The Friday joke: civil servants win legal battle against boss Eric Pickles

I was tickled to see this week that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles was taken to the High Court by his own departmental staff over attacks on their union PCS. And that he lost.

I have a friend or two in the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and I know they have had a very hard time recently trying to represent the interests of their members at the same as they are no longer given time off work to do union duties, and the union has been banned even from meeting on the premises.

In the same way that Pickles offered his own departmental spending as a sacrificial lamb in the Spending Review, promising savage cuts to local government spending, for example, for which we are all paying now in reduced and privatised services, he has also dumped on his very own departmental staff.

The main dispute that the union went to the High Court over is the plan to stop "check-off" whereby union dues are collected at source from wages. 

Pickles prides himself on representing the interests of local taxpayers. In Barnet he has had, albeit obliquely, to apologise for the sneering attitude towards democracy of the local Tories. I give credit where it's due, and I acknowledge Pickles' solicitude for the rights of the little man and woman against Town Hall bureaucrats, where the Town Hall does act like bureaucrats.

Pickles, apparently, was a socialist in his youth but he abandoned socialism when the Russian tanks went into Czechoslovakia in 1968 to crush the Prague Spring democratisation movement. When we organised our Barnet Spring march in the snow earlier this year, that was one of the echoes that gave our protest more poignancy.

However, just like many a leftist who ended up backing and apologising for vicious dictatorships just because they weren't Western imperialists, the politics of the Cold War seem to have disorientated Pickles and he went over to the right and joined the forces of Conservatism.

I would argue that it is a mistake to conclude that your enemy's enemy is your friend but, as far as I can see, that is what Pickles has done. From siding with the working class, he went over to the enemy, and has been batting for the rich ever since.

Now Pickles needs to remember that the people working in his own department are little men and women as well, who deserve to be supported against their own species of bureaucrat - their bosses. Trade unions serve such a purpose and always have - and always will. You can't kill the spirit.

Arguably, the key force that began the process that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire was the inspiring Polish Solidarnosc (Solidarity) trade union.

Alas, there is every likelihood that Pickles will appeal against this week's court ruling.

I would urge everyone who has drawn some comfort from Pickles' well-aimed jibes against Barnet's Tory Council to help him see sense over this issue. Send a message to Pickles via Twitter - @EricPickles - and watch for developments on the PCS website. Tell Pickles - hands off PCS!

Celebrate Friern Barnet Library's great future, Thursday 5 September; and online

I'm happy to share this mailing from Friern Barnet Community Library about an event tomorrow night (Thursday 5 September):

Exactly a year since the occupation and liberation of Friern Barnet Library, there will be an amazing anniversary celebration next Thursday, 5th September 7pm.

There will be a preview of the book Barnet Library - Occupied and Opened, edited by Rosie Canning with contributions by Pete Phoenix, Reema Patel, Richard Stein, Sarah Sackman, Mike Gee and many more. Several authors will be coming in to read their work.

Posters, pre-order forms, art work and printouts will be available.The book features the community voices and community spirit that went into saving the Friern Barnet Library. We look forward to seeing you there.

Recently I helped a friend with some research for his librarianship Masters degree. He was investigating the extent to which campaigns such as that waged at Friern Barnet Library chimed in with David Cameron and the Tories' 'Big Society' rhetoric.

My friend is from Sheffield. The campaign to defend libaries in that city - SCALP - was a bit quiet - mainly because they haven't announced any big library cuts yet! But I was able to put him in touch with some people involved in the successful campaign to save Friern Barnet Library, and I contributed my own views.

Hand on heart, I could say that the FBL campaigns and those like it fly in the face of Big Society notions. They are, first and foremost, about saving threatened public amenities for the public and, as far as possible, keeping them as part of an integrated, publicly accountable service.

That being the case, I am absolutely delighted to see this petition on the Barnet Council website, text: 

We petition Barnet Council to grant Friern Barnet Community Library security of tenure through a longer lease before May 2014.

The library has only been given a two year lease. A number of community libraries across the UK are already operating on leases as long as 25 years.

A lease of 21 years would take Friern Barnet Community Library up to its centenary in 2034.
We also petition Barnet Council to recognise Friern Barnet Community Library in its publications as a part of the network of Barnet Libraries, and to recognise the library as a part of its inter-library network.

Signed by prominent Labour councillors in Barnet, as well as community campaigners for the library, I take this petition as a commitment from the Barnet Labour group to re-integrate Friern Barnet Library back into Barnet Libraries should it win the council back from the Tories in May 2014. That is a very welcome commitment as far as I am concern. 

And I do hope that Labour will have the courage and conviction to go all out to win the Council as I think it is there for the taking!

One Barnet programme going ahead - reactions

Dear friends,

I've recently moved to Nottingham, of all places, but my eyes are still on what's happening in Barnet. We have the depressing but predictable (well, I thought it was predictable) news that Maria Nash's appeal for a Judicial Review of Barnet Council's One Barnet privatisation programme was rejected.

