The final report of the Public Inquiry into the Grenfell Fire is now published

Sir Martin Moore -Bick has blamed a number of individuals and organisations not least the London Fire Brigade condemning the lack of leadership of the Brigade .

I served for twelve years , four of them as Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and all twelve as Conservative Group Leader . I also served on the various Committees of the Local Government Association responsible for Fire Services in England.

That twelve years was war , War between the workforce represented by (mainly) the Fire Brigade Union and the Management , war between the Politicians and the workforce and distrust between the Management and the Politicians . 

All senior Officer appointments ie of Assistant Commissioner and above were done by all Party members panels . It was usually "buggins turn" and anyone who tried to resist this , as I did, immediately earned the distrust of senior officers . Firefighters mostly join the service at 18 ,except for those who transfer from the armed forces and all senior uniformed officers have risen through the ranks . During the 2002 National pay strike the then Commissioner of London Fire Brigade told me we could only rely on eight officers , him, his Deputy and the six Assistant Commissioners . In the event two hundred officers kept working in London and I admired every one of them due to the intimidation they faced for years afterwards . John Prescott who as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government was "in charge" of Government policy during the dispute was heard to say he had been driven past Euston Fire Station and "the Governors are on the picket line" . Yes John they were all members of the Union.

There are just few quality Officers in Senior ranks in the UK Fire Service . In January this year the Chief Fire Officer of the West Midlands Wayne Brown , the only black Chief Fire Officer in the Country committed suicide after being suspended as his CV was distinctly dodgy. Wayne was a former London Officer and was considered amongst the brightest of his generation.

The Fire Brigade Union has the most extreme left wing leadership of any Union . For a number of years after the National Pay strike the Union disaffiliated from the Labour Party and the Annual Conference of the Union has often spent more time discussing Israel than terms and conditions of firefighters . 

Sadly and Bizarrely the uniformed men and women (mostly men) always support their Union come what may . Any attempt to even make minor changes to pay and conditions is always resisted by the Union and "modernisation" is a dirty word. As for Equalities the Union often employs top lawyers ro defend any member accused of the most heinous of racist offences. In my time a black firefighter based at Clerkenwell had a Banana placed on his seat in the appliance . Some firefighters thought it was a joke. God help any openly Gay firefighter . Not much has changed today if you read the most recent reports of HM Fire Service Inspectorate.

The general public cannot see past the fire station doors and considers firefighters as heroes. I just think the Fire and Rescue Service is a Local Government Service some of whose staff wear uniforms. When Sadiq Khan newly appointed Fire Minister visited London Fire Headquarters he was introduced to the Senior Officers of the Brigade and the Directors . Our then two woman Directors were absent and the Commissioner apologised . "Would they be wearing fucking uniforms as well?" was Sadiq's response ?"

I think I dealt with about thirty Fire Ministers and Shadow Fire Ministers in twelve years , some were reasonably effective others totally useless and achieved nothing in the matter of months they held office.

Ms Rita Dexter was one of the two women Directors of the London Fire Brigade appointed in 2002 when Valerie Shawcross the then Labour Chair of the Authority cleared out  the coterie of male Directors inherited from the Regime of free spending Tony Ritchie the former Leader of the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority who was considered too corrupt by Ken Livingstone to appoint to the new Authority. I was responsible for Ms Dexter's appointment encouraging her to apply when she failed to be appointed Chief Executive Barnet Council despite being the acting Chief Executive . She is clever , efficient and effective but overreached herself twice attempting to conduct a coup , once against Sir Ken Knight ( easily the best Fire officer in the UK of the last twenty years) and then a few years later against the then Commissioner Ron Dobson. The coup failed and Ron turned round and proposed to abolish the post of Deputy Commissioner then held by Ms Dexter which members duly did and that was the end of her ! 

Although not quite . She reappeared as a witness at the Grenfell Inquiry where her answers to questions landed the uniformed officers in the shit up to their necks. Her dramatic long pauses and her constant on the verge of tears has to be seen to be believed but had the desired effect . 

Ms Dexter (as is the way with the establishment) now sits on the House of Commons Standards Committee where she passes judgement on Members of Parliament's minor misdemeanors.

Then there was the career ending evidence of Dany Cotton the Commissioner at the time of Grenfell. Her behaviour post the fire was somewhat strange and she took a considerable amount of sick leave with the rumours that she would claim to be too ill to give evidence . She however appeared but her defient tone "I was putting out a fire " and her closing remarks that she would not change a thing were enough for Sadiq to sack her a few weeks later. Her send off from Fire Brigade Headquarters like some sort of conquering hero was a complete slap in the face to the poor families of victims of the fire and was considered bizarre by a number of senior officers. Dany was the first woman to head the London Fire Brigade and had been appointed by Sadiq soon after he took office in 2016. Although as she climbed through the ranks ahe also appeared tough having been appointed Commissioner she reversed many of the sensible reforms of the last twenty years much to the delight of the Fire Brigades Union .

