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 !