There is some possibility of going higher to the Supreme Court. However, on the basis of Maria losing at the Court of Appeal, Barnet Council signed the two big contracts with Capita. In case you want to know what that looks like, the Council has generously captured the occasion and published the photograph on their website (and, no, they aren't saving taxpayers £126 million).

While I've campaigned against One Barnet for the past four years, I haven't been on the ground for this most recent chapter of the saga, so I'll just provide some links to informed comment below.

Over the next few days I plan to write a few 'parting shots' blogposts reflecting on my experiences campaigning in Barnet and on what I hope to do next. I hope these posts will be useful for readers, and I'm sure they will be useful for my own thinking.

But, for now, back to One Barnet. What are we to make of the Barnet Tories' and Capita's victory? Allow me to quote from Roger Tichborne's "Barnet Eye" blogpost:

If anyone at Barnet Council thinks that the opposition will melt away, it will be the latest in a very long line of very bad judgement calls that they have made.

Appeal Court judges uphold One Barnet judgment - Barnet Eye blog
Justice denied: the One Barnet appeal fails - what next? - Broken Barnet blog
Giving up is not an option for us or any other resident - reaction by Barnet Alliance for Public Services
Capita's takeover of Barnet - Mr Reasonable blog
Mr Mustard no longer believes in Father Christmas - Mr Mustard blog
The One Barnet campaign shows local democracy is alive and well - the Guardian's Hannah Fearn
The One Barnet decision is a threat to local democracy - Roger Tichborne and Barnet Alliance for Public Services reply to Hannah Fearn

Barnet CPZs: Council should not appeal

Barnet CPZ Action campaigner David Attfield won their recent case for Judicial Review at the High Court. We understand Barnet Council intend to appeal. See below Barnet CPZ Action's latest campaign news. Please sign the petition:

• You may be interested to hear that David will be on today's Jeremy Vine Radio Two Show at 1.30pm (Wednesday 31 July 2013) in case you are in a position to listen. 

• As you know,  Barnet may file an Appeal by the end of this week.  Let's show them that residents do not want their hard earned money wasted on this course of action, and they should accept the Judgment given on 22nd July by Mrs Justice Lang DBE.  If you have not yet signed the petition, you can do so here http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/CPZAction/.  This is not limited to Barnet residents, so please ask all your friends, family, neighbours, colleagues to get on and sign.  This is people power in motion.  We need thousands of signatures.

• David appeared in the Daily Mail yesterday (rather embarrassingly, he says, called the "superhero of suburbia"!) so, for anyone that missed it, you can read it here  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381593/Fed-soaring-residents-parking-charges-Read-mans-struck-blow-motorists-everywhere.html.  

On the broader issues raised by this case, it's my view (and not just mine) that the campaign against the exorbitant hikes in parking fees for residents living in Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) is part of the campaign against central government cuts to local government finances.

CPZs are part of Barnet Council's planned Revenue Income Optimisation (RIO) which is what we all face in future whatever services we use: higher fees where the Council thinks they can levy them.

The cuts to local government funding are wrong and should be fought! No to RIO!

Were Barnet’s Tory councillors secretly whipped?

Were Barnet’s Tory councillors secretly whipped? Barnet bloggers call for an investigation

At Barnet Council’s full council meeting on 16 July, Councillor Brian Coleman alleged that Barnet’s Conservative members are ‘entirely whipped’ when attending scrutiny and other Council meetings, including those dealing with the highly controversial One Barnet privatisation programme.

According to the Council’s constitution, any whipping arrangements must be declared, but we believe that no such declarations have been made at any of the relevant recent meetings. Such actions would be in breach of the constitution and therefore unlawful.

If Councillor Coleman’s allegations are true, this clearly has very serious implications and casts into doubt the legality of many of the highly significant decisions which have been taken by the current administration, most importantly the decision to grant two massive contracts to Capita and Capita Symonds in the outsourcing of a large number of our local council services.

We therefore call on the Leader of the Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius, to instigate an immediate and independent public inquiry into the claims made by his former colleague, and we also ask that the authority’s external auditors at Grant Thornton should as a matter of public interest hold an urgent inquiry into the allegations. Residents need to know whether decisions have been made legally and whether Tory councillors have acted constitutionally.

Signed:

Derek Dishman

John Dix

Vicki Morris

Theresa Musgrove

Roger Tichborne

19 July 2013

Barnet Council in the dock #2: One Barnet Judicial Review

Barnet resident Maria Nash and her lawyers will be at the High Court on the Strand once again, Monday 15-Tuesday 16 July. They hope to persuade Lord Dyson, the Master of the Rolls and the second highest lawyer in the land (I understand), that Barnet Council's privatisation programme 'One Barnet' is illegal and should be stopped from going ahead.

