Barnet Libraries: The End

A defiant message of support from the children of Martin's School, East Finchley, to the library next door, that appeared on the last day of opening as a fully functional service

*Updated 6th April

Last night the eagle eye of fellow blogger 'Mr Mustard' fell upon a very interesting advert in London's Evening Standard paper:

This is the week in which two 'partnership' 'libraries' run by a charity, 'Inclusion Barnet', are supposed to begin their new lives, staffed by unpaid volunteers, taking over the jobs previously held by Barnet library workers, who were made redundant at the end of March.

Yet Inclusion Barnet is still trying to recruit volunteers to run these libraries, in an advert which appeared the day after South Friern was supposed to open, and two days before the East Barnet venture is meant to begin.

If they are struggling to find enough volunteers even before these pretend libraries are opened, how likely is it that they will be able to provide a permanent and reliable service of any sort? 

Highly unlikely, as is the pattern of all similar enterprises elsewhere.

In Barnet this all works to the advantage of those Tories who wanted to see the number of libraries drastically reduced, but lacked the political courage, the year before local elections, to be seen to shut branches (rather than kill them, as they have, by death through a thousand cuts), and have pretended that they are 'saving' all fourteen libraries. 

These partnership libraries, when they fail, which they will, will become the subject of handwringing by senior officers and Tory councillors, and will then be closed, with 'regret' - and the buildings put up for sale. 

Don't say you haven't been warned.

_______________________________________________________________

April Fools' Day came early, this year, in Broken Barnet, for a number of workers in our local library service. 

For half of them, in fact: the half who no longer have a job, as of yesterday.

These are the people who used to greet you with a smile at the counter, help you find the book you want, help your child with her homework, or show you how to use a pc, or maybe just engage in conversation with you. 

Some of these members of staff have worked for Barnet Libraries for twenty, thirty years or so, loving their jobs, despite working in an increasingly, and deliberately, underfunded, undervalued service because- they believe in the value of service. 

Earlier in the week, days before April 1st, an absolutely hilarious stunt was pulled by their soon to be former employers at Barnet Council, and was spotted at venues around the borough, and in the latest edition of the council's propaganda rag, 'Barnet First'.

Yes: even before the last library assistant had closed the door, for the last time, on one of the libraries about to be gutted, cut into pieces, turned into a DIY parody of whatever a library once was, our Tory masters and their newly acquired PR men wanted to boast about what they were going to do, now that they had put these people out of work. 

They could not resist the opportunity to roll out another line of attack in their new campaign: evangelising on behalf of the new self basting borough, all wrapped up in easycouncil plastic, ready for a roasting, next year at the local elections, one hopes.

Take a look at Barnet Council's twitter account profile picture. 

It shows a collection of middle class, middle aged people very kindly doing the council's work for them - maintaining one of our borough's parks and open spaces. 

The message to residents and taxpayers is clear. 

We are not here to provide public services. 

We are here to take your money, and waste it on private contractors to deliver, badly, and at inflated cost, most of the functions for which we are nominally responsible. 

We will take your money and spend it on endless ranks of senior officers, consultants, and agency staff. 

We will take your money and give it away to national museums with loads of funding, while closing our your only local museums, and now gutting your library service. 

We will also take your money and spend it on extra PR posts to manage the council's reputation, before next year's election. 

But we won't take your money and spend it on stuff we think we can persuade someone else to volunteer to do, and do for free. 

There you go: it's quite simple. We know these people can't actually replace the service itself, but we don't care. 

And that, readers, is how you have lost your library service. 

The Tory councillors in Barnet, who would not know one end of a book from another, and probably have rarely crossed the threshold of any library, do not understand the purpose of them, have no respect for the profession of librarianship, or care about the social value that libraries have. 

They see no contradiction in the lack of enthusiasm they have for volunteering their own increasingly pointless civic roles without the reward of generous allowances, and free parking permits. 

And they are easily persuaded by scheming officers and consultants with their eyes on the potential future profit in selling the buildings that the service can be torn apart, stuffed with volunteers, and allowed to decline to the point where closure, and sale is inevitable.

Funny, isn't it, that the neo-Thatcherites sitting on the Conservative benches in Hendon Town Hall, whose gilded heroine famously stated there was no such thing as 'society', who recoil at the idea of community, are so keen to promote their bastardised version of the concept, where people must come together, not to give support to each other, but to their council, even while they are paying that same council to do a job of work, on our behalf?

During the last few days I visited a few of our libraries, to say goodbye, take photographs, and think about what we were about to lose. It was an intensely sad experience. Sad, in a personal way, because these libraries had meant so much to me, especially in my childhood, but also when I worked there - and sad because of the way in which the library staff were being treated, especially those who were losing their jobs at the end of the week.

