At the Council meeting on 5 March, that passed an insane and vicious cuts budget, Cornelius said of his critics:
“(They are) just a group of eccentric socialists, American exiles, bloggers and a coffee shop owner.”I wasn't at the meeting, detained as I was on family business. But read the report by the Times series here. Mrs Angry who writes the Broken Barnet blog says Cornelius actually said "esoteric" socialists, which sounds far more intriguing.
I think I know who he means by "American exiles", but that's just two people and they are very respectable - formidable, even. Then there are bloggers - but they have their uses, don't they? And coffee shop owners! So sneeringly dismissed.
If he means Helen Michael, who owns Cafe Buzz in North Finchley, well, you could see what good work she does for the community as she helped produce a lively celebration of one of Barnet's beleaguered high streets last Saturday. Read about it here.
I am definitely a socialist, and possibly eccentric, but there are worse things one might be.
A complacent Tory, for example, who blandly complies with his party's decimation of public services, and denigrates those Barnet residents who won't just sit back and let them do it.
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1 comment:
ha: well said, in your last paragraph especially. I was not at the meeting either, being indisposed: I suspect we may have spoilt his fun by not being there. But I love the idea of being an esoteric, or eccentric socialist. In fact I can think of no higher honour.
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