The late Councillor Melvin Cohen an appreciation 

A lot of generous tributes have been paid to Councillor Melvin Cohen who served on Barnet Council for an unprecedented 40 years all that time representing the Golders Green Ward.

Several tributes have come from opponents of the sort Politicians do after death but would never do in life; yes former Councillor Rozenberg I am thinking of you .

The Melvin I knew was a complicated , private and even secretive man . Even his age was a secret. Twenty years ago the Conservative Political Assistant rang me to say he had just had a to complete a Criminal records check form for Melvin who was being reappointed a School Governor and did I realise he was over 60 ? That makes him over 80 at the time of his death but frankly who knows ? 

Twenty Five years ago it was common knowledge in the Conservative Group that Melvin had left his wife and was living with an employee from his legal practice a nice guy called Stephen in Broadfields Avenue in Edgware, a house Melvin continued to live in even when a few years ago Stephen left him and moved to Brighton with somebody else. I suspect though that Melvin remained married to his long suffering wife until the day he died . Melvin was Mayor twice only the second man in the Borough to have that distinction , the first , the late Councillor Vic Usher always claimed that second time around was just not as good , a view I suspect Melvin shared . 

His Mayoresses were neither his wife nor his boyfriend but his ever loyal fellow Councillors Maureen Braun and Wendy Prentice . I would occasionally accompany Melvin on Mayoral events most memorably on Christmas Day 2003 when after four visits the driver took the Mayor home and we were invited in for a Christmas Drink where Stephen passed the Sherry and mince pies and I thought to myself that Melvin could have taken Stephen out with him and no one would have raised an eyebrow.I remember being at Dean's wedding and seeing Stephen standing at the back of the packed Hall at Kinloss and I thought just how sad that was . 

Melvin enjoyed his black leather as the late Rudi Vis never ceased telling the story of bumping into Melvin late one night on the Northern Line kitted out in head to foot in black leather . Indeed in 1995 before I was on the Council a friend and I and the late Councillor Victor Lyon and his wife were guests with Melvin on Hyde Park for the 50th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and whilst Dame Vera Lynn was belting out "We'll meet again " my friend inquired if the black leather was kosher ?

In the days when the Conservative Party Conference used to visit Bournemouth and Melvin would stay at a nice gay owned and run hotel called the Creffield (long since demolished ) where he would happily enjoy the totally non kosher breakfast (he avoided the bacon) and presumably ignored the contents of a certain video channel .

When Mayor if he wanted to do an engagement on the Sabbath (the Lord Mayors Show springs to mind ) he would drive to his office and get the Mayoral Car to pick him up there so the neighbours did not see. My jaw dropped when I heard the Rabbi at the funeral saying Melvin had taken advice about opening a car door on the sabbath.........

Melvin was a solid Conservative , although Councillor Brian Salinger (in the days when he was still talking to me ) one said he had no idea whether Melvin was on the right or the left of the party as he never expressed an opinion . However the best speech I ever heard Melvin make was when he was being challenged for Group office by Cllr Salinger at a Group AGM and Melvin shocked it to Salinger straight between the eyes and was reelected by a big majority . Melvin was also totally loyal to Mike Freer (and I suspect a little bit in love with him) both when Mike was Leader of the Council and later Member of Parliament . 

Melvin was the go to expert on the Council constitution and indeed the Group rules and of course an expert on Planning . Over the years he reduced the public contribution to Planning Committees and sadly even Councillors contribution as he somehow thought the public and indeed local Councillors were a nuisance to the Planning process. 

Of course he helped hundreds of constituents over the years but in the last 15 years of his life was overshadowed by the phenomenon that is his son Dean who runs Golders Green Ward and frankly works his socks off dealing with not always easy residents . It was Dean who inherited the mantle of the late Cllr Rabbi Aba Dunner in Golders Green.

Ill health had overshadowed Melvin for the last 15 years of his life so although his death was a shock to his sons, it was a surprise to absolutely nobody on the Council or in the Conservative Party . In 2021 he was interviewed for the approved list of candidates by Zoom from his hospital bed at the Royal Free and anyone who had seen him in the last 12 months thought he was a walking ghost . 

Was Melvin happy ? Who knows ? I am sure his sons and his grandchildren gave him happiness . He was sadly of that generation of older men who had to keep their sexuality totally private and combined with belonging to a community not known for being gay friendly it was far worse . 

Rest in peace Melvin 

 A Revolution ? I think not 

Last night, with some trepidation I  attended the Annual Meeting of Barnet Council . For the first time in it's fifty seven year history the Council now has an huge Labour majority with 41 Councillors and the Conservative Party is reduced to in effect a rump of 22 Councillors . In fact only 19 Conservatives could be bothered to turn up last night with one apparently having gone on holiday ! 