Barnet Council have put in place various measures to get around the fact that they should not be implementing One Barnet until this legal process has run its course. They seem to be hoping that, even if he finds against them, the judge will deem so much water to have flowed under the bridge already that One Barnet has become an unstoppable tide.

That seems wrong to me, but sometimes facts on the ground count in the real world more than the realm of legal rights and wrongs. (A sort of parallel universe.)

Barnet Alliance for Public Services will be in court to support Maria. If you have some free time in the day in central London on Monday and Tuesday, do go along to the Royal Courts of Justice: it is an interesting experience and more people deserve to hear what is actually said in court, which can often reveal much more than the simple verdict.

For example, during the first round in the court, Mr Justice Underhill heard the argument on whether or not Barnet Council had consulted residents about One Barnet - as they are legally obliged to - and found that they had not, even though he ruled against Maria Nash on the grounds of the timing of her appeal for a Judicial Review. This imminent hearing is an appeal against that judgment.

Barnet Council have had to replace their barrister for this hearing; the new person couldn't be less persuasive than their last choice, who is not free in July, but, to be fair, it was a very tough gig making this administration look good!

P.S. If you want to follow Tweets from the court on Twitter, follow @barnetalliance and the hashtag #barnetjr (short for Barnet Judicial Review).

The Comer Brothers - I don't know their music, or: Barnet Alliance fundraising social, Saturday 13 July

If you've ever read a far-left newspaper, you'll be familiar with the fundraising column. Invariably this starts with a phrase such as "unlike the Tories and their millionaire backers, we have to rely on the generosity of our readers to support our work". And there's nothing wrong with that! It's true!

In the same vein, you will be interested to read on this website a list of the backers - whether or not they count as millionaires, they are certainly well-heeled - of your local Tory MPs. For example, Mike Freer is backed, albeit in a roundabout way, by the Comer Brothers, whose property portfolio includes North London Business Park where Barnet Council's main offices are.

Meantime, Barnet Alliance for Public Services continues to do incredible amounts of campaigning in defence of public services without rich backers, on a shoestring and using volunteer labour. Please help support their work. Visit the BAPS website to find out more.

BAPS is holding a fundraising social event this Saturday 13 July at the excellent Safari Bar in North Finchley: 975 High Road, N12 8QR. The programme starts at 7pm; for £3 on the door you get an excellent poet and blues band.

Not to be missed: Barnet Alliance AGM - Monday night!

It's the final countdown... to the Barnet Alliance AGM. Details below - please come if you are free.

You don't have to be a member to come to the meeting, though, hey, why not join while you are there?! It's only £5 for a year.

We will review the work of the Barnet Alliance over the last year and make some plans for the coming year - hmmm, council elections looming in the spring. Wonder what impact we can make there...

There will be the election of officers, free refreshments, an overview of Barnet Council's One Barnet privatisation programme, and, the guest speaker will be... Gerald Shamash, Maria Nash's solicitor. (The appeal date for the Judicial Review is Monday 15-Tuesday 16 July at the High Court on the Strand.)

Come and hear a top lawyer talk about the case for the Judicial Review of One Barnet. Gerald has local connections as well: he was a Labour councillor in my own, beloved, Burnt Oak for some years. I'll see you there!

BARNET ALLIANCE FOR PUBLIC SERVICES ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Monday 1st July, 7-9pm

Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road, London N12 9RU (North Finchley)

This will be an opportunity to join BAPS as a member or renew your membership and contribute to the community campaign to defend and improve public services in Barnet.

The business part of the AGM will be followed by a talk by Gerald Shamash Maria Nash’s solicitor in her Judicial Review: ‘One Barnet’ Council On Trial

Refreshments provided. Entry is free but we will take a collection for donations.

More details: barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com or 07534 407703

Barnet Council in the dock #1: CPZ Action

Barnet Eye blogger Roger Tichborne recently made a list of times Barnet residents have had to take Barnet Council to court in the last few years, and, against the Barnet Tories' claim that they always win, also made a list of the outcomes - it doesn't look good for the Council (reproduced without Roger's kind permission, but he is kind so I think he will forgive me):

• David Young won the case against the Council over sheltered housing wardens.
• The CPZ case is trundling on.
• The Maria Nash case against One Barnet is in the Court of Appeal, still going through process.
• The Catalyst Case was lost by the Council, who racked up £2 million and had to pay £8 million compensation. (The council is re-awarding the contract to the company.)
• John Sullivan has won an injunction against Your Choice, forcing them to consult.
• Unison won a case against Barnet regarding agency workers.

Maria Nash and her lawyers will be back in the High Court for their appeal regarding the One Barnet Judicial Review on 15-16 July. Before that, on this coming Tuesday, 2 July, the residents behind the Barnet CPZ Action campaign will be in court again. Below is their message on the eve of the hearing:

The papers are all filed, our arguments have been honed and we are ready to take on Barnet Council in the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand on Tuesday 2 July.

