My response to Boris Johnson, Prime Minister

 Boris Johnson

LBC asked whether I back him?  I laugh. I laugh.  He should resign.

You say it is the hypocrisy. I say it's the corruption.

I have a science training.  He is more of a classicist.

Here in Hendon constituency my MP - Matthew Offord - has done nothing in the last year about Covid.  



Did you see the crisis coming?

If you look at Offord's website it is out of date.  it still says it is a legal requirement to stay at home.
Why is that?
He likes to tell people what to do.  But they won't do it themselves.

Why do they like telling people what to do?

When they are clinging onto power, for Boris Johnson the crisis is a good thing.  When you have a population in fear then they will be too afraid to overthrow him.  He should resign for many, many reasons.

If he was trying to keep people in fear though, wouldn't he be imposing more restrictions, which he was stopped from doing really by the back bench rebellion that he suffered?

No, I don't see them as restrictions at all.  I am staying home for my own safety and because I am on the vaccine trial and I don't want to get it before I get my booster.  By the way, 50% have failed to get boosted so I don't blame anyone except Boris Johnson.  He set an unrealistic target for December.

Now in the new year he's got absolute Chutzpah, he's got the nerve, to tell us that we should all get boosted.  What? To give him immunity.

The People's covid inquiry report shows very clearly I think.  The public inquiry will show what the people's covid inquiry showed which is that there was an exercise to prepare for the pandemic.  You can't say he didn't see it coming because the government had an exercise to prepare for a coronavirus pandemic.  Now what did Boris Johnson learn from that?

Well, to serve his own ends.

There is an alternative.  It's called a Zero Covid strategy.  We have it in Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, a strategy by which we can keep the infection down to a manageable level.

scrutiny on social care

 Earlier I signed a motion to revolutionise the Green Party's social care policy.

Back in local politics, where Green Party seeks to win power and govern seriously, I've submitted a question as a member of the public.

on agenda item 6.

Does the chairman agree with me that the public could have more of a say if Barnet Council went beyond a budget consultation and gave us, the people of Barnet borough, the option of a referendum to increase the tax - which is a very small proportion of the wealth of those that own property in Barnet - in order to save social care?

Secondly

Given the fact that Barnet Council faces financial armageddon due to the mismanagement of previous administrations, would the chairman agree with me that the prudent thing to give residents a hope of free social care as enjoyed by Scotland, would be to join me in saying "yes" in such a referendum to save Barnet libraries and fully fund social care.

 

 

As the meeting clashes with Barnet Climate Action Group I shall not be submitting a supplementary system.  Councillors attending often look bored. At the best of times Barnet Council have been reluctant to bring residents in to scrutinise their decision making meetings, restricting questions to the point that we're basically gagged.  During a pandemic I resent the fact they have stopped live streaming meetings for those afraid to go out.  Live streaming was hugely popular and fits with the theme of my blog post today, about public engagement, which is one of the Council's core aims, supposedly.

My response to Lord Andrew Adonis' response to Owen Patterson

 Why I can't trust Labour's calls to tactically vote to remove Owen Patterson

(The views expressed here are my view and not necessarily representative of the Green Party)
I wrote on this very blog about the time that Labour approached me to try and get us to stop targeting East Finchley.  The electoral ward is home of some of Labour's worst and right-wing leaning councillors, and stands adjascent to Camden's only Green Party ward.  He said we should target High Barnet instead.  My party chose to follow his advice, after heavy pressure from our former election agent who joined Labour.  At a subsequent Green party pub social we were told repeatedly that the long suffering agent joined because they had a crush on said Labour - a low and totally untrue slander against my friend.  So after all this bullying from Labour to intimidate the Greens into changing strategy, Labour moved to target High Barnet, totally changing "Chipping Barnet Politics" except for what actually mattered.  The MP was returned to her seat with the Tories in Parliament.  The Greens came last at the next local election there.

What happened next.  Luciana Berger formed a Unite to Remain alliance and stood as a Liberal Democrats against Jeremy Corbyn's Labour, coming second.  Labour stood against her and campaigned against her.  Think about that before you call for people to vote tactically for Labour against the Tories.  By the way the sitting MP was a remainer.  The greens yet again made the politically brave move to stand down in Berger's constituency, allowing her to come second, while Labour stood against one of their own MPs basically.  All the while Labour were saying the message that a vote for Berger would hand the seat to the Tories, and only the Labour candidate could win in this marginal seat.

Meanwhile the same message here in Hendon constituency, that it's marginal, that only Labour can beat the Tories.  Yet what really happened, 4 times, is Labour failing to do so and letting down exactly every single one of the voters angry about the Tories and angry about Brexit.

At a hustings in Hendon a Labour supporter said I would be thanking him after the election.  An incorrect prediction.