Having arrived at the Town Hall nothing seemed to have changed , the red flag was not flying from the flag pole and there were a small group of left wing demonstrators outside protesting against Capita's involvement in Council Services ( Note to demonstrators : you have won ).

Having been seated in the past Mayors row at the back of the Chamber along with the other long forgotten Past Mayors and Mayoresses, some wearing better then others, (Scharma, Salinger , Rutter, Rayner , the wonderful Agnes Slocombe and the doyenne of former Mayoresses Mrs Shelia Lyon (whom one Conservative Councillor mistook for my Mother ) , Shelia I am sure was thinking of her late husband the distinguished Victor Lyon who in 2002 lead the victorious campaign that brought the Conservatives to power after eight years and started the twenty years of glorious Conservative rulein Barnet  now ended by Boris Johnson.

I settled down to enjoy the meeting . 

The first shock was the Conservative Councillors appeared without robes ! For anybody with any knowledge of Barnet history this is revolutionary. Frankly I suspect the Councillors robes will not appear again ever . If after four years they can be found they will no doubt disintegrate to the touch . As two (male) Conservative Councillors appeared without ties and certainly Councillor Sarah Wardle has been leading the opposition to the robes since she got elected in 2018 , I suspect she has won ........

The meeting opened with Councillor Melvin Cohen receiving his certificate for forty years continuous service on the Council . Forty years , before most of the bright new Councillors were born . Melvin managed to raise himself from his sick bed for the occasion and made a competent speech . Despite the feeling that the man is a walking by election , I say give him the Freedom of the Borough whilst you can . By the way I noticed John Marshall's name had been painted on the Freedom Board at the back of the Chamber and wish him well as he continues to recover from a broken leg in a nursing home in Hendon .

Retiring Mayor Councillor Alison Cornelius duly reported she had written to the Queen on the occasion of Her Platinum Jubilee . Poor woman hasn't she got enough to worry about than having to plough though yet another fan letter ........

Councillor Alison Moore (Labour East Finchley) was duly elected unopposed as Mayor and did the necessary . I have no problem with the very experienced Alison (she came on the Council with me in 1998) being Mayor and I am sure she will continue in the fine tradition of Barnet Mayors . 

The second shock of the evening was the appointment by the incoming Mayor of her Mayoress none other than former East Finchley Councillor Helen Gordon . For those of you with long political memories in Barnet you may recall I defeated her in the first Greater London Assembly election in 2000 by the slim majority of 551 . This rather finished her political career (she had been considered a shoe in for the seat) as she and her husband (former Colindale Councillor Nat Rudolf ) blamed the then Labour Group for not supporting her enough and both retired from the Council in 2002 to pursue distinguished careers outside of Politics . Nat is now  apparently a QC no less. Well Helen has lost her frizzy perm and will no doubt have a wonderful year escorting Alison in her engagements and reflecting what night have been (or probably not ) .

Councillor Alison Cornelius in her farewell speech to the Mayoralty inexplicably failed to thank the Mayoral staff team at the Council . Without the small and dedicated team lead by the excellent Angela Richardson the Mayoralty and much of the Civic life of the Borough would simply fail to happen . 

Councillor Barry Rawlings was duly elected Leader of the Council for the four year term (how many of those years will he complete one Tory Councillor asked me ?) and made a competent speech declaring an immediate "Climate Emergency" . Well what the dickens does that mean ? Of course nobody has a clue but it sounds good on the press release . He also said the Council would refund the one percent Council tax rise "sometime in the Autumn " . This is absolutely daft as the Council will need the money for services and the admin will probably cost as much as the refund and the average Barnet voter will receive tuppence ha'penny . I am told that a long discussion took place in the Labour Group meeting on that decision . Barry well into his flow also announced several welcome decisions ( well by me anyway) , the restoration of the popular Community skip service (abolished by Matthew Offord when my back was turned ) , the abolition of the residents forums (created by the Lib Dems , always hated by Labour ) which I begged Victor Lyin to abolish in 2002 and he pledged to bring Planning back in house (Hallelujah!). He also committed his administration to building a 1000 new Council Houses , a very dangerous commitment as if you build 999 you have failed to meet you target . Of course the question is where do you build when you are committed to defending the Green Belt ?

Barry failed to mention the Hendon Hub , regeneration or Capita . All three issues which I suspect for contractual and other reasons Labour will be forced to quietly backtrack on . However there was nothing in the speech to frighten the horses or to suggest to the good folk of Totteridge that they rush down to the Estate Agents and put their houses on the market ! 

