Because they're worth it: Coleman and Rams - more Tory councillor pre-election appraisals

The independent member for Totteridge, Brian Coleman: in trouble again

Cast your mind back, citizens of Broken Barnet, to May 2010, and the moment at which, whilst shedding crocodile tears over the painful austerity measures they were about to impose on residents, services and staff, our Tory councillors voted themselves a nice big fat payrise. At the time they claimed they justified this on the 'because I'm worth it' argument, backed up by a promise to make their performance as councillors subject to appraisal and public scrutiny, including the publication of meeting attendance figures.

Ah. Whatever happened to that idea, you might be wondering? So does Mrs Angry. She is reliably informed that attendance figures are indeed compiled and available on the council intranet, but for some reason, our elected members do not want to share this information with the residents and tax payers of Broken Barnet. Can't imagine why, can you? 

Could it be that some councillors, especially some of those in the Tory ranks, have missed so many meetings, that this would cause some sort of embarrassment? No: Mrs Angry thinks not. And she has written to the deputy Chief Executive, Mr Chris Naylor, to ask him to publish the figures online, as most properly run councils already do, pointing out that residents are entitled to such information when deciding who to vote for in May.

Mr Naylor, of course, let us remind everyone once again, has written gushingly in the Guardian that the default mode of Barnet Council is ... what was it? Open government. Except of course he forgot to run that one by the Tory councillors, who prefer a hermetically sealed, firmly closed mode of government, so that they can get up to whatever they like, without us knowing. He has not answered yet, but has promised to respond. Let's see, shall we? 

In the meanwhile, let us continue with Mrs Angry's own system of appraisal, and a glance at some of the pre-election antics of our Tory councillors.

At this point we should perhaps mention a certain former Tory councillor who is, yet again, in hot water due to his behaviour. Yes, yes, Brian Coleman, who else? With tedious repetition,  this tiresome man continues to generate controversy, and gain attention, which, ultimately, is what he craves.

It has emerged that a recent secret council meeting Coleman was found to be in breach of the members' code of conduct after having refused to return a council owned laptop, claiming he had 'disposed' of it in 2012. Why Coleman was asked to produce the laptop at all, is unclear: the rules seem to expect such equipment to revert to personal ownership of the member after his or her term of office is ended, and clearly we still have a few weeks to go before that happy day.

Why might he be asked to return or produce the equipment before the end of his term of office? Odd. 

Odder still is why anyone would 'dispose' of a laptop in such a way. Just cannot think of any explanation, can you, readers? Perhaps there was an unfortunate series of events, ending up in a mixup with a pizza delivery?

Apart from that, there are very serious implications in regard to data protection law: all councillors are data controllers and as such are responsible for any personal data relating to constituents that they hold. From this point of view alone, the significance of the 'disposal' of this laptop is, apart from the curious circumstances in which it came to light, means that there should be an investigation and referral to the Information Commissioner to ensure that there has been no breach of data law or loss, or compromise of any personal information relating to individuals.

Coleman is due to be censured at Full Council tonight. Big deal. As he did last time, he will simply stomp out of the chamber, before the action. And this, Eric Pickles, is where you have gone so awfully wrong, in ending the previous standards regime: localism should surely demand that local taxpayers have the right to take effective sanctions against elected representatives who behave like this, but we are now incapable of doing so. 

On the topic of the laptop, a resident called David Constable tweeted: 

David Constable ‏@DavidConstable Feb 27

In most jobs, failure to return an employer's property would result in something a little stronger than a verbal slap on the wrist.

Brian responded:

Brian Coleman ‏@BrianTotteridge Feb 27

@barnetbugle @DavidConstable Councillors are not "employed " at all , if we were we would have proper terms and conditions, incl redundancy

Mrs Angry joined in the conversation, helpfully pointing out:

1. Mrs Angry ‏@BrokenBarnet Feb 27

   @BrianTotteridge @barnetbugle @DavidConstable if you were 'employed' you would have to put in a hard day's work & face performance appraisal

   
   
2. Mrs Angry ‏@BrokenBarnet Feb 27

   @BrianTotteridge @barnetbugle @DavidConstable You'd also have to show some respect to the people who pay your wages. Quite a challenge.