Staff members who have spent many years working for Barnet Libraries - and may struggle to find another job, because of their age - were left to empty their lockers & clear off, with no thanks from senior officers, no acknowledgement of their loyal service. Simply appalling. 

Note to Barnet Tories: this is a community library - library workers, residents, union members and local Labour councillors uniting in the fight to preserve a public service ...

At one library, where several were leaving this week, at closing time on their last day, managers and consultants reportedly arrived unannounced just before closing time and insisted all the  library workers leave at once: instantly, no time to wrap presents, or write cards. Their colleagues were forced to  prepare cards and gifts in the car park - some staff members were not even allowed time to go to the loo, or collect their belongings. 

Why? Because senior managers wanted to test the technology for switching over from staffed to unstaffed hours. No time for sentiment, in the new regime. Workers are redundant, to be replaced by electronic doors, and a cctv camera.

Of course when the unstaffed library hours begin, once the regime is in place, anyone on the library premises will have to pack up and leave, and wait outside, so as to let themselves back into the unstaffed library with their pin numbers. What will happen if people don't want to leave: refuse to leave? No one knows. That man hiding in the loo: will he be spotted? Maybe not. Staff must leave on the dot, before the doors close - but will they be able to clear the library in time?

Visiting Hendon Library for the last time was particularly difficult. 

This lovely thirties building is next door to the Town Hall, and used to be the borough's flagship library, with three floors: the adult section, a children's library, a reference library, and a music library. The reference library alone had a large team of specialist information librarians. 

(For more information about the architecture of Barnet's Libraries, please visit 'Modernism in Metroland').

The children's library still - or at least until last week - has this plaque on the wall, honouring the work of pioneering children's librarian Eileen Colwell, who worked there for forty years, and whose example was followed across not just the country, but internationally. How sickened she would be, to see her life's work destroyed, and access to reading, and the educational and developmental benefits associated with library use by children, ruthlessly ended by this grubby, philistine council.

Apart from wanting to take a last look at the place, I had gone there to finish some research in the local archives. Necessary to do this now, as Archives, and indeed the whole library building, will be closed until September. Closed, and never to be the same again.

While I was sitting in the Archives area in the Reference library, I could not help but hear how staff members were obliged to bear the brunt of residents' fury when they questioned why the library was closing - and for how long.

April, May, June, July, August, September? Asked one man, stabbing the words at the poor library assistant, as if it were her fault ... That's just not feasible!

A female student asked anxiously about the closure: oh, but, she said ... she needed to come here to study ... and what will your opening hours be, when it does re-open? Well, said the assistant, politely, from seven in the morning ... you can let yourself in ... but we won't be here. No one will. The student looked at her in disbelief, as if she thought she had taken leave of her senses.

And of course when Hendon Library does reopen, it will be not be in anyway recognisable as the library it once was.

The two upper floors will be entirely lost: and only a small section of the remaining ground level will retain any library service. Yes, hard to believe, isn't it?

The children's library so lovingly created by Eileen Colwell will be destroyed.

The cafe will be ripped out. 

Of the remaining space downstairs, only half will be a library area: the rest will be used by other services.

This corner of the building is what your Tory councillors insist will still be a library. 

All the libraries, they claim, are being retained - a marvellous demonstration of how they listen to you, their constituents - and voters. They think so little of you, that they think you will believe them, and not the evidence of your own eyes, when the newly emasculated library service begins.

It is not true: they have handed the buildings over to Capita to run as part of the assets portfolio, and for a while a token library function will be allowed to run in a corner of those buildings. In some libraries there will be no trained staff, only unpaid, untrained volunteers - if they turn up. Untrained, and it is unclear if they will all be, like library staff, DBS checked - or any of them, apart from 'supervisors'.

Libraries will also spend much of the time completely unstaffed. No one present at all, neither trained library workers, or volunteers: you will have to let yourself in with a pin number, and hope that you will be safe in an unsupervised space, with no one to help in an emergency. But smile: you're on camera - providing the CCTV is being monitored, and can see you, round the corners or behind the shelves. Oh - the loos won't be available, by the way. Make sure you go before you arrive. If the doors fail, and you can't get out - in an emergency you'll have to use a waste bin, like the library occupiers were told to, by management, once upon a time.

The remaining library spaces in the former library buildings will be gutted, and 'refurbished' - supposedly to be let as offices to local businesses. This, as we shall see, is sheer fantasy.

On Friday I visited East Finchley Library: a much loved library, which, if it had not have been in a ward that is a Labour stronghold, and centre of the most vocal opposition to library cuts, would no doubt have received a more favourable treatment in the new regime. 

