Departing council staff paid hush money. It couldn't happen in Barnet, could it?

The Daily Mail reported recently on how staff leaving Suffolk Council employ have been paid large sums of money to keep schtum about their reasons for going.

Suffolk council has recently turned back from embarking on the easyCouncil path due to resistance from residents. Their chief exec Andrea Hill is on leave while there are investigations into alleged bullying of staff.

She's another one who likes to stay at the Sandbanks Hotel. Another one? Mr Reasonable reports on another trip to this expensive hotel by Barnet senior staff.

So Barnet and Suffolk have Sandbanks in common. I don't suppose anyone leaving Barnet employ has ever been paid to keep quiet? That couldn't happen here, could it? I wish there were more hours in the day... I would investigate.

The cultural desertification of Barnet continues - the case of MoDA

Well, I hope I'm wrong, but it looks as though another cultural asset in Barnet - OK, just inside Enfield's borders, but only just - is going to be lost.

Middlesex University is closing its Cat Hill campus and, you won't be surprised to hear, selling it to property developers. Cat Hill courses, students and staff are squashing into the Hendon campus from September 2011.

Everyone at Hendon will have to budge up tighter again in coming years, since the university plans to close its Trent Park campus in due course. (The property developers will have a field day there: they could build a whole new town on that site...) I understand things are already tight at Hendon, with the library full to bursting, and students struggling to find accommodation in the Hendon area.

Meanwhile, the closure of Cat Hill means that the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA) which was based there has had to find a new home as well. It is being accommodated at Beaufort Park, Colindale. Surprise, surprise, the collection will no longer have a gallery open to the public or capable of accommodating school visits. People will have to make an appointment if they want to see the collection.

MoDA's blog seeks to make this move sound like a good thing, but somehow fails. These stories about some of the exhibits being packed up for transporting to the Geffrye Museum and other museums which will be their home from now on strike a poignant note. Let's face it, Barnet and environs appear to have lost another museum.

P.S. There is still time to join the campaign to save Barnet Museum. Keep checking the Barnet Museum website for the latest developments.

Suffolk changes direction - will Barnet?

One of the other councils that had been going down the path of mass outsourcing, after much political hoo-ha, has a new council leader (same party: Conservative). Mark Bee has announced the council is dropping its New Strategic Direction (NSD) programme.

“I do not believe the NSD as a concept has connected with the people of Suffolk, some politicians, partner organisations or indeed many of our staff.

“The people of Suffolk expect to be listened to and cared about.”

The council hasn't taken down the webpage outlining what NSD is yet though. Have a look. Sounds a lot like One Barnet? When will Barnet Conservatives see sense, as Suffolk Conservatives have done, and drop the One Barnet programme?

Robert Rams' instant rebuttal team swings into action - but first it finishes its cornflakes

In response to an article by the Times series about Saturday's large demonstration against the proposed closure of Friern Barnet library, Robert Rams is now quoted by the Times saying:

I don’t for one moment expect that there will be universal enthusiasm for any change.

None of the Friern Barnet petitioners have made contact with me, but I would be happy to meet with them. I’m very interested in hearing any proposals coming forward from residents and library users during consultation.

Two comments appear also:

james smyth, totteryridge says...
9:30am Thu 26 May 11
Well i think it is an excellant idea to close the libary if demand is not there. that way money that is wasted there can be redirected for the benefit of others.

why dont these people simply buy a kindle to read their books ?

If the properties are sold that will bring in more money. its a win win situation but these people dont "read between the lines"

educated, North West London says...
9:31am Thu 26 May 11
Of those 400 who attended the read-in at Friern Barnet library, I wonder how many go into a library regularly?

As well as being the proud owner of a blog, Rams now seems to have got himself an instant rebuttal team, erudite, well-heeled and with a sly sense of humour. He wishes.

Robert Rams' worst nightmare

When Barnet's Tory administration announced its Strategic Library Review, around the same time as they announced they are cutting £1.4 million of funding from the library service, library champions swung into action. Street stalls and the online petition garnered several thousand signatures; contacts were made throughout the borough. Groups such as the East Finchley Library Users Group launched pre-emptive 'hands off our library' campaigns.

