council
meeting. From reading the questions, it is rather clear to me that you do not
understand the role that trades unions play in the modern workforce.
It strikes me as strange that you do not understand
the need for advocacy and mediation in the workplace or the need for the
workforce to have an organisation to ensure their views are properly
represented. Unions also do much valuable work in the field of health and
safety.
I would suggest that if you are serious in your role as a councillor, rather than ask questions of the leader of the council, you should speak to a trade union branch secretary and find out exactly what he does. This would enable you to ask sensible questions which would potentially assist the running of the council. I am sure that if you were to have a cup of tea with the Barnet Unison branch secretary John Burgess, he would be more than happy to explain the role of the unions and why they deliver value for money.
I also understand that you are upset at the Barnet Alliance for Public
Services producing a wraparound on the local papers. The wraparound provided
public information concerning the One Barnet project. The Leader of the Council,
Richard Cornelius has been widely featured on TV and Radio speaking about the
benefits of the program. As you presumably support the One Barnet program and
believe that it will deliver the promised huge savings, I would have thought
that anything which promoted awareness of the project should be welcomed. As a
councillor, surely you should be pleased that residents are taking an interest
in the way Barnet Council makes its policy?
I would suggest to you that to be an effective councillor, your time would
be far more wisely spent scrutinising council business and seeking out waste,
inefficiency and bad practice. I would draw attention to the fact that Barnet
bloggers uncovered the Metpro scandal and as a result of this, savings of over
half a million pounds have been identified. This is four times greater than the
figures Councillor Cornelius detailed as being spent supporting Trades Unions.
Barnet bloggers have long contended that there are likely to be dozens of
other such savings to be made, should anyone at Barnet Council actually bother
to look for them. I would suggest that rather than asking questions which are
clearly motivated by political concerns, you would deliver better value for the
people who elected you and pay your allowances, by concentrating on find real
savings and real issues.
For the absence of doubt, I am a business owner and have never been a
Trades Union member.
Regards
Roger Tichborne
Dear Councillor Cornelius,
I note your answer to Councillor Andreas
Stronglou.
Question
29 Councillor Andrew Strongolou
Does
the tax that goes towards supporting the trade unions provide as much value for
money as other council expenditures?
Answer
by Councillor Richard Cornelius
Unions
have a historically useful function but I would hate to feel that tax payers
resources were being applied to political activity.
As I am sure you are aware, both Conservative and
Labour groups in Barnet have a taxpayer funded full time political assistant,
who's role is a purely political one. Please can you tell me how much money
these assistants cost the taxpayer. Please could you also tell me whether you
think that spending money in this way is consistent with your reply to
Councillor Stronglou.
I would also draw your attention to the fact that
Councillor Robert Rams works in a taxpayer funded political role at the GLA. Do
you consider such positions to be wise use of taxpayers money?
Please consider the relevant parts of this email to
be a Freedom of Information request.
Regards
Roger Tichborne
I will be interested to see the response (if any) and will keep you informed.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Dyslexia blog - Give Peas a chance
For those of you who haven't read my dyslexia blogs before, here is a
little preamble and introduction, so you know who I am and what I do
and why I write this stuff. For those of you who know the story, skip to
the end of the paragraph for todays installment. Let me give you a bit
of Background so you know who I am and what I do. I was born in 1962. I
didn't start talking until I was 4 years old (at all, not a single
word). My parents thought I was deaf. My reading age at eleven was 5.
When I was fifteen I started a rock and roll band called the False Dots,
the band is still going strong. When I was 16 I started a business
called Mill Hill Music Complex
(although then it was simply called the studio), a rehearsal studio, as
we had nowhere to rehearse. The business has grown into a very
successful enterprise, one of Londons biggest and most well respected
independent studios. We now have 16 studios and a music shop and also
have a photography/video studio and a dance studio. I also have done IT
work, mostly on a freelance basis since 1983. In 2012 I also moved into
film production, producing two highly acclaimed documentary films, both
of which had screenings at the House of Commons. When I was 31, a friend
suggested I had a dyslexia test. To my surprise I was told I was
moderately dyslexic. This made me interested in the subject. To my
amazement, what I have learned over the years is that my lack of
educational aptitude, my feelings of anger and injustice and the core of
my personality have been formed by the fact I cannot read words in a
linear fashion. In 2013, I have set one of my objectives to use this
blog to let dyslexics know they are not alone, to suggest that people
who think they may be dyslexic to get an assessment and toget people who
have dyslexic children or siblings to understand the issues that they
face.
Albert Einstein was dyslexic. He didn't speak at all until he was six years old. His first words were spoken at the dinner table. His mother put his dinner in front of him. She was astounded when he exclaimed "I don't like peas!". Shocked by the fact that not only could young Albert talk, he could say a perfectly formed sentence she asked "Why haven't you spoken before?" He replied "Everything was alright before".
Albert was not a star performer at school. It was only as he got into his late teens/early twenties that the true scale of his intellect became apparent. In some ways, I feel much empathy for Albert. I didn't speak until I was four years old. My first words were at the dinner table, I exclaimed, to everyones total amazement "I wanna piece of cake". I was quite good at physics as well, although I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't in Alberts league. I wanted to study physics at University until I discovered music and Swedish girls. I had been accepted for a place at Queen Mary College to study physics. At the interview with the lecturer, I'd had a fascinating discussion about Black Holes. I'd read an article in Scientific American a couple of days before whilst babysitting for my brother.
As it turned out, I didn't go to QMC. I met a girl and went to live in Stockholm. Whilst I was there I stopped doing all of the unhealthy things I'd been doing since I was fourteen and got my head together. I practised guitar every day for three hours, I read prolifically and I wrote songs. I didn't realise I was dyslexic then. What I did know was that I had finished with education. In some ways the six months I spent in Stockholm was the happiest of my life. It wasn't perfect, but what mattered was I was able to be exactly who I wanted to be. None of my new friends had known me as a child (unlike most of my mates at home). They all listened to what I had to say. Wheras most of my friends back in the UK's idea of a good time was to get completely mashed, this was not part of the agenda of my Swedish friends. As pubs were so horrendously expensive, evenings comprised of going to someones flat and talking. As everyone was sober the conversations were completely different to those I'd had with my mates at home.