Our case in a nutshell

After two years of legal to-ing and fro-ing, the case has boiled down to on one point arising in one piece of legislation.  Essentially the question is "can a Council deliberately target CPZ residents in order to pay for other transport projects?" 

Our answer is "no!". A parking charge must be set to reflect local parking demand and the cost of administering the parking scheme.  If it happens to make a profit, then that profit can be spent on other projects.  But you can't set charges simply to meet a profit target you have plucked out of the air.  In our case, Barnet found that they had a £1.8 million hole in their budget when they decided at the last minute not to introduce new traffic cameras.  Their answer: Simply hike CPZ charges by whatever amount was needed to fill that gap.

Barnet say that they use parking to raise revenue.  Because a council is allowed to spend parking profits on other  transport projects, Parliament must have intended councils to be able to hike charges deliberately in order to pay for other projects.

The case is likely to have significant repercussions for how parking charges are set in the future since no other council  has been so bold as to argue that parking can be used deliberately as a revenue raiser.

We still need need your donations

A final appeal: we've received hundreds of donations and many thousands of pounds to help ensure that, should the legal action fail, money is available to pay Barnet's  legal costs.  But Barnet have estimated that their costs will be £50,000 and we still have a significant shortfall, leaving David Attfield personally exposed should he lose.

We urge every CPZ resident to make a donation if they can. If David Attfield wins, CPZ households could save hundreds of pounds in future and Barnet have promised to refund people who have paid the inflated charges over the past two years.  Please, make a donation now.

To all our supporters and donors, thank you.  We wouldn't have got this far without you.

North Finchley: la dolce vita

Prego! (Is this Sophia Loren?!)

My house-sitting gig in East Finchley has ended and I am now sofa surfing at a friend's house in Finchley Central (is there such a place or is it just a zone 4 tube station?). What I have lost in independence I make up for living in a sumptuous house paid for with the sweat of someone else's brow. This must be how Brian Coleman feels. Or used to feel.

I borrowed a DVD from North Finchley library last week and returned it this evening. I walked home through North Finchley, past Tally Ho Corner, thinking about dinner. I am living with vegetarians and if I want to indulge my disgusting habit of eating cooked animals I have to do it outside - rather like a caveman, aptly.

I fancied an Italian and as luck would have it, rounding the bend of Ballards Lane, came upon an Italian restaurant called Artista. This turns out to be Il Tocco D'Artista - the artist's touch - which I reckon must be one of the stars of the North Finchley dining scene, unprepossessing though it looks from the outside.

I have been on my own for a lot of my life and have spent too many evenings feeling apologetic as a singleton occupying a table in a restaurant. At Artista they turn things on their head and make a celebration of this state of affairs. Singles get promoted to the dais and receive VIP treatment. This seems most apt to me!

People in couples already enjoy - or should enjoy - the company of someone that cares deeply about them, whereas singles need little bits of attention from a few people to feel good. (This must be how my polyamorous friends feel.)

With its good prices, sunny Italian pop music, tasty food, friendly staff, free cold limoncello and fresh fruit, Artista made me feel for an hour the meaning of the phrase "la dolce vita". And this happened in North Finchley!

Then I went out again to walk home in the drizzle past the Finchley and Golders Green Conservative HQ, through the liminal lands between North and Central Finchley, into what I call Coleman country.

 

Il Tocco D'Artista, Ballards Lane

Your Choice Barnet: cuts WILL affect quality

There is a lobby tonight of the Your Choice Barnet board. Campaigners against the planned cuts will be there, including parents and carers of the adults affected by the changes.

They will be objecting to the fact that their voices are being ignored. There is an interview with one of the parents, John Sullivan, in this New Statesman article.

Barnet Unison, the trade union that represents many of the staff whose pay and conditions are being cut to make ends meet, has published the following figures:

YOUR CHOICE THE FACTS

Your Choice is claiming that the proposed changes to staff terms & conditions are not going to have an impact on service quality.

For the sake of transparency UNISON is providing the [figures on] cuts and changes for staff and we will leave it for you to decide if service quality will change.

Currently Support Workers are paid £12.40-£13.56/ hr and Assistant Support Workers are paid £9.49-£10.07/ hr

* As & When hours: Your Choice rely heavily on As & When hours. We learnt that staff now working As & When have already had their rate cut by 25% before the consultation began.

* 28 support workers posts to be reduced to 8 support workers posts.

* Creation of 20.5 assistant support worker posts

* Enhancements for working evenings to be stopped

* Enhancements for working weekends to be stopped  (these are paid at time and a half)

* Staff working a 5 day week to be moved to a 7 working week with no extra pay.

* Up to a sixth of the workforce have requested and been granted voluntary redundancy.  This will have a massive impact on a client group who have built long term relationships with workers in which ‘trust’ is a critical feature of this relationship.

