Mrs Angry was very disappointed not to be able to attend last night's question time meeting with Barnet leader Richard Cornelius, but she followed the event on twitter, and has been sent detailed reports of the evening's discussions (and some useful photos, thank you) and in fact Mrs Angry is wondering now whether or not real life is less interesting than staying in bed and experiencing everything through twitter, then writing about it second hand. Seems to be the way we are going, frankly, doesn't it?
By all accounts the meeting last night proved beyond doubt to the residents who attended what the bloggers, unions and opposition activists have known for a long time: that the Tory councillors of Broken Barnet have not the slightest understanding of the reckless gamble to which they are committing the future of this borough, by so wilfully continuing to supporting the One Barnet programme.
Labour leader Alison Moore speaks, filmed by the Guardian
A couple of the less objectionable Tory councillors, David Longstaff and Lisa Rutter, were present, solemn faced, clearly worried by the strength of feeling in the audience.
unsung hero Tory Councillor Longstaffe is perplexed
In the audience
too, to everyone's astonishment was a familiar face: suspended Tory
member Brian Coleman, who has recently publicly condemned the
outsourcing proposals sat quietly throughout the meeting. Coleman
clearly has no intention of retiring from public life quite yet.
spectre at the feast, suspended Tory and One Barnet sceptic, Brian Coleman
The ineffably stupid Tory leader Richard Cornelius, whose unctuous manner and perpetual grin belies an uncompromisingly obstinate defiance of public opinion, showed last night that he is in complete denial over the risks of the One Barnet scheme, continually ducking questions, offering feeble responses such as admitting that he did not know what the confidentiality agreements with contractors will be, not being able to offer examples of organisations which have successfully outsourced their core services, and implying that all the huge, devastatingly significant, fundamental questions which he has not asked are really trivial details which can somehow be addressed in the short time, a few weeks, before he is due to hand over almost total control of our services to private contractors.
Labour's Councillor Schneiderman looks on
That the Tories continue to support One Barnet, that they do this in defiance of every piece of evidence which demonstrates the absurdity of the promises made to them by the senior officers, private consultants, and the companies bidding for £1 billion worth of our services is indefensible, scurrilous, an act of gross irresponsibility which ought to be the subject of legal challenge, and indeed may well be.
What a difference it might make, if the individual councillors who are happy to endorse One Barnet were to be held personally liable for any failure properly to scrutinise the proposals, or to consult the residents they represent on the issues involved.
Finchley traders' spokewoman Helen Michael
A financial penalty should, in Mrs Angry's view, be the consequence of such a dereliction of duty: a penalty not, as will be the case, in the shape of unlimited cost to the tax payer when the One Barnet contracts are shown to be the rip offs they undoubtedly are, but a punishment for those elected representatives who refused to inform themselves of the details of the privatisation plans, and refused to engage in any meaningful debate amongst their colleagues, let alone the electorate.
Blogger Mr Reasonable, trying to reason with Cornelius
You will be punished, you scabby Tory councillors, anyway, in 2014, when the people of this borough will take you by the scruff of your grimy collars, empty your trouser pockets of our hard earned cash, and throw you out of office, but that will not be enough to satisfy those of us who have sat and watched you, these last two years, sleeping through meetings, too lazy to listen, too lazy to read the reports, indifferent to the impact that this prostitution of our public services will have on us, your constituents.
You are happy to pay half a million pounds a month to the private consultants acting as 'implementation partners' for this act of betrayal: half a million pounds a month for what? You don't know because you don't ask, we don't know because we are not allowed to know.
Half a million pounds of month to consultants while you tell us there is no money, and so you must close our museums, and put them up for sale, and while you sell off the local history collection, our heritage,'of no value' to leader Richard Cornelius, flogged off to strangers in a grubby village hall auction, you shut a library in a Labour ward, because you say you cannot afford to keep it open, when your only intention is to put that up for sale too, and yet you somehow have the money to subsidise a branch run by the millionaire residents of a Tory ward.
