'Barnet - billion pound gamble': get the DVD!

Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS), Barnet bloggers, residents, the odd MP, were at the Palace of Westminster (Parliament) last night for a screening of 'Barnet - the Billion Pound Gamble'.

This film by director Charles Honderick and producer Roger Tichborne is a follow-up to their 'A Tale of Two Barnets' at the start of the year. It reflects on developments since, and includes coverage of the campaign to save Friern Barnet Library, which was not in the first film.

At our meeting on 19 November, in the plush surroundings of Committee Room 12, we also heard a number of speakers: Barbara Jacobson for BAPS on how Barnet Council's 'One Barnet' privatisation plan (the billion pound gamble) will destroy local democracy; 'Mr Reasonable' blogger John Dix; and Barnet resident John Sullivan, whose daughter Susan is instigating legal proceedings against Barnet Council over One Barnet.

The film which lasts 30 minutes is available on DVD for £3 (£5 incl postage). Please email barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com to order a copy.

Some pictures of the evening below.

Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central and Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with Barnet Councillors before the meeting

Ruth Kutner (BAPS chair); John Dix aka Mr Reasonable

Barbara Jacobson for BAPS

 

John Sullivan

 

One Barnet - Billion Pound Gamble? You bet!

The Ham&High newspaper have an article today called 'One Barnet - a Billion Pound Gamble?'.

They attended the premiere on Monday night of Charles Honderick and Roger Tichbourne's new film 'Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble' (which is very good, by the way - list of free, local screenings here).

It's good that they've written such an article, trying to explain One Barnet in some detail. But it's actually pretty limited and gives Barnet Council far too much of the benefit of the doubt.

There are also some plain errors in it.

I have posted a long comment - they haven't approved it yet, perhaps they're combing through it for accuracy/libel, etc. I actually think they should give Barnet Alliance a chance to respond in their pages. I'll ask them for it!

My comment is below. It's a comment on the bottom of an article posted on a website, so it's not 'fully rounded', but I think it's useful.

Thank you for covering One Barnet in some detail. There are a few corrections I would like to make.

One Barnet did not start life in 2010, but earlier. I think it was mooted around 2007, and started going through the council committees in late 2008. When it began life it was 'Future Shape'. The national spending review in 2010 only gave the council a new propaganda reason to say it was necessary.

For sure the council say it will be done to save money. But will it? Many large-scale outsourcings have gone wrong and ended up costing money, eg, BT in Liverpool. Cornwall Council - led by the Conservatives - this week voted to pull back from a large outsourcing project. There are numerous more examples. It IS a big gamble, and while we might gain - might - we also lose a lot of control and accountability

Moreover, the One Barnet umbrella doesn't just include three big and one small outsourcing contracts (two large contract negotiations are far advanced; a large street scene contract will follow soon; parking has recently been outsourced to NSL with a severe drop in the quality of the service).

One Barnet also includes such things as: service reductions (cuts); 'efficiencies'; raising charges for some services (this really DOES fit with the easyCouncil model) including adult social care and parking for residents living in CPZs - currently being fought by residents through the courts. So a lot of the 'savings' are really just cuts!

One Barnet is also highly ideological: a lot of the savings they hope to be made are through fostering 'a different relationship with citizens' - and this boils down to getting us to do more things for ourselves. OK for some; on the whole, not OK. Services in Barnet are hardly extravagant at the moment, and generally people really need the services they use.

There is also a simple belief by the Conservative administration that private sector is best; it is often demonstrably not so. We are also worried about the lobbying role that the outsourcing companies have conducted on senior council officers who then prevail on councillors (who frankly know shockingly little about One Barnet) to go along with privatisation. BT, one of the bidders for the £750m NSCSO contract, had a man seconded to Barnet Council for a long period, for example.

Am I going on a bit? I'm sorry, but there is so much detail that people need to know more about in order to see why we are worried, and why we are working so hard to oppose One Barnet. People can read more on the Barnet Alliance website: http://barnetalliance.org/

I think the final thing I would want to take issue with is Cllr Thomas's claim that the administration has a mandate for One Barnet. In no sense was the policy 'out there'. The Conservatives' manifesto in 2010 had 3 points: council tax freeze; weekly bin collection (whoopee!); we won't allow building on the green belt.

That's it! They have repeatedly said they don't think residents care about how their services are delivered - but never thought to ask them. We are finding as we tell residents about One Barnet that they do care, and that they oppose the programme.

Vicki Morris
Barnet Alliance for Public Services publicity officer

Torrid Tuesday in Barnet (and elsewhere) - Cornwall Conservatives, Barnet Conservatives, and Brian Coleman

Against a backdrop of rumours about necrophilia and Tory paedophile rings (I DID say rumours), Tuesday was possibly even more tumultuous than Manic Monday. I'm only glad I'm out tomorrow being exploited all day - it'll take my mind off things.