* Your Choice has commissioned a consultant to carry out a benchmarking exercise with the market competitors. UNISON is already aware that many of the competitors are paying 30% less and some of these well below the London Living Wage.

For one month only

Hello, remember me? I used to be one of the Barnet bloggers, but for the past couple of months, owing to perturbations in my personal life, I have been peripatetic, a nomad.

However, for the next month I am house-sitting in East Finchley. So if you see me in unfamiliar places that is the reason!

I am living not far from Martin School which, for one term, was the first school I attended, way back in... 1969, or was it 1970?!

For anyone who has always lived in the area, or indeed has always lived in any area, which infant school someone attended is not remotely commentworthy. But, for me, winding up here, next to this, rather than any other, infant school, seems like a happy and remarkable coincidence. And, if nothing else, it certainly makes a pleasant change from Burnt Oak!

For one month only, possibly, therefore, I'm back!

Welcome to Capitaville... I mean, Barnet

No great surprise that Capita, in the shape of its subsidiary Capita Symonds, are the preferred bidder for Barnet Council's second enormous One Barnet contract, Development and Regulatory Services (DRS), having already got their claws on the New Support and Customer Services Organisation contract.

Always assuming the law allows it! An appeal is pending in the Judicial Review case brought by Barnet resident Maria Nash, and all of these contracts are on hold awaiting the outcome of that.

Here is Barnet Unison's press release on hearing the news this morning about the DRS contract.

‘Capitaville’-Capita to take over more Barnet Council services

Today staff were told at a series of briefings that Capita Symonds is the preferred bidder to deliver a whole range of Council Regulatory services to Barnet residents and businesses.

 The services to be handed over to Capita include the following:

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Hendon Cemetery & Crematoria

Barnet Council has a number of statutory responsibilities to monitor the private sector in order to ensure the health and safety of their residents. The recent high- profile national public-health scandal about the use of Horsemeat in processed foods emphasises that private companies do not adequately monitor their own activities, leaving the public at risk. If Barnet Council is allowed to privatise these services, it will set a dangerous precedent for other councils.

Barnet Council has been promoting itself as an innovator for the future of public services by adopting the Commissioning Council model. In the last 12 months the Council has overseen a significant number of services outsourced to other providers. The full list of services are here.

John Burgess UNISON Branch Secretary said: “Barnet Council is making a huge mistake in handing over these critical services to the private sector. It is not just about the risks this brings but what it means in term of democratic accountability. Next year we have the local elections in May 2014. What options will there be for the electorate if all the council spend is tied up into complex contracts? As for all the remaining staff the message is stark: no matter how loyal you are, no matter how hard you work political dogma is dictating all services are to be outsourced. Today a number of our members have chosen to wear black armbands/ black clothing as a sign of the demise of the public sector ethos in Barnet Council.”

Links

1. What is One Barnet? Watch this short animation http://ning.it/Qp5Adx

2. UNISON report on One Barnet DRS contract http://ning.it/11OQWlQ

3. UNISON financial report on One Barnet DRS contract http://ning.it/12mocvO

4. 100+ reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services http://ning.it/NAyJLY

5. 397 jobs “The true cost of One Barnet outsourcing” http://ning.it/11OSuMT

Barnet Tories must condemn Brian Coleman's aggression

An open letter to Richard Cornelius, Conservative leader of Barnet Council.

On Friday 3 May Councillor Brian Coleman pleaded guilty to the charge of common assault by beating of Helen Michael, in the High Road in North Finchley. Evidence from CCTV was shown in court and proved incontrovertibly that this incident was nothing less than an utterly indefensible act of aggression. It resulted from Councillor Coleman being caught parking in a loading bay, trying to evade the hugely controversial parking payment scheme he had imposed on residents in this borough.

Despite the fact that he has now been convicted of a criminal act of assault, Barnet Council has refused to comment, absurdly claiming that this is unnecessary as the attack did not take place while the Councillor was on council business.

Indeed local Tory members, including leader Richard Cornelius, openly continued to support their fellow member after he was charged, and were privately informing others that the story of the assault was false. Councillor Coleman was suspended from the party only after intervention from Conservative Central Office.
Since the conviction, local Conservatives have issued no statement.

By his own actions Councillor Coleman has shown himself to be unfit for public office: such bullying behaviour, dishonesty and hypocrisy are not acceptable in an elected representative of the community. We demand therefore that he stand down from his seat in Totteridge, and that the Conservative Party expel him from membership.

We call on Richard Cornelius, as leader of Barnet Council, and on behalf of the Conservative Party in this borough, to apologise to Ms Michael, and to dissociate himself and his colleagues from this appalling incident.

To remain silent is not an option: to remain silent is to condone an act of violence against a woman, and this was and must always be absolutely unacceptable.