At the weekends, we'd go to nightclubs and see bands or dance. The Swedish music scene was not split into all the cliques and factions that the UK scene was. Nobody hated anyone else because of the length of their hair. At the end of the six months I returned, but I returned with a plan. I'd got in touch with a promoter and organised a tour for my band, playing some of the best venues in Stockholm and a few elsewhere. There was enough money to cover the costs and make a small profit. I had a month to get back, get the band rehearsed enough and get back out there.
As it was, the tour went well. The only problem was being cooped up with the rest of the guys caused a major fallout. Our drummer left the band in the middle of the tour. As I had the passports and tickets, I refused to hand them over unless he fulfilled his commitments. As it was he relented and we finished the tour.
When we arrived back, the plan was to use the experience to push on. I had a problem though. I'd borrowed money to get the band out to the gigs and spent too much of the income when I was out in Sweden. I owed money and was getting hassled to pay it back.
The problem I had was that the economy was in recession, the only skill I had was as a painter and decorator and there was not much work around. I got pocket money from letting out our rehearsal room. I applied for a few jobs, but one of my big failings is not being good at filling in forms. Several sarcastic employers looked down their noses and made comments such as "ah Mr Tichborne, I see you are female" as I'd ticked the wrong box. As the debts escalated, I blissfully buried my head in the sand. Finally it came to a head with a visit from some heavies. I'd given my parents adress, but I wasn't in. My father answered the door.
When I saw him there was a difficult conversation.
Dad : "Some guys came around looking for you"
Me : "What did you say?"
Dad : "They wanted £1,800 so I gave it to them"
Me : "What, that's nothing to do with you"
Dad : "It is when they come knocking on my door"
Me : "Ok, I'll pay you back as soon as I've got it".
Dad : "No you won't,you'll pay me £50 a week until you have cleared the debt. If you haven't got £50, you can come to the workshop and valet cars for me and I'll knock a tenner off the debt that week".
Me : "Alright"
Dad : "How much did you borrow off them and why did you do such a stupid thing"
Me : "When the band went to Sweden, I borrowed £2,000 to pay fares etc. As you know, we had problems. When I got back I had £1,600 - I've been trying to pay them back, but every time I can't pay the debt has just gone up".
Dad : "Why didn't you ask me?"
Me : "It's my thing, I didn't want to".
Dad : "You are an idiot, they'd have ended up breaking your legs".
At the time I was lucky to earn £60 a week painting. Some weeks I earned nothing. It was a disaster. I had to earn cash fast. I had a girlfriend who'd been paying for me already. In desparation, I thought I'd see if there were any other jobs I could do. I went to Golders Green jobcentre. I ended up chatting to the girl on the training desk. She suggested doing a TOPS course. This was a government run scheme where you got £40 a week to study. She said that if I did a computer course, I was more or less guaranteed a hundred quid a week at the end. There were two options. Operations or programming, The programming course was 40 weeks, the operations course was 8 weeks. If I did this, and cleaned cars on a Saturday for my Dad, that was the £50 a week. With the tenner a week I was earning from the studio, I could have a couple of beers and the lovely Lorna would always buy me a few as she was sensible and had a decent job. Thing was I had to eat and get up there. I thought it was better to try and cut a deal.
So I went home and had what I thought would be a difficult conversation with my Dad.He'd not told my mum about our arrangement. I took him to the pub for a beer (I'd actually had a good week on a building site the week before and had a couple of hundred quid, from taking down a chimney in Golders Green).
I said "Dad, I've enrolled on a TOPS course. It's a scheme where I'll learn to do work in computing. It's an eight week course, with a more or less guaranteed job at the end. The trouble is that for the duration of the course, I'll only be getting forty quid. It is eight hours a day and I have to get to Euston. I can't pay you the £50. Can we agree £20 a week until I have finished and got a job? I don't want to ponce of Lorna, she'll buy me drinks but it isn't fair on her" I expected him to go bananas. He wasn't noted for being reasonable. His response surprised me. He said "Ok, you stick out the course, and clean cars on the Saturday and I'll knock £50 a week off the debt. If you jack it in though, that will be that".
For once in my life I worked hard. I found that much to my amazement, IT was something I could excel at. I got one of the top marks from the College. In the sixth week of the course, we were told that job interviews had been lined up. It was the big moment. The first interview was with the IT arm of an insurance company. On arrival, I was horrified by what I had let myself in for. The place looked like a scene from a Hammer Horror film. The woman who interviewed me kept speaking about how lucky I was to be getting an interview. Then I asked what the salary was. She looked down her nose and explained "It is not about your salary young man, it is about making a proper career". I persisted. She then replied "The starting salary is £2,360 per annum". This was a disaster. This was less than £50 a week. I responded saying that I wasn't prepared to work for that little. She informed me haughtily that as I was coming for an interview, I was in no position to make demands. The idea that I'd spent all this time on a course for nothing filled me with gloom.
The next interview was at a Software company. The lady from the insurance company had sent back terrible feedback. I was informed that they wouldn't be sending me to any of the "usual people who take candidates as I had an attititude problem". I was sent along to the software house, with two other candidates. These guys were geeks who lived and breathed computers, had micro computers at home (this was 1983, when only nerds had microcomputers). I felt like I was being sent to make up the numbers.
I was the third person to be interviewed. The chap who interviewed me looked like King George Vth and was very well spoken. He had a world weary look on his face, indicating that he'd rather be banging nails in his eyes than conducting another interview. As I knew I had no chance, I relaxed.
He said "Why do you want a job with us?"
I replied "Well I spent some time travelling and I need a job which is well paid and interesting, so I thought I'd try this".
He laughed "Oh, where did you go?"
I replied "I spent time in Scandinavia, I lived in Stockholm for six months and I toured around a few other places".