You lecture those in need, 'these people', the poor, the elderly, the sick, disabled residents, those who are disadvantaged, or vulnerable, and tell them there is no money, that we need to make savings, and they will provide those savings by seeing the services that make their lives just about bearable cut or removed entirely. You turn your heads away and shrug, saying, 'You can't help those who will not help themselves' ...
In this borough, fortunately, there are many of us who are prepared to help those who cannot help themselves, and we are all of us united in one thing: in opposition to you, to your reckless vandalism of our local services. and to a better future, without you and your private sector friends. And just remember this: if you sign those contracts, in a few weeks time, you will also be signing off your political careers. You may think you will have won the Battle of One Barnet, but the war continues.
Les jeux sont faits: rien ne va plus, & everything thrown on the One Barnet gamble
So, where were we? Ah yes, an Extraordinary meeting, and the small matter of a motion of no confidence in the alleged leader of Barnet Tories, Richard Cornelius ...
Turn for Libdem Jack Cohen to speak: directing withering scorn, in his inimitable way, on the concept of One Barnet, which, as he tactlessly reminded the Tories, squirming in their seats, was referred to last week by their own former colleague and Cabinet member Brian Coleman as 'an officer driven juggernaut'. Mrs Angry nodded at Brian, and winked. We know, don't we, Brian? You and me. But a prophet is honoured everywhere but in his own land, as it says in the good book. And who's listening? No one.
Jack listed some of the other authorities where massive outsourcing has been a costly failure: Sefton, Essex, Somerset, Bournemouth; He raised the example of Barnet's own parking privatisation, which he described as a disaster ... and he warned the empty headed Tories that after the betrayal of One Barnet, the voters of this borough will never trust them again.
The Tory councillors looked on, blankly.
At the beginning of the debate, Mrs Angry had enjoyed the spectacle of the Mayor, Brian Schama, blinged up like a municipal vajazzle in all his mayoral garb,* reading his way through the words of the Labour motion, explaining in detail how the Tories have completely lost their way over One Barnet, wilfully obstructed the process of scrutiny, and not only failed in three years to produce any savings, but worse, lost at least £663,000 as a result of the programme, concluding:
Given the
level of risk involved in the procurement of these two enormous One
Barnet contracts, NSCSO and DRS, and the gambling of £1 billion of
council tax payers’ money that is involved, Council resolves that the
Executive Leader be removed from office and that a vote be taken on
electing a new Leader who can propose a new way forward for Barnet
Council and appoint a new Cabinet.
Time for the subject of the motion to defend himself. Except he did not. Cornelius gave no explanation for his failings in leadership. His speech was ill tempered, lacking the contrived disingenuousness of his usual style. He blamed, oh dear, yes, the Labour government for everything. This excuse, still trotted out by the least intellectually able Tory councillors, will be used by them until the end of time, and beyond, of course.
Outsourcing, said the leader, is not a dirty word.
Wouldn't you like to know, ladies, what Cornelius would think was a dirty word? Whisper in my ear, ... go on - you know you want to ... yes, yes ... in house comparator ... tut tut ... independent risk assessment ... oh no: now you go too far ...
Mrs Angry likes whispering in a man's ear, you know, if the opportunity arises ... Let Mrs Angry whisper in your ear, Richard ... (just pretend, maybe, that she is an (interim) Director, or possibly our new CEO, Andrew Travers ... how about a Joint Venture?
Oh. Oops. Sorry. Not your sort of thing. You take a different position. Underneath, with your eyes shut, hoping it will soon be over. Fair enough, so.
I have no ideology, announced Cornelius. We know, Richard, we know. Odd thing for the leader of a Conservative council to admit, though, in the circumstances.
And everything that is going wrong is the fault of no, not just THE UNIONS, because they will insist on objecting to their members' being thrown out of work to be replaced by exploited labour in Bolton, or Bangalore, no it is the fault of that other Daily Mail Tory spectre: the EU, and their appalling procurement laws, you know, the ones that Barnet has ignored on a spectacular scale, until the Barnet blogosphere exposed their gross incompetence and the consequent waste of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.