In short, our Tory councillors are happy to take their increased pay, retain their free parking permits, and all the other perks, but refuse to be accountable to the local taxpayers as to how well they perform the function for which they are paid. And whoosh: here they go, trying to persuade us once more to vote for them, as if they have not delighted us long enough already.

No need, I think, to go through the Jacobean drama that tells the tale of the downfall of Brian Coleman, but time to consider the possible impact on the election results in Totteridge, now that he has been thrown out of the Conservative Party, on the orders of CCHQ, rather than by local Tories, who were too scared. Brian is so convinced of the great benefits to humanity brought about by his political career that he must still give us the opportunity of returning him to power in May, as an Independent Tory. 

Generally speaking, it would be perfectly easy to stick a donkey up for election in Totteridge, pin a blue rosette on the beast, and it would be elected - indeed this has happened here at every election since the dawn of time, but in Brian's case, apart from a few old ladies he has tried to charm at the Totteridge Residents Association cheese and wine buffets, this time very few voters, other than those who have left their glasses at home, see his name,  and forgotten he has been dumped by the party, will be foolish enough to vote for him again.. 

Interestingly, at the last election, even Alison Cornelius, wife of the Barnet leader, polled higher than Coleman. The Labour vote was fairly high, too, for such a uniquely affluent area - in fact there are less privileged parts of the ward to support a Labour vote, and this is bound to increase this time round, taking into consideration the collapse of support for the Libdems.

Good bye, Brian. Thanks for all the laughs. Enjoy living in the 'real world' with 'those people'.

Totteridge (3)[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alison Cornelius	3,739
	Conservative	Brian Coleman	3,705
	Conservative	Richard Cornelius	3,570
	Labour	Pamela Bradbury	1,469
	Labour	Oliver Deed	1,331
	Liberal Democrat	Alexander Gilbert	1,317
	Labour	Fred Jarvis	1,303
	Liberal Democrat	Joan Waller	1,150
	Liberal Democrat	Elizabeth Wills	1,072
	Green	Julie Rosenfield	516
	Green	Katie Margolis	437
	Green	Paul Vassalli	252
Turnout			19,861	68.1	+25.6

The prize for the bravest example of the first round of campaigning in advance of May's elections surely goes to Cabinet member Robert Rams, the library and museum closer, who is in a particularly precarious position in his ward of East Barnet. Look at the 2010 results:

Conservative	Joanna Tambourides	2,882
	Conservative	Barry Evangeli	2,818
	Conservative	Robert Rams	2,813
	Labour	Robert Persad	1,675
	Labour	Andreas Ioannidis	1,557
	Labour	Tusha Chakraborti	1,547
	Liberal Democrat	Roger Aitken	1,347
	Residents' Association of Barnet	John Dix	1,264
	Residents' Association of Barnet	Denis Robb	1,233
	Residents' Association of Barnet	Sandra Lea	1,158
	Liberal Democrat	Stephen Barber	1,155
	Liberal Democrat	Dennis Bird	1,105
	Green	Kate Tansley	451
	Green	Christopher Kondic	397
	BNP	Stephen Curry	364

You can see that Rams got the lowest Tory vote. Together with his colleagues Joanna Tambourides and Barry Evangeli, there was a total of (and bear in mind Mrs Angry can't add up) 8,513 for the Conservative candidates. Labour had a total of 4,779, and the Libdems 3,607. 

The unique factor in the East Barnet result was the large amount of support given to an independent residents body, including fellow blogger Mr Reasonable, ie John Dix: this group gathered a very respectable number of votes - 3,665, more than the Libdems who were then, if you recall, and this is hard to believe now, riding on the crest of a wave, about to worm their way into government by the back door, and betray the country's most vulnerable citizens for a few ministerial posts, peerages, and the heady experience of being in power at last.

Clearly no one in their right minds is going to vote Libdem this time round, to any significant degree, and the RAB group are not standing this time. Labour's vote was punished by the unpopularity of the last Blair-Brown government, but will be back on track, and rising, and in East Barnet will be picking up the Libdem and RAB voters. Add those three parties' votes together and it comes to a whopping 12,041. 

