Review : The Queens Diamond Jubilee Concert

So having braved the damp streets of London yesterday to see numerous shut roads and traffic diversions, but no actual boats, I thought we'd stay in and watch the Queens concert on the telly. Being a punk rock fan, there wasn't a lot to my musical tastes, although I will say that Grace Jones was excellent. Maybe I should try the hula hoop trick at my next gig. She is clearly in great shape. I once saw Ms Jones in the lobby of a hotel, clearly in a chemically assisted state of mind. I am a fan, but I can truly say she was the most intimidating person I've ever seen. Robbie Williams was Ok opening the show with "Let Me Entertain You". Another big highlight for me was Paul McCartney doing "Live and Let Die". I've always had a soft spot for the song, since I saw Wings in the Early 1970's. Live and Let Die was the  highlight of that show and it was the first time I'd seen a mirror ball in action. That blew my mind.  That was my first ever gig.  I must say that the lights and the pyrotechnics were the real stars of the show. If I was Macca I'd have ended the show on this note. Ob La De was a definate anti climax. I must say that the only good thing about it was that it wasn't the almost obligatory "Hey Jude". He should have finished with "Helter Skelter" which is his best tune (mind you I suppose that is one of many reasons why I'll never be asked to organise a gig for Her Maj).

And the highlight ! The Madness version of "Our House" was awesome, with Buckingham Palace being transformed into a row of terraced houses in Cricklewood. Lee Thompson of Madness is a mate and a regular user of the studio, so it was great to see him up there. The band are superb and did Norf Lundun proud !

Why it matters to YOU what is happening at Barnet Town Hall

A common refrain, heard all of the time, is "why vote". In the recent Brunswick Park election 71% of the population agreed with this sentiment. A mere 29% turned up to vote. Perhaps what is shocking is that there is so much apathy at a time when Barnet Council are undergoing such huge, politically motivated change.

In all my travelling around Barnet, I have yet to meet a single person who thinks the changes to the parking arrangements have been anything other than completely botched. What most of these people are unaware of is the way the changes were brought in. Back in August last year, the then parking supremo, Brian Coleman attempted to sneak the changes in without any discussion in the Council chamber. Due to pressure from local bloggers, the changes were forced to go through the proper scrutiny. Coleman used his power to bulldozer his proposals through. The Barnet Bugle printed a letter by Conservative Councillor Brian Gordon distancing himself from the changes - http://www.barnetbugle.com/journal/2012/6/1/cllr-brian-gordon-brian-colemans-defeat-was-not-really-attri.html - the sad truth is that this is complete nonsense. Gordon and all his colleagues voted for the proposals. Not a single line of Colemans original plan was changed. Gordon claims that this played no part in Colemans demise at the GLA. I sincerely hope that this is just standard Brian Gordon Chutzpah, because if he really believes it, he has completely lost the plot.

What many Barnet residents don't realise is that the parking changes are just the first wave of a massive transformation of the way services are provided. The One Barnet program is all about removing democratic accountability from council services. Services will be broken up into parcels and privatised. Wheras previously, if the council failed to provide a service, you could call your councillor and get something done, this will cease to be possible. There will be a contract with the provider and it will be up to them to sort it out. Barnet has gone down this route before. In the 1980's they privatised waste collection. Dustcarts were run by dodgy contractors, who developed a reputation for bashing into cars and driving off. Rubbish was often strewn around and sometimes they didn't even bother to collect it. When a Labour/Lib Dem coalition took over in Barnet, many Tories breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that at least one festering sore on their reputation would go away.

It is clear to anyone who bothers to look that the management of Barnet Council is inept. Local bloggers have uncovered scandal after scandal, each one costing local taxpayers tens or even hundreds and sometimes millions of pounds. What is disturbing is that all of these scandals have not been exposed as the result of huge, long term investigations. They are just the result of a few casual enquiries. Local Councillors are meant to scrutinse the council business. They are also meant to know their own patch. Sadly their seems to be a deep reluctance on all sides to actually do the job.