Signed:
Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

Barnet Council breaks the law on consultation

Mr Justice Underhill (not sure whether that's the right address but I'm sure I can be forgiven) ruled today that Maria Nash's application for Judicial Review of Barnet Council's One Barnet outsourcing programme was made too late and could not therefore be allowed.

For anyone following the case this is not entirely a surprise. Nor should anyone be surprised that we campaigners against One Barnet are not downcast by the decision. For it is clear that Barnet Council have only won - for now, an appeal is still possible - on a technicality.

In court they argued that:
1) the challenge should have been brought earlier
2) they did not, in any case, need to consult.

Well, the Judge has disagreed with them over (2). The Judgment says:

...the Council never set out to consult about its outsourcing programme at all.

...if the application for judicial review had been made in time I would have held that the Council had not complied with its obligations under section 3 (2) of the 1999 Act in respect of the decisions taken in 2010/11 to outsource the performance of its functions and services, covered by the proposed NSCSO and DRS contracts.

He is saying that the Council should have consulted and failed to.

Barnet Council will naturally spin this to their own ends; it's our job to spin it to ours! I don't think our task is hard. We have always tried to run a political campaign against One Barnet - informing residents what is planned when the council wouldn't, questioning the Council, challenging them - the substance of meaningful rather than tick-box consultation in fact. That will not change now.

In fact, I would think that the campaign will hot up. One Barnet's effects are beginning to be seen: ludicrous consultancy spend, no savings as yet, jobs exported out of the borough, and worse services.

That is only going to escalate, and Barnet's ruling Tories are only going to find themselves paying a heavier and heavier political price for the decisions they have taken - without consulting residents!

'Your Choice Barnet' campaign launched

Click here for a report of the launch meeting for the "Bring 'Your Choice Barnet' Back In-house" campaign which happened on Tuesday 11 April at the Greek Cypriot Community Centre.

It was a great meeting, with around 50 people attending. Below, a couple of pictures.

The next meeting of the campaign is Thursday 25 April, 7-9pm, Greek Cypriot Community Centre, Britannia Road, London N12.

Before that we are supporting Councillor Barry Rawlings' motion to the next Barnet Council meeting, Tuesday 16 April, please join the lobby of Hendon Town Hall at 6.30pm.

Please sign the petition here.

(L to R) Roger Lewis, DPAC; John Sullivan; Tirza Waisel, Barnet Alliance

Tirza Waisel, Barnet Alliance; Helen Davies, Barnet Unison

Voting on the motions, including support for Councillor Rawlings' motion to the next Council meeting on 16 April

Would the panel bring 'Your Choice Barnet' back in-house?

Yes, I'm still here, haven't shuffled off this mortal coil yet - sorry, is that in poor taste?

I'm in good health but I keep having flashbacks of West End doorways crammed with the bodies of the homeless - even as far as the door of the Ritz Hotel. Oh, I forget, that was the early 1990s and the logic of Margaret Thatcher's policies of decimating industry, removing Income Support from 16- and 17-year-olds and closing the old mental asylums was working itself through.

The world's nothing like that now, of course. We're many years further into the neoliberal reforms pursued by the erstwhile MP for Finchley. Reforms such as the financial "Big Bang" - liberalisation and deregulation of the City. See how well that worked out!

This evening a special edition of "Question Time" will be recorded in Finchley; I expect they always planned to come here when Margaret Thatcher died. Lucky she did it in the Easter hols, then, and they can take over Finchley Catholic High School for a couple of days.

Despite the best efforts of local newspaper journalists to find Barnet Tories who remembered Thatcher's days here, and had a kind word to say about her, the choice of Finchley for this special - if you like, "commemorative" - QT feels oddly beside-the-point. The world, including Finchley, has moved on. Never mind, here comes the caravan.

For the past couple of days we have been lost in a sort of misty blue nostalgia-fest where only the good side of being a hard-faced, ultra-right winger espousing rampant individualism has been considered. On a personal level it might have been depressing if I had watched the television or read a newspaper, but I've managed to avoid all of them.

I don't have a ticket for tomorrow night's QT either, although I did dutifully apply for one. I hope that some of my fellow campaigners have had more luck and that we will see one or two familiar faces in the audience. I can already predict some of the questions:

• Does the panel think that MT was the greatest PM of the 20th Century/ever?
• Does the panel think that the public should pay for MT's funeral?
• Does the panel think the Queen is wrong to attend MT's funeral?
• What does the panel think is MT's greatest contribution to politics?
• How many years does the panel think Glenda Jackson should spend incarcerated in the Tower of London for daring to say publicly what others have thought privately?

I have my own answers to these questions which you can probably guess at. I only hope that someone - on the panel or in the audience - has the guts to criticise Thatcher's works and her legacy, which we are well and truly living with and suffering from today, in Barnet as much as anywhere.

Indeed, tonight I'll be a few yards up the road from QT, in North Finchley at the Greek Cypriot Community Centre, Britannia Road, N12, where from 7-9pm the Barnet Alliance has a public meeting to explain why we want Barnet Council to bring 'Your Choice Barnet' back in-house.