In Cornwall, the council voted by 93 votes with 7 abstentions to suspend their move to a Joint Venture outsourcing programme. The bidder, BT, says they'll hang around till spring to see whether the council changes its mind back again. This is a Conservative administration that has decided it must look at an in-house bid before contracting out its back office functions.

In short, great news!

At last night's afterfilm BAPS committee meeting (it's true, we never rest!) we heard a rumour (there we go again!) that the chair of Barnet Council's Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee (BPOSC), one Brian Coleman, had consented to BAPS making a presentation about One Barnet at the next meeting.

I emailed the Barnet Council staff member dealing with this committee about it. I got an email back saying the Chair had consented to no such thing.

Oh, well, that was just a rumour, I thought. But I chuckled at the idea that it might have put Brian Coleman's nose out of joint!

Minutes later my phone rang.

'Hello, Vicki Morris?'

'Yes,' I said. That voice is familiar.

'It's Brian Coleman,' the voice said. My immediate thought was, oh, shit, he's rung me up to tell me to stop harassing him (he has form for this sort of thing).

He hadn't. In fact, we had a polite enough and business-like conversation about a misunderstanding. The agenda at this Thursday's BPOSC will not cover One Barnet so BAPS should not come and present at it. However, we can come and present at the special meeting on 29 November, which will be given over to discussing the £750 million NSCSO contract.

At one point during this conversation Coleman said 'trade unions, Barnet Alliance, and other sensible people' could come and speak.

He can't be feeling himself. Mentioning trade unions, Barnet Alliance and sensible people all in the same breath?!

I couldn't get much of a word in edgeways during this conversation, but even if I had been able to I think it was right to play it straight.

As it happens, we might not get to make our presentation after all because Coleman - quite rightly - won't be the BPOSC chair much longer; he looks like he is going to be suspended from Barnet's Tory group - as he should be. The bloke's been charged with 'assault by beating' and a driving offence!

Barnet Council leader Richard Cornelius has evidently been leant on by fellow Tories in Barnet - who aren't all as stupid as they look (if you want to know just how stupid they can look, there is a great passage in Charles Honderick and Roger Tichborne's 'Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble' film showing Barnet Tory councillors guffawing hammily at the public gallery - that's right, at residents - during a Council meeting). Cornelius has announced this evening that he has begun the process of suspending Coleman from the Tory group.

Or by Conservative Central Office (who aren't stupid at all, just bloody dangerous). Or, probably, both.

What else exercised me today? Oh, a stack of personal chores; I didn't even have time to listen to tonight's Radio 4 'File on Four' programme, 'Public, Private and Profitable'. The introductory blurb says:

Public, Private and Profitable  

The midnight collapse of the Government's plans for the West Coast main railway line once again raises questions about the outsourcing of public services to private providers.

Public bodies of all kinds now face massive budget cuts and are under pressure to deliver savings. As a result, across the country, public services of all kinds are now up for tender in the hope they can be delivered more cheaply by the private sector.

With relatively straightforward things such as refuse collection, there's general agreement that experience to date shows outsourcing can work, and can save the taxpayer money.

But with complex services in education, health or transport, the picture is far less clear.

Michael Robinson investigates the outsourcing of these complex public services and uncovers another, as yet unreported, example of huge profits being earned by major private companies at taxpayers' expense.

The programme will be broadcast again on Sunday afternoon, I think.

I wonder if we here in Barnet would learn anything new? Still it's good to know that the rest of the world out there is finally catching on.

Manic Monday in Barnet - film premieres, cowardly Conservatives

I'm setting out shortly for the Phoenix Cinema in Finchley, to watch the premiere of 'Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble'.

Doors open at 6pm, entrance is £1. The film starts at 6.30pm and lasts 30 minutes. Afterwards there is a panel discussion featuring some of my fellow Barnet bloggers.

The film is a follow-up to 'A Tale of Two Barnets' earlier this year. The director Charles Honderick and producer Roger Tichborne have put together more interviews with residents about their hopes and fears (mostly the latter) as Barnet Council prepares to outsource most of its services to 3 or 4 multinational companies.

The outsourcing programme is called 'One Barnet'. The Council will sign contracts for 10 years and hand over more than £1,000,000,000 (£1 billion) to the outsourcing companies, along with most of their - hence our - control over services.

Madness!

In other mad news, Conservative Councillor Brian Coleman has been charged with common assault for an alleged attack on Helen Michael, owner of Cafe Buzz in North Finchley.

The Council has announced that Coleman can only be removed from his post as Chair of the Council's Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee by a meeting of the full Council. (There is a meeting of the committee this Thursday 25 October at 7pm at Hendon Town Hall.)