As I arrived, my attention was immediately caught by a display on the fence to the left of the entrance, with a range of laminated, illustrated letters of love to the library by local children: children at Martin's, the school next door, who had taken advantage of their back fence to send a message of support: We Need Our Library ... Library campaigner Emily explained that there were about 400, in total, from local schools.

As well as a vital resource for the community, East Finchley is much loved because of its unique architecture: it is a listed building, with protection, thankfully, for the internal fittings, including the oak shelving that curves around the central part of the building, which is coiled, and circular, like the inside of a shell.

In the library, even though it was a weekday afternoon, all the pcs were in use. Mums with small children and babies came in, and elderly residents sat reading the papers. It is a calm, safe space, for those who need it: a resource, a meeting place, and a focus for the community.

I sneaked upstairs to take photographs of the lovely features soon to be out of the reach of library visitors: listed or not, once Capita get their sweaty hands on the upper floor, (as well as the much used computer room), will these features be safe from damage?

One resident has tried to ask the council about the permission sought from Historic England in regard to the 'modification' of this building. Their response was evasive, and worrying. Let us be quite clear, friends at Capita, and Barnet Council, if anything happens, accidentally or otherwise, to the fabric of this listed building, there will be consequences.

Peeping inside the meeting room, Mrs Angry's eye was caught by what appeared to be graffiti on a notice board at the end of the room. Someone had written: LIBRARIES DESTROYED, in large letters, amongst other things (no, not Mrs Angry. Although she may have left a few messages in Hendon Library, if you can find them, councillors ...)

Standing at the top of the stairs, rather to one's surprise, especially in its position by the door to the gents, in the lovely round lobby area, is a statue, in a perspex box. 

A notice explains that it is a copy of the Apollo Belvedere: described by Kenneth Clark as once 'the most admired piece of sculpture in the world'; an icon of the Enlightenment, much admired by Goethe, Schiller and Byron. The Apollo Belvedere was also featured in the official logo of the Apollo XVII moon landing - the days when it seemed mankind was progressing to a better version of itself, rather than where we are now, teetering on the edge of the abyss. 

Now Apollo must stand forever in ignoble isolation, outside the gents, on the forbidden floor of an outsourced library, waiting for the sound of footsteps of the men from Capita, scurrying up the staircase with their laptops and calculators. 

The age of enlightenment, in Broken Barnet, in case you were not aware, appears to have come to an end.

On leaving the library, I had decided to take some more photographs outside, but had to keep stopping, because so many local residents were coming up to the display of the children's letters, reading them, and standing there, helplessly, like the mourners at a roadside shrine.

On Saturday, Mrs Angry happened to be in North Finchley, and decided to take a look at what was going on in regard to the library there. This branch had already been closed for 'modification', and 'refurbishment'.

What a sight it is now.

No longer a library, but an active construction site, covered in dust, surrounded on all sides by fencing, and warning notices. Downstairs in the former children's library, with the beautiful, oak framed bow windows, the blinds were drawn. 

Former children's library, North Finchley 

Round the side of the building, however, it was possible to see through the window frames, which they council had deliberately left unpainted, and rotting, into one of the rooms: gutted, thick with plaster dust, one solitary chair left, looking forlorn amongst the emptiness, pushed up against a table covered with building plans. 

The staff entrance door told its own story: years of neglect, the last few overseen by private contractors Capita, who appear not to have been required to do much maintenance for the enormous fees we pay them. 

Staff entrance, North Finchley Library

As it is on the outside, so it is inside, with staff expected to work in dirty, delapidated environment. 

And of course previous posts have covered the scandalous issue of the water contamination of these ageing and poorly maintained libraries, and the suppressed tests which showed legionella and coliform bacterial traces.

At the front of the former library, now caged off, and covered up from public view, like a dangerous, wounded animal in a zoo, people turned up, one a father with a child on a scooter, looking at the notices in amazement. 

The children's library is being removed from this library, despite the perfect, purpose built areas that are integral to its original design. Why? All part of the 'master plan': allegedly space is being robbed from these buildings, reducing the library function within them to a nominal corner, because we must rent out our libraries to the business sector.

When I asked Val White, a senior Barnet officer, about this scheme, at an 'information session' at North Finchley library last year, she was remarkably relaxed about the possibility that this proposed pimping of the library buildings might never happen. I asked her where was the business plan, that supported the idea there would be demand for such rented space, when there appears to be a surplus of offices remaining unrented throughout the borough? It appeared there was no basis for the plan, in that sense. But it didn't matter, I was told: the library budget did not depend on such income. Oh. Really? 

I was puzzled by this, at the time. Not to mention the fact that in order to save a couple of million quid from the library budget, the council was willing to spend up to £14 million - yes £14 million - on ruining our once magnificent library service. (Read more on the real story of the bogus budget argument here, the impact of the library cuts in a useful summary by Barnet Unison).