This outsourced service providing support to disabled adults was supposed, believe it or not, to generate a surplus. It isn't, it is losing money and is having to be bailed out. Worse, in order to make the books balance, the management want to cut staff pay, and to reduce the quality of the service. All of this is a scandal and of a piece with the privatising, cutting agenda that Thatcher instigated and that her political heirs among the Barnet Tories are continuing.

Speakers at the meeting include John Sullivan, parent-carer of a user of the 'Your Choice' centre.

Please join us if you can at this important meeting, and please sign our petition on the Barnet Council website. You can find more details about the meeting here.

Iranian residents launch "Occupy Moat Mount"

Angry Iranians in Barnet have taken a leaf out of the book of Occupy London, learned the lessons of the successful occupation and re-opening of Friern Barnet Library, and announced that they will launch "Occupy Moat Mount" today, Monday.

The move is an angry response to the continued failure of Barnet Council to accommodate Iranains' age-old Sizdeh Be-dar ceremony, the last day of the 13-day Noruz (New Year) celebrations.

On the 13th day, it is traditional for Iranians - and Kurds and many Afghans - to take to the great outdoors, in fact, it is considered bad luck to stay indoors on this day. Picnics and barbecues are traditional, which has led to some conflicts with local authorities. In recent years, Barnet Council has gone so far as to ban Iranians from gathering in the parks that they most liked to use, including Moat Mount Open Space.

Now, this year, a small group of Iranian residents has vowed to "occupy" Moat Mount in protest and to assert their right to observe their traditional customs.

A young man identifying himself only as Faravahar said: "Barnet Council boast about their good relations with different sections of the community, but they can't come to an agreement with us over an annual barbecue. We have offered to bring our own binbags and even offered workshops in litter-picking, but still they won't talk to us. Well, we have had enough. This year we are going to take back our public space to celebrate this ancient festival."

Barnet Council have not yet responded to the activists' threat, but Hendon MP and former Council Cabinet member Matthew Offord has been sighted in recent days in the trees at the edges of Moat Mount wearing a balaclava and muttering about Camp Ashram... or it might have been wigwam.

Eggcentric socialists no. 3 - Albert Einstein

In 2010 I began an occasional series called 'Unlikely socialists', featuring famous people that others might be surprised to find out are socialists. It has turned out to be very occasional, I've only written two posts!

I am reviving the strand now but rebranding it 'Eccentric socialists', in tongue-in-cheek tribute to Richard Cornelius, Tory Leader of Barnet Council. Cornelius thinks that opposition to his wacky One Barnet policies in Barnet is confined to 'eccentric socialists, American exiles and a coffee shop owner'. (He could do worse!)

Since it is Easter Sunday, I've included a little pun in this entry. I think that the revolutionary scientist Albert Einstein is someone deserving of the 'eccentric' title - showing that 'eccentricity' is a virtue, someone that stands up to the mainstream, and challenges ideas that deserve to be debunked.

Here's what he wrote about his socialist beliefs in "Why socialism?", an article for the US magazine Monthly Review in May 1949. (Read the whole article here.)

The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence. Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate. All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple, and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. We see before us a huge community of producers the members of which are unceasingly striving to deprive each other of the fruits of their collective labor—not by force, but on the whole in faithful compliance with legally established rules. In this respect, it is important to realize that the means of production—that is to say, the entire productive capacity that is needed for producing consumer goods as well as additional capital goods—may legally be, and for the most part are, the private property of individuals. ...

Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an “army of unemployed” almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers’ goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.

This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.

I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to remember that a planned economy is not yet socialism. A planned economy as such may be accompanied by the complete enslavement of the individual. The achievement of socialism requires the solution of some extremely difficult socio-political problems: how is it possible, in view of the far-reaching centralization of political and economic power, to prevent bureaucracy from becoming all-powerful and overweening? How can the rights of the individual be protected and therewith a democratic counterweight to the power of bureaucracy be assured?

Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.

Join the Barnet Spring march, Saturday 23 March, Finchley

I've little time to write my own blogpost this evening so I'll just shamelessly re-publish this week's Barnet Alliance newsletter - which has itself shamelessly stolen Mrs Angry's excellent headline from her blogpost reporting on the final day of Maria Nash's application for Judicial Review of Barnet Council's 'One Barnet' outsourcing programme.

Of course, we have been at the High Court this week finding out just how little regard the Council has for our intelligence or our right to be consulted over what happens to the public services we all rely on and pay for. Mr Justice Underhill's verdict is due after Easter.

Tomorrow, Saturday 23 March, we will be marching, possibly through snow, from Finchley Central station to Friern Barnet Community Library on the 'Barnet Spring' march. There is a bus for those who don't want to walk.