He said "That's a bit of a strange place to go, why did you go there?"
I replied "I met a beautiful girl and I just wanted to spend some time with her"
He laughed "Can you speak Swedish?"
I replied "I can get by, I can order a beer and things like that".
He then said "Why didn't you go to University? You've got A levels".
I replied "I wanted to do something a bit different and see a bit of the world".
The conversation lasted about half an hour. I thought "what a nice bloke". He'd humoured me and not sent me packing. The other two had been in and out in ten minutes. As I walked back to Euston, I pondered my knack of fucking everything up so royally. Why couldn't I simply focus on what I had to do, when I had to do it. I'd just been to a job interview for a Computer Operating job and spent half an hour telling the bloke who was interviewing me all about the Stockholm nightlife. In short, I was a class A idiot.
When I arrived back at the college, I expected the call. I expected to be told that they wouldn't send me out again as I'd embarrassed the college. Sure enough the PA announced "Bing Bong, would Roger Tichborne go to the placement office". I made my way. The careers guy sat me down and said "I have some good news. The company you saw this morning are prepared to offer you a job". I was amazed. I asked "What is the salary?", now scared given my previous experience. He replied "The starting Salary is £6,200 per annum.
In 1983 that was a small fortune. I'd been skint for the duration of the course. I went home and told my folks I had a job. My Dad was delighted and gave me £20 and said "Take Lorna out and celebrate". I did just that. I started at the company a couple of weeks later. Everyone else was a graduate apart from the admin staff. I was given the sole responsibilty for looking after the in house systems. About six months later, I finally plucked up the courage to ask my boss why he'd given me the job. He replied "you were the only one with any personality. We have clients from all over the world coming here, so we need people who can fit in."
Within six months I'd paid off my debt. When I made the last payment, My Dad gave me back £400. He said "If you'd asked when you got back from Sweden, I'd have given it to you." That paid for a deposit on a flat rental.
There are many lessons I now take from the experience. The first is that my Dad handled having a diffucult situation well. We should all support are children, but not indulge them when they are stupid. The second was that my boss gave me the job on who I was. He wanted someone who he instinctively felt he could trust and someone who had a bit of experience of the world. After I joined I found that one of the firms major clients was a Swedish bank. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the firm. I only left when they were taken over and I was informed that "non graduates are not allowed to perform technical roles in the new setup". I left for a job on twice the money, so I didn't mind. A couple of years later, I had a curry with my Dad. He confided in me that he was amazed that I'd managed to do so well. He said he'd thought I was a complete idiot and had almost given up on me. He said he'd never expected to get the cash back.
And there is the third lesson. People sometimes surprise you for the better. They just need a chance and some support.
The fourth lesson is a harsher one. Never ever borrow money of anything that isn't a reputable organisation and never borrow money you can't pay back. I was lucky. Many others aren't. School had not prepared me for all of the challenges we meet in life. I hadn't even checked the interest rate when I'd taken out the agreement. I'd never asked what would happen if I couldn't pay it back.
The fifth lesson is the one for anyone with an interest in dyslexia. I had never dreamed I could hold down a job in IT. Firstly I thought you had to be clever (and I don't consider myself as clever). Secondly I would have been too scared to even apply if I hadn't been in dire straights. In fact if it hadn't been for the girl on the training desk at Golders Green jobcentre virtually telling me I had to do it and that I could do it, I wouldn't.
As it turns out, dyslexia is no impediment to working in IT. In fact IT opens up all manner of opportunities for dyslexics that were previously closed. Nobody would have ever read a single word I'd have written without the IT system that supports this blog. As it is, I've had over 800,000 hits on my blog. I still run a studio, it has grown into one of the most repsected studios in North West London, from its humble beginnings. My band still plays and I still occasionally do a bit of IT consultancy. I may not have emulated Albert Einstein in the Physics department, but he never set up a music studio which helped launch Brit Award winners Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse.
Albert Einstein was dyslexic. He didn't speak at all until he was six years old. His first words were spoken at the dinner table. His mother put his dinner in front of him. She was astounded when he exclaimed "I don't like peas!". Shocked by the fact that not only could young Albert talk, he could say a perfectly formed sentence she asked "Why haven't you spoken before?" He replied "Everything was alright before".
Albert was not a star performer at school. It was only as he got into his late teens/early twenties that the true scale of his intellect became apparent. In some ways, I feel much empathy for Albert. I didn't speak until I was four years old. My first words were at the dinner table, I exclaimed, to everyones total amazement "I wanna piece of cake". I was quite good at physics as well, although I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't in Alberts league. I wanted to study physics at University until I discovered music and Swedish girls. I had been accepted for a place at Queen Mary College to study physics. At the interview with the lecturer, I'd had a fascinating discussion about Black Holes. I'd read an article in Scientific American a couple of days before whilst babysitting for my brother.
As it turned out, I didn't go to QMC. I met a girl and went to live in Stockholm. Whilst I was there I stopped doing all of the unhealthy things I'd been doing since I was fourteen and got my head together. I practised guitar every day for three hours, I read prolifically and I wrote songs. I didn't realise I was dyslexic then. What I did know was that I had finished with education. In some ways the six months I spent in Stockholm was the happiest of my life. It wasn't perfect, but what mattered was I was able to be exactly who I wanted to be. None of my new friends had known me as a child (unlike most of my mates at home). They all listened to what I had to say. Wheras most of my friends back in the UK's idea of a good time was to get completely mashed, this was not part of the agenda of my Swedish friends. As pubs were so horrendously expensive, evenings comprised of going to someones flat and talking. As everyone was sober the conversations were completely different to those I'd had with my mates at home.
At the weekends, we'd go to nightclubs and see bands or dance. The Swedish music scene was not split into all the cliques and factions that the UK scene was. Nobody hated anyone else because of the length of their hair. At the end of the six months I returned, but I returned with a plan. I'd got in touch with a promoter and organised a tour for my band, playing some of the best venues in Stockholm and a few elsewhere. There was enough money to cover the costs and make a small profit. I had a month to get back, get the band rehearsed enough and get back out there.
 |
| A page from my band scrapbook, circa 1982 (me on your left) |
When we arrived back, the plan was to use the experience to push on. I had a problem though. I'd borrowed money to get the band out to the gigs and spent too much of the income when I was out in Sweden. I owed money and was getting hassled to pay it back.