Councillor Dan Thomas now looking fresh and young again with the pressures of office lifted (was that a new suit Dan ?) made a wholly responsible and dignified speech in reply wishing the new administration well . This was somewhat undermined by a totally inappropriate speech by Conservative (currently) Deputy Leader David Longstaff . Word of advise David , when you have suffered the worse defeat in Barnet Council's history less than 3 weeks ago and when you have a packed public gallery of the great and the good . If I were you David I would watch my back in the Group Leadership elections in September . My money is on Councillor Prager (not a LITTLE prick I am assured by those who know ) or Councillor Sarah Wardle .

Anyway Alison Moore received full marks for her chairing of the Council Meeting and handled it with charm and courtesy .

Then on to the Mayoral Reception afterwards where it was good to see a number of former Councillors, Peter Zinkin and Sach Rajput having licked their wounds and Allan Turner , the old socialist warhorse of Burnt Oak and Jim Tierney of West Finchley now looking frail but still kind enough to ask after my mother .

It was also good to meet new Barnet Conservatives Councillors (the future ?) Councillor Shuey Gordon, son of my good friend the late Councillor Brian Gordon , but please turn your bloody phone off during meetings , Councillor Josh Conway great nephew of anther good friend the late Councillor Anthony Finn and Councillor Michael Mire of Garden Suburb who seems far to sensible and level headed to be a Councillor .

Oh well for those who remember the crazy days of Labour in the 1980, refusing to stand for the Mayor , attacking the Queen , appearing in the Council in shorts , breast feeding babies in the Chamber the new Administration  appears positively moderate and certainly not socialist . Will they make the mistakes of the last Lab / Lib coalition as a result ? Time will tell .

Meanwhile a revolution it simply isn't !

DEBACLE !

Ah a new Coleman blog after nearly 3 years ! What monumentos event has prompted this ? Well Thursday's Barnet Council elections which resulted in the Conservatives losing control of the Council for the first time since 1998 and failing to be the largest party on the Council for the first time since the Borough was created in 1964 .

Apparently the Barnet Conservatives are conducting a review of what when wrong so here are my thoughts .

The complete re-warding of the Borough by the over enthusiastic Boundary Commission caused endless problems . If it " aint broke dont fix it" has always been a useful moto and Barnet having managed with 3 member wards since 1964 was presented with a mish mash of two and three member wards , some with silly names (where is Barnet Vale or Edgwarebury ) and Councillors fighting each other for the nominations . 

The starting gun was fired, far to prematurely by Hendon Conservative Association last Summer who decided they wanted to get all their nominations done before the Holidays . Combined with a (ridiculous ) change in Conservative Party rules Hendon Conservatives went at selection like a bull in  a china shop .A relatively small number of members in Hendon ward managed in a matter of minutes on Zoom to dispose of Councillor Anthony Finn (former Mayor , 32 years service and a nice man) and Councillor Nizza Fluss (loud but very effective ) . Councillor Finn was disposed of without so much as a by your leave let alone a thank you and his death earlier this year may well have been hastened by the disgraceful behavior of his Conservative Association . Councillor Fluss had become a thorn in the side of the Leader of the Council , Councilor Thomas, by her principled and vocal opposition to the so called "Hendon Hub" , the absurd joint development with Middlesex University which post pandemic looks even more unnecessary and which Labour has promised to disentangle the Borough from.

This was soon followed by Edgware ward deselecting Councillor Linda Freedman (a one term wonder who had achieved very little) and Mill Hill deciding to dispense with the services of Councillor Golnar Bokaei , a Councillor from a Middle Eastern background who did wonders for the diversity of the Tory Group and was not bad at planning . "What has Golnar done wrong ? " asked one Conservative Councillor ?" well all three woman were replaced by men ...................

Linda decided to not bother anymore , Golnar reluctantly accepted the decision and went on to bravely fight the safe Labour Ward of Woodhouse in the Finchley and Golders Green Association but Nizza appealed citing no less than 18 breaches of the Conservative Party rules by the Hendon Association . The Conservative Party Area Officers found the rules had indeed been breached and ordered Hendon Ward selection to be re run . Nizza knew she was on a loser anyway as a number of new members had been mysteriously signed up and so it proved when at the rerun selection the three candidates were conformed as Councillor Mark Shooter (a cheerleader for the Hendon Hub ) Joshua Conway ( nephew of the aforementioned Councillor Finn ) and the hugely ambitious Councillor Alex Prager who had done the chicken run from West Hendon which boundary changes had left virtually unwinnable . Councilor Prager , "a cocky little P***k " as one of his colleagues described him to me, is a possible future leader of the Conservative Group in the mode of his idol Councillor Mark Shooter .