P.S. I can at least contribute to the commonweal some photos from outside the High Court.

Nothing About Us Without Us!

This term communicates the idea that no policy should be made without the full and direct participation of the people concerned. It has a long history within the disabilities rights campaigns, and was adopted by DPAC, Disabled People Against Cuts, as their battle cry.

This term concerns us in many ways. There is, for example, the lack of consultation about the One Barnet Programme, which the council, on the one hand, tried to deny in the High Court; while claiming, on the other hand, that residents are “not capable” of understanding the complexity of the programme, so consultation is pointless. There’s also the failure of Your Choice Barnet, which will cause suffering and distress to parents, carers, service users and staff, and demonstrates the council’s inability to manage and to understand the complexity of its own programmes. And, finally, there is the contempt with which the council has dismissed and insulted concerned residents. 

 

If you haven't heard yet, the High Court judgment regarding Maria Nash’s challenge will be delivered after Easter. You can find a summary of the deliberations on our website, and also reports (better then ours) by the local bloggers: Barnet Eye, Broken Barnet and Mr Reasonable.

Tomorrow, Saturday, is Barnet Spring. Although spring is not an accurate term for the weather that has been forecast, it might not be that bad. Anyway,we have braved bad weather conditions in the past, so let’s all dress warmly and remember: battling against the weather will make good photo ops and is nothing like as hard as battling against government. Even if the weather is as miserable as the council, the government and austerity, let's make the Barnet Spring March BIG, big and angry: Nothing About Us Without Us!

The rally will start at 11am near Finchley Central Tube Station. We will begin to march to Friern Barnet Community Library at midday, accompanied by a double decker bus for people who have difficulty walking that far. Please note that the bus has no ramp. Wheelchair users will be buddied up with supporters and there will be stewards to assist with this at the assembly point.

The second part of the rally will be held at Friern Barnet, with music and food courtesy of the Friern Barnet Library Campaign. 

 

There will be speakers from all over the country: MPs, councillors, LGA members, trade unionists, and campaigners, including Tony Benn. The list of speakers, delegations and messages of support is here.

• Please help us make this march a success: join us from 9am to prepare. We need stewards and help with:

• fund-raising collection
• distributing leaflets
• decorating the bus
• putting up posters along the march route.

If you can help, please just turn up at 9am outside Finchley Central tube station or call 07534 407703.

And for a last-minute push:

1. Forward this newsletter to friends and family.
2. Make sure that everyone you know knows about it!
3. Tweet mercilessly with the hashtag #BarnetSpring and the link http://goo.gl/jhzX6.

One Barnet on trial - join us at the High Court

Barnet resident Maria Nash has applied for a Judicial Review of Barnet Council's One Barnet outsourcing programme, and the application will be heard in the High Court from tomorrow, Tuesday 19 March. The case will probably continue on Wednesday and might run to Thursday.

Barnet Alliance for Public Services is supporting Maria in her application. With Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), we have organised a support demonstration outside the Royal Court of Justice, The Strand tomorrow (Tuesday) from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

Please join us if you can, and follow proceedings on Twitter. Follow @BarnetAlliance, hashtags: #OneBarnet #BarnetSpring.

It is a shame that it has come to this: a legal challenge to Barnet Tories' privatisation plan, but for more than four years we have been arguing, debating, challenging in every way that we can politically. I think we honestly believed that they would see sense or at least calculate that the political price they would pay for One Barnet would be so high they would not want to pay it.

We were wrong.

Maria is not a member of BAPS but we are supporting her. Of course, the political campaign WILL continue and Barnet Tories WILL pay a high political price for persisting with One Barnet. They are likely to lose control of Barnet Council to Labour in the local government elections in 2014. I for one will certainly be campaigning to make sure that they do - and to pressure Labour to make sure that what we get instead will be better!

But it is a tragedy that so much damage has already been done. 

It is a shame that it has come to a legal challenge, but we will all learn interesting and useful things through this process (we already have).

There will be high public interest in the court case. The arguments aired will be mulled over and used by other local authorities contemplating mass outourcing, and by those challenging them.

Maria has a right to insist on her her day in court. Her case is that she is worried what will happen to her when services are outsourced - she is disabled - particularly if the outsourcing goes wrong, the contracts fail, and Barnet ends up losing not saving money. She is right to worry! The cuts to our vital public services - already severe - will be far worse the more money that Barnet loses.

The problems with 'Your Choice Barnet', the arms-length company set up by Barnet Council to deliver care and support services to disabled adults show the dangers of moving to a commercial model for vital public services. The Council is being called on to bail out Your Choice, which was supposed to make a surplus.

Now that it is losing money, the management are making plans to cut staff pay and conditions and reduce the standard of the service.

Please sign the petition here calling on Barnet Council to bring 'Your Choice Barnet' back in-house. And you can end an email to Barnet Council's Cabinet members using the link here on the Barnet Alliance website.