So what do they do. Well it is interesting to note that the previus Leader Mike Freer and Deputy Leader Matthew Offord, used their role in the Council to get a better job, both being elected as MP's in 2010. The bloke responsible for the parking fiasco, Brian Coleman also had a £50,000 a year job at the GLA (until we sacked him). Of the current cabinet, Sachin Rajput and current Deputy Leader Daniel Thomas both stood at the last election as prospective MP's, Thomas in Wales and Rajput in Brent. This clearly shows that there is no commitment at all to Barnet politics.

In each Council ward, we have three councillors. You may wonder what they should be doing, to earn the £10,000 a year allowances they earn. Well they should as a very minimum read the papers concerning every decision which affects their ward. As there are three of them, between them, they should easily be able to cover that. If there are any decisions which they think will cause problems, they should raise this with the relevant cabinet member (the cabinet members get £24,00 for a one day a week job). If the cabinet member doesn't give them a satisfactory answer, they should take it up with the leader.

So when a council candidate knocks on your door, what should you ask them? Ask them the following three questions.

a) Will you read all of the paperwork concerning decisions affecting this ward?
b) Will you raise any concerns with the cabinet member and leader as a matter of course?
c) Would you vote against the party line if the changes are detrimental to the interests of people living in your ward?

If that person is an encumbent Conservative councillor and they say yes to all three, then they are telling porkies, ask them what they did about Colemans parking fiasco.

Council elections attract a far lower turnout than a general election. This is strange because the decisions made at Council level affect our day to day lives far more than those decisions made in Parliament. The local Council runs parking, schools, care for the elderly, childrens services, libraries, all non trunk roads, rubbish collection, street lighting, maintenance of parks and open spaces, cemetaries, to name but a few things.

If you have no issues at all with any of these, by all means feel apathetic.

The Queen's river pagaent (or not)

So me & Mrs T (the wife, not the local blogger - now seemingly retired) decided to jump on a train to Blackfriars to witness the spectacle of Queen Elizabeths river pageant. The first sign that this may have been a mistake became apparent as soon as we arrived at Blackfriars, . The South Bank exit had been closed. We were also informed that Blackfriars Bridge was shutFor some reason, in London whatever the event, the authorities like to conspire to make it as difficult as possible to participate. No matter. We hopped on the next train to London Bridge and tried again. We alighted and started to make our way around to the South Bank. Sadly we were greeted with a Police cordon "can't come though here mate". So we started walking up towards Tower Bridge. Every side street to the South Bank was cordoned off. Thousands of people were milling around aimlessly, unsure what to do. About half way down, a forlorn group of about 75 republicans were holding a rather sorry looking rally. What was interesting was the rather British way they were being ignored. I cannot imagine another nation on the planet where such a protest against such a well loved person would receive quite the level of apathy. A rather surreal thing then happened. As we were watching, Lib Dem Party Chairman, Simon Hughes appeared in a bright red jumper with a group of friends. He was swigging beer from a can of Fosters, watched over by a rather large bodyguard. Given the unpopularity of the coalition, it was equally remarkable that he was also completely ignored. I guess everyone was in a good mood.

As we walked down, it became clear, by the time we got to Shad Thames, that a) It was going to pour with rain and b) we hadn't got a hope of actually seeing the pagaent. We did the only sensible thing and adjourned to Fish! in Borough Market, for a tasty late lunch of Fish and Chips. We watched the pageant on their telly over a nice bottle of Peroni beer.

London is the greatest City in the world. We do some things far better than any other nation on earth. Sadly making such things a pleasant experience for the public is not one of them.

A poem for the failed Lib Dem Candidate for Hendon

Last night, I went to see the superb John Cooper Clarke at Stoke Newington Town Hall, as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival. As ever JCC was superb. Given the behaviour of a certain gentleman towards the bloggers of Barnet in recent weeks, one JCC poem stood out and had me in stitches. I thought that you may also appreciate it.

