Breathing down Richard Cornelius's neck

Richard Cornelius has been elected by Barnet's Tory councillors as leader of their group, which means he will be the next leader of Barnet council.

Your first chance to see the unctuous (not to be confused with avuncular) councillor in action will be at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, "members to be appointed at the extraordinary meeting of the Council to take place on Wednesday 15th June 2011 at 6:30pm". This is the meeting where Cornelius picks his Cabinet, presumably his key supporters. The Cabinet meeting is straight afterwards; both meetings are at Hendon Town Hall.

I wonder who will be out and who will be in. Will Andrew Harper, deputy leader and acting leader, keep a place? What about Brian Coleman? Remember, he endorsed Mark Shooter. (Oh, God, as if we could be rid of him so easily!) The agenda for the Cabinet meeting is here and includes some important, far-reaching documents which I would think Cornelius and his new team would need more time to think about. They are a report into safeguarding (of vulnerable children and adults) in Barnet, and the Draft Corporate Plan 2011-13.

I don't know anything more to say about Cornelius than what I put in this recent blogpost. I hope I'm right and that he is sceptical about the One Barnet (mass outsourcing) Programme, and kicks a load of it into touch.

I think residents' and bloggers' campaigning can make a difference. Last night I emailed this document, a list of residents' questions sparked by the MetPro audit committee report, to Tory councillors to concentrate their minds on what a mess Barnet council's contract procurement and monitoring processes are in. And to remind them that the world is watching what happens next in the wonderful world of One Barnet.