But that doesn't answer the question of how Coleman's party will treat him.

The Labour Group leader on the Council Alison Moore has written to Council Leader Richard Cornelius:

Now that Cllr Coleman has been charged with assault it is clearly time for the Leader of the Council to take action and remove the whip from him. I have written to the Leader today asking him to confirm that he will be doing this.

The current betting is that Cornelius will do nothing of the kind.

Madness!

Welcome to another manic Monday in Barnet.

Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble FILM PREMIERE

Below is text from the press release for the upcoming 'Barnet - the billion pound gamble' film. Premiere: Monday 22 October, the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley. Another great night out in Barnet!

Ken Loach lambasts outsourcing in Barnet Council documentary

Award-winning film director Ken Loach has lambasted Barnet Council's One Barnet outsourcing programme in a scathing attack in a new documentary film "Barnet - The Billion Pound Gamble", directed by Charles Honderick.

Mr Loach was interviewed exclusively for the film and says: "A billion pounds, now that’s money you will pay, Barnet residents will pay, and the jobs that will be provided will probably not be in Barnet. A lot of the jobs will go to other boroughs or even outside of Britain altogether."

Mr Loach notes that taxpayers are getting poor value for money as jobs leave the borough, causing poverty, hardship and economic decline. "Now that’s a bad deal for Barnet because you want your rates and money put in to go to support your local economy, to go to support Barnet people and this is not about being narrow and excluding others, this is just commonsense, that we need local communities to thrive and the end of that logic, that says the money should go to the cheapest workers, is of course that the money goes to those who eat grass first."

As well as Mr Loach, the film features people from all walks of life in Barnet talking about their experiences, and looks at all aspects of life in Barnet in 2012, including the relocation of Barnet Football Club to Harrow, the closure of Friern Barnet Library, the cost of parking in the High Street and the provision of care services for the disabled and elderly.

Director Charles Honderick said: "The film gives a voice to everyone who cares about what is happening in their community. The stories we have heard are stories which should be shared. Some of the things you will see you will find hard to believe can happen in a civilised society". Mr Honderick continued: "As a filmmaker I am honoured to have my work recognised by Ken Loach. He has spent years making films with power and meaning. His wise words are ones we'd be foolish to ignore".

The film has its world premiere at the Phoenix Cinema in Finchley at 6pm on Monday 22 October 2012. Admission is by suggested donation of £1.

You can see the full interview with Mr Loach at the film website: http://www.billionpoundgamble.co.uk/

Stories and links

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9962234.Tale_of_Two_Barnets_sequel_to_get_first_airing/?ref=ms

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=8115

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/barnet-the-billion-pound-gamble-world-premier

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/ken-loach-on-one-barnet-licence-for.html

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1021

"A Tale of Two Barnets" in the Houses of Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn MP speaking at showing of "A Tale of Two Barnets" in Parliament

I went last night to the screening of the community film "A Tale of Two Barnets" in the Houses of Parliament. John McDonnell MP had booked the Wilson Room in Portcullis House.

It was interesting to see around this building whose high cost - no expense spared on the fixtures and fittings - was so controversial. It looks good for the money! But whether it was an appropriate amount (final cost of the building £235 million) to be spent on a building that only a few MPs and attendees of select committees ever see... well, it wasn't, was it? But I digress...

The Wilson Room, as other bloggers will probably tell you in more detail, was where Rupert Murdoch gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.

A suitable backdrop then for a showing of the film about Barnet council's cuts, privatisation and lousy governance culture? I think so!

The film was enjoyed by an audience of local anti-cuts activists and guests. John McDonnell MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP both attended to discuss the wider context of the cuts and privatisation agenda. As you can see from the photo below, all of Barnet's three MPs were invited to attend but did not. As far as I know, none of them has yet seen the film that has nevertheless been seen by more than 1,000 of their constituents.

Council leader Richard Cornelius also had a place reserved for him but he did not come either. I don't think he has seen the film yet, although he has complained about it enough.

Both McDonnell and Corbyn had to nip in and out of the meeting to participate in votes on the Finance Bill, the piece of legislation which includes cutting the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p, a measure that will benefit, among the rest of the top-earning 1% of the population, Barnet Council's own chief executive, Nick Walkley. (Yes, we pay him that much.)

The discussion after the film was very interesting and focused on the council's lack of honest consultation with residents. When they consult, they simply ignore the majority opinions of those they consult with. The impression is that they have always already made up their minds what they are going to do, and that consultation is a tick-box exercise only.

We also discussed things we can do next around the issues that concern us.

Helen Michael, who represents North Finchley traders, told us about their poster campaign targeting Brian Coleman, "murderer" of Barnet's high streets, with his disastrous parking policy. The poster campaign is reported today in the local press.