Having discussed the behaviour of said individual with a fellow bloggeress, we have decided that it is purely attention seeking behaviour, being done primarily to draw attention and hits to his own turgid blog. As such we have decided to ignore him, until such time as he decides to stop running around with his willy out to draw attention to himself (metaphorically speaking). If nothing else though, he has given us the opportunity to share an excellent JCC poem with you.

We are planning to visit the queens pagaent today. I hope whatever you do, you enjoy.

35 Years later - The Ramones Vs John Cooper Clarke

On the 6th June 1977 my life changed. That was the day I saw the Ramones, The Talking Heads and the Saints at the Roundhouse. That was the day I was bitten by the punk rock bug. I was fourteen years old and had never even considered playinga guitar. I only went because my sister had a spare ticket and I was at a loose end. That weekend there was a bank holiday for the queens silver jubilee. I wasn't at that point too aware of the music scene. We didn't have wall to wall TV and music, downloads or Ipods. It was all vinyl. The only two music shows were Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test, which both ignored punk rock. I had seen the Sex Pistols on the Bill Grundy show. I thought it was hilarious, but they seemed like aliens from another planet. Unlike today, there was no flood of twittering. I'd never even seen a computer, let alone used one then. My musical tastes at that point were T Rex, Bowie and the Rolling Stones. I knew every bar of every verse of every song on "Sticky Finegrs" backwards. I had even spotted the mis-edit in "Bitch". It tried to explain this to my sisters but they hadn't a clue what I was on about.

I have very strong recollections of that night. The Saints strolled on and were just a kind of cool wall of noise. I knew they were Australians. I can remember Chris Bailey was wearing a mac and the music was frantic and the band looked completely out of it. Next up were Talking Heads. I fopund Tina Weymouth intriguing. As a fourteen year old boy, the highlight of the show was Psycho Killer. Not because I particularly liked the song, but because of the way Tina's breasts moved in time with the bass on the Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum Dum der Dum bit. I didn't know any song by any band, so it was all a bit odd. I thought Talking Heads were a country and western band.

Then the Ramones strode on. Joey shouted 1-2-3-4 and 33 minutes later they finished. I was drenched in sweat and had found meaning in life. I went out the next week and bought their first two albums. I then found that due to a campaign by a Conservative MP, the track Carbona Not Glue had been replaced on my copy by Babysitter. I spent the next six months tracking down a copy with Carbona on. I also started planning to form a band. we actually had the band for a year before we had any instruments. We'd go and sing Acapella versions of songs such as "The Vietnamese Boat refugee" song to the people queueing outside gigs. On one famous occasion we took a crate of overripe bananas to Camden Town and pelted the people in the queue with them (after drinking a couple of bottles of Vodka). A reporter from the NME took umbrage at getting hit in the face with a banana and stepped out of line to take his revenge. He slipped on another banana and broke his arm, which we found hilarious. What was even funnier was the fact that he wrote in the paper that the crowd had been attacked by vicious fascist thugs chanting obscene nazi slogans and one of them beat him up, breaking his arm. He couldn't admit that he'd been called a twat by a pissed teenager singing a song slagging off the Thai government for executing refugees and he's slipped over on a banana. His story couldn't have been further from the truth, especially as one of our little gang was a Kenyan. After that we'd always give him as much abuse as possible whenever we saw him. I even wrote a letter to the NME explaining just how wide of the mark they were, but uit was never published.

Thirty five years later, I'm celebrating the diamond jubilee by going to see John Cooper Clarke at the Stoke Newington Literary festival tonight. Will it have the same effect as the Ramones? I doubt it, but I am sure it will be a great night. These days I don't drink bottles of vodka, throw bananas at journalists and laugh when they break their arms. I guess I'm still guilty of occasionally calling out a pompous twat or two. Thirty five years ago, as I got ready to see the Ramones, I had no idea what sort of effect it would have on my life. There are very few seconds of that ride I'd change. Here's to the next thirty five years.