We all expected that Barnet might lose five or six libraries, as Brent is doing. We expected issue desks to spring up in the corner of the local Costa. In the event, the results of the SLR looked reasonably benign. People - the sort of people I know! - are in the habit of saying "they scare you into thinking the cuts are going to be really bad so that when they are announced they don't seem half so bad". Perhaps that's what Barnet thought they had done.

But, standing back, the library cuts are still pretty bad. £1.4 million worth of bad. And if you use Friern Barnet library or Hampstead Garden Suburb library, both due to close, they are very bad indeed! The users of these libraries are not going to take the cuts lying down.

Cue Robert Rams', the architect of Barnet's library cuts, worst nightmare! A demonstration outside Friern Barnet library on Saturday 21 May drew more than 200 people. Local schoolchildren who use the library were much in evidence with posters they had made. Local residents are campaigning to have the green space next to the library recognised as a village green.

The site on which Friern Barnet library stands is valued at more than £400,000. Who would pay for such a site but a property developer? Friern Barnet lacks a real centre - apart from the library! People won't readily accept that it disappear simply to make way for yet another undistinguished block of flats. Good luck to them! Please visit their blog and sign their petition on the Barnet council website.

P.S. Thank you to BL for the photograph.

icanhasfreechampagne?

The editing job I am doing at the moment affords me the chance to see what the book publishers are bringing out in time for Christmas. One can see trends in each genre. Humour is either one of the most boring or one of the most delightful categories to edit: depends on what makes you laugh. Last season there was a really tedious reliance on poo-based humour. I mean, really tedious. The season before that it was pants.

Thankfully, the Internet has provided a whole new lease of life for humour and novelty publishing, really rather proving that ordinary people are much funnier than people trying to be funny for money.

There are plenty of compilations of the best of some of the funny websites around. Of course, not all of these websites are funny, some are downright cruel, but I do love some of them, especially the incomparable icanhascheezburger?

I was wondering whether we could adapt some of these ideas for our own nefarious purposes of satirising Barnet's incompetent politicians. Brian Coleman, of course, already has many blogs devoted - utterly devoted - to him, but there surely is room for icanhasfreechampagne? featuring LOLColeman?

This would obviously be in marked contrast to the Glum Councillors blog. Coleman would never feel at home in this company.

Here are some more blogs that made me chortle this evening:
Crap At My Parents' House
Learn From My Fail

Rapturous in Hampstead

I've just looked directly at the sun and I didn't go blind!

No, I'm not having a belated, rapturous moment. I visited the Hampstead Observatory today.

I am ploughing my way through a big editing job at the moment, which is why I've gone rather quiet. My body screamed to be released from the computer for a few hours today and I have just walked from Golders Green to Kings Cross, via Kentish Town.

There were many wondrous sights on the way! Unfortunately, the best one is now closed to the public till September. It's the Hampstead Observatory, which I only vaguely knew about, but was lucky enough to pop into today. This, from their website, is why the Observatory is now closed:

Last chance to see Saturn

The Observatory is about to close for the summer break. Weather permitting, the Observatory will be open on Friday evening, May 20th Saturday evening May 21st and Sunday morning May 22nd. After that date it will be closed until 16th of September.

People often ask why we close during the summer? During the months June, July and August from our latitude it really doesn't get dark. We suffer from 'astronomical twilight' because the Sun is not far below the northern horizon. We also use the summer months to overhaul the telescope and maintain the building and to give our hard working demonstrators and assistants a few weeks rest before we begin again in the autumn.

So there you have it, I would definitely recommend you to make a date for September when it re-opens.

What did I see today? The surface of the Sun, with a filter on to stop it burning my retina to kingdom come. I saw a sun spot, and a solar flare. Absolutely fantastic. I learned, don't laugh at my ignorance, that the Sun rotates on its own axis, around every 28 days.

Now I need to see one of those contraptions that shows the movements of the heavenly bodies, because once the pleasant astronomer on hand began to explain the nature of the Earth's rotation around the Sun, etc, my non-3D imagination went haywire.