At previous Inquests and Inquiries the Fire Brigade along with most public bodies had always rehearsed their witnesses to ensure accurate evidence and joined up thinking . At the 2011 Inquests into the deaths of the terror attack of July 7th 2005 this had proved very valuable when the evidence appeared to be suggesting Fire Brigade incompetence but in the end all was well. Dany Cotton apparently did not rehearse as no lawyer would have advised her to imply "Je ne regrette rien".

Much has been made by the Grenfell Inquiry of the 2009 Lakanhal Fire in Southwark in which six people died . Once the Inquest was out of the way (and Southwark Council had been fined under Health and Safety regulations) , the London Fire Authority set up a Committee to look at the lessons of Lakanhall chaired by Val Shawcross. Much was made of the minutes and agendas for this meeting at the Grenfell Inquiry and despite what appears to have been some blocking from less than helpful London Officers resulted in correspondence between the Authority Chairman James Cleverly and Ministers notably Brandon Lewis . The Government in effect ignored the results of the London Committee's findings and I suspect Mr Lewis regrets signing some of these letters even if his civil servants drafted them. 

During World War Two all local fire services were taken over by the Government and formed into a National Fire Service . I believe the current situation is so serious and progress of change is so slow that was need to do the same. Many of the County Brigades consist of virtually two men and a dog and a large number of retained , part time voluntary firefighters and their Chief Officers are considered a joke. We also need to deal with the Fire Brigade Union either ban firefighters like Police Officers from belonging to a union or just get the Fire Brigade Union to merge with one of the large Local Government Unions .

We cannot continue as we are .

 

A year of my life I will never get back 

So what do Runcorn, Stourport, Mill Hill and Highgate, Muswell Hill and Islington have in common ? Well from July 1st they will no longer have a Rotary Club . These Clubs along with others have voted to close . Rotary, as fewer and fewer readers will know, is an organisation founded in the USA in 1905 by a group of Chicago businessmen lead by a man named Paul Harris to do good basically. "service above self" is the motto and Rotary spread quickly around the world with the first Club outside America opening in London in 1911 closely followed by the Rotary Club of Dublin.

The First Rotary Clubs first project was to install a public toilet in Chicago so that shoppers stayed longer.

Rotary has however become a victim of its own sucesss . In countries where Rotary has celebrated it Centenary USA, Canada , Australia and most of Western Europe it is terminal decline , and by terminal I mean terminal . At the Annual Meeting of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland a few weeks ago, held  on line (as the Annual Meeting in person along with the Annual Conference has been permanently cancelled) , Nikki Scott ( more of her later) the Rotary Director for Great Britain and Ireland (not the President that position has also been permanently deleted ) admitted that two thirds (yes 66 per cent ) of Rotary membership of 34,000 were over the age of 75.

There is just no coming back from this position .

So why is Rotary in such a terminal decline?

There are endless reasons . Society has changed . Britain High Streets have changed . There are few privately owned shops run by their owners . Ken Livingstone tells the story of when he used to buy newts as a child from the local pet shop which was owned by a Rotarian. Long gone are the local bank managers and indeed most  High Street banks are closing . The internet and organisations like linkedin have taken over business networking indeed many Chamber of Commerces have closed . No working man or woman can spare two hours for lunch . Indeed as District Governor it is my role to visit all the Clubs in the District and I visited Edmonton Club who were complaining about lack of new members but point blank refuse to move from lunchtime or to have hybrid meetings accessed by the Internet and have no social media presence . Message to Edmonton Rotarians which of course meets nowhere near Edmonton just close down now and spare the club the long lingering but inevitable death.

As Clubs have closed in London we now have 55 twenty years ago we had had over 100 , the calibre of Rotarians has declined . Gone are the days when prominent business men or peers of the realm took office in Rotary . London is reduced to a former Chairman of the London Assembly (ie me ) as District Governor but my replacement is a woman who left her Club and moved to another after they declined to nominate her as District Governor on the grounds she was completely useless and had no social skills . The District Governor Elect for 2023/24 in London has been investigated by Rotary after having been accused of fraud by his own Club President ! Apparently the same man is openly angling for an OBE by asking Rotarians to nominate him .

The major issue however is National Leadership . Rotary has made a huge mistake in abolishing the Annual Presidency in the UK and replacing it with a two year " Directorship " . The first Director was a woman called Nikki Scott who appeared to me to have no experience of Rotary in the UK (she was a District Governor in the USA ) and who admitted to me that her husband had left her because she spent too much time on Rotary !

