An injury to one is an injury to all

Following Brian Coleman's outburst at Tuesday night's council meeting, the Chair of the Barnet Council Unison branch has written this letter to members. It is worth bearing in mind, Barnet Conservatives, that one of the favourite sayings of the trade union movement is "an injury to one is an injury to all".

It is unprecedented for a Councillor to name a Council Officer (an employee of the Council) in a disparaging way in public. Why? Because a Council officer has no public right of reply. So when the employee being attacked is the branch secretary of the biggest Council union, namely our John Burgess, it is particularly offensive. The same Councillor uses sexist, denigrating language to people sitting in the public gallery.  

“Ah, but that’s Brian Coleman for you,” I hear you say, “The Councillor who just lost his GLA seat and seat on the Cabinet”. I do not much care for speculation about whether he was there to provoke or not etc. I do know this: He was asked/allowed to make a key speech for the ruling Conservative Group on a key issue facing our workforce – the One Barnet Programme. That group and the leader of that group allowed him to be their public face. Rightly or wrongly he was chosen.  

During the whole debate (and I was there throughout) Cllr Coleman made no apology. His leader, Cllr Cornelius, did not distance himself from the comments made by Cllr Coleman or insist on an apology, instead he smiles and nods approvingly. The Mayor does not choose to make any kind of statement regarding conduct expected from Councillors serving in public office but only addresses his comments to members of the public, many of them women incensed at having been insulted, nor does he choose to remind Councillors about protocols around naming employees of the Council. Cllr Harper (portfolio for Children’s Services) is clearly seen smiling when his colleague uses sexist language to residents of Barnet. What does this say about our Council’s ability to conduct Equality Impact Assessments?  

I hope you would agree with me that we think our Branch Secretary should continue writing emails on behalf of our members to the Councillors. If they think this is “increasingly desperate”, that is their problem.  

We elect our Branch Secretary precisely to represent us, amongst other things by telling the Council when we think they have got it wrong. The fact the leading Conservative Group refuses to debate with us (and we have offered many, many times over) on the detail of the One Barnet Programme, but can only resort to name calling is a critical sign of weakness in their case. Nonetheless they think they can get away with it. We must show them otherwise.  

Listen to the speech, listen to the way the Councillors express their views via Cllr Brian Coleman about you as a workforce. They just do not care about you. Now what was that about Barnet’s Values...? Who do you stand by? Come to branch meeting 25^th September.

Councillor Coleman One Barnet speech

http://youtu.be/jiGOM0LbfdA

Bite size clips of the above speech

· Councillor Coleman attacks Barnet Alliance residents in public gallery

· http://youtu.be/ViiB-RDG5kE

· Councillor Coleman calls residents old hags

· http://youtu.be/G3HeXtOWWyo

· Councillor Coleman says staff don't matter

· http://youtu.be/8uPHxKhKoKw

·  Councillor Coleman attacks staff and UNISON Branch Secretary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yofl1HfI8c

· Councillor Coleman and Leader share private joke

· http://youtu.be/LREDmOdnafI

Community fun and games, Or: An afternoon in Grahame Park

Mayor of Barnet Brian Schama and Hope Yoloye of Living Way Ministries

I sauntered over to Grahame Park open space this afternoon for the Community Games. These are being organised around the country in order to capitalise on the Olympics.

This is the choice: can the working classes be induced to shift their lardy arses off their sagging settees so as to save the NHS some money in the future or, instead, will the ruling classes have to part with a small modicum of their vast wealth in order to fund state-of-the-art healthcare for all?

I know where I would lay most of the emphasis.

I'm all for fostering personal responsibility but it is absurd to compare the life choices for a working-class child from Colindale with those for the son or daughter of the people currently making policy on housing, health, education, local government and - yes - sports funding.

The London Olympics underlined this disparity once again. A year on from the London riots, there were the pundits in the television studio recommending the discipline of boxing (beating people up in a gym) to keep youths - they mean working-class youths - "out of trouble" (beating each other up on the streets).

Meanwhile, the three-day eventing team included a member of the Royal family. In what other discipline could the field be so small as to give one of the eight grand-children of the Queen a realistic chance of selection? Or is horsemanship really a matter of the right breeding?

Anyway, today's event at Grahame Park was cheerful, lively and enjoyable. But the on-the-ground organisation for it was done by a church. From what I can tell, it is a very good church... but what if it weren't?

The current Mayor of Barnet, Brian Schama, put in an appearance to hand out the medals for the sack race and talent contest. But he looked like he would rather be somewhere else; I don't think that was just on account of the drizzle.

He praised the church, saying they are doing good work fostering community spirit on the estate. Indeed, they are. But the withdrawal of the authorities from places like Grahame Park is completely unnecessary.

There has been a lot of praise for community champions in places like Grahame Park, sorting out "problem families". Yet Grahame Park is really not such an "exotic" place needing special understanding. Go there, look around and you will quickly see that all it needs is a little money spending on it, for repairs and recreation, and it could be a thriving community.

I took the Barnet Alliance petition with me today and collected signatures to support the revolutionary proposition that Barnet Council should consult with residents before it outsources all of its services to the private sector.

There was a lot of recognition of what is at stake - and alarm at what is being proposed. The problem is that most Barnet residents simply don't know what is going on. And the ruling administration would happily keep it that way.