Helen told us how the council has asked the traders to participate in building the mood for the Olympic torch relay which is due to pass through North Finchley, handing out flags and so on. The traders have asked what's in it for them, when the council is in the process of ruining their businesses, and our high streets with them.

Friern Barnet library campaigner Joanna Fryer talked about the next Friern Barnet pop-up library event, meeting this coming Saturday, 21 April, from 11am to 1pm in the British Legion building next to Friern Barnet Village Green.

John Sullivan spoke about the Campaign Against the Destruction of Disabled Support Services; the Barnet Alliance for Public Services was represented by Tirza Waisel and Alan Sloam.

Roger Tichborne, "The Barnet Eye" blogger and producer of "A Tale of Two Barnets", presented the film, and the director Charles Honderick also attended.

In summary, an interesting and fruitful night, sharing ideas for campaigning. I detect a growing confidence, cohesion and determination among the different groups campaigning for public services and simply for the overall spirit of Barnet - a determination to stop the place from declining irreparably.

I have posted a few more pictures of the evening here.

A new empty chair crisis?

"A Tale of Two Barnets" exceeded all of my expectations - Barnet resident

I expect you have heard by now how well the premiere of the film "A Tale of Two Barnets" went on Monday night. It was a full house at the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley! The programming was rather haphazard but, hey, we don't do this sort of thing every day.

Barnet TUC hired the venue for the occasion, and the anti-cuts group, the Barnet Alliance for Public Services, did much of the work to publicise the event, and stewarded on the night.

A lot of people have put a lot of work into this project, in the first place, naturally, the director Charles Honderick and the producer Roger Tichborne. They have done an excellent job.

"A Tale of Two Barnets" is a film about aspects of life in Barnet today, under the current Conservative regime, both national and local. Yes, it was critical of both. (Although it could have been a lot worse!)

The film focused in on some of the issues that have exercised Barnet residents lately. These included the rises in parking charges, and the rises in charges for adult social care services. They have a common theme: Revenue Income Optimisation (RIO). The council, responding to a smaller grant from central government, is casting about for ways to increase its take from those services it charges for. RIO (a lot less fun than it sounds) means that someone visiting a resident living in one of the borough's Controlled Parking Zones must now pay £4 for the privilege if they want to park - until recently, the price of a visitor permit was £1.

And RIO means vulnerable adults having, for example, to pay more in order to visit day centres. As a consequence some decide that they cannot afford to - then they miss out on social interaction, and their carers can miss out on vital respite. (I know how important this is, since I share in the care of an older person.)

And a third theme covered in depth in the film was the One Barnet programme: the plan to privatise most of the council's services through offering (to date) three large contracts to the private sector. Part of the justification given for this alarming leap in the dark is, again, the cuts in the money from central government. (Few of us who know anything about One Barnet believe that it will ever save any money at all. Indeed, it could end up costing residents more, and is likely to lead to worse services.)

I could go on all night. You must see the film for yourself! Its stars include: bloggers Mrs Angry (Broken Barnet blog) and Mr Mustard (LBB Spending blog), Professor Dexter Whitfield, Julian Silverman, Linda Edwards, David Attfield and so on...

The council was given the chance to have their say in the persons of the Chief Executive Nick Walkley and council leader Richard Cornelius.

Richard Cornelius is a politician, supposed to be in charge of what happens in the council. In this film he has all the best lines - and, of course, completely unscripted. Memorably, this, for example:

“I’m not sure there is much I can change about Barnet, so I have set my expectations quite low.”

Gobsmacking, but at least he delivers this line with a disarming smile.

Nick Walkley is a charmless, overpaid local government technocrat, who, with his friends, is behind the drive to privatisation. His salary, £200,000+ per year, puts him among the top 1% of earners in the country. (Chancellor George Osborne is likely to grant him a tax cut in the Budget today.) Yes, those people going on recently about being the 99% were defining themselves against... the Nick Walkleys of this world. Makes you shudder.

Go and see the film, which will have many more showings around the borough in the coming weeks. See for yourself what you think. This should be a real eye-opener for many residents!

New screenings will be publicised on the film's official website here, and I hope to plug them as they come up. If you would like to screen the film in your area, enquiries please on 07754 910425.

"A Tale of Two Barnets" - film showing, Monday 19 March

A tale of two Barnets

Barnet, site of the famous workhouse from the story Oliver Twist. Two hundred years after the birth of Charles Dickens, how has the area changed and how has it stayed the same? The people of Barnet talk about their lives and their concerns in 2012.

Film-maker Charles Honderick presents his new film "A Tale of Two Barnets" at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, on Monday 19 March. The film lasts 30 minutes but there will be a full programme including questions and answers with the director from 6-8pm, entry fee: £1 on the door.

Please come and join us!

More details: http://ataleoftwobarnets.yolasite.com/