And then I heard a rumour that senior management intend to use the office space for their own staff, or Capita staff, which may well be necessary as the new council offices in Grahame Park are so small. Perhaps Capita will award itself a well earned gainshare payment for successfully renting the library space to itself? And what would it matter, after all, that our libraries have been attacked and eviscerated, on a false premise? 

Well: there is every reason to believe the alleged rental space being created in our library buildings will never see large scale use by commercial tenants. 

Hendon Library, you may recall, must lose its upper two floors because it is going to be rented and occupied by Middlesex University. 

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer the good old days, when libraries were occupied by campaigners, protestors, and highly principled, well mannered anarchists, rather than academic institutions with too much money, and not enough sense.

Ah but: is this really going to happen, the letting of Hendon Library?

Because several sources have suggested to Mrs Angry that Middlesex Uni has pulled out of the deal, leaving Hendon about to closed for six months, while it is gutted, and rebuilt for their new tenants, at enormous cost - not to mention huge inconvenience to residents - for no good reason. Well, no - there could be no good reason, but in this case, to no purpose. 

If the deal has fallen through, this development would be a repetition of the shameful story of the Church Farmhouse Museum, just around the corner: our only council run library, in a beautiful, listed building. Exactly six years ago, our conniving Tory councillors shut it, grabbed the donated collection, flogged the contents at auction, and put the Farmhouse up for sale. 

No one wanted it. It has cost us an untold amount of money to keep it going, empty, decaying, a visible metaphor for everything wrong with this rotten borough.

For years we were told Middlesex Uni were desperate to have it: now, as the inimitable Gerrard Roots, former curator explained in the Barnet Eye blog last week, our council has had to beg them to take it on, for free. 

It is whispered that the men from Capita have been seen showing unimpressed punters around Hendon library, desperate to find an alternative taker. Could this be true?

It seems East Finchley library has no customers lined up to take on the listed building. 

And Mrs Angry has heard of no other arrangements with other libraries being finalised.

Ever feel like you've been had?

If so, you may feel you wish to express your views to your Tory councillors, all of whom voted for the library cuts, and 'modifications'. 

In May 2018, you may wish to express your views via the ballot box.

You may recall the story in the Mirror about the night they were so bored by the tedious debate about budgets and library cuts, one of them sat there reading a golf magazine: the rest could hardly stay awake.

Councillor Reuben Thompstone has pushed through the library plans with great enthusiasm. He will be very pleased to hear your opinions on his brilliant scheme. 

He can be contacted by email: cllr.r.thompstone@barnet.gov.uk

Tory leader Richard Cornelius, funnily enough, and this is very funny, has said he only got involved in local politics because he was so outraged by the closure of his local library in Totteridge. 

You know what to do: cllr.r.cornelius@barnet.gov.uk

The rest you can find on the council's website. 

Time to remind your elected representatives that they are accountable to you, for what they do, and that our libraries belong to us, and our children, and not to them, or their contractors. 

They think this battle is won. 

It isn't, and it won't be, as long as people in this borough have any fight left in them.

Church Farmhouse: closed by Tory councillors, ransacked, left to rot - now robbed and vandalised

Updated below: Barnet Council shuts the gate, after the horse has bolted ...

Apart from the election, Mrs Angry, is there anything much going on in Broken Barnet, this week? 

Well, yes: Finchley Literary Festival, which will run from the 24th May, to the 31st. 

 http://greenacrewriters.blogspot.co.uk/p/finchley-literary-festival.html

Rather foolishly, Mrs Angry has agreed to take part, and is giving a talk, on the 28th, on what is supposed to be about Charles Dickens and his associations with the borough, but has got a bit sidetracked by related stories of bodysnatching, Dracula, slaveowning vicars, death in the workhouse,  demon postmen ... and an Irish bootmaker who asked Dickens for a loan of £1500 to buy the manor house, and - and  if you want to know more, you will have to come along.

So, doing some research in the British Library yesterday, by chance Mrs Angry found herself reading a biography of Mark Lemon, the first editor of Punch, very good friend of Dickens, and who spent what he considered to be an idyllic childhood living with his grandparents at Church Farmhouse, in Hendon. 

In later life Lemon often remembered Hendon with great fondness, and wrote about his memories of life in what was then a rural area, his grandfather farming 200 acres, and living next door to the old Greyhound inn, still there, of course, and the ancient church of St Mary's. 

Mark Lemon

Funnily enough, Tory leader Richard Cornelius has always struck Mrs Angry as bearing a notable facial resemblance to Mr Punch.  

But perhaps the satirical allusion is one which springs too easily to the eye, to those of us living here, in Broken Barnet.