However you spend the Jubilee, I hope you have a wicked time !

Rog T is "no Simon Hoggart"

For those of you who wish to know what a complete w*nker I am, why not pop over to failed Lib Dem Matthew F Harris blog and see what he's written.


http://matthewfharris.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/roger-tichborne-and-personal-attacks.html

There is only one thing Matthew says which I think warrants a comment.

"It's sort of like Living Next Door To Alice - "Now Roger is gone, but I'm still here", etc, an analogy that ought to appeal to Roger, as he is something of a frustrated rocker. Indeed, I recall him telling a local newspaper that he would rather have a Number One record than be a Member of Parliament, at least one of those ambitions being one in which he is even further from achieving his goal than I am, which is saying something quite considerable."

I've played in a rock and roll band for thirty three years. I have stood as a candidate for a political party once, in 2010. I've never had any ambition to be an MP. I stood in Mill Hill, because the Lib Dems asked me to, not the other way around. At the interview, I suggested that I wouldn't be a very good councillor. Jack Cohen asked if I thought I'd do a worse job than some of the incumbents. That was the point at which I decided to go for it. There is nothing I'd like less than to be an MP.

As to having a number one. My preferred musical style is Punk Rock. My two favourite bands are The Vibrators and The Heartbreakers. Neither had a top ten hit, let alone a number one. Whilst a number one would be lovely, for me it was never a reason to play music. My proudest achievement is setting up my studios, which have launched a whole string of successful artists on their way, most notably Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash. Along the way my band has played hundreds of gigs over the years, many for charities, raising tens of thousands of pounds, primarily for MacMillan Cancer and the Teenage Cancer Trust. I hope we've also given people a good night out in the process. As far as I'm aware, Matthew Harris has never listened to my band, never attended a gig and is not even aware of the ethos behind our music. I am proud of my acheivements in music and if Matthew Harris had a clue he'd recognise these, rather than belittle them.

What infuriates me most about Matthew is the fact that all of his attacks, be it on myself or Mrs Angry are full of sly and bitchy innuendo's which when challenged, he claims "oh no, that's not what I meant". I expected an attack on my political views, but to use my love of music and my involvement in the industry to attack me was something I really didn't see coming. I wouldn't attack Matthew Harris for the success or otherwise in his day job and the fact he does that to me shows what sort of person he is.

As to the rest of his comments. I actually find it quite hilarious. Matthew clearly thinks I'm a complete idiot, know nothing about anything and am completely out of touch. I suppose in a funny sort of way he's completely correct, because if I only ever did anything because it was "the most sensible thing to do" I would have followed the advice of the careers teacher at Finchley Catholic High School and spent my life collecting dustbins for Barnet Council or whoever they sold  the contract to. Matthew states that my greatest strength is to "show enormous confidence in situations I know nothing about". I would suggest that Matthew reflect on this statement whilst checking out http://www.millhillmusiccomplex.co.uk/  as if you are going to attack someone on the basis of their job at least make sure you know what you are talking about.

Interestingly, Matthew Harris has attracted one admirer on Twitter. You can tell the quality of a man by the company they keep

Cllr Robert Rams ‏@CllrRobertRams

I think @MatthewFHarris is the most sensible Lib Dem I have ever come across! http://matthewfharris.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/roger-tichborne-and-personal-attacks.html?m=1

What future for the Lib Dems in Barnet?

Two incidents have forced me to give some thought to the issue of what is the future for the Lib Dems in Barnet. The first is the Brunswick Park result, where the Lib Dems got less than three percent of the vote. The second is an exchange of comments with Matthew Harris, the former Lib Dem candidate for Hendon. Whilst I've said everything I have to say regarding Matthew, he asked me a very interesting question. He suggested that there was no way I could claim that Gordon Brown's government was better than the coalition.

