Brian Coleman and the red button

Here's a frightening thought. What if Brian Coleman were not to lose his Barnet and Camden seat on the Greater London Authority next May? What if his political career were not stopped in its tracks? What if he were to go higher? It doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

Why, one day he might be put in charge of something seriously important, strategic, something where his mistakes might put people's lives in danger. Er, hang on a minute, he already is: the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority!

P.S. Film quiz points for the name of the film and the character depicted here.

A small crumb of comfort in the otherwise empty hamper of life

...is the news that Barnet councillor Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), has withdrawn his proposal to stop other members of the authority scrutinising his decisions.

Tory Troll blogger Adam Bienkov has the story.

The Fire Brigade is still trying to scare the firefighters' union, the FBU, with threats to sack all London firefighters if they do not agree to... what they have voted to agreed to: a change in their shift patterns to 10.5 hours day shift, 13.5 hours night shift. The FBU is doing its best not to over-react to the provocative talk.

There is an emergency meeting of LFEPA tomorrow (Thursday 13 January) to consider such matters, where a dyspeptic Brian Coleman will keep everyone on their toes. What curveballs can he pitch them next?

Brian Coleman's gagging antics

Tory Troll blog reports on Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), moving to stop scrutiny at meetings of the authority.

An emergency meeting this Thursday will vote on

"a proposal from Chairman and Leader [Coleman] to revise the Standing Orders of the Authority in order to cease the practice of Members of the Authority putting questions to the Chairman and Leader of the Authority."

The "reasoning" from Coleman is that

"LFEPA is an executive board, not a scrutiny body"

and

"There is no statutory requirement for question time. The Authority may therefore decide to remove Standing Order 21 [allowing questions to the Chairman]."

He must sit at home working on these ploys. Coleman, new year, still a schlemiel.

Coleman's rudeness at firefighters medal ceremony

The Daily Mirror today has a story about Brian Coleman being forced to apologise for his behaviour at an event that took place earlier this year. I have learned a few more details.

The event was the London Fire Brigade's long service and good conduct medal ceremony. It took place on 7 April 2010, the day after two Southampton firefighters, Alan Bannon and James Shears, died fighting a fire in a block of flats.

A minute's silence was proposed to honour the dead firefighters. There was some confusion about who would announce the minute's silence - as if that mattered. Coleman interrupted the woman leading the ceremony and said "'I will announce the minute's silence when I'm good and ready". He then announced the minute's silence.

A number of firefighters were so annoyed by Coleman's insensitivity that they refused to shake hands with him later on.

Two people complained to Coleman at the event, and one was told "to leave if they didn't like it".

The incident was reported in a complaint to Barnet council but passed on by them to the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority which Coleman chairs. It is in this capacity that he took part in the ceremony.

When will the Conservatives - Barnet Conservatives, in the first instance - wake up to what a liability this man is?

Coleman comes clean on his fire cuts plan

The Evening Standard carries an astonishing new article about Coleman's policy-making-on-the-hoof. Their headline is "Tories propose 500 firefighter cuts after strike". And they said this dispute had nothing to do with cuts...

Here's part of the article:

Mr Coleman said the FBU action — during which the capital's emergency fire cover was provided by 700 private contractors using 27 fire engines — had highlighted an apparent surplus of equipment and firefighters.

The 27 engines remain “off the run” and are being held on stand-by at a depot in Ruislip in the event of future strikes. The brigade has also been operating with FBU staff refusing to work overtime as part of their action against proposed shift changes. London has about 5,500 frontline firefighters.

But Mr Coleman said: “We are really grateful to the FBU for showing us that there are possible efficiencies. The union has banned overtime for two to three months and London doesn't seem to have come to a halt.”

Brigade officers are due to report within a fortnight on the savings. The brigade is facing a 25 per cent cut in government funding — which makes up 60 per cent of its budget — over the next four years. It is understood that 260 firefighters are able to retire immediately, having completed 30 years' service. Other posts would be cut through two years of “natural wastage” and a continued recruitment freeze.

[An observation: AssetCo only deployed about 162 staff during the recent strikes, not 700 as the article implies.]

Coleman makes it up as he goes along

Thanks for the tip-off, Mrs Angry. Tory Troll blogger (Adam Bienkov) has a story of Brian Coleman madly improvising and setting the cat among the pigeons again at a meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority which he chairs.