Of course that was not the end of Hendon Association's selection problems as in Spring this year the Association took the emergency decision to deselect Councillor Helene Richman from West Hendon Ward . Why bother ? She was not going to win . Most people who had met her realised she was bonkers and yet they had still reselected her . I had lunch with her once and found I could not get a word in the conversation ........imagine it .

Anyway Helene appealed. The Area Officers allowed her appeal but decided not to tell her till the Sunday to allow for Jewish sensibilities . Helene is Jewish and bizarrely had been deselected for alleged anti Semitic remarks made to her fellow candidate . However meanwhile on the Saturday she had flounced off to join the dustbin of Barnet Politics that is the local Lib Dems with all the resultant bad publicity . The only good news out of the whole Barnet elections is that once again there are no Lib Dems on Barnet Council and former Councillor Gabriel Rozenberg , the son of that great charmer Melanie Phillips, is now a busted flush . He decided to stand in West Finchley Ward where he seriously thought he could win . Lib Dem headquarters said the local Party should put their effort into Church End ward but Gabriel explained it was all about him .................

Good luck with your parliamentary ambitions in the new Finchley and Muswell Hill Parliamentary seat Gabriel , you certainly have the ego for it ! 

Anyway back to Conservative selections . Finchley and Golders Green were faced with the problem that two of their safe wards Golders Green and Garden Suburb were reducing to two members each .Councillor John Marshall , the great Tory warhorse obliged by announcing he was standing down . Councillor Reuben Thompstone found himself edged out in Golders Green by the hard working and heading for sainthood Councillor Dean Cohen and his increasingly frail father Councillor Melvin Cohen . Indeed Melvin was apparently placed on the approved list of Conservative candidates following an interview conducted by lap top from his hospital bed at the Royal Free . Sadly Melvin appears to be the walking by election of the new Council .

Meanwhile Reuben found himself rejected by the Conservative members in Childs Hill , Garden Suburb and even Brunswick Park in Chipping Barnet . A bit of advise Reuben ditch the silly moustache and do not talk about "social inclusion " to audiences who have no idea what it is and probably against it anyway ! Reuben finally got selected for Underhill ward where apparently Theresa Villiers MP was knocking up on polling day ! (just why ?ed )

Chipping Barnet Conservative Association had their selection problems . Councillor Richard Cornelius presided over the East Barnet selection where apparently he knew he was breaking the rules but did not care and the Area Officers once again had to ride to the rescue . Councillor Felix Byers (the cute one) was reselected although I do not believe he told the members that he was going to have his civil partnership ceremony during the campaign and bugger off to Norway for the honeymoon . The resulting deselection of Councillor Nicole Richer led to much crying and wailing from Nicole who had managed to get deselected only one year after achieving a stunning by election win. That is some going ! Nicole who is known for bursting into floods of tears when things do not go right shed a load more on election night when she lost in Brunswick Park Ward (replacing Councillor Roberto Weeden-Sanz (who had wisely buggered off to Kensington and Chelsea .seeing Barnet as a lost cause )  Is she the briefest serving  Barnet Councillor since 1964 ? I think she may be. If you cannot cope with the losing do not stand is my advise !

Anyway candidates finally all in place what were the issues ? Frankly who knows ? A manifesto was produced presented to the Conservative Group for rubber stamping (nothing is discussed in Group anymore ) and appeared to say what Conservative were against . We were against getting rid of the weekly bin collection , against tower blocks (except in West Hendon , Finchley Central and when we are not ) against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods ( but happy to let Officers run riot on the A1000 ) and against high Council Tax (but happy to put it up to the Government maximum in non election years ). T.

But of course none of all this made a major impact on the results . There was one issue Boris . He has never been hugely popular in this Borough and I have before questioned his fitness to be Prime Minister long before Covid and Party gate . The people of Barnet had had enough of Boris and duly punished their hard working Conservative Councillors .

The future? with only 22 Conservative Councillors the gene pool is small . Councillor Dan Thomas can stagger on for a year but no former Leader of Barnet has ever made a comeback . No doubt Dan will appreciate the freedom of  being able to keep his tan topped up, rumours are he went away for Easter weekend (Shurley not Ed !). A number of bright younger candidates expected to get elected failed . The Conservative Group will hopefully not do a repeat of 1994 when they threw out leadership lock stock and barrel and put in Councillors with little experience who struggled for four years . 

When we won back the Council in 2002 we fought on a manifesto that was firm and strong. I wish the new Labour Council well especially as they undue some of the dafter decisions of the last few years, Hendon Hub , North Finchley regeneration and of course the horrendous partnership with Capita that has proved a disaster and has had Tory Councillors tearing their hair out .

Oh well annual Council elections anyone ?