Rumour is that having spent two years saying how wonderful United Kingdom Rotary is she has at last recognised that Rotary is in serious trouble hence her admission that two thirds of Rotarians are over 75, She has been an all round disaster for UK Rotary and has presided over a further decline in the number of clubs . The paid uo UK membership of Rotary is 34,000 far less than even the Conservative Party and dramatically less then the National Trust or the Women's Institute . It is far more than Inner Wheel an organisation founded for the wives of Rotarians that refuses to admit men and is down to about 100 members in London. How on earth Rotary still associates with such an organisation in these days of equality I completely fail to understand and I politely declined invitations from Inner Wheel during my year of office.

As District Governor I tried and the whole failed to reform Rotary in London . Every District is supposed to have a District Conference and I held a reasonably succeesful one day Conference in London which had the most ethnically diverse audience ever seen at a Rotary Meeting in the United Kingdom . What does my successor do decides to hold a three day Conference in the home of the living dead (Eastbourne) complete with a Golf Day and a black tie dinner like something out of the 1950s .Well good luck with that ! Do you not realise there are many Rotarians in London with child care issues (40 per cent of London Rotarians are women ) and that the nation is going through a cost of living crisis which even affects Rotarians and £50 for a Conference in London is affordable but £350 plus for three days in Eastbourne may not be, 

Rotary worldwide is in trouble as this years Rotary Convention in Australia proved . I was involved in bidding to hold this particular Convention in London and we did so on the basis of 35,000 worldwide attendees .We lost the bid(thank goodness) as in this post Covid world only 14,000 Rotarians turned up. Bizarrely as Rotary is promoting the green agenda there was no way you could attend Convention on line . Whilst on this subject how on earth does Rotary justfy flying 500 District Governor to Orlando in Florida at massive expense to train them (or teach their Grandmothers to suck eggs as one fellow District Governor put it to me ) ? During Covid it was all done successfully on line . Never mind how Rotary justifys  spending over two million dollars on flying 500 Past District Governors again to Florida for something called "Council of Legislation " the ultimate talking shop ........

Anyway the good news is having now completed my year of Office I have been banned from holding any further National or International Office following a complaint of "harassment" by a Rotarain with a a history of mental health issues because I was supposedly made a rude remark to him after a speech I was booked (3 months before) to deliver was cancelled at 24 hours notice without a word of apology.  Too right I was sharp with him : I have never been treated so unprofessionally in my 20 years in Politics . A panel to which I was not allowed to give evidence or cross examine the supposed "witnesses" apparently convicted me ! It make the Parliamentary Standards Committee appear open minded 

Frankly that is the best news I could have had . I have never sort Rotary office and having had a dreadful year of Rotary Politics; one Club being chased by the Lottery Commission for misuse of funds ; another Club being investigated by Rotary for holding an Annual Meeting without telling the Club President ; another Club where none of its members live in the UK never mind London ; another Club that had disappeared into thin air with not even the Club President a paid up Rotarian .......I could go on. You can perhaps see why I will not miss holding Rotary office  .

For those if you with long memories you may remember that most UK towns had an "Round Table" of young men who organised charitable and community activities , that national organisation is long gone and despite Rotary's very credible activities across the UK and despite the millions held in the Bank by the Rotary Foundation (who on earth understands the finances of the Rotary Foundation? )  there is just little hope for Rotary . 

I shall continue working in my Rotary Club to do Community service and good works at home and abroad but even if the entire Board of Rotary in Great Britain and Ireland (who are they Ed?) got on their knees I would never hold office in Rotary again ,

Here we go again

So this Tuesday night I got on the 125 bus, I have sold my car and made my way to Hendon Town Hall as is my want to the Annual Meeting (NOT the Annual General Meeting as the Council Press Office called it ) of Barnet Council .I think this may be my thirtieth Annual Meeting of the Council having been every year since 1993 except of course the year Brian Salinger was elected Mayor . The Town Hall was looking tired especially as the spring bedding has died and the Summer bedding has not been planted yet which was something I used to insist on .

One of the bright young Conservative Councillors came up to me and asked if I was going to write a blog this year which I was not planning to do but as they say by popular demand here we go .

The retiring Mayor Councillor Alison Moore has actually been a very good Mayor outside the Chamber . Inside the Chamber whilst chairing meetings she has been a bit too partisan according to one or two Conservative Councillors. She has of course led the Borough over the Platinum Jubilee, the death of the Queen and the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla as well as doing the endless round of visits that all Mayors do and all this she has done with due dignity, grace and in a friendly and approachable manner . I will personally always be grateful to her for sparing the time to attend my late Mother's funeral last June . 

Alison has been ably supported by former Councillor Helen Gordon as her Mayoress . Helen had a "reputation" twenty five years ago as a fierce, determined and a firebrand and was universally disliked by the then Conservative Group, and a significant number of Council Officers and rumour had it by a number of her own side but twenty years off the Council has mellowed her and she has behaved as a complete softee as Mayoress and frankly I have been impressed !