The problem I had was that the economy was in recession, the only skill I had was as a painter and decorator and there was not much work around. I got pocket money from letting out our rehearsal room. I applied for a few jobs, but one of my big failings is not being good at filling in forms. Several sarcastic employers looked down their noses and made comments such as "ah Mr Tichborne, I see you are female" as I'd ticked the wrong box. As the debts escalated, I blissfully buried my head in the sand. Finally it came to a head with a visit from some heavies. I'd given my parents adress, but I wasn't in. My father answered the door.
When I saw him there was a difficult conversation.
Dad : "Some guys came around looking for you"
Me : "What did you say?"
Dad : "They wanted £1,800 so I gave it to them"
Me : "What, that's nothing to do with you"
Dad : "It is when they come knocking on my door"
Me : "Ok, I'll pay you back as soon as I've got it".
Dad : "No you won't,you'll pay me £50 a week until you have cleared the debt. If you haven't got £50, you can come to the workshop and valet cars for me and I'll knock a tenner off the debt that week".
Me : "Alright"
Dad : "How much did you borrow off them and why did you do such a stupid thing"
Me : "When the band went to Sweden, I borrowed £2,000 to pay fares etc. As you know, we had problems. When I got back I had £1,600 - I've been trying to pay them back, but every time I can't pay the debt has just gone up".
Dad : "Why didn't you ask me?"
Me : "It's my thing, I didn't want to".
Dad : "You are an idiot, they'd have ended up breaking your legs".
At the time I was lucky to earn £60 a week painting. Some weeks I earned nothing. It was a disaster. I had to earn cash fast. I had a girlfriend who'd been paying for me already. In desparation, I thought I'd see if there were any other jobs I could do. I went to Golders Green jobcentre. I ended up chatting to the girl on the training desk. She suggested doing a TOPS course. This was a government run scheme where you got £40 a week to study. She said that if I did a computer course, I was more or less guaranteed a hundred quid a week at the end. There were two options. Operations or programming, The programming course was 40 weeks, the operations course was 8 weeks. If I did this, and cleaned cars on a Saturday for my Dad, that was the £50 a week. With the tenner a week I was earning from the studio, I could have a couple of beers and the lovely Lorna would always buy me a few as she was sensible and had a decent job. Thing was I had to eat and get up there. I thought it was better to try and cut a deal.
So I went home and had what I thought would be a difficult conversation with my Dad.He'd not told my mum about our arrangement. I took him to the pub for a beer (I'd actually had a good week on a building site the week before and had a couple of hundred quid, from taking down a chimney in Golders Green).
I said "Dad, I've enrolled on a TOPS course. It's a scheme where I'll learn to do work in computing. It's an eight week course, with a more or less guaranteed job at the end. The trouble is that for the duration of the course, I'll only be getting forty quid. It is eight hours a day and I have to get to Euston. I can't pay you the £50. Can we agree £20 a week until I have finished and got a job? I don't want to ponce of Lorna, she'll buy me drinks but it isn't fair on her" I expected him to go bananas. He wasn't noted for being reasonable. His response surprised me. He said "Ok, you stick out the course, and clean cars on the Saturday and I'll knock £50 a week off the debt. If you jack it in though, that will be that".
For once in my life I worked hard. I found that much to my amazement, IT was something I could excel at. I got one of the top marks from the College. In the sixth week of the course, we were told that job interviews had been lined up. It was the big moment. The first interview was with the IT arm of an insurance company. On arrival, I was horrified by what I had let myself in for. The place looked like a scene from a Hammer Horror film. The woman who interviewed me kept speaking about how lucky I was to be getting an interview. Then I asked what the salary was. She looked down her nose and explained "It is not about your salary young man, it is about making a proper career". I persisted. She then replied "The starting salary is £2,360 per annum". This was a disaster. This was less than £50 a week. I responded saying that I wasn't prepared to work for that little. She informed me haughtily that as I was coming for an interview, I was in no position to make demands. The idea that I'd spent all this time on a course for nothing filled me with gloom.
The next interview was at a Software company. The lady from the insurance company had sent back terrible feedback. I was informed that they wouldn't be sending me to any of the "usual people who take candidates as I had an attititude problem". I was sent along to the software house, with two other candidates. These guys were geeks who lived and breathed computers, had micro computers at home (this was 1983, when only nerds had microcomputers). I felt like I was being sent to make up the numbers.
I was the third person to be interviewed. The chap who interviewed me looked like King George Vth and was very well spoken. He had a world weary look on his face, indicating that he'd rather be banging nails in his eyes than conducting another interview. As I knew I had no chance, I relaxed.
He said "Why do you want a job with us?"
I replied "Well I spent some time travelling and I need a job which is well paid and interesting, so I thought I'd try this".
He laughed "Oh, where did you go?"
I replied "I spent time in Scandinavia, I lived in Stockholm for six months and I toured around a few other places".
He said "That's a bit of a strange place to go, why did you go there?"
I replied "I met a beautiful girl and I just wanted to spend some time with her"
He laughed "Can you speak Swedish?"
I replied "I can get by, I can order a beer and things like that".
He then said "Why didn't you go to University? You've got A levels".
I replied "I wanted to do something a bit different and see a bit of the world".
The conversation lasted about half an hour. I thought "what a nice bloke". He'd humoured me and not sent me packing. The other two had been in and out in ten minutes. As I walked back to Euston, I pondered my knack of fucking everything up so royally. Why couldn't I simply focus on what I had to do, when I had to do it. I'd just been to a job interview for a Computer Operating job and spent half an hour telling the bloke who was interviewing me all about the Stockholm nightlife. In short, I was a class A idiot.