It is unlikely that any resident of East Barnet, unless they have been living in exile in the Amazon basin, or the deserts of Timbuctoo, will have failed to note the apocalyptically awful progression of the last four years under the current Tory administration, and the support for the present councillors is inevitably going to plummet. 

Oh dear. Bye bye, Robert Rams. 

Rams, Mrs Tambourides, whose husband Andreas is another councillor, (and the Chair of the licensing committee, which meets rather infrequently, but still pays him a handsome allowance for the post) and  Barry Evangeli, the man who likes to take a doggy bag of goodies home from council buffets - or rather a tupperware box - they are all quite likely to be waved a not so fond farewell by the ungrateful residents of East Barnet.

But Robert Rams has been fighting back, taking tips from one of his hobbies: wrestling. No, really. Watching it, not doing it. He has been tweeting some marvellous pictures of himself, taking part in all sorts of interesting events. It seems Robert is a big fan, and excitedly tweeted this pic of him and his hero 'Rockstar Spud': nice hairdo, Spud. Or was it the static electricity/excitement from rubbing up close to Robert Rams?

 Cllr Robert Rams ‏@CllrRobertRams Feb 1

Excited to going to @WEMBLEYARENA tonight for TNA #ImpactLive thanks to @SiRothstein - tickets for next years tour go on sale on Feb 7th!

Put my name down: can't wait. Nice to see our councillors getting out and about, and supporting the wrestling community, isn't it? After this exciting event, he tweeted:

 Cllr Robert Rams ‏@CllrRobertRams Feb 2

Looking forward to showing @TNADixie and the world champion @MagnusOfficial around parliament this morning! The Champ comes Home!

And then Magnus tweeted:

***Magnus*** ‏@MagnusOfficial Feb 3

I was taken on a private tour of the houses of parliament today. A wrestler. In parliament. Think about that.

Mrs Angry is thinking about that, Magnus. A wrestler. In parliament. Being shown around by Robert Rams, a Tory councillor from Broken Barnet. Why? Didn't he have tea trolleys to push, and pencils to sharpen, at work in the London Assembly? Or has he been elected to parliament, and forgotten to mention it? Were they free tickets, by the way?

To be fair, Robert has been busy back in Broken Barnet too. No, no, no not talking about all the library and museum closing. If you recall, he built a new landmark library in co-operation with the people at the Arts Depot - or, as Brian Coleman refers to them on twitter: those ******** at the Arts Depot ... 

Here is a picture of the promised building, which if you recall necessitated the closure of Friern Barnet Library. Still, well worth it, as you can see:

Yes. It is hard to make out. But then, Rams' library is still invisible.

Still, there must be other achievements that we can thank Cllr Rams for, you must be thinking? After all, he was prominent amongst the Tory Cabinet members who insisted to residents that we would benefit enormously from the £1 billion privatisation deal with Crapita, and that in fact we could not do without the upfront capital investment the deal was bringing. Remember this?

Ah. Didn't quite turn out that way, did it? In fact, quite the reverse

Barnet Council have been helpfully releasing some wonderful news stories, in the run up to purdah, and there is a lot of good news, by coincidence, in terms of funding suddenly released to certain local groups, and a rush by our Tory councillors to be seen planting trees, and opening things, rather than what they are traditionally known for, ie ripping things apart, shutting them down, closing them, and selling them off. 

Our local press, as is too often the case, sadly, are happy to go along the churnalistic route of publishing these puff pieces without asking any awkward questions. Luckily your helpful blogosphere takes a less sanguine view of such nonsense.

Shortly after the parking policy was imposed, it became clear that residents of East Barnet were not awfully pleased about the new charges being introduced in local car parks. Uproar ensued, and something rather miraculous happened: the three Tory councillors forgot that they had voted to approve the parking scheme, and became suddenly enraged by it, or at least the bit of it that begins and ends in East Barnet. 