My conclusion after this Olympics fortnight and from today is that working-class people do indeed need to get up off from their settees - to kick the backsides of their condescending Tory rulers.

I hope that one of the unintended consequences - legacies? - of the Community Games around the country is that they bring working-class people together in a space where they can discuss how they are going to do that.

The road to salvation lies - no, not through prayer - through zumba!

Sport - or at least bouncing - for all!

Parking charges review won't save Coleman's backside

If I read this report in the Barnet Press right, Barnet council is to review its hike in parking charges. This is the result of the 4,500 signatures the Labour group got on its petition on the council's website. They presented these at the business management scrutiny committee on 29 February, which agreed to the review.

Here's an extract from the report:

In January Labour councillors had a motion calling for a review into charges rejected at an extraordinary council meeting.

But speaking before the committee, highways manager Neil Richardson agreed that a review into the parking regime would begin in April.

He said it would look at a number of aspects of its parking regime, including fees and hours of control. He added that measures to attract shoppers to high streets, such as making car parking free for the first half hour, would not be ruled out.

“We need to make sure that the parking regime is suited for the needs of the trading environment,” he said.

This review is a coup for the Labour group, particularly as they now look like Barnet's most pro-business party!

And every time an issue such as this is re-politicised it reminds Tory voters how angry they are and costs the Conservative group support. With the GLA elections in the offing - 3 May - and their anxiety about whether Brian Coleman will win or not, Barnet's Tories might even start to wobble on their policies. (The Save Friern Barnet Library campaigners must certainly be hoping so - and I with them!)

However, the parking review results will not appear until September, which is an age away. That is not good for the traders who are losing business now! And it won't come in time to save Coleman's backside.

Fellow Barnet bloggers have reported the election by the Conservative group of Brian Schama (seen as some sort of dissident from the ruling clique!) as Barnet's next mayor and Kate Salinger (who is some sort of dissident!) as his deputy. So it looks as though Barnet's Tory councillors are starting to worry for their council seats in 2014 and to put some more voter-savvy people in charge. Will it be enough to save their backsides?

A tale of two Brians

This email exchange has reached me.

---
From: Coleman, Cllr Brian Conservative
Sent: 10 September 2010 19:07
To: BSchama@aol.com
Cc: Prentice, Cllr Wendy Conservative; Hillan, Cllr Lynne Conservative; Harper, Cllr Andrew Conservative; Scannell, Cllr Joan Conservative; Rayner, Cllr Hugh Conservative; Cohen, Cllr Melvin Conservative
Subject: RE: Council Meeting September 14th. Agenda Item: 3.6

In view of the contents of this e mail , which I assume is notification that you cannot support a vote of Confidence in our Administration despite the result of the ballot at the Group I assume this means that you have resigned the Conservative Whip

As I am sure you will appreciate this is a serious matter and I ask you to reflect as of course if you intend to sit as an Independent appropriate arrangements will have to be made

Kind regards

-----
From: BSchama@aol.com [mailto:BSchama@aol.com]
Sent: 10 September 2010 18:24
To: Coleman, Cllr Brian Conservative
Subject: Council Meeting September 14th. Agenda Item: 3.6

Dear Brian

I am a loyal supporter of David Cameron, who I believe epitomises the wish of all genuine Conservatives to find the right solution to our current financial problems at both national and local level, and I fully support him and the Coalition in this very difficult task.

Lynne's stance on Allowances has embarrassed him and the Party I support. Grant Shapps made this very clear publicly and still she did not listen. I would like to be free to look after the best interests of the residents of our Borough and my Mill Hill Ward.

I have no problem with how the Leadership election was conducted which, so far as we know, was in a professional and fair manner. Nonetheless, nearly half the Conservative Group voted for Mark Shooter as Leader and this has further weakened Lynne Hillan's credibility.

As you are aware, the Council now needs to make a number of extremely tough decisions when reviewing funding and public resources. For Lynne to have chosen this very time to attempt to push through an obscene pay increase for herself and her closest cabinet and committee chairman colleagues demonstrated once and for all that she lacks the sense, sensitivity and judgement required of a leader.

As you also well know, a number of her Conservative colleagues - both old and new - advised her that this course was wrong. She refused to listen to reason and instead cynically persisted in attempting to justify the increases and only backtracked when she found herself caught in the relentless glare of adverse publicity, destroying the last of her personal credibility in the process.

Even now she still simply does not understand that the public want - and are entitled - to know exactly who is receiving an increased allowance and how much the increase is in each individual case, including the Chairman of her various Committees. Yet in attempting to explain her new "fallback" proposal she has signally failed to itemise both her own and her Cabinet & Committee colleagues' actual existing allowances and their proposed new allowances in a way that is transparent to our residents.

Every difficult Council and Group decision which has to be taken in the months ahead will now be tainted by her personal history of cynical allowance manipulation.

I would like to be free to vote in the best interests of the residents who I have the honour to represent and to do so with a clear conscience, without my loyalties divided between our national leader (whom I respect) and our local leader (who I do not).

I would be happy to support Andrew Harper, as Leader as I believe he stands the best chance of uniting our troubled group, supported by Mark Shooter as Deputy Leader with special responsibility for fiscal matters.

This is the only way that our Conservative group can unite again and go forward

Of course, you will need to seriously change your personal style if they are to succeed.

I want you to know that I bear you no personal animosity and I take this opportunity to wish you and your family "Shanah Tovah".

Regards,

Brian