People have been wondering what's to become of the 27 London fire engines that AssetCo were handed at the start of the FBU strikes, now that the union has called off its strikes and they and their members' employer the London Fire Brigade have gone to arbitration.

Well, says, Brian, maybe the fire brigade doesn't need those engines after all. Why not, he says, cut about 16% of the capacity at a stroke? What a chief! (That was slang for "fool" in the early 90s, it might still be.)

Brian Coleman: the biggest, most useful idiot in Britain

I'm sure you don't believe everything you read in the papers, but some of the more lurid stories in the press today really take the biscuit. Articles such as this in the Sun: "Flaming cheek of fire strike boss", aimed against FBU general secretary Matt Wrack. This is not journalism, this is class warfare with the gloves off. And it's crap, of course.

The FBU have never demanded £10k in return for shift changes. And the strikes were not called over the substantive issue in their dispute with the London Fire Brigade - shift patterns - but against the sacking threat. From 26 November, all of London's 5,600 firemen and women could be sacked. We would have no fire service to speak of in London.

Where does the Sun get stories such as this? Who feeds them this crap? Who do you think?

The decision to take on the firefighters is a political one - the government wants to make an example of one of the strongest, best organised groups of workers, and batter them into submission. After that, what group of workers will have the courage to stand up to the government's cuts and job losses?

The man who is fronting this attack for the government is one of the most inept politicians ever - Brian Coleman. But he is also one of the thickest skinned and most arrogant men alive - he can take quite a lot of working class ire, he can take a lot of anyone's ire. So long as there is a London taxi for him to hop into and speed him to his next dinner engagement, and so long as there is an expense account to pay for it, Coleman will do anything to London's public services and anything to London's public servants that the government asks him to. I was going to call him a class warrior, but I think he is actually just the biggest, most useful idiot in Britain.

A leaflet outlining the main issues in the fire dispute, published by London region FBU, is available here. I urge Barnet residents to read it, and not to believe what they read in the Sun or the Evening Standard or Metro for that matter. As if you would.

Coleman relaxes as London burns

Brian Coleman's powers of relaxation are world-renowned. In the picture above we can see him relaxing at work.

In the last few days he has pronounced himself relaxed at the prospect of Barnet residents getting the keys to council grit bins this winter (no issue is beneath his consideration), but also, alarmingly, about the idea of sacking all of London's 5,600 firefighters.

He says he can replace the trained and experienced workforce quickly.

Presumably he is also fairly relaxed about the money he has thrown away on the AssetCo contract: £12 million. (It's not his money, after all.) I say thrown away, because this private company, given 27 of Londoners' fire engines to run during the FBU strike on Saturday, in no way rose to the challenge. Only about 11 of the alloted stations were covered; crews crashed engines; fires went out of control. Because of Coleman's gung-ho attitude to industrial relations, and intense relaxation at the thought of exposing others to risk, London was left without fire cover for eight hours.

Another eight-hour strike is scheduled for Monday 1 November. If Coleman cannot stop relaxing and start showing some responsibility, hopefully the people around him can. Coleman will not move out of his complacency until someone sticks a firework up his arse and lights it. Until that happens, London will burn.

The trades council and Barnet Alliance for Public Services has called a lobby of the council -Tuesday 2 November, 6-7pm, at Hendon Town Hall. Hopefully the dispute with the Fire Brigades Union will be resolved by then. If not, make this the night that you come and tell Coleman to stop playing with our lives.

Barnet firefighters: solid strike - public support needed

I went round to Hendon fire station this morning to say hello to the firefighters due to go out on strike. The shift had turned up for work at 9am; at 9.45am one engine "got a shout" and left the station. Their colleagues, including firefighters from other stations in Barnet, heeded the strike call (after all, 79% of them voted for it) and prepared for an eight-hour picket. At around 10.30 they were joined by their colleagues back from their shout.

AssetCo had been due to run an engine from Hendon. No one knew quite where they were; the engine did not arrive while I was there. There were rumours that the 27 engines, taken in the past few days from fire stations around London, had been stationed at Southwark overnight.

The firefighters told me that six people were needed to crew each engine. That means that AssetCo's workforce must be about 162 people. 100 stations will have been without cover today. It's doubtful whether even the AssetCo crewed engines were fully operational.