 

Boris Johnson

 After five years of not posting a blog (although I have been active on Twitter ) I feel moved to write with my views on Boris Johnson as it appears likely that he may well win the Conservative Leadership contest and become our next Prime Minister .

I know Boris . I worked with Boris . I was the first Member of the London Assembly to endorse Boris' candidature for the London mayoralty . I last spoke to him a year ago at a Party he threw at No1 Carlton Gardens , the Official residence of the Foreign Secretary to mark ten years since he was first elected Mayor of London .

Boris was a poor judge of character . I lost count of the many so called "Deputy Mayors" and Senior Aides who passed through City Hall in my four years :Nick Boles (Head of Transition)  lasted a month , Ray Taylor (totally bonkers) lasted three months ,Tim Parker (on another Planet )  and of course Ian Clement (fiddled his expenses ) spring to mind . Then there were people with no experience of Local Government Munira Mirza (did not like being called "Dear" ) Isabel Dedring, Transport (hated and ignored by TfL Officers) Kulveer Ranger (who once cried on my shoulder because he had lost his Secretary ), Matthew Pencharz ( a nice boy but well out of his depth) . Pam Chesters , a good choice as health advisor but totally undermined by Boris when he ordered her to reinstate Mars Bars in the City Hall canteen.

These inexperienced advisors are no doubt partly, along with Boris ego , the reason for so many failed and pointless Capital projects . Boris Island , the East London Cable Car , the Garden Bridge ...

However he did hire Sir Simon Milton who brought some order to the chaotic situation Boris had created at City Hall, not least by Boles decision to sack everyone who had worked for Ken (except for the excellent Neale Coleman , no relation ) . Boles also ignored all advice from those of us who had been a City Hall for eight years ( Barnes , Evans , Arbour and me ) who knew how the system worked and how to get things done . Apparently Boles said we were "passe" so Roger Evans called us the "passe posse ". Within weeks of Boris taking office we went from being ignored to having Boris appointees asking us out for lunch for "advice" . Once Sir Simon Milton arrived full time as Chief of Staff he ended up taking all the decisions and in my view driving himself to an early grave  as a result . A year before Simon Milton died I confronted Boris in the City Hall lift and said that Simon was working too hard ( he was then in hospital ) and Boris dismissed it with a wave of the hand . When Simon died Boris was genuinely upset and took my advice to have a car to attend the funeral as the Cemetery is a long walk from the tube station and I did not want him to be late for that event . In the end Boris was on time (for once) and the dreadful Baroness Warsi (who was representing the Prime Minister)  was late and kept us all waiting  Sir Edward Lister who followed Simon as Chief of Staff did keep the show on the road and did the detail which Boris never did .

We all know about Boris's dress sense but at his first City Hall London Remembrance Service when I asked his aide to give Boris a black tie to wear he said "we have tried Brian but he won't" . I recall Ken Livingstone always putting a black tie on before laying the wreath.

I served for four years as Chairman of the London Fire and Planning Authority , the body since abolished which had control of the 6000 staff and £330 million budget of London's Fire Brigade . As such I, my Deputy and the Commissioner  met with Boris "officially" every 5 or 6 months to brief him on matters Fire which usually he was not the slightest bit interested in . The first half of the meeting was often spent telling him what I had told him at the last meeting . During the weekend of the Lakhanal House Fire in July 2009 which killed 6 people , I was told Boris wanted to visit on Monday morning for a photo opportunity . I had to explain that it was a possible crime scene and that neither the Mayor nor anybody else could trample all over it . Boris made do with ill tempered visit to Peckham Fire Station instead .

His performance at the monthly Mayor's question time at City Hall was dreadful in the early days and to the frustration of Assembly colleagues ( including Kit Malthouse) did not really improve . Kit was a very competent Deputy Mayor for Policing but was distrusted by Boris for being "the City Hall Leaker " . It was Kit who was responsible for getting Boris to sack Met Commissioner Ian Blair . " he was going wobbly right up to the last minute , I gave him the balls " was Kit's comment to me afterwards .

Boris just simply never read the briefs or prepared for his speeches . At one Lord Mayor of London's London Governance Dinner he could be seen scribbling notes on the napkin during the meat course. At a Board of Deputies Annual Dinner I had actually sent him a three point brief for his speech which was thank the Community for their support in your election , express your admiration for the State of Israel and finally support the role out of Jewish Community Schools in London . Stuart Polak , Director of CFI told me before Dinner he had sent Boris a brief as well . Instead he made a speech about buses to a room full of the great and the good of the Jewish Community who rarely use them !

At the Annual Lord Mayor's Banquet one year he told me the " only way to get through events like this Brian is drink all the alcohol on offer !"

