OFFICIAL: Coleman's snout too deep in the trough

The Standard reports today that "City Hall politicians should be banned from boosting their pay by doubling up as local councillors"

This, they say, is a recommendation from an independent review by The Senior Salaries Review Body. Brian 'Mr Toad' Coleman's excesses are singled out for criticism in their report, as the Standard notes:
"The £25,613 allowance received by Brian Coleman as Tory fire authority chairman — he earns £88,997 in total — was about £6,300 too high andshould be frozen, the report added."

Well done indeed to the The Senior Salaries Review Body. However, I do recommend a closer inspection as you will find, I think, that Coleman's snout is way deeper in the trough than you realised.

Rog T unmasked

Forget the 'Rumble in the Jungle'. Forget the 'Thriller in Manilla'. 'Cos on the 10th September, we have the 'Combat Zone in Whetstone' as blogger Rog T of The Barnet Eye blog goes head-to-head with Brian 'Mr Toad' Coleman at Barnet Council's Standards Committee.

Rog T revealed yesterday on his from-the-heart blog, that he was the mystery individual who had filed the complaint against Mr Toad after (allegedly) being labelled as a "an obsessive, poisonous individual".

You may recall that Mr Toad's chum Mike Freer squandered £10,000 of public money to pay for his defence.

You may recall Mr Toad's comments on the case:
"This investigation has absolutely nothing to do with me, nothing whatsoever, and if you say otherwise you will be hearing from my solicitor." ~ Brian Coleman May 2009

I'll be checking Rog T's blog on 10th September for sure. Once again, I predict that Mr Toad will employ the Bart Simpson defence.

UPDATE:
Having looked at the Committee papers, it appears as though Brian Coleman will attempt to portray himself as the poor, defenceless, little victim of big, bad Rog T. Surely the girth of Mr Toad's chutzpah is equalled only by his appetite for a free feed!

UPDATE 2:
I note that the venue has changed from Whetstone, to Hendon Town Hall. I wish I had known this before. It took me ages to find just a very average rhyme for 'Whetstone'. Hendon would have been much easier I'm sure.

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!