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 ?