At a briefing for the Security for the G20 London Summit in April 2009 at which I was present,as the Police explained how in the event of trouble President Obama would be evacuated by river down the Thames from ExCel  Boris eyes wandered after a couple of minutes and he suddenly said "just tell me when will I appear on television ?"

At a briefing meeting held in Boris' Office in 2011 during the Inquests into the deaths of the victims of the 7/7 bombings I was telling Boris how the Fire Authority was having to spend a sizable sum on lawyers (as were the Met , TfL and everybody else involved ) not least because Mrs Justice Hallett was cutting up rough as Coroner when he suddenly said " I blame Tony Blair for all this , he started it with the Marchioness (Inquest) " Guto Harri, who was Boris' Head of Communications and at the time absolutely devoted to Boris , said " Oh Boris they are really for the families (of the victims) benefit " To which Boris replied "Fuck the families , Fuck the families !"  . I was having none of this and snapped at Boris  " You didn't have to write eight letters of condolence to families of your constituents or attend the funeral of 31 year old Lee Baisden ( a Fire Authority employee) who had been blown to pieces at Aldgate and comfort his poor widowed Mother " .

After this meeting the ever loyal Guto Harri rang me up and said "it never happened Brian , it never happened" . Sorry Guto it did and I have witnesses .

Well since I left City Hall ( you were thrown out by the voters ED) , things have certainly changed sadly I don't think Boris has . As one female Boris aide said to me "Boris' trouble is he cannot keep it in his trousers" . Oh if that was his only problem .

A rareity - A nice man in Politics

The death on October 9th at the age of 78 of Sir Sydney Chapman, whilst not unexpected by those of us who saw him at the funeral of his former Association Chairman and President Don Goodman a month earlier, has nevertheless caused an immense amount of sadness to many in Chipping Barnet .

Sydney came to Barnet in 1979 having been Chairman of the National Committee of the Young Conservatives ( when they were a power in Land) and four years as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Handsworth  . Having lost his seat in the "who governs Britain " election of February 1974, Sydney spent 5 years fruitlessly touring the Country looking for another seat until being selected ( unexpectedly beating the local favourite Bob Brum ) in Chipping Barnet following the death of the alcoholic former Home Secretary Reggie Maudling .

Maudling despite holding two of the Great Offices of State , Chancellor under Sir Alec Douglas Home and Home Secretary, until disgraced, under Edward Heath had an appalling reputation as a Constituency MP . Maudling lived just outside Potters Bar but was seen rarely in his constituency, rumour has it only twice a year for his Association Christmas Bazaar and AGM. Every five years he turned up at his re-adoption meeting .

This was not a mistake Sydney Chapman was going to make . He was an assiduous Constituency MP moving into Ravenscroft Park and later Salisbury Road, sending his children to local schools and at weekends carrying out endless engagements at school fetes , Church services , community activities and even turning up on Christmas Day to greet the elderly guests at the Barnet and East Barnet Rotary Club Lunch. He was an Honorary  Member and assiduous supporter of the Rotary Club and so many other local organisations . However Monday to Thursday and sometimes Friday he was at Westminster as being a traditional MP he believed his constituents had elected him to turn up at Westminster and speak up for them there. Not for him the "glorified Social worker " approach which some modern MPs have adopted.

This approach paid off not least in 1997 where at the count at Hendon Sports Centre , Sydney saw colleagues from neighbouring constituencies fall on huge swings to Labour . As Portillo , John Marshall and the bone idle Sir John Gorst disappeared under the red tide Sir Sydney became more and more agitated "I'm out, I'm out, I'm finished " he told despondent constituency workers . Having been instructed to pull himself together by his now former wife Claire he survived by 1035 votes after a fraught recount at 5.30am in the morning . The swing in Chipping Barnet was one of the lowest in North London . I lost count of the number of doorsteps in that campaign where voters said we are fed up with the Tory party but will vote for Sydney . That election was a new experience for Sydney as rather than tour the Country supporting friends in marginal seats he found himself defending one , indeed I remember his shock at having doors slammed in his face ( Mayfield Avenue )  although Arsenal were playing a European match that night which probably had more to do with it . His usual relaxed election day routine of touring Committee rooms and have a leisurely dinner was dumped at the urgent entreaties of his more realistic agent , in favour of sitting on the telephone knocking up

Diligent in dealing with Constituency correspondence his wife Claire was an advert for why MPs should employ their relations , he never interfered or commented on matters which were the remit of his local Councillors . He was always totally loyal to his Conservative Councillor colleagues not least he realised they were his eyes and ears on the ground in the Constituency. Indeed when spending cuts forced the closure of the underused Totteridge Library, constituents who wrote to him received a polite reply in which he pointed out Barnet Council had lost a substantial amount of it's central Government grant and as ever it was the fault of the wicked Labour Government .