They started up a campaign against themselves, and their own policies, which was not a bad idea, and one which Mrs Angry is keen to encourage. They even launched a - you'll never guess what - yes, a 'consultation'. Whatever happened to that? F*ck knows.  But no doubt the Tory councillors will be asking residents to thank them for their efforts in the run up to the election. And frankly, there is little else to brag about in their own ward. 

But then the East Barnet Tories have another tactic: find an issue to campaign about that they were not actually responsible for, and could not influence anyway, but would distract people from the sheer horror of their own work in Broken Barnet: yes, a planning issue in another authority, bordering on their ward. Perfect: there you go: the Cat Hill development.

This is a scheme to build houses on part of the former Middlesex University site, a lovely woodland area, and home to a range of wildlife, including rare newts and - eurgh - bats. Opponents are rightly concerned about the ecological impact, but Labour run Enfield have agreed the plans, and building has now started. 

Of course here in Barnet, a similar proposal to the Welsh Harp has been welcomed with open arms by our Tory councillors, as indeed Cat Hill would have been over the border in Barnet: except it probably would have been even bigger, and more ugly. Enter our intrepid three, however, with a sudden keen interest in ecology, wildlife and even more unlikely, direct action: yes - look .... advertising the blockade of a roundabout on twitter:


Cllr Robert Rams ‏@CllrRobertRams

Cat Hill Roundabout Blockade Wednesday 27 February 8am-9am please RT and contact Kim via http://www.campaignforcathill.com/  for more info

8:47 AM - 24 Feb 2013

And then this: flying pickets. Shades of Grunwick. What would Maggie say? Probably more Tory councillors here on site than there are newts: definitely more bats.

Councillors Tambourides - in hat -Rams, and next but one, Evangeli in a duffel coat, having checked the dress code for protests in the 1960s ...

(Fashion note for Tory councillors masquerading as anarchists: do not take expensive manly umbrellas to a demo, unless you want to look like an eejit. In fairness, the umbrella probably isn't to blame, but it certainly doesn't help).

And the sad truth is that this is not really a vote winning issue, let alone an effective distraction technique. The development is right on the border, affects few residents, and is underway. Meanwhile back in Broken Barnet, the Tory administration has sold the entire borough to Capita, and they are annexing the whole landscape, with their permission.


Rams, biscuit boy and Mrs Tambo are almost certainly history then. Shame. 

What will Robert do, once he loses his position? Still got the day job, at the GLA to fall back on. Oh, and - a reader has drawn Mrs Angry's attention to another venture which our man has going, which appears not to have been mentioned before: Ramstone PR and Public Affairs Consulting.

Rams is now using his considerable acumen in public relations management, ordered from the same catalogue as the invisible library, to set up his own consultancy, with a friend and business partner, Danny Stone. Goodness. Mrs Angry was very impressed. 

Look: Rams and Stone = Ramstone, see? Think of the possibilities if other Tory councillors followed this line ... imagine a parking consultancy run by, say, Brian Coleman and Mr Mustard = Colemansmustard. Oh: maybe not. Anyway. 

Both Robert Rams and Danny Stone have a wide range of expertise at their disposal, of course, not least their parliamentary experience, apart from showing wrestlers around Westminster,  Rams' Linkedin details reveal that he used to work as Chief of Staff for former deputy speaker Nigel Evans,  and Danny Stone for Lord Janner.

"In an increasingly challenging economic climate, it is becoming difficult for small and  medium-size corporate companies, not-for-profit organisations and others to justify the expense of costly monthly retained fees charged by the modern, top tier PR and public affairs consulting firms.

Ramstone Consulting proposes a different way of doing business, one that acknowledges the new economic reality. Instead of asking clients to pay monthly retained fees as part of an extended contract, Ramstone looks to accommodate this new reality through consulting on bespoke projects on a short-term basis.

This means that clients can choose to get their desired outcome without having to make the long-term, often expensive, commitment to bigger consultancy firms. This allows for flexibility and ensures value-for-money together with a clear deliverability of results at all times.

This is ideal for smaller projects, where perhaps larger consultancies would expect clients to pay over-inflated fees for pieces of work which could quite as easily be done by experienced public affairs and PR professionals at a reduced rate.