Morale was high on the picket line but it's true to say, I think, that the firefighters are bemused by what is happening to them. Their union is prepared to negotiate over possible changes to shift patterns; but they cannot do anything when the whole workforce of 5,600 firefighters is threatened with the sack. The 90-day notice that London Fire Brigade, and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority with its chair Brian Coleman behind it, has issued to firefighters runs out in mid-November. What will happen next depends to a large extent on what ordinary Londoners do in the next few days and weeks.

There is a lot that we can do to support the firefighters. Email a message of support to isupportmyfirefighters@london.fbu.org.uk. Visit the fire stations on the next strike day - this is scheduled for Monday 1 November, between 10am and 6pm. You could visit your local station from 9am when crews are likely to be getting ready for the strike. Write a letter to your councillor, MP or GLA member. Yes, even if that happens to be Brian Coleman. He needs to know that he does not have the support of Londoners for his attacks on the FBU.

Keep up to date with the London FBU website.

There are a few of my pictures here of Hendon fire station, and also of the march against cuts in central London today which, naturally, featured the FBU.

Firefighters vote for strike to resist mass sacking

Matt Wrack, FBU General Secretary, FBU London region rally, 16 September (Picture: V. Morris)

Below is a press release from the firefighters' union, the FBU. They have voted by a big margin to strike unless a mass sacking notice is withdrawn. The London Fire Brigade issued the notice as a threat to force the FBU to accept changes to shift patterns.

Brian Coleman is the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. He almost certainly supported the mass sacking notice ploy, and he now has the opportunity to use his influence to have it withdrawn. Does he have the good sense to do that?

LONDON FIREFIGHTERS VOTE FOR STRIKE BY 79%

London firefighters today voted by 3482 to 943 to take strike action unless London Fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson withdraws his letter of 11 August which began the legal process of sacking the capital’s 5557 uniformed and 41 non-operational firefighters. The majority was 79% and the turnout was 79%.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said: “This is a huge vote for strike action. Firefighters hate going on strike – but they hate being bullied even more. This vote demonstrates that London firefighters will fight these mass sackings every step of the way. The London Fire Brigade now needs to lift the sacking notices and start negotiating properly. I hope that even at this late stage, Ron Dobson will do the sensible thing, so that we can get round a table with him and sort out our differences over shift patterns without a gun being held to our heads.”

Strike dates will not be announced today. “We are holding off announcing strike dates for 24 hours in order to give the London Fire Brigade a last chance to do the sensible thing and withdraw the letters of dismissal so we can return to negotiating on the question of shift patterns” says FBU executive member for London Ian Leahair.

If there is no word from the London Fire Brigade, the regional committee will meet with Matt Wrack on Friday to discuss setting dates for strikes.

London firefighters have been taking action short of a strike, including an overtime ban and a ban on “acting up”, since Friday 24 September.

Coleman - the perfect scab

The man who has done more than anyone else to provoke the current industrial action by London's firefighters, Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, is quoted in the Times series calling on firefighters not to vote for strike action because they will lose pay.

The firefighters are currently taking industrial action "short of strike" in their dispute with London Fire Brigade. LFB wants to change firefighters' shift patterns, equalising the lengths of the night and day shifts. The implication for firefighters of such a change would be that they would have less "stand down" time during the night shift. Stand down time is important if firefighters are to function well when called out - no human being functions as well at night as they do in the night.

The implication for London residents of equalising the shifts is it would make it easier to cut shifts altogether, for instance, closing some fire stations at night - when most fires happen.

Rather than negotiate with firefighters, the LFB took the nuclear option and has threatened to sack all of London's 5,500 firefighters unless they accept the shift change. The firefighters' union, the FBU, responded by balloting for industrial action short of a strike and won an overwhelming "yes" vote. They are currently balloting on strike action, since the LFB has not refused to withdraw the redundancy notices.

Brian Coleman's most convincing argument used with the firefighters is - if you go on strike, you will lose pay. Everyone who ever votes for or goes on strike knows that, and it is the price they must pay for exercising their right to withdraw their labour. In fact, every worker who does not join a strike - who crosses a picket line - knows it too. And the excuse you hear most frequently from such people - strike breakers, scabs - is "I can't afford to lose the pay".