Sydney immensely enjoyed his years as a whip especially  in his dealings with Her Majesty the Queen whilst serving as Vice Chamberlain of the Household . His clever, amusing and easy to read memoirs "Back to the drawing Board" clearly show his rapport with HM . When John Major sacked him in 1995 he apparently said to Sydney whilst sitting at the Cabinet table "Sydney , there is good news and bad news , the bad news is I need to make room for younger men but the news is the Queen has approved an immediate Knighthood for you " . The reaction from the newly knighted Sydney Chapman was " I really wanted to be a Privy Councillor" .

It was rare to hear Sydney say a cross word about anyone . However he was no pushover and had firmly held views. In 2001 I heard him firmly put down Roger Gale MP who was canvassing support for a possible David Davis leadership bid with "Where was David in the 97 Parliament when I had to return to the front bench to be shadow Minister for London ? Off indulging himself as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee ! " A supporter of William Hague's Leadership campaign in 97 Sydney was firmly in the Ken Clarke camp by 2001.

He enjoyed his work on the Council of Europe and was as supporter of Cyprus not least because it allowed him to travel around Europe with his mates from the House of Commons of all Parties. Indeed his friendship with the late Rudi Vis MP for Finchley and Golders Green was strong and Rudi came  to the renaming of the Hadley Green Slip Road as "Sydney Chapman Way" when Barnet Council marked Sydney's 25 years as MP for Chipping Barnet . They both also shared a mutual antipathy to the Borough's then third MP .

It was no secret that Sydney enjoyed a drink and a convivial dinner. Indeed at  Sydney's retirement Dinner at Hatfield House in 2005 the guest speaker William Hague remarked in his speech " that Sydney was so well regarded in Chipping Barnet that the Council had named a road after him , Sydney Chapman Way , presumably the way to the Pub !" That brought the house down with Sydney leading the laughter . However Sydney's after dinner speeches were legendary and it seemed to me the more red wine he had consumed the funnier the speech . At the 2000 Party Conference it fell to Sydney to deliver the speech at the Agents dinner, the then customary black tie curtain raiser to the week and despite it being past 11pm and the end of a long evening Sydney's speech was one of the cleverest and funniest I have ever heard.

Never stuck in his ways and always available to listen , I am not sure he quite forgave me for getting him out canvassing on a Sunday afternoon in my 2000 GLA election . "Is this really necessary ?" he asked but when I won by a narrow margin of just 551 he conceded it had been !

However Sydney Chapman was that extreme rarity , a genuinely nice man in Politics , loyal to his Party , loyal to his friends , and loyal to his constituents.

Seal Hunting Anyone ?

It is the weekend before a Tuesday meeting of Barnet Council and any Councillor worth their salt will be spending time reading the Agenda papers for the meeting . Buried in the small print on page 74 of the Council Agenda in the list of vacancies for Local Authority appointed School Governors is Garden Suburb Infant and Juniors where their is a vacancy due to the "self disqualification" of Conservative Councillor Daniel Seal . Self Disqualification means that the individual has failed to attend any meetings of the School Governing Body or it's Committees in the previous six months :it is not a resignation ,it is a disqualification from office under the Education Act . Now most schools only have a termly meeting of their full Governing Body and Governors with busy lives can get themselves caught out if they miss two Governing Body meetings  on the trot but as Governors are usually expected to serve on a  Committee as well , perhaps Finance or Pupil welfare that sort of thing, it always possible to ensure that you have attended one meeting at the school in six months .

Indeed if you cannot attend any official meetings in six moths what on earth is the point of serving on a School Governing Body in these days when so many legal and other responsibilities rest with Governors ?

I have known some Councillors who to avoid the embarrassment of being disqualified from a  School Governing Body or indeed other public bodies to which Councillors are appointed and the six month rule applies, have resigned ahead of the inevitable disqualification .

However Councillor Daniel Seal as they say "has form" .

His attendance at meetings of the Council is erratic to put it mildly  . In 2013 he appeared at the Annual Meeting of the Council in May and then missed two meeting in a row and only appeared at full Council again in November . In the same month  he was absent at the meeting of the Pensions Committee of the Council , which he had lobbied hard to get appointed to .

Councillor Seal , Danny to his friends, of whom I am not one , first got elected to Barnet Council for Garden Suburb Ward in 2010 replacing the adorably beautiful but politically pointless Councillor Jazmin Naghar , who appeared in the pages of "Tatler" more often then she did the "Ham and High" . Councillor Naghar although active at election time was apparently virtually invisible in the Ward the rest of the time, relying on that old war horse Councillor John Marshall to do the Ward work particularly planning, which John enjoys. The selection of Danny Seal, backed by John Marshall was seen as opting for a young ,enthusiastic, ambitious  and clever new Councillor over others who applied for the safe Conservative seat but were seen as "the usual faces, hard working but not dynamic" .