 Totteridge, May 2010

The seventeenth century, Grade II* listed Farmhouse was bought by the local council in 1944, and became a museum in 1954.

In May 2014, the building stands empty, and decaying, having been closed three years ago, in order for our Tory councillors to flog it off for development. With great glee they ransacked the Museum's collection of local historical artefacts, threw some in a skip, gave others away, and auctioned the rest off in a church hall in the midlands.

Their enthusiasm for selling the Farmhouse, however, was misguided, and buyers for a delicate, protected building of this rarity have, unsurprisingly, proven too few. The joke is, of course, that our would be true blue entrepreneurs and property speculators have no business sense at all, which is why they allowed themselves to be so easily led by the nose over so many financial cock ups, especially the Capita contracts, swallowing such stories as the one about £16 million capital investment, and spending £80 million to make £160 million savings. In truth none of them could run a jellied eel stall and make a penny of profit, let alone an authority of this size. No wonder they wanted to delegate everything to the private sector.

The Museum now stands forlorn, abandoned, empty, and neglected, to such an extent that English Heritage have listed its status now as vulnerable. 

It was only the fear of occupation by squatters, as in the case of Friern Barnet Library, moved the council - eventually - to take on any security precautions to protect the building. A company ominously named 'Ad Hoc' supplied a 'live-in' guardian, for whom the council has just installed a shower room, with no regard for the sensitivity and integrity of the listed building's features.

It may be that the guardian in question is spending too much time in his new shower, sadly, as it has been reported that some time on Sunday night/Monday morning, around ten of the old yorkstone paving flags around the Farmhouse were dug up, and stolen. As local GLA member Andrew Dismore commented today:

"This is the inevitable consequence of the Conservative Council’s closure of the museum, and after over 3 years, their inability to find someone to take it on. Their so-called negotiations with Middlesex University are going nowhere, as it is clear they are not really interested in taking over this historic listed building because its uses are so limited. 

An empty unused building like this is an open invitation for thieves. 

The Council has been and is spending thousands on security at the former Museum, for little good it does; and Boris Johnson’s cuts in the police service haven’t helped either. 

The Council should be ashamed of themselves. they will have to replace the missing flags at no doubt considerable expense to the council taxpayers of Barnet, but it is difficult to see how new stones will be able to replicate the appearance of the stolen old ones. Conservative Barnet could not care less about our Borough’s history and historic buildings". 

Andrew Dismore, Labour candidate and former museum curator Gerrard Roots, and Labour councillor Arjun Mittra

During the course of the last four years, the Farmhouse has stood as a permanent indictment, a metaphor in stone, of the moral decay and incompetence of this ghastly, philistine, materialist Tory administration, where nothing is of value unless it can be sold in a market place, and heritage, history, and a sense of community is utterly redundant.

In this week, in which we go to vote for a new administration, it is with perfect timing that we witness the building robbed off part of the very fabric of its own history. It's no worse a crime, in the view of Mrs Angry, than being robbed of the museum, and an intrinsic part of the story of Hendon, and this borough, by councillors elected to protect our best interests, not sell our heritage to the highest bidder - or rather try to, but fail ingloriously even at their own intentions.

The plaque commemorating Mark Lemon's connection with Church Farmhouse is still there, on the empty building. It will mean nothing to the Tory councillors who closed it, and who won't have heard of Lemon, or care. 

But then again, after Thursday, some of the leading Tory councillors who were responsible for closing Church Farmhouse, standing in marginal wards, will themselves be history.

Updated:

According to Mrs Angry's spies, Barnet Council, with a typical display of masterly timing, has now acted to secure the gate to the Farmhouse ...
At some point this afternoon Barnet council chained and padlocked shut the front gates to the Museum, because of the theft of Yorkstone flags from the Museum's paths last Sunday. This will not deter thieves- they'll just bring along a pair of bolt-cutters. However, it will needlessly inconvenience residents and visitors who rightly expect to be able to access a much-used public right of way through a public garden set in a designated conservation area.

The Great Stink

Pssst ... wanna buy a library?

Got a job lot, lovely quality, pre-war, only one previous owner, poor old lady, down on her luck, needs a few quid fast, no questions asked ... amazing business potential, planning permission guaranteed ( friends in the right places, know what I mean); no? What about a few allotments then, you know, dig for victory and all that ... well, dig deep in your pockets and you could find yourself with a prime development plot! You interested? Meet me round the back of the town hall, bring the readies - oh hold on - wannna buy a town hall? Or a school? No? What d'ya mean, piss off out of it, chum? Don't you know there's a war on? Sorry, I mean dontcha know we are living in 'challenging times', and 'facing a time of austerity' and 'difficult choices'? Got to make ends meet somehow ...

No, no, no, Mrs Angry: you have it all completely wrong. Stop there.