When I arrived back at the college, I expected the call. I expected to be told that they wouldn't send me out again as I'd embarrassed the college. Sure enough the PA announced "Bing Bong, would Roger Tichborne go to the placement office". I made my way. The careers guy sat me down and said "I have some good news. The company you saw this morning are prepared to offer you a job". I was amazed. I asked "What is the salary?", now scared given my previous experience. He replied "The starting Salary is £6,200 per annum.
In 1983 that was a small fortune. I'd been skint for the duration of the course. I went home and told my folks I had a job. My Dad was delighted and gave me £20 and said "Take Lorna out and celebrate". I did just that. I started at the company a couple of weeks later. Everyone else was a graduate apart from the admin staff. I was given the sole responsibilty for looking after the in house systems. About six months later, I finally plucked up the courage to ask my boss why he'd given me the job. He replied "you were the only one with any personality. We have clients from all over the world coming here, so we need people who can fit in."
Within six months I'd paid off my debt. When I made the last payment, My Dad gave me back £400. He said "If you'd asked when you got back from Sweden, I'd have given it to you." That paid for a deposit on a flat rental.
There are many lessons I now take from the experience. The first is that my Dad handled having a diffucult situation well. We should all support are children, but not indulge them when they are stupid. The second was that my boss gave me the job on who I was. He wanted someone who he instinctively felt he could trust and someone who had a bit of experience of the world. After I joined I found that one of the firms major clients was a Swedish bank. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the firm. I only left when they were taken over and I was informed that "non graduates are not allowed to perform technical roles in the new setup". I left for a job on twice the money, so I didn't mind. A couple of years later, I had a curry with my Dad. He confided in me that he was amazed that I'd managed to do so well. He said he'd thought I was a complete idiot and had almost given up on me. He said he'd never expected to get the cash back.
And there is the third lesson. People sometimes surprise you for the better. They just need a chance and some support.
The fourth lesson is a harsher one. Never ever borrow money of anything that isn't a reputable organisation and never borrow money you can't pay back. I was lucky. Many others aren't. School had not prepared me for all of the challenges we meet in life. I hadn't even checked the interest rate when I'd taken out the agreement. I'd never asked what would happen if I couldn't pay it back.
The fifth lesson is the one for anyone with an interest in dyslexia. I had never dreamed I could hold down a job in IT. Firstly I thought you had to be clever (and I don't consider myself as clever). Secondly I would have been too scared to even apply if I hadn't been in dire straights. In fact if it hadn't been for the girl on the training desk at Golders Green jobcentre virtually telling me I had to do it and that I could do it, I wouldn't.
As it turns out, dyslexia is no impediment to working in IT. In fact IT opens up all manner of opportunities for dyslexics that were previously closed. Nobody would have ever read a single word I'd have written without the IT system that supports this blog. As it is, I've had over 800,000 hits on my blog. I still run a studio, it has grown into one of the most repsected studios in North West London, from its humble beginnings. My band still plays and I still occasionally do a bit of IT consultancy. I may not have emulated Albert Einstein in the Physics department, but he never set up a music studio which helped launch Brit Award winners Kate Nash and Amy Winehouse.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
What is it actually like to be black, well educated and living in Great Britain today?
Just occasionally, I come across something that is absolutely brilliant and rekindles my faith in the creativity of the people I share this City with. As a filmmaker, I can fully appreciate what it is like to try and get across something which is important to me, but which many people seem oblivious to. Kassidy Chaplin tweeted this video to me. Being a musician, I watch any video people ask me to watch, perk of the job. I expected this to be another music vid, but it isn't. It is a short film that makes a very powerful point. Kassidy deserves recognition for it and the rest of us should sit up and take note. We need creative and talented people like Kassidy to get the message over and we need to listen. All I can do is draw your attention to it as a blogger. The rest is up to you.
The Saturday List #31 - My favourite gigs past and present
This week we said that when we got 600 followers on twitter, I'd tweet
my top ten London venues, past and present. Having done it, it really
brought home to me the way the London Music scene has changed since I
started gigging in 1980. I've added a few thoughts on the gig scene and
how it has changed.
Here they are in reverse order
Other worthy venues which deserve a mention - The Red Cow, The Half Moon, The Vortex, The Hope & Anchor, The Good Ship, The Underworld, Powerhaus, Spitz,12 bar & The Blue note.
After a little twitter conversation, I also listed the first ten venues my band played. The only one of these that still has bands is the Midland Arms in Hendon, which has been rebranded as "The Claddagh Ring" and mostly has cover/tribute bands. The issue it brought home to me is just how few venues there are for young bands to play. What is interesting in this little history is the progress. We started with gigs in the Harwood Hall, Mill Hill. I organised these. We then played at Orange Hill School, where 3 of us attended. The next step up was Hendon Rugby club, which was a regular venue. We supported a well known local circuit band (The Chevrons). From there we got booked to play a support at the Midland Arms, which was at the time being built up as a venue by a guy called Robert Armstrong, a guy who ran (and still does) a music duplication service. It was a bit of a coup for us as the band we supported were called "Way of the West" and had a Radio 1 single of the week. The last three of the ten gigs were all at well established London clubs and we had achieved a decent sized following. We also did a tour of Scandinavia. Where is the similar circuit and progression? At the time, I'd go to the Moonlight club every Friday and the Music Machine in Camdent every Tuesday, just to hang out and check out the bands. There were dozens of similar venues. It seems to me that has completely disappeared. People only go to check out bands they know. Here's the full list.
Harwood Hall Nw7,
Orange Hill School Hall,
Hendon Rugby club,
Midland arms (Hendon),
Kenton JYC,
Copper (Tower Bridge rd),
Ad Lib club Kensington,
Moonlight Club (West Hampstead),
Tunnel (Greenwich)
Note : This blog has also been reproduced on the Mill Hill Music Complex blog - http://millhillmusiccomplex.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-saturday-list-1-my-top-ten-london.html
Here they are in reverse order
#10, The Torrington, North Finchley (closed), sadly missed -
Steve Marriot !