Such people are always happy to benefit from the results of the sacrifices made by others. They always think that somehow their case is special, that no one else is as needy as them. Brian Coleman, I can see now, if he were ever to fall from his cherished position in the petty bourgeoisie and down into the working class, would make the perfect scab.

P.S. The result of my not at all frivolous poll, recently concluded, is nobody would piss on Brian Coleman were he on fire. 20 people would call the LFB to douse him "as that job is best left to the experts". This being so, I suggest Coleman refrain from smoking in bed or standing close to a naked flame in a loose nightshirt for the next period.

Brian Coleman: more interested in saving a pound than saving a life

Here in Barnet we are well practised in disliking Brian "Mr Toad" Coleman. We have many causes to resent him: for taking our money in allowances, and ignoring what we say, and being rude to us. We have had our bellyfull of Coleman and would dearly love to be rid of him.

As we know, he has other ponds to paddle in, other sources of cash to tap, other constituencies to offend. As well as being a councillor in Totteridge ward, he is the GLA member for the whole of Barnet and Camden. It is rumoured that he will not make the shortlist next time the Tory candidate for that post is chosen.

Let's hope so! In the meantime, alas, he can do untold damage to services that millions of Londoners rely on in his capacity as chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. (Just think of it: the emergency services in London are ultimately run by Brian Coleman.)

Boris Johnson is alleged to dislike Brian Coleman - join the club! Now get rid of him!

I went to the march then protest at LFEPA HQ today, organised by the London Region FBU. London's firefighters have been threatened with the sack unless they accept new shift patterns. The idea is to move from the day time shift and longer night time shift, to two 12-hour shifts. Firefighters would be expected to be on alert all night, instead of having standdown time when they can get vital rest: no human being operates as well at night as they do in the daytime. Management also hope they will be able to cut out some of the shifts altogether, that is, reduce fire cover.

I think that fully half of London's firefighters went on the march today; which is to say that all of London's firefighters who were not at work went on the march today. It was a really great sight, most were wearing their smart Brigade uniforms. Not only are people like Coleman reckless with firefighters' jobs and conditions of service, they are also gratuitously rude to firefighters. Today's demonstration was dignified. Firefighters are proud of what they do. For the most part, the public support them. The FBU had commissioned a poll which shows overwhelming public opposition to the LFEPA/LFB plans.

Hopefully, LFEPA will see sense and it won't come to a strike (Coleman will never see sense). But if it does come to a strike, I think the London firefighters will see it through, and I think the London public will back them.

And, yes, from what I saw today, London's firefighters really, really dislike Brian Coleman. Almost as much as we in Barnet do.

More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11722019@N03/sets/72157624845022885/with/4996520628/ (please credit if you use any and you don't know me well: Vicki Morris).


General secretary of the FBU Matt Wrack with the odious Mr Toad in the background

London Region FBU say: Coleman doesn't cut the mustard

London Region FBU sent a delegation to tonight's lobby of Barnet council at Hendon Town Hall. They were sporting a smart new t-shirt featuring Brian Coleman, the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. The Region is in dispute with the London Fire Brigade who are trying to change their shift patterns and have threatened them with redundancy if they don't accept the new terms.

The region has a march and lobby of London Fire Brigade on Thursday 16 September at lunchtime. More details on their website.

A busy week ahead for functional body Brian Coleman

I have gained exclusive access to the desk diary of Brian Coleman AM FRSA BAKA for next week. Tiptoeing past his slumbering form, I was able to glance over his shoulder and read there the entries for next week. He has a busy schedule, I can tell you.

Monday 6 September: Barnet council Cabinet meeting. Well, in fact, I'm not sure that Cabinet meetings really are all that onerous for the members; all the decisions have already been made. Hillan's merry band troop in and wearily perform their pre-rehearsed lines for the assembled public and press. They like to wrap up business as early as possible, presumably so that they can go back to their dinner parties. That's one of the reasons - there are others - that they hate the 30 minutes allowed for public questions.

Unlike the public, who have had to wade through a 300+ page agenda to work out whether their public questions will be in order (ie, relate to business being heard at that particular Cabinet meeting), I can't imagine that any of the Cabinet members will actually know what they are voting on when they stick up their hands in unanimous agreement with the Leaderine. But they will do it anyway and probably accompany the act with fulsome praise for everything Hillan thinks, says and does. Even those of them who plan to stab her in the back the next night.