Last evening, in fact, I sat with head bowed, during the Cabinet meeting in Committee Room 2 of the Town Hall (at least that is what it was when I left) thinking about stabbing a biro in my leg, not just to try to stop myself falling asleep with boredom, but to punish myself for having had the awful suspicion that there was a plot afoot to sell off some of our borough's finest corporate owned buildings to the highest bidder.

Because, you see, as we learned from the dear Leader (at least that was what she was when I left) this is all a silly misunderstanding. Our libraries, we suddenly remembered, are wonderful - the jewel in the crown of the London Borough of Barnet. According to wee little Robert Rams, our libraries are so good they are almost as good as Starbucks, which is a Good thing, and not as bad as Blockbusters, which would be a Bad thing. No, I didn't understand, either. And now he wants us to go to Tesco's to pick up our library books. I suppose that is just as well, because when we do go to our local library we may shortly find that overnight it has been turned into a Tesco express, or a theme pub, maybe with a library theme, decorated with second hand, withdrawn library books ...

I have to declare an interest here. In another life I worked for Barnet Libraries, and indeed did time as the union convenor during a period when - oh dear - it was proposed, by a previous bunch of Tory nutters - that several should be shut, or hours drastically reduced. There was a public outcry, and all were saved. If there is one thing that is guaranteed to have the Tory heartland voters in Barnet out on the streets demonstrating, and calling for the head of their local councillor, it is a threat to a library, and our dear Cabinet members are aware of this, hence the need to make all the right sounds last night. After the recent catastrophic Allowancegate business, the last thing they need is a fright over potential library closures.

I've used libraries all my life, for the old fashioned reason of borrowing books, and I believe passionately in the public library system. That is not to say that libraries do not have to adapt to change, as society evolves. But when Rams trundles out the line 'better service for less money', you know the writing is on the wall, as this is is his lot's codeword and cover for the nasty word which cannot be uttered outright: CUTS. Last night they were very keen to persuade us that libraries were safe in their hands, that they only wanted to 'improve' them: but what will happen when there is the inevitable conflict between providing the service we expect, and a savagely shrunken Tory budget? I think you know the answer.

Little Mr Rams, the evening's Brian Coleman tribute act, became, well, not very scary, when he answered fellow blogger Vicki Morris' question about libraries. 'Typical union response' he piped up rudely, for no good reason, at one point, to the helpless amusement of attending bloggers, members of the public, and even a few councillors.

Talking of Brian: where was he? A council meeting without Mr Toad is like Hamlet without the prince, or maybe Toad in the Hole without a sausage (not even a chipolata). Perhaps he had another vitally important 'cart naming' ceremony to attend. Oh dear, Brian, remember to fill those expenses in straight away, before you forget!

Or was this a diplomatic absence? Does Coleman know something Lynne doesn't want to know about tomorrow's vote? Was the rat deserting the sinking ship? Or was he busy on the phone, ringing round his fellow councillors with heartfelt messages of goodwill and gentle words of persuasion?

Someone had seemingly already had a word with the councillors present at the Cabinet meeting. (Incidentally, the only sure fire way I have discovered of working out the difference between councillors and senior council officers at these meetings is that the latter ones are marginally better looking than our aesthetically challenged councillors, and wear better suits.) The Cabinet councillors present this evening looked er, rather uncomfortable, almost as if someone had been lurking in the car park when they arrived, and threatened them with a chinese burn if they spoke out of turn. Almost no one spoke at all, in fact, and there was no real discussion of any issues, only a demure and obedient rubber stamping of all recommendations, soviet style. A meeting scheduled to last til 10pm was polished off before 8pm. Very odd.

The only one trusted to behave, and keen to express himself, was suave deputy leader, Mr Andrew Harper, who has a mellifluous tone of voice, and likes to burble on in a smooth, seamless, hypnotic, everything is all perfectly reasonable sort of way. Bit like the dentist just before he gives you a painful injection, or Count Dracula, just as he bends down to sink his fangs in your neck. Look into my eyes, Mrs Angry: Oh, Mr Harper ...

Apart from a nice little reassuring chat about libraries, we had a bit of a lecture on waste and recycling from Councillor Tom Davey. Lynne Hillan looked on in motherly approval (ah) as he waffled on about how disappointed he was to find that recycling wasn't, as expected, best supported at 'higher achieving schools' ... (you know, those thick kids, you would think that they just chuck their coke tins over the hedge, wouldn't you?) This must have resonated with Councillor Helena Hart who pointed out rather waspishly that Stonegrove estate had the worst record for recycling (you remember, a council estate is one of those awful places where people with no aspiration live, according to the Tory councillor speaking at the last full meeting). No matter how they try, even the most straightforward discussion of almost any issue exposes the hopeless elitism and prejudice of this Tory council.