#9, Brixton Academy - The Pogues, Happy Mondays say no more !
#8, The 100 club, Oxford Street. Now predominantly jazz, but
had iconic gigs
#7, The Rainbow, scene of some classic gigs Not least the
Ramones 1977 & PiL
#6, Dingwalls (before rebuilt) - rubbed shoulders with Lemmy on
many an occasion !
#5, The Lyceum The Strand, Used to do great Sunday night
gigs
#4 - The Nashville, West Kensington (Closed), Superb, Always
good bands
#3 The Moonlight, West Hampstead (closed) My default Fri
night gig home !
#2 - The Marquee, Wardour street (closed) Saw The Fall,The
Cure & loads else
#1 - The Roundhouse - Saw the Ramones here 1977 and a stack
of others since!
Other worthy venues which deserve a mention - The Red Cow, The Half Moon, The Vortex, The Hope & Anchor, The Good Ship, The Underworld, Powerhaus, Spitz,12 bar & The Blue note.
After a little twitter conversation, I also listed the first ten venues my band played. The only one of these that still has bands is the Midland Arms in Hendon, which has been rebranded as "The Claddagh Ring" and mostly has cover/tribute bands. The issue it brought home to me is just how few venues there are for young bands to play. What is interesting in this little history is the progress. We started with gigs in the Harwood Hall, Mill Hill. I organised these. We then played at Orange Hill School, where 3 of us attended. The next step up was Hendon Rugby club, which was a regular venue. We supported a well known local circuit band (The Chevrons). From there we got booked to play a support at the Midland Arms, which was at the time being built up as a venue by a guy called Robert Armstrong, a guy who ran (and still does) a music duplication service. It was a bit of a coup for us as the band we supported were called "Way of the West" and had a Radio 1 single of the week. The last three of the ten gigs were all at well established London clubs and we had achieved a decent sized following. We also did a tour of Scandinavia. Where is the similar circuit and progression? At the time, I'd go to the Moonlight club every Friday and the Music Machine in Camdent every Tuesday, just to hang out and check out the bands. There were dozens of similar venues. It seems to me that has completely disappeared. People only go to check out bands they know. Here's the full list.
Harwood Hall Nw7,
Orange Hill School Hall,
Hendon Rugby club,
Midland arms (Hendon),
Kenton JYC,
Copper (Tower Bridge rd),
Ad Lib club Kensington,
Moonlight Club (West Hampstead),
Tunnel (Greenwich)
Note : This blog has also been reproduced on the Mill Hill Music Complex blog - http://millhillmusiccomplex.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-saturday-list-1-my-top-ten-london.html
Friday, 18 January 2013
Is Councillor Robert Rams feeling himself at the moment?
I am deeply worried about Councillor Robert Rams. I know he's been under a bit of pressure recently and working so hard that he's even been tweeting about council business whilst watching Arsenal matches at the Library (no I don't mean Friern Barnet). As regular readers will know, Councillor Rams writes a blog. It isn't a very exciting blog, especially considering that Robert used to be a Press Officer at the GLA. Unlike the rest of the Barnet bloggers, he doesn't post Friday jokes or indulge in scurrillous banter as the some of the rest of us do. But it is a blog and occasionally you get a little insight into Roberts complicated mind. One of the most interesting things about his blog is his usual refusal to publish comments left by his blogging colleagues in Barnet. Robert got so tetchy a few moths ago that he wrote a whole blog slagging me off - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/a-fisk-of-roger-tichbourne/ - which was rather amusing. Sadly cowardly old Robert refused to publish my responses on his blog. I left a comment, which as usual Robert refused to publish. As I felt it was unfair of Robert to deny me the right of reply, I published my response here - http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/response-to-councillor-robert-rams.html
Anyway, I noticed that Robert has had a Damascan conversion to the idea of publishing comments. In fact Robert has got so keen on publishing comments, that he's published 8 on his latest blog - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/east-barnet-post-office-consultation-on-new-premises/ - What is even more exciting is that Roberts blog is clearly deluged with hits from excited residents of East Barnet wanting to post comments. On Wednesday, he got three of these in the space of less than ten minutes. One is even from award winning director Oliver Stone! |That is a fantastic response for a blog about a consultation for a Post office relocation.
Why has Robert suddenly decided to start publishing all of the hundreds of comments which must be published on his blog? Has he been feeling himself this week? Sadly a swift trawl through his blog shows he hasn't published any of the historic comments. Maybe he simply feels the need to have a bit of public adulation from local wellwishers. He should nip down to Friern Barnet Library and have a chat with the locals there. I'm sure that there are plenty who'd want to leave a few comments on his blog
Anyway, I noticed that Robert has had a Damascan conversion to the idea of publishing comments. In fact Robert has got so keen on publishing comments, that he's published 8 on his latest blog - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/east-barnet-post-office-consultation-on-new-premises/ - What is even more exciting is that Roberts blog is clearly deluged with hits from excited residents of East Barnet wanting to post comments. On Wednesday, he got three of these in the space of less than ten minutes. One is even from award winning director Oliver Stone! |That is a fantastic response for a blog about a consultation for a Post office relocation.
Why has Robert suddenly decided to start publishing all of the hundreds of comments which must be published on his blog? Has he been feeling himself this week? Sadly a swift trawl through his blog shows he hasn't published any of the historic comments. Maybe he simply feels the need to have a bit of public adulation from local wellwishers. He should nip down to Friern Barnet Library and have a chat with the locals there. I'm sure that there are plenty who'd want to leave a few comments on his blog
The Friday Joke - 18/1/2013
Man goes into a florist and says 'could you help
me, I would like to buy a big bunch of flowers for my girlfriend.'
The florist looks at him and says 'Certainly sir, what is it you're after?'
Man replies 'a shag'.
The florist looks at him and says 'Certainly sir, what is it you're after?'
Man replies 'a shag'.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Welcome to Barnet, twinned with Hell
Sometimes I truly despair of what happens in this Borough (and this City).