I hadn't given this question any thought whatsoever until Matthew posed the question. I thought Brown ran a truly awful adminstration. Not only was it seemingly out of touch and dominated by Brown's autocratic tendencies, it made a whole string of appallingly inept political decisions. The worst of these was abolishing the 10p tax rate. So how does the coalition compare? Sadly, it seems to me that they are even worse. The economy has slid into recession, directly as a result of government imposed austerity policies. As industrial growth grinds to a halt, what is the solution the coalition chose? A big tax cut for the most well off. I have to ask myself, what do the Richard Bransons of this world do with huge sums of extra cash? Buy villas in Martinique, expensive German cars and luxury truffles snorted out by only the finest French porkers? A stereotype, I admit, but there is no way that I can see how this benefits the UK economy (of course I have no idea whether Branson likes truffles or German cars). At the same time, the coalition has given tuition fees a massive hike and abolished EMA. What does this do to the economy. It puts young people of going to college and University. It then saddles them with debt for years. As they progress into careers, their concern will be paying back a mountain of debt. This is takes money out of the economy. Students and young people starting out in their career spend virtually all of their money in the local economy. It depresses high streets and stifles employment. It is short termist and economically destructive.

I have two children who will hopefully be going to University in the next three years. The coalition has made this whole issue a worry and a finacial issue for them. I didn't go to University, although I got A levels that would have got me in. One of the reasons was that due to the arrangements at the time, I'd have got what was called "the minimum grant". This was because I was the youngest child of wealthy parents. My brothers and sisters who attended Uni all got a full grant. It meant I'd have to rely on "parental contribution". I was worried that any bust up with my parents (and these were frequent) would have resulted in them withdrawing financial support. I did not want to be placed in that situation.

Which brings us back to Matthews question. Whilst I think Brown did a rotten job, I think the coalition have enacted polices which will be far more damaging in the long term. Which leads us to the local situation. The Lib Dem Barnet voters have traditionally been on the centre left. It is clear from the Brunswick Park vote that they have deserted the party on mass, defecting to Labour. There is no way these voters will return to the Lib Dems for a long, long time.

There is however an opportunity presented by the extraordinary ineptness of the local Tory party. As the Lib Dems are now effectively Tory lite, the sensible thing to would be to rebrand themselves in Barnet as the acceptable face of the coalition. Given the lack of talent in the Tory cabinet and the fact that Jack Cohen is head and shoulders above any Conservative councillor in Barnet, maybe the way forward is to declare a Barnet Coalition. Bring Jack into the Cabinet and let him sort out the mess that the likes of Coleman and Rams have left. If the Tories left Jack and the other Lib Dems a free run in Childs Hill and stepped back in a couple of Labour controlled wards to allow the Lib Dems a chance to fly the centre right flag, it is always possible that they may actually avoid a complete wipeout.

I suspect that Jack Cohen is shrewd enough a politician to know exactly what sort of a damage limitation exercise is needed to prevent an armageddon for the Tories and the Lib Dems in Barnet. Of course this policy would completely alienate myself and every other person on the left, who have previously voted Lib Dem as a means of stopping the Barnet Tories, but lets face it, we were alienated the day the Tories and the Lib Dems jumped into bed at national level.

There are many councils up and down the country where Lib Dems and Tories have run the administration for years in grand anti Labour pacts. This was a fact I was extraordinarily naive about when I joined the party in 2009. I first became aware of this on the doorstep when a voter presented me with a labour party leaflet giving the details. I believe that this leaflet, more than anything destroyed the credibility of the Lib Dems in Mill Hill and High Barnet and ensured the Tories victory. As it turned out, I would have been in an impossible position had I been elected as a Lib Dem in Mill Hill. I would have felt duty bound to represent the people who voted for me and the people who campaigned for me. At the same time I would have belonged to a party who were enacting policies which I find repulsive.