Early in the meeting, we had a question from a member of the public who wanted to know about the Local Development Framework, and ask how, exactly, it could support the Big Society idea of 'empowering local people'. Good question, to which he received a tedious answer bla bla bla read drearily by Hillan looking and sounding even more like Olive from On the Buses (ooh Arthur), and so devoid of meaning and interest that the poor man resorted to forming a supplementary question based around an allusion, wasted on the dim councillors, to the subject of the Great Stink. This was not, as you might imagine, a reference to Allowancegate, but to the Thames' sewage crisis of the mid nineteenth century, when our elected government was unable to meet due to the foul stench that was accumulating outside its office windows one particularly hot summer. Hmmm.

There is something rotten in the state of Broken Barnet too, and the smell of it is building up outside the windows of the Town Hall. The big clean up is three and a half years away, but maybe tonight might be when we start to look forward to a new beginning of some sort.

Here's hoping, anyway.

More later today.

Fear and Loathing in West Finchley

Fear first, then.

What do I have to be fearful of now that the terrible Smith family has moved out? Not much.

Only the prospect of another terrible family moving in.

For the last couple of weeks we have enjoyed the unusual luxury of being able to live normally in our home: sleeping in a bed, sitting quietly reading, watching tv, wandering around the garden, walking up to your own front door, or going out, without having to check first who is outside in the street. All very boring and unremarkable for most people: a flipping novelty for us, though. It hasn't been easy, readjusting to the idea that at any hour of the night or day the silence won't be punctuated by the terrifying sound of Tracey Smith screaming 'I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF YOU GO INTO FUCKING CARE' at her sons, or wondering if you look out whether you will be greeted by the sight the sight of some dope smoking dosser hanging around next door, or listening out for the sound of Troy Smith and his chums partying at one, two, three, and four in the morning.


I'd almost got used to the peace and quiet - almost - when one ominous day last week, members of the family who own the neighbouring property turned up, and spent a long time inside, no doubt inspecting the damage as, despite the abuse they gave us when we tried to tell them what a terrible effect their tenants were inflicting on our life, incredibly, towards the end of the tenancy, the landlords allegedly refused to repay the deposit, and decided to demand compensation from the council for the tenants' treatment of the house!


When I saw the two brothers arrive at the house, my heart stopped, and I felt a rising tide of panic: the last time I had seen Tony had been when he and his odious sister Sophia had banged on our door demanding to know why we were daring to complain about their tenants, and Sophia had started yelling insults at us again. After a visit from the police, Sophia agreed not to repeat this behaviour, and significantly she has not shown her face here since, thank God, but with this family, you just never know what they will do next. Just before we were due to go out on Saturday night I caught sight of Tony standing outside, staring in this direction with a particularly unpleasant expression and had to wait until they had gone before venturing out. This week we have been reduced to the same sort of behaviour. Just ridiculous that we should be forced to live like this, but that is how things are. Since then, the brothers and Tina have been visiting the house, arguing amongst themselves as usual. They have not bothered to change the locks of the house. despite the type of people who were living there, and have brought in some workmen who have been banging about in the house all day, which is why we are beginning to get very worried again: we had hoped that the house would be put up for sale, but are terrified at the prospect that they might be getting more tenants. As mentioned before, Barnet have, incredibly, refused to bar the owners from having further Homechoice tenants from their housing waiting list, despite all the evidence of their complete failure to act as repsonsible landlords, not to mention the state of the property. Of course, should Barnet dare to provide further tenants, they will be facing a legal challenge from us and whatever other action we may find appropriate.

But it's hard to explain how this makes me feel. More worry, more trouble. If more tenants arrive, we will be forced out of our home. We don't want to move, but what else can we do?

Now loathing.


There seems to be a lot of it about, at the moment.

I have been wondering, quite a lot recently, what sort of person actually campaigned for Mike Freer to become our parliamentary representative, and now I have some idea.

As listed in the Daily Telegraph and elsewhere, Mike has a supporters' blog named 'The Friends of Mike Freer' which I urge you to visit, should you be short of entertainment, or wish to know more about the Conservative party in Finchley and Golders Green. There appears to be only one friend of Mike Freer, sadly, the blogger herself, the self styled 'Mrs T', as well as, or perhaps the same person as, the only follower, the mysterious 'Amanda' who occasionally sallies forth on the comments listing of our local Times group newspapers. This Amanda must be the same person who commented once that she didn't see why I was so nasty about the marvellous Mr Freer, and why was I so angry, which apparently is a Bad Thing, and why did I not take my problem to Mike himself? Oh dear: luckily another commenter pointed her in the direction of this blog and she fell silent.

