Wednesday 4 February 2009

Yours for 240 pints of milk

Barnet council leader Mike Freer's Leader Listens blog has posted two items in two days! This is some kind of record. I wonder if it's ghost-written...

Anyway, it's all good news it seems. Roads reported clear of snow and everyone able to get about smoothly on 2 February. This has been disputed by some residents, although Freer isn't moderating comments that contradict his good-news story, so they do not appear on his paid-for-by-residents-of-Barnet blog, only comments that agree with him will appear, it seems. (I wonder if they are ghost-written...)

On 3 February, Freer's blog gushes over the gift by Waitrose of... wait for it... 240 pints of milk to house-bound old people of Barnet. Even with the price of a pint of milk being what it is (too high) 240 pints must have cost Waitrose... what, less than 120 quid?

For this they get stacks of free publicity on a rare Leader Listens blogpost. It's a good thing that they have done this, of course, better than not doing it. The milk was delivered to the needy by Barnet council itself. This too is good, of course.

The days of the milk float doing its rounds have long gone, and with them the chance that a friendly face would be able to check up on vulnerable members of the community. Not that milk floats would have had much chance of getting through on Barnet's icy roads.

2 comments:

Rog T said...

Vicki,

We still have a milkman and we got our milk !!!!

I won't criticise Waitrose as it's a good thing to do, but a few roast chickens and some cakes would surely have gone down well with the old dears.

I don't know that free publicity on Leader listens is going to do them much good.

Citizen Barnet said...

Your last point is very apt, Rog. I missed that one.