It may sound strange, but I think Barnet is one place where we do need a strong third party. The Tories organisation is completely dysfunctional. They have presided over a complete disaster and with the One Barnet fiasco it will just get worse. Unless they come up with some sort of strategy, they will be wiped out completely and Labour will sweep the board. A coalition with the Lib Dems and a complete abandonment of useless policies and useless cabinet members may provide some sort of relief from the complete implosion of their vote. As for the Lib Dems it may at least offer them the opportunity to say to the voters of Barnet "we have a purpose". It will be a difficult decision for both parties, but if they were to bite the bullet now, they'd have two years to try and rebuild their reputation and go into an election with some sort of track record.

Sadly for the Tories and the Lib Dems in Barnet, there is as much chance of common sense breaking out before 2014 as there is of me being elected Pope.

(Please note that I am no longer a Lib Dem and can see no circumstances under which I would vote for them again, following the coalition agreement).

The Friday Joke - 1 June 2012

To celebrate the Queen's Jubillee, I thought we'd have a Royal theme for today. Whilst not strictly speaking a joke, it is a true story which did make me snigger at the time.

When my daughter was about 4 she asked me what would happen if the queen died. I said "Prince Charles would take over and be King". She looked at me rather puzzled and said "But he's a Prince, how can he be the King". I explained "Well at the moment he's called Prince Charles, but when he takes over he'll become King Charles". She then replied "Will he become a Spaniel"

Times up for the Barnet Tories

Unbelieveable. The Barnet Tories have lost the previously rock solid seat of Brunswick Park in a By Election. Labours Andreas Ioannidis has taken the seat with a massive double digit swing. In the 2010 council elections, Lynne Hillan polled 3,307 votes. Yesterday Shaheen Mahmood polled a mere 1,598 votes. The Tories have shed nearly 50% of their vote in two years. The collapse of the Lib Dem vote has been even more spectacular. Mary Umbo polled 1,207 votes in 2010. I was quite upset to see that Yahaya Kiingi polled only 97 votes. I know Yahiya well, he's a lovely guy and I believe the vote was not a reflection on his abilities as a candidate. I suspect that it merely reflects the fact that there is a genuine desire to see the back of the Tories in Barnet and people will do whatever they have to to replace them.

It cannot go without comment that the Tories ran a truly awful campaign. The Barnet Eye was aware of much infighting, back biting and squabbling amongst the ranks. After the Brian Coleman GLA result, they should have palled out all of the stops to ensure that they were not humiliated. Sadly for the Tories, none of them had the guts to be associated with Ms Mahmood when it became apparent that her candidacy was in trouble. Her selection was what is lovingly known as a Mike Freer masterstroke. It is well known that Freer runs the show in Barnet and he had insisted Ms Mahmood, a close ally, be selected. Even his close colleagues such as Andreas Tambourides were not overly keen, but Freer overruled everyone. His logic was that Brunswick Park was a super safe seat and he needed a like minded soul to help preserve his legacy in the Barnet Tories.

Mike Freer knows that his One Barnet project is in disarray. He has single handedly created a well organised and well motivated group of anti Barnet activists, who are prepared to pound the streets of the Borough, to put an end to the madness. This blog has been writing about the One Barnet project, in it's various guises for three years. At first no one seemed to care, bar a few die hard union activists. As we see the first effects, such as the private parking wardens, stalking motorists, issueing tickets for fun, people have suddenly realised that such policies do affect them. The thought of our parents and loved ones final resting places being sold off horrifies people.

If the Tories want to avoid a wipe out in 2014, they have to have a complete rethink. Failed cabinet members such as Robert Rams must be replaced. There is talent in the Tory ranks, but it is pushed to the very margins. Despit twice nearly becoming leader and having support of nearly half the group, Mark Shooter has never held a cabinet position. Shooter is perhaps the one person who actually has the brains to sort the One Barnet mess out. He should be given the brief of overhauling the council.