'Mrs T' describes herself as a housewife in Finchley (wait til Mrs Angry catches you behind the fruit and veg counter in Waitrose, darling) and fond of music, wine and sex in the City: sorry, Sex in the City. Well, I'm with you there, Mrs T, maybe hold back on the wine a bit though, in future, before you write the blog.

In her restarted blog on Monday, apart from the rather unexpected 'Mike Freer's fitness tip of the day - yes, really - yesterday it was something about doing pottery classes) Mrs T, flushed with post electoral satisfaction, brags about the legacy of her man, Mr Mike Freer. She tells us that Barnet Council, when he took over, was 'a largely ignored sleepy backwater' which Mike singlehandedly (sorry Rog, should that be one handedly?) transformed into a 'dynamic organisation'. And she asks, 'Do the people of Barnet like it? You bet!' 'Mike has shown he's got the guts to make tough decisions, the skills to implement them and the charisma to take the people with him' (Yes, Mike Freer and charisma in the same sentence). 'Mike's council legacy will be seen for generations in Barnet'. Well, that I can't disagree with, nor can 27 million pounds worth of our money now sitting in Iceland until the end of time.

In fact, this devoted friend of Mike Freer was mysteriously silent during the election campaign but has now decided to come out, or, should I say, crawl out, of the woodwork once more.

The other day, Barnet Eye blogger Roger Tichborne wrote a very sensitive and rather touching blog about dyslexia, and the emotional effect such a difficulty has on people who suffer from this problem. He describes the lasting damage caused by the frustration of this condition, and the humiliation and bullying that he experienced as a child struggling with an unsympathetic educational system.

For some reason, 'Mrs T' decided to post a comment on this particular blog in which she said:

'Hey thickhead, how did you get on in the council elections?'

Rog, in case you didn't know, recently stood as a Libdem candidate in Mill Hill.

I don't know why anyone would think it is acceptable to address someone who has a learning difficulty as 'thickhead'. I only know that as a parent with children who have related difficulties I find it impossible to believe that anyone would use such a term. Obviously 'Mrs T' seems to think that children with this condition are stupid, and worthy of being laughed at. Isn't that nice?If you have had to spend years encouraging your children to overcome the obstacles that such problems put in their way, 'Mrs T', you would know how easily their fragile sense of self esteem is destroyed by this sort of stupid, insulting comment. Such a remark is indefensible, and if you had any decency, you would instantly apologise, to Roger Tichborne and anyone else you may have offended.

In her blog, this Freer fan mocks Tichborne's attempts to stand, on a point of principle, as a candidate in his local ward and then alleges that there was a 'vicious campaign' targeteted at her pin up boy by 'malcontents and bloggers' and, outrageously she claims that 'the friends of Mike Freer' believe that much of this was, wait for it 'homophobically motivated'. In other words, she feels she is entitled to refer to someone with dyslexia as a 'thickhead', but anyone who dares criticise the political views and career of a man who happens to be gay can be therefore accused of being homophobic: a completely unsubstantiated slur. Absolutely appalling.



If there is anything more repugnant than bigotry and hate crime, whether it is homophobia or antisemitism, or racism of any sort, it is the cynical use of false accusations of such behaviour in an attempt to smear someone's reputation. Apart from the sheer nastiness of such an action it devalues the true horror of genuine mindless intolerance and its consequences. But this is a tactic used by certain other Tories whom we all know and love in this borough, when necessary, to denigrate those who dare to stand up to his bullying. And this, dear residents, is the horrible face of a certain strain of Conservative party activists in our area. Don't know about you, but I feel rather nauseated by the whole damn lot of them. I hope that Mike Freer will disassociate himeself from this blog, and this woman's comments: if not, I think that tells you all you need to know about him, and his supporters, don't you?

Whatever issues I have with Freer are strictly related to his leadership of Barnet council and the impact his policies and actions - or inactions - had on our family over this last year and more. I have not got the slightest interest in his personal life, nor should anyone else. The problem is that a certain type of Daily Mail reading Tory supporter is so used to viewing the world through a veil of preset prejudices that he or she can only imagine that everyone else does the same. They don't, Mrs T.



Someone else who is evidently sickened by the Tory pary, both nationally and locally, is the blogger Don't Call Me Dave, writer of 'Not the Barnet Times'. In fact, he is so revolted by the whole direction of Conservative politics he has resigned from the party and has said he no longer wants to continue the blog. This is a shame: the Tory party need decent, liberally minded members like DCMD: the fact that he feels so alienated from the party is a very worrying sign of something going badly wrong in the Conservative movement, if there is such a thing. It leaves the field open to the lunatic fringe and career opportunists and takes the spirit of genuine political debate out of the democratic process. It's a black day again, here in Broken Barnet.