With limited overhead costs and operating primarily through the Internet, Ramstone Consulting has the ability to compete – and beat – the costs of other more experienced, larger consultancies without losing any of the quality of advice.

Small and nimble, Ramstone Consulting can be a seemless (sic) fit alongside your organisation, working in a true partnership to help you achieve your goals."

Email us today at: Ramstoneconsulting@gmail.com

Good idea, thought Mrs Angry. Could do with some advice. After all, Robert is now an expert blogger, as well as policitician. So she made some enquiries:

Dear Robert Rams

I cannot tell you how pleased I am to come across this new consultancy.

By chance, I am looking for a small and nimble PR company to be a seamless fit alongside me, working in a true partnership to help me achieve my goals, in Broken Barnet. 

I was thinking about asking Crosby Textor, but they seem to have taken on rather too much at the moment, what with all those whistling dogs and go home vans to organise.

I've seen what a marvellous PR job you have done here in Barnet with your Tory colleagues, winning the hearts and minds of residents, with your breathtakingly successful campaign of vote winning policies - from giving yourselves a whopping big pay rise on gaining office, to your hugely popular new parking scheme, and demonstrating an outstanding commitment to our local cultural scene. Who needs libraries and museums, eh? Not us.

We must also remember the brilliantly presented case made - all the way to the High Court - on behalf of the selling off of our council services, which, against all the odds, you managed to persuade us was necessary due to the need for capital investment from the new provider.

Your letter to the press was a corker, by the way: saying we could not even contemplate borrowing the money, as Labour suggested. Imagine our surprise - possibly matched by your own  - when it turned out we, the taxpayers of Broken Barnet had to pay Capita the money instead! What a laugh! Still laughing.

Well: we all make mistakes.

Do let me know how much a bespoke service from you would cost: I am willing to provide a budget of up to about £3.50, which I think is a fair rate, in the circumstances, don't you?

Oh: by the way ... should you be declaring this business venture on the Barnet Council register of interests? Doesn't seem to have been updated recently.

All the best,

Mrs Angry x

Mrs Angry also wrote to Rams' Barnet email to give him a chance to comment:

 Dear Councillor Rams

It has come to my attention that you are involved in a PR business called 'Ramstone Consultancy' as advertised here:

http://ramstoneconsulting.wordpress.com/ .

I cannot see that this consultancy is listed in your declarations on the online register of interests for Barnet Council, which would seem to be an oversight. I also note that the form would appear to be rather out of date, with no recent hospitality declared. It may be, for example, that you should have declared the wrestling tickets for Wembley Arena on Feb 1st, that you received from a Mr Rothstein - as you tweeted here: Cllr Robert Rams ‏@CllrRobertRams Feb 1

Excited to going to @WEMBLEYARENA tonight for TNA #ImpactLive thanks to @SiRothstein - tickets for next years tour go on sale on Feb 7th!

I thought it would be fair to give you the chance to explain these apparent oversights, and I look forward to your response.

Best wishes

 Mrs Angry

And swiftly came a reply:
 

Thank you for your email

Having set up the website there is nothing to declare as we have not set up a company or done any business as of yet. As and when I will declare.

The tickets were nothing to do with my being a councillor, they were given to me from an old friend. I decided that as there is no connection with my work as a councillor (or as my work at the GLA, where I declare things as well) there is no need for me to declare this. I also believe the value may have been under the value I need to declare anyway.

Should you need any pr advice or support, when we become a company and start work, you have my email.

All the best

Robert 

Hmm. Mrs Angry thought very carefully before sending what she thought was the most tactful reply. After all, such an unsuccessful venture, for an ambitious Tory politician committed to the principles of free enterprise and profit, must be galling. Probably feeling rather inadequate. Best to help him look on the bright side.

Marvellous: I think consultancy is the best way forward for you, after May, when you will probably have a lot of spare time on your hands. Not forgetting the day job, of course, sharpening Roger Evans' pencil.

Best regards

Mrs Angry 

Oh: still no sign of those attendance records, by the way. Can't imagine what the problem is, can you?