It appears that Dean Cohen has gotten to grips with parking. If Shooter was put in charge of council efficiency, then it is clear that the only other hot potato is libraries. Rams must be sacked and Kate salinger given the brief. If Kate can't do it for whatever reason, bring in her husband Brian. A cabinet with Saliner, Shooter and Cohen would be far more in touch and sensible. Shooter should replace Dan Thomas, who is clearly out of his depth. The Salingers command respect in the wider community and within the Council workforce.

This blog has been accused of being anti Tory and Anti Barnet Council. This is complete nonsense. If the Tories had listened to us, dumped Brian Coleman, not abolished Pay and Display, not hiked CPZ fees and not shut Friern Barnet library, then they would not have lost the GLA seat or Brunswick Park. If they take our advice, they may yet save themselves. Clearly I am not a Conservative, but I have to live in Barnet. If we don't see an improvement, then we will be faced with a complete train wreck. I for one cannot stand idly by and sleepwalk to that fate.

Mike Freer stabs Brian Coleman in the back (and front and sides) on parking

I cannot believe my eyes. Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer has gone public and slagged off the parking polices of his (perhaps former) best friend Brian Coleman. He has used his column in the Barnet Press to claim credit for the volte face by Barnet Council regarding parking charges.


http://www.edgware-today.co.uk/coldetail.cfm?id=1342&bid=1221&headline=Parking%20review%20is%20a%20welcome%20step%20in%20the%20right%20direction

If there was an award for Chutzpah, Freer would win it hands down for this intervention. Freer states

"The local authority and I have not seen eye to eye on this issue, with many local businesses in town centres concerned about the impact on trade and complaints from residents who, like me, live in a controlled parking zone (CPZ)."

Well as someone who helped lead the campaign against the charges, made a film about it, and who also follows Freer on Twitter, his difference of opinion with Barnet Council is news to me. It is no secret that Freer pulls the strings in the Barnet Conservative machine. The concept that he had a difference of opinion with Brian Coleman on these policies is laughable. Freer was well known for his championing of stealth taxes in his period as Leader of Barnet Council. He has championed the candidacy of Shaheen Mahmood in Brunswick Park. It will be interesting to see if he ditches her as quickly as he has ditched Brian Coleman when it became clear Coleman was damaging Freer's job prospects as an MP at the next election.


Freer states in his article

"But I hope that this review is the beginning of a conversation and an agreed way forward."

We've been trying to have a conversation about this for nearly a  year, since Freer's best mate, Brian Coleman tried to sneak the policy through. This blog details how Coleman tried to sneak the policy through. It was dated August last year.


http://www.barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/brian-colemans-plan-to-sneak-in.html


It is interesting to note, in hindsight, that this was the moment the Barnet Tories pushed the self destruct button. The whole thing has been a disaster from start to finish and it has Freer's fingerprints all over it. He is clearly desperate to try and save his skin. It seems that if that means shafting all of his friends in the process, then that is just part of the job.



I would welcome anyone who can show me anything which shows that Freer is anything other than a very late jumper onto the bandwagon against Pay and Display. If he'd actually told Coleman to knock it on the head last August, he'd probably have saved dozens of businesses in Barnet High Streets and saved Coleman from losing his seat. The only conclusion can be that the penny has finally dropped with Freer. Sadly, for him, it is too late for anyone to be fooled by his conversion to the cause of the local High Streets and small traders. If it was true, he'd have been down to see Helen Michael who leads the local traders campaign. When I suggested he visit Helen at Cafe Buzz on twitter, he stated that the coffee was better at another shop down the road, here's what he said

Rog T ‏@Barneteye

@mikefreermp very commendable, I believe in supporting the local High Street as well. I hear CafeBuzz in Finchley is rather good !

 

 

8 May Mike Freer MP ‏@mikefreermp

@Barneteye I prefer Dan + Decarlos in East Finchley

One has to assume he actually has heard of Helen's campaign, hasn't he? I mean he does live around the corner from her and she's been on telly, in films and all over the local press.