Tuesday 7 September: Barnet Tory group crisis summit. The Tory group will meet to decide whether to continue marching into oblivion, ignominy and national notoriety with Lynne Hillan at their helm, or whether to rally around a bloke no one knows from Adam who has some powerful friends in high places... somewhere...

At least Mark Shooter makes the right noises to the press and he has gained some supporters in the blogosphere. Vote Shooter, get fewer howling political blunders and unwanted media attention? A better bet, therefore, for shafting the residents and workforce of Barnet big time? It is for Barnet's Tory councillors to decide. The recalcitrant residents of Barnet will merely await the next Pope and see what s/he plans for us.

Wednesday 8 September: Functional Body Question Time at the GLA. This week's functional body is Brian Coleman, chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. The questions that Coleman will face in the meeting are listed here, plus a great long list of questions requiring written answers. (Volunteers are sought to sharpen Brian's pencil.)

There is only a fleeting mention of the dispute that Coleman and the London Fire Brigade have engineered with London's firefighters. In brief, the LFB has threatened to sack all of London's firefighters before Christmas if their union doesn't agree to drastically changing their shift-pattern. The FBU is balloting its members on action short of strike as a first step to show their displeasure at being treated this way. You can read the FBU's very reasonable case here.

Thursday 9 September: Why, it's the weekend, isn't it?!

Two Jags and the posh git

John "Two Jags" Prescott; Brian "Many Taxis" Coleman: you'll only spot the difference when they open their mouths.

I'm speculating as to why might be a particularly good time for David Cameron to pull strings and see Brian Coleman gets the push. Of course, Coleman has his fingers in so many pies, it will be hard to extricate him from all of them. I'm sure he won't go quietly - there will be gravy on the floor before he leaves!

But now might be an opportune moment, before he can cock up a really big issue. I'm talking, of course, about something like... the dispute with the London firefighters.

The last time that the Government was in dispute with firefighters, Labour was able to deploy John "Two Jags but I've a Hull accent and still maintain I'm working class" Prescott against the FBU. Prescott was the Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of negotiations, and always happy to explain why the firefighters didn't deserve an average salary of £30,000. (I don't know what Prescott was on at the time, but he was doing pretty well for himself.)

For all his working class credentials, however, he was unable to impress the firefighters. The chatroom air was blue whenever anyone mentioned Prescott's name. In fact, he was almost as unpopular as the then general secretary of the union, Andy Gilchrist.

Jump to 2010. Who, basically, is in charge of the London Fire Brigade, and behind the scenes of the "negotiations" with the FBU? Brian Coleman. In many ways, he is the spitting image of Prescott, who clearly likes his dinners almost as much as Coleman. But there are some obvious differences (just a few!). Coleman does not have a trade union background; he is not now and never has been a member of the working class, as is evidenced, among other things, by his plummy accent.

He is personally arrogant in a way Prescott is not; and he clearly hates, just hates, the FBU. With Prescott you never got the sense that any of it was personal or even ideological; he just had to face down the union, or Labour's business-friendly image would be tarnished.

Prescott had several factors on his side in the dispute with the FBU; Coleman has practically none. Firefighters already despise him. Anything he says or does in a dispute with the FBU is only going to inflame (ahem) the situation. If Prescott got the firefighters' goat, how much worse are Coleman's pronouncements going to sound to firefighters' ears in an all-out battle?

If, like me, you witnessed the astonishing support the firefighters had during their, in fact, fairly short campaign in 2002-3, you would realise that a full-blown dispute with them is something the Tories will want to AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! Braziers on the forecourts of London's firestations as winter approaches? With the Tories trying to push through enormous cuts, and impose a pay freeze (or, as it was known in the 1970s, "wage restraint") on public sector workers. That would have to be the Tory-Lib Dems' absolute worst nightmare.

So, I'm sorry Brian, I think your days really are numbered.

Government gunning for London's firefighters

This story has been lurking about in the background for a while. Now, in an attempt to impose shift changes, London Fire Authority, which employs London's 5,000 firefighters, has given them 90 days' notice of termination of contract. According to this Morning Star report:

London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson wrote to the government and Fire Brigades Union (FBU) leader Matt Wrack to tell them the authority was opening consultation on "terminating the contracts of these staff and offering to re-engage them on new contracts of employment."