The voters of Garden Suburb ward duly did their duty and sent the handsome Councillor Seal (If you like the sort of puppy dog eyes look ) to the Town Hall. Alarm bells however soon began to ring with many colleagues seeing Danny, whilst sharp, as "cocky" or as some less charitable old hands put it "arrogant, with nothing to be arrogant about". His enthusiastic support for his buddy Councillor Mark Shooter in the various Leadership battles of 2010/11 left many Chipping Barnet Conservative Councillors feeling distinctly cold towards him .

He is a young man keen to make his fortune in business , and there is of course nothing wrong with that, but the first lesson in Politics , whether local or national is that half the job is turning up. Cllr Seal's has treated his twitter  followers over the last few weeks to tweets from his Italian skiing holiday over Christmas and the New Year , his business trip to South Korea , the Executive Lounge at Gatwick, the BA Galleries lounge at Heathrow (the potatoes were cold apparently), Jersey Airport, and this weekend, when most Barnet Councillors were attending Holocaust Commemoration his followers, with impeccable timing , were treated to tweets from Munich , the spiritual home of Nazism !

Sadly lacking are many tweets from Hampstead Garden Suburb .

Councillor Richard Cornelius , the Leader of Barnet Council is telling anyone who will listen that Cllr Seal's attendance record is "a disgrace" and is apparently, so rumour has it, is lobbying Finchley and Golders Green Conservatives to deselect him. Richard is worried that should the May elections go badly for the Tories and they end up with a majority of one or two, Cllr Seal's absence will be a luxury the Conservative Group cannot afford . Cllr Richard Cornelius is of course as usual supported by his wife , Councillor Alison Cornelius who is distrustful of many of the Jewish Councillors whom she sees as a threat to her husband's leadership.

Meanwhile Councillor Andrew Harper , the third Garden Suburb Member is retiring from the Council having realised he will never be able to bore the Conservative Group into recognising his talents and electing him Leader . He is to be replaced by  another bright , young ambitious Jewish guy Gabriel Rozenberg , the son of the "voice of sensible middle England", Melanie Phillips and the distinguished legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg . Gabriel is considered a safer bet than Seal as he is married with a family and not likely to spend most of his time tweeting from Business class airport lounges .

Finally  Councillor Seal's tells us on twitter that in April he will be in New York . So who is going to knock on doors in Garden Suburb Ward ? Ah step forward Councillor John Marshall who as so often in Barnet Politics will be riding to the rescue !

Could it happen here ?

The dreadful events at the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi where gunmen from the al-Shabab group have murdered innocent shoppers including women and children in a random act of terrorism have inevitably caused questions to be asked if it could happen here in the UK ?

In the late Autumn of 2010 COBRA , which stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, where it happens to meet , was called after specific intelligence had been received that there was a threat to attack British shopping centres  in the run up to Christmas . The intelligence apparently related to Shopping complexes such as Brent Cross, Lakeside , Meadowhall in Sheffield and  Trafford in Greater Manchester and those attending COBRA had the events in Mumbai a couple of years earlier at the forefront of their minds .

In a rare occurrence the Prime Minister lost his temper when he learnt that in any terrorist incident or indeed any incident involving an armed suspect, firefighters and para medics would stay outside the security cordon until the Police stated that the armed suspect had been dealt with . Even if a building was on fire or there were wounded members of the public needing treatment firefighters and para medics would stay outside the cordon not least due to the danger of being shot themselves by a gunman. The Prime Minister had visions of Sky News filming the scene and of firefighters and para medics sitting around and perceived by the viewing public to be taking no action .

Those who had not seen the Prime Minister lose his temper before realised that he meant business and  that the situation had to change and he had  successfully put a rocket up the Fire Service (and indeed the Ambulance Service).  Indeed one very senior official told me he did not want to be at the end of a "Cameron roasting" again !

Meetings were held with Fire Chiefs in several large cities (London , Birmingham, Manchester and others ) , the then Fire Minister ( Bob Neil ) called in the Fire Brigades Union , who for once put the National interest first and a small number of firefighters in our major cities (the majority in London )  were trained in how to operate wearing bullet proof protection and how to behave in the event of an armed incident . This issue has remained of deep interest to the Prime Minister, I recall him discussing it with firefighters when he visited Tottenham Fire Station in the aftermath of the 2011 Summer riots and I have no doubt that David Cameron's personal efforts on this have made the UK better prepared in the event of a Nairobi style attack.