I feel really blessed (in a completely secular way).

Once upon a time you dressed so fine

There's probably a copyright law against posting this, but if I have to take it down soon, it's worth it. I was having a Bob Dylan morning (yes, things are that bad), and the words of this song just jumped out. Which Barnet council politician would do well to heed them, do you think? (Clue: 2012.)

Like a Rolling Stone

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

We marched to save the NHS

While Hendon Town Hall saw all manner of drama this evening, including Lynne Hillan sending a statement announcing she is stepping down as Barnet council leader, Barnet Alliance for Public Services made its collective way to central London to participate in the March to Save the NHS.

The march aimed to show some of the opposition that exists to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's Health and Social Care Bill. For a weekday evening, it was a good turnout of a few thousand, with a good spread of organisations represented. From Barnet, as well as the Barnet Alliance, Middlesex University Students Union were present.

The march started from outside University College Hospital, where I had an unpleasant brush with a security official banning me from taking a photo from the steps of the hospital: this is Foundation Trust property, he kept telling me. Amazing, isn't it? And Lansley's privatisation drive hasn't even started yet. This guy could have given MetPro some lessons, I tell you! Still, I got my shot.

We marched down Gower Street, part of Shaftesbury Avenue (past my workplace!), down Charing Cross Road, through Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall. We finished up outside Richmond House, the HQ of the Department of Health in England.

An additional feature of the evening was witnessing the weekly picket by Syrian democracy campaigners, opposite Downing Street. So what if I missed animals on the Hendon Town Hall lawn this evening!

I have a few pictures of the evening here. While they expose my lack of skills in photographing in twilight, only a couple are taken at weird angles - I'm learning.

P.S. Did I really miss animals on the lawn at Hendon Town Hall this evening? That would have been something to see...

A steadfast Iranian socialist: Behzad Kazemi aka Alireza Nasab

I went to the funeral today of Iranian socialist Alireza Nasab, aka Behzad Kazemi, or should that be the other way around? I'm still not sure. Lots of Iranian socialists have more than one name, for the obvious reason that you sometimes needed to conceal your identity to save your own life, or those of your loved ones.

In any case, I always knew him as Ali! Ali was someone I knew only a little... but for 25 years. And, unwittingly, he played an important part in my political life. I met him when I was at university (the first time around) and just getting involved in student politics. He was part of an effort to get the National Union of Students to affiliate to an Iranian solidarity group... but one with decent politics - there were competitors.

I'll spare you the details of the internecine fights of the Iranian left in those days, but the differences between the groups was not just of a People's Front of Judea versus the Judean People's Front nitpicking type. Politics mattered and still does.

Ali taught me that it matters who you show solidarity with when you decide to give political support to people from a country not your own. Yes, it's complicated, but it's very patronising also not to take the time to find out whether those nice Iranians collecting money in the street and showing pictures of the crimes of the Iranian regime (which are horrendous) are a group you really want to give your money to. It's also patronising, as some otherwise well meaning types do, to dismiss all arguments between "foreigners" as, well, typical foreigner-type behaviour: those Iranians/Afghanis/Indians, etc, they're always arguing among themselves. I can't be bothered to find out why. Shake your head in exasperation and walk away.

Anyway, while that's all true it's a bit cheerless! The funeral was, I hesitate to say this, great; a real socialist funeral! Banners, poems, speeches, a glass of wine, singing of the International, and most people wearing red neckties!

In recent years, Ali's main political activity was campaigning for more attention for the very brave people repressed for organising trade unions in Iran, the most famous of them being the busworker leader Mansour Osanloo. Ali did this through a campaign based in Canada, the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran.

The main thing to say about him is that he never stopped being active in politics, it was his life. When I started aged 20 he had already been a socialist for years, and he was still going strong recently, in spite of severe ill health. The other important thing about him was the efforts he made to work with UK socialists and trade unions, not just to keep the campaigns he was involved with an issue for Iranians themselves. We are going to miss those lines of communication. Farewell to a very good man and a personal hero.