Three easyCheers for Barnet's No-Frills Approach

Well done indeed Barnet!

The Guardian reports today that you are adopting an easyJet-style, no-frills approach to local government. This is fantastic trail-blazing stuff for sure, delivering the change that the people want, right at the heart of where it is needed.

No doubt you'll start by axing the bloated allowances and expenses of Barnet's frilliest councillor (and Mr Bumble look-a-like): Brian 'Mr Toad' Coleman:

Absolutely brilliant stuff Barnet and I'm sure I speak for....eh, what's that? The no-frills approach is really all about changes like removing services from the elderly and vulnerable you say? So, not delivering the change that the people want and all that then?

Oh...

Mr Toad's Failure in Potters Fields

Here's a happy update to an old story for you.

In 2006, Brian 'Mr Toad' Coleman opposed the refurbishment of Potters Fields Park (one of London's few, precious, green spaces), saying:
"I think we could do with a multi-storey car park on the site for 1,000 cars...That's what Londoners need. Parks in central London we're not short of."

This, of course, is not Coleman's only 'sharp-as-a-mallet' contribution to the green debate. Regular readers will, I'm sure, recall Coleman's Bottom where the Amphibious Member for Barnet and Camden employed a similar approach to the conservation of green space in his own constituency.

Anyway, here's what Brian Coleman wanted on the Potters Fields site:


And here are the very happy results of his miserable failure:

More lovely pictures of Potters Fields can be found here.

Farenheit 451 and the 'gilded fool'.

Echoing the fire chief in Ray Bradbury's 'Farenheit 451' - fire chiefs in London have ordered the destruction of a picture of a certain 'gilded fool'.

The poster, it seems, is a 'safety risk'.

The Tory Troll blog has the scoop - (as ever)

Click here for bigger.

PS - If you've read down this far then you may be interested to know that the 'gilded fool' reference is taken from a quotation from 'Farenheit 451':
"This age thinks better of a gilded fool than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school!"

Its a little obscure I admit, but I couldn't resist it.

Commend-A-Copper's Come A Cropper

Police throughout the land are breathing a collective sigh of relief tonight that they are no longer being 'helped' by Brian 'Mr Toad' Coleman (after all, with friends like him....).

This is because, it rather looks as though his failed Facebook fiasco: the 'Commend A Copper' group has finally been removed.

As this blog reported, Mr Toad set up the group as a cheap and nasty gimmick, to divert political flak away from himself. It failed. Miserably.

In fact, Coleman's association with the group ensured that it only drew criticism of the police and of himself. He deleted almost all of those messages that were critical of himself and his ill-conceived, quick-and-dirty piece of PR. He also deleted the commendation of Sir Ian Blair that someone posted on that page - presumably because he disagreed with it.

What a miserable failure.

Brian Coleman on holiday

I hear that Brian Coleman is on holiday.

Certainly, he could do with the break after the recent avalanche of negative press he's received. Just in the last month, he's been:

* Censured by the LFEPA for unlawfully making up the (un)democratic process as he goes along.
* Lambasted by the London Assembly Audit Panel over his abuses of the expenses system
* Found out by The Barnet Eye for apparently 'flipping' his expenses
* Caught out awarding a multi-million pound contract to a company which treated him to free food and a Harvey Nichols hamper
* Facing a misconduct hearing at Barnet Council (this blog awaits the results with interest).
* Shouted at by Boris Johnson who forced him, in an embarrassing climbdown, to reveal his 'ridiculous' expenses
* Publicly rebuked by members of his own party, notably here and here and here and (very pointedly) here.

Things have got so bad, that he's now refusing to answer the phone to journalists.

Yes, Mr Toad could certainly do with a break. And he's not the only one!

But the big question for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives has been this: Where can Coleman be sent where he's sufficiently remote to do little damage and, in these times of spin, where he can start to rebuild his political reputation?

It would need to be a place where there was another figure, more foolish, more prone to embarrassing gaffes and a bigger bully. It'll need to be somewhere with plenty of food of course.....

Ah! Got it!



Incidentally, I checked Addison Lee's website for a taxi quote between London N3 and sunny Torquay. Its £579.10 each way. So don't try it Coleman. We'll be watching!