Cornelius hates these EU rules: he sees no need for regulation. Just give the money to the contractors, no questions asked, the Barnet way. And the billion pounds of One Barnet business he wants to give away to BT, or Capita: the only reason he says the savings have not materialised yet are because of the unnecessary restrictions of the law meant to safeguard our money from corrupt practices. Aha. Yes. Ok.
In front if us, the Tory supporters sat very still, in silence, clearly shocked by the vitriolic atmosphere in the Chamber, and in the mutinous but attentive public gallery.
Mrs Angry reflected that it is these people, the backbone of the Tory party in Chipping Barnet, who unwittingly do so much damage, by continuing to support and fund the antics of their councillor chums, with their candlelit suppers, and their strawberry teas, without taking a close interest in the policies they pursue, or challenging their own preconceptions by involving themselves in the real engagement of council procedures.
There was an audible groan when Tory boy Tom Davey stood up to speak. A young man with the outlook and prejudices of an embittered old timer: lacking in compassion and mean mouthed, Davey is prone to lambasting the less advantaged members of society for lacking aspiration, and deserving their fate because 'you can't help those who won't help themselves' ... He told us, sneering triumphantly, that he could hear the 'death knell of union power' ... aha, yes, here we are again, *klaxon alert: watch out, it's all the fault of THE UNIONS!
Next up in the queue to defend One Barnet was the Grand Old Man of the party, Councillor John Marshall. He said if we had to have One Barnet, it is all the fault of ... let's see, the unions ... no, no, the Labour Government. Didn't say which one, and of course the veteran ex Hendon MP has seen so many, but Mrs Angry thought he had a faraway look in his eye which seemed to be laying the blame squarely on Ramsay Macdonald, and possibly Zinoviev.
Libdem councillor Lord Palmer spoke now. He said, with some exasperation, that he had not intended to speak, until he heard the speeches made by others ... he compared the One Barnet gamble to a Ponzi scheme (he ain't wrong) and he was incensed by remarks about the Audit committee, of which he is Chair, and the ridiculous comments about European procurement rules: clearly One Barnet has to be subject to such regulations as the programme is so massive ... clear that is, Lord Palmer, to anyone but an idiot/Richard Cornelius ...
Palmer, of course, knows better than any councillor quite how incompetent the management of procurement of so many contracts has been in Barnet.
After a response from the Labour leader, reminding the Tories that they had refused to countenance the possibility of an inhouse comparator, which would have offered an alternative to the scheme they now say they are compelled to pursue, it was time to vote.
The motion, of course, was defeated, and a last opportunity missed for any of the backbench Tories to reinvent themselves, show some courage, and integrity, and stand up for what most of them know is right - dumping Cornelius, and calling an immediate suspension of the One Barnet competitive dialogue, and an independent review of the whole outdated, over ambitious and recklessly irresponsible programme. They funked it, as you knew they would, incapable of action, even though they know it will lead to a catastrophic future for council services in Barnet, and ultimately the defeat of their party at the next local election.
Mrs Angry was feeling weary, by now, and not terribly well, and decided to leave. Not long afterwards, during the break, Councillor Brian Coleman left too, unwilling to stay and witness the votes to remove his committee membership and posts, and to hear the mention of the report to council regarding his sanction in regard to the highly offensive emails sent to two constituents, and, ah yes: the report noting that Coleman has ceased to be a member of the Conservative group.
Coleman's trial, for the charges of assault by beating, and a motoring offence, both of which he denies, will not take place until February, and the long suspension which will apply during this period will, Mrs Angry predicts, change the dynamic of the Barnet Tory group forever.
Coleman will be sitting on his own for now, with no power, but plenty of opportunities for meddling and mischief, and in the meanwhile, the madness of One Barnet continues to exert its malign influence, and the hapless Tories continue to follow their own path to oblivion.
Not all bad news, then, is it?
My thanks to @BarnetRebel and the very helpful Anon for the pics.
* NB: still waiting Mr Mayor, for you - or any Tory councillor - to apologisefor failing to censure Brian Coleman's insulting comments to the 'sad, bad and mad' and 'old hags' in the public gallery at the last full meeting ...