Take for instance the big story in London yesterday. A helicopter crashed into a crane and cascaded fire and debris down onto the street in rush hour. The pictures were terrifying. Former chief of Police in Barnet was on the news saying that it was a miracle only two people lost their lives and paid tribute to the brave members of the emergency services who helped stop the situation be so much worse. Then we find out that the first fire engines on the scene were from a station which Boris Johnson is planning to close. The Tories in City Hall said "it doesn't matter, the response time would only be 45 seconds longer from the alternative". Well if you are trapped in a fire and being asphyxiated, 45 seconds can seem like a very long time. If you don't believe me, turn you radiator up to full and hold your hand on it for 45 seconds. Then tell me that 45 seconds doesn't count. If you are trapped in a fire, with smoke choking you, 45 seconds can be the difference between life and death.
There are certain areas where we should make cuts, fire response is not one of them. It says a lot that the Conservative politician with the biggest personal mandate in the country, the man responsible for our protection doesn't get it.
But lets look closer to home. Lets look at Barnet. What vision do the Barnet Conservatives have? What makes Barnet a desirable place to live? Here's my list
* The Green Belt
* Good Schools
* Good transport links
* Harmonious community relations
* Safe and relaxed street scene
* Great place to have children
Do you agree? Will you still agree in ten years? You may not because this council is embarking on a whole swathe of policies which could destroy every one of the above great features of Barnet. Let me explain
* The Green Belt
Barnet plans to outsource planning control to Capita as part of the One Barnet project. Whatever you may or may not think of the planning process, nobody can argue that putting it in the hands of people with no links to Barnet and motivated by profit, can possibly improve the way decisions are made. Sure, it may be cheaper, but when our green and pleasant Borough has been wrecked by bulldozers and covered in concrete, will we still think that cutting costs was such a great idea. A Barnet Councillor recently told me that all "important decisions" will still be made by councillors. That can be demonstrated to be a complete lie. Barnet Council has recently imposed a completely overbearing match day parking scheme on Mill Hill. This covers the vast majority of the ward, but local Councillors who opposed the scheme were ignored and an officer, Ms Pam Wharfe signed it off.
* Good Schools
Our schools are under threat as never before. The biggest threat is from the over development of the Borough. Barnet Council plans to grow the size of the population from 320,000 to 380,000 in ten years. The indiginous population numbers are stable, which means there will be a huge influx of immigrants from elsewhere. One nature of economic migrants is that they are largely of child bearing age. This will put a massive strain on our educational infrastructure. I am not someone who seeks a ban on immigration, but no one has told me how Barnet can possibly cater for the rise in pupil numbers which we will see over the next ten years.
There is also the issue of Free Schools and selective academies. Tory zealots claim these raise standards. This may be true for pupils who attend these institutions, but they suck the best pupils out of the rest of the schools locally. We will end up with a two tier system and institutionalised "haves and have nots". Property prices will become even more distorted as parents move next door to good schools.
* Good transport links
As with education, with Barnet set to grow by 60,000 people, where is the extra capacity on the transport system going to come from? There is nowhere to put more roads and the rail and tube services are already packed like sardines. Barnet Council hasn't even got a transport policy.
* Harmonious community relations
Community relations are one thing we pride ourselves on. Over the years various waves of immigrants have been successfully assimlated and make a valuable contribution. No one could imagine Barnet without it's Jewish community, Greek Community, Irish Community and Asian community (to name but a few). We all get on fine. I have deep fears for the future given Barnets lack of forward planning. When parents start to find that there is no place at the local school for their children, we have a fertile breeding ground for people set on stirring up trouble and discontent.
* Safe and relaxed street scene
Yesterday we saw two sixteen year olds stabbed in Burnt Oak. I ask myself, what sort of society we are becoming. It appears that this happened during a robbery in a well used park. I know the park well as my 12 year old son's football team play their home games there. You can imagine how I feel about that. Police numbers are under threat. Boris says that front line officers will not be cut. This is a smoke and mirrors trick to fool us. If the back room people who type reports, send emails, process lab reports, collate crime statistics, destroy the hashish recovered from busts of drug warehouses, etc, etc are sacked, the work still needs doing. Highly paid and highly skilled officers will end up spending their time on menial tasks. I do not believe that anyone wants less police. I think we'd all forgoe the cost of a pack of Tescos hamburgers a week to pay for it.
* Great place to have children
My kids mean the world to me. I love the London Borough of Barnet but I love my kids a million times more. None of the things I mentioned above will make the lives of my children better. No one at Barnet Council has told me a single thing in their plans which will make the lives of young people easier or better. My elstest daughter is seventeen. She achieved ten A* at A Level and an A. She would like to go to University. Thanks to this governments policies, she will leave Uni saddled with debt. She will probably never be able to afford to buy a flat unless mummy and daddy help her or she moves away. Her children will find a very different Barnet to grow up in. One less green, overpopulated, declining school standards, overcrowded roads, buses and tubes, communities at loggerheads, each segregated in their own ghettos and schools. It won't be the Barnet we know, it won't be the Barnet we want. And why are we going down this route? Because the people in charge of the council don't think that we're willing to pay the price of a packet of value Tescos hamburgers a week for something a bit better.
The London Borough of Barnet is twinned with many places. Our local dignitaries often go off on nice little trips to these other Hamlets for civic receptions and other such things. I suspect that by the time I am laid to rest, the only place we'll be twinned with is Hell, and I don't mean the town in Norway.
Take for instance the big story in London yesterday. A helicopter crashed into a crane and cascaded fire and debris down onto the street in rush hour. The pictures were terrifying. Former chief of Police in Barnet was on the news saying that it was a miracle only two people lost their lives and paid tribute to the brave members of the emergency services who helped stop the situation be so much worse. Then we find out that the first fire engines on the scene were from a station which Boris Johnson is planning to close. The Tories in City Hall said "it doesn't matter, the response time would only be 45 seconds longer from the alternative". Well if you are trapped in a fire and being asphyxiated, 45 seconds can seem like a very long time. If you don't believe me, turn you radiator up to full and hold your hand on it for 45 seconds. Then tell me that 45 seconds doesn't count. If you are trapped in a fire, with smoke choking you, 45 seconds can be the difference between life and death.