...London FBU executive council member Ian Leahair said members will be balloted for action short of strike immediately, with the possibility of a city-wide strike at the end of October if the authority does not rescind its threat.

During the last major firefighters' dispute in 2002-3, the strikers were covered by soldiers using the ageing Green Goddess appliances, which have since been retired.

But this time, Mr Leahair said, the authority planned to call on privateer Assetco - which leases fire engines to the London Fire Brigade - to "roll out the red fire engines" crewed by a "dad's army of retained firefighters and security contractors" given only three weeks' training.

We know who has been dining at the expense of AssetCo, don't we? Our own Brian Coleman, chair and leader of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). Tory Troll blogger Adam Bienkov has drawn together the threads of this story.

Vuvuzela if you want to...

What's monotonous, loud and irritating, and, inexplicably, can't be banned? No, not Brian Coleman but the vuvuzela, of course. At last, however, someone has found a good use for them - and it's such a good use that they are completely redeemed in my eyes!

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) turned up at London Fire Brigade HQ with a vuvuzela orchestra to serenade the chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, yes, Brian Coleman. I'll bet he hated it!

Coleman has practically declared war on the FBU, so there is no risk of the trade unionists alienating him. About the only thing one can hope to do in order to stop the unstoppable Coleman is get on his nerves. It is useless trying to reason with him, or to appeal to his better side...

Here's a clip which conveys how inane and therefore how effective against the enemy the FBU protest was.



Thanks to Joe Rob of the Brian Coleman (aka Mr Toad) has got to go! blog for alerting us to this.

Who I remind myself of (more mouse than toad)

I often think we are rather cruel when we compare Barnet councillor and Chairman of London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority Brian Coleman*, AM FRSA to Toad in The Wind in the Willows without being prepared to subject ourselves to similiar wounding literary comparisons. So here goes...

I know myself better than anyone else does and, in the spirit of self-criticism, I can tell you now that there is more of a whiff of the Norbert de Varenne about me. If you don't know this character now, you will in a year's time when the upcoming film version of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami is released. (I've learned that there's a good 1947 film, "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami", based on this book, which I'll also watch out for.)

Bel Ami is a great story, about a cynical young social climber in 19th-century Paris, Georges Duroy; I read it when I was 20-odd. The gloomy minor character de Varenne fascinated me then, and I think it was because I could already see something of myself in him! The passing years, alas, only confirm that. Norbert de Varenne, I should say, is a morose journalist.

The other literary character I remind myself of is the little French woman in a cafe that so fascinates the hero Meursault in Albert Camus' L’Étranger. She sits ringing the programmes she is going to watch on TV (or is it radio programmes she is going to listen to?!) in a newspaper with a pen. I spend too much time in cafes, and probably look more and more like this strange, middle-aged woman, active but alone.

If both of these images are rather unflattering, I did say that I was doing this exercise in the spirit of self-criticism! I'm sure there are lots of more stirring literary heroes/heroines that I am like (ahem). Is it interesting that these two memorable characters were created by French novelists, or just a coincidence?

* For Coleman's latest indefensible deeds at the LFEPA, see this post on Adam Bienkov's "Tory Troll" blog.

The London challenge: spot Brian Coleman using public transport

Kicking and screaming, Brian Coleman, mayor of Barnet and London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, has 'voluntarily' published his AM expenses. You can view them here. The total is £3,605.72 for 3 March 2008 to 28 February 2009.

It is worth noting that Coleman also claims expenses in his role as Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). Those he does not have to declare, but Adam Bienkov learned from a Freedom of Information request that Coleman claimed almost £2,000 from the LFEPA for 'travel' between April-December 2008, including that outrageous £396 for his travel to and from a Lord Mayor's banquet in November (most of that was waiting time).

Among his GLA expenses is £1,784 for a travelcard. Given that he claims royally from both the GLA and the LFEPA for taxi fares, it raises the question of what he wants that travelcard for. I can only imagine that he has it on the offchance that a cab breaks down one day forcing him to use the Tube (I can't see him on a bus, can you?). It would save him the trouble of queuing with the common horde for a ticket.

I am issuing a challenge to Londoners: between us can we snap a picture of Brian Coleman using public transport? If no one can, then he shouldn't be entitled to a travelcard as part of his expenses (even if it is taxable).