In my role on the Executive Committee of the London Mayors Association I see all the 32 Borough Mayors in action at London wide events including the Annual LMA Dinner , the Civic Service in Westminster Abbey and the Mayors walk from Whittington's cat statue to Mansion House . Alison has behaved impeccably and not tried to turn  any occasion into a "selfie" opportunity ( yes Mayor of Lambeth I am thinking of you ) . I am delighted to say that Alison Moore thought it was totally inappropriate when some Mayors thought they should petition the King and ask for an invitation to the Coronation ! 

The London Mayors Association is by the way a non Party Political members organisation for men and women who have been Mayor of a London Borough which organises social events and has increasingly become the guardian of the Civic Mayoralty which is under attack in many of our Boroughs . In fact next Saturday the LMA will undertake its annual "Mayors Training Day " for all the new Mayors (yes Mayors get trained these days !) and in my address I have had to add a section about Mayors taking selfies and that it is not appropriate for the Mayor to ask the King for a kiss during a Royal visit . 

Anyway back to Tuesday night . The big news was the Councillors robes had been cleaned and repaired and the majority of Conservative Councillors looked very smart . I was particularly taken by Councillor Shuey Gordon who told me he was wearing the robe worn by his late Father Councillor Brian Gordon . I am sure the much missed Brian would have been very pleased . Looking tanned and fit was Councillor David Longstaff who had recently returned from the West Indies where he had married his partner of twenty nine years and his Mayoress Gillian who was seated on the back row of the Chamber with a selection of other former Mayors and Mayoresses . Although quite why former Mayor Reuben Thompstone though it necessary to force his nine year old son to sit through the ceremony was beyond me . 

I was seated for a change in the body of the Chamber between the redoubtable Past Mayor Agnes Slocombe and and the senior Past Mayoress on parade (1993/94) Mrs Shelia Lyon now approaching 89. I suspect Shelia and I were the only people in the Chamber who had any clear memories of Mrs Mary Goodman a Past Mayoress who the Mayor announced had died and for whom Councillor Richard Cornelius got up and paid tribute . Nobody realised that the story Richard told about Mary was a mangled version of a Coleman anecdote about another long forgotton Mayoress.....................

Councillor Kath McGuirk disgracefully overlooked for appointment to the Cabinet in her eyes anyway , paid tribute to former East Finchley Labour Councillor and indeed Labour Leader John Davies who retired from Barnet before some members of the new Cabinet were born . Kath reminded us that he fought Mrs Thatcher in the General Election of 1987 and how furious Mrs T was that the declaration was not till half past three in the morning . I was told when she heard David Dimbleby on the BBC saying "Mrs Thatcher is on her way back to Downing Street " she yelled at the TV in the Mayor's Parlour " No I am not I am still stuck here at the Town Hall ! " Barnet counts were ever thus ..............

The new Mayor, Councillor Nagus Narenthira was duly elected and installed and, except that she appears to be a enthusiastic paid up member of the Andrew Dismore appreciation society I suspect she will be fine .

The Leader of the Council (yes still) Councillor Barry Rawlings announced his Cabinet who all seem to have bizarre and meaningless job titles along the lines  of Cabinet Member for Apple Pie and Motherhood. As Councillor Longstaff pointed out the words "Children" , "Education" and "Safeguarding" appear in nobody's job title .  The new Labour Members have merrily voted for the Cabinet system like Turkeys voting for Christmas and have consigned themselves to 3 years of powerlessness on the back benches . Do not say you were not warned ......

Barry's speech on the achievements of the last year was mercifully short (rather like the list of achievements ) and appeared to consist of setting up a Citizens Assembly on climate change and er that is it . Quite what happened to the promised Autumn rebate on Council Tax promised in his speech last year nobody asked but we all know the Officers persuaded him to quietly drop it . 

Well done to Councillor Tony Vourou on being appointed Deputy Mayor . Tony is a fixture on the Barnet Political scene with friends across the Political Parties and rather proves that persistence pays off. Mystery surrounds the Deputy Lieutenant who made a song and a dance of leaving the Chamber early but still managed to be at the buffet afterwards apparently he does not like the Party Politics which creeps into the latter stages of the meeting . I suspect Her Majesty the Queen hated various bits of successive Queens speeches at the opening of Parliament but that is the job . 

Anyway the meeting lasted an hour and twenty minutes and then we all adjourned for the buffet where a good time was had by all and the real business of the evening was done . 

 There was a long list five or six of Labour apologies and one Conservative which if you cannot be bothered to attend the Annual Meeting is a sure sign you are pissed off and that old war horse John Marshall told me he was not attending the Annual Meeting as he hated them when he served on the Council and was blowed if he was attending now he did not  have to (an attitude adopted by a few ex Mayors ) . So as I boarded my 125 bus I thought do I miss it ? You decide reader ! 

 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 .