There are certain areas where we should make cuts, fire response is not one of them. It says a lot that the Conservative politician with the biggest personal mandate in the country, the man responsible for our protection doesn't get it.
But lets look closer to home. Lets look at Barnet. What vision do the Barnet Conservatives have? What makes Barnet a desirable place to live? Here's my list
* The Green Belt
* Good Schools
* Good transport links
* Harmonious community relations
* Safe and relaxed street scene
* Great place to have children
Do you agree? Will you still agree in ten years? You may not because this council is embarking on a whole swathe of policies which could destroy every one of the above great features of Barnet. Let me explain
* The Green Belt
Barnet plans to outsource planning control to Capita as part of the One Barnet project. Whatever you may or may not think of the planning process, nobody can argue that putting it in the hands of people with no links to Barnet and motivated by profit, can possibly improve the way decisions are made. Sure, it may be cheaper, but when our green and pleasant Borough has been wrecked by bulldozers and covered in concrete, will we still think that cutting costs was such a great idea. A Barnet Councillor recently told me that all "important decisions" will still be made by councillors. That can be demonstrated to be a complete lie. Barnet Council has recently imposed a completely overbearing match day parking scheme on Mill Hill. This covers the vast majority of the ward, but local Councillors who opposed the scheme were ignored and an officer, Ms Pam Wharfe signed it off.
* Good Schools
Our schools are under threat as never before. The biggest threat is from the over development of the Borough. Barnet Council plans to grow the size of the population from 320,000 to 380,000 in ten years. The indiginous population numbers are stable, which means there will be a huge influx of immigrants from elsewhere. One nature of economic migrants is that they are largely of child bearing age. This will put a massive strain on our educational infrastructure. I am not someone who seeks a ban on immigration, but no one has told me how Barnet can possibly cater for the rise in pupil numbers which we will see over the next ten years.
There is also the issue of Free Schools and selective academies. Tory zealots claim these raise standards. This may be true for pupils who attend these institutions, but they suck the best pupils out of the rest of the schools locally. We will end up with a two tier system and institutionalised "haves and have nots". Property prices will become even more distorted as parents move next door to good schools.
* Good transport links
As with education, with Barnet set to grow by 60,000 people, where is the extra capacity on the transport system going to come from? There is nowhere to put more roads and the rail and tube services are already packed like sardines. Barnet Council hasn't even got a transport policy.
* Harmonious community relations
Community relations are one thing we pride ourselves on. Over the years various waves of immigrants have been successfully assimlated and make a valuable contribution. No one could imagine Barnet without it's Jewish community, Greek Community, Irish Community and Asian community (to name but a few). We all get on fine. I have deep fears for the future given Barnets lack of forward planning. When parents start to find that there is no place at the local school for their children, we have a fertile breeding ground for people set on stirring up trouble and discontent.
* Safe and relaxed street scene
Yesterday we saw two sixteen year olds stabbed in Burnt Oak. I ask myself, what sort of society we are becoming. It appears that this happened during a robbery in a well used park. I know the park well as my 12 year old son's football team play their home games there. You can imagine how I feel about that. Police numbers are under threat. Boris says that front line officers will not be cut. This is a smoke and mirrors trick to fool us. If the back room people who type reports, send emails, process lab reports, collate crime statistics, destroy the hashish recovered from busts of drug warehouses, etc, etc are sacked, the work still needs doing. Highly paid and highly skilled officers will end up spending their time on menial tasks. I do not believe that anyone wants less police. I think we'd all forgoe the cost of a pack of Tescos hamburgers a week to pay for it.
* Great place to have children
My kids mean the world to me. I love the London Borough of Barnet but I love my kids a million times more. None of the things I mentioned above will make the lives of my children better. No one at Barnet Council has told me a single thing in their plans which will make the lives of young people easier or better. My elstest daughter is seventeen. She achieved ten A* at A Level and an A. She would like to go to University. Thanks to this governments policies, she will leave Uni saddled with debt. She will probably never be able to afford to buy a flat unless mummy and daddy help her or she moves away. Her children will find a very different Barnet to grow up in. One less green, overpopulated, declining school standards, overcrowded roads, buses and tubes, communities at loggerheads, each segregated in their own ghettos and schools. It won't be the Barnet we know, it won't be the Barnet we want. And why are we going down this route? Because the people in charge of the council don't think that we're willing to pay the price of a packet of value Tescos hamburgers a week for something a bit better.
The London Borough of Barnet is twinned with many places. Our local dignitaries often go off on nice little trips to these other Hamlets for civic receptions and other such things. I suspect that by the time I am laid to rest, the only place we'll be twinned with is Hell, and I don't mean the town in Norway.
Burnt Oak stabbing - time for this madness to stop
Two sixteen year old boys were stabbed yesterday in Watling Park. It appears that the incident happened during a violent robbery. I was alerted by a sudden surge of hits on the blog by people doing google searches for "Burnt Oak Stabbing". I saw this tweet from Barnet Police
Barnet MPS @MPSBarnet
Barnet MPS
Police are looking for the men that stabbed 2 boys in Watling Park,HA8 on evening of 15 Jan. Contact #CrimestoppersUK or 0208 733 4053.
There is a big debate about stop and search at the moment. I don't support the concept of randomly stopping every young black person at every opportunity. This undermines trust in the police and prevents people from co-operating. How do we create an environment where the community and the police work together to eradicate the problem?
The answer is that people have to be brave. People from the community have to work with the police to get the message across to the young people that carrying knives leads to tragedy. People demand that the police instantly arrest and jail all young people caught carrying knives. I don't believe this is the right approach. Parents won't involve the police for fear of giving children a criminal record. What we need is a way that parents can get the police to get the message across without instantly blighting their kids career prospects.
That needs a more subtle approach and a building of trust
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