That is why I don't have time for friends responding to the real corruption scandal with a fake call for so called tactical voting.  The General election isn't for years and we can't go on like this.  Not only is there no value in such posts in my social media timeline - but this tactical voting message which really harms the radical opposition, shows up how empty Labour's offer really is.  Who is their candidate? no one knows or cares.  What are their policies?  Like whoever the Tories will select to replace Owen Patterson, no one knows or cares.

Sarah Everard: My response

 What have you done?

Well here are a few things that I have done:

Retweeted various things. I've been a supporter since the beginning, of UK Uncut and Sisters Uncut, who campaign for services, paid for by proper payment of VAT by companies like Starbucks, and Amazon.

Asked my local Green Party what they are doing and as a result agreed to sign up to the Netpol charter.

Filled in a local police survey to try and make violence one of their top priorities and volunteered to be on their ward panel (not heard back!)

I continue to support the "Boris Keep Your Promise" campaign for many more local rape crisis centres across the region, something that could be suggested in local planning consultations.

It is not just a women's issue.  Men too must take action for change.

I have a petition on local street stalls to make Misogyny a Hate Crime, that is ready to post off to Cressida Dick, Met Police chief.

The Avengers

 In the original Avengers comics by Stan Lee Issue #3 Spiderman makes an appearance.  Then for a brief moment Tony Stark makes a tele- visit to "Professor Xavier's school for gifted youngsters"  Does that mean that the Marvel Comics Universe is distantly connected to the X Men?  In the newer films the two universes are separate.  The comic refers to Tales of Suspense #49 "Iron Man and the Angel"

Khan ignored my reply to his letter

 Here is the full text

Hi Anne

I still haven't had any response to my email dated 16 April 2021.

You are saying that you want to be the representative for this area, so I would appreciate a response?

Incidentally, I see that Sadiq Khan was in the area - did you raise the matter with him then?

 Ben Samuel

On Friday, 16 April 2021, 08:35:28 BST, Ben Samuel <moretree5@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Dear Anne Clarke,

Thank you for your kind letter introducing yourself and what you stand for.  As you may recall, you are standing against a Conservative candidate who you've debated the climate emergency highlighting your excellent actions in the council chamber and likewise we have marched with you for change following the momentous referendum - that would be in the interest of residents and not the interests that the Conservative hard liners have been pushing.

I too will work with anyone in Barnet committed to build a better, greener, more equal city.

But a starting point must be a clean campaign pledge.  Just because the Conservatives think they can get away with lies and deception - Sadiq Khan is a decent person and must not stoop to the level of "Nasty Zac" with his dog whistle messages 5 years ago, or Sean Bailey with his fake charity to promote himself, or his fake letter from the tax people which you must have seen because it was hate shared for about a week by every Labour social media user.

As I await my early vote (I'm not sure why you invite me to register on Labour's own website, I know the difference between data harvesting subverting my privacy and a genuine council website) I received an interesting letter from a certain Sadiq - Mayor of London.

The letter is a shade of pink - perhaps reflecting the branding that the next Mayor of London has to highlight her different politics.

My postal voter letter came a bit early and before I cast my vote I demand an answer from Sadiq Khan to my comments on this letter which as a local representative I ask you to pass on to him.

The following key messages appear in bold in your letter from Labour Central and signed by Sadiq.

This election is a two-horse race between me and the Tories.

This is mistaken or a lie!  A vote for any other candidate as first preference does not help the Tories win.  This election is different.  You have two votes for London Mayor.  Sadiq Khan is almost certain to win, possibly in the first round.  Polls put the Tories many points behind and unlikely to win.  Even if it were close, you can vote to keep your least favourite candiate out with your second preference vote.  A number of challengers are legitimate anti Tory choices: Greens and Lib Dems.  Barnet Lib Dems have proven themselves to be anti Tory with 1 defector losing the Tories a seat yet you won your seat at the expense of the Lib Dems rather than fighting the Tories.  However, there isn't all that much room between Sadiq and the Tories as he is a weather-vein politician with centrist instincts.  Even with Khan in office, that won't benefit Barnet much, with the Tories pressing on with their agenda here and continuing to be antagonistic towards the mayor in the council chamber.  The "Two horse race" analogy is sometimes used to win in a First Past the Post election but that is not the electoral system in this election.

I'll build an even brighter future for London after the pandemic If you were serious about tackling toxic air pollution you'd scrap road projects like the Silvertown tunnel and the Hammersmith bridge.  If you were serious about rent controls you wouldn't have made the exact same promise to me 5 years ago with zero rent controls to show for it!

The Tory candidate doesn't share London's values. But do you?   City hall is different form Westminster.  It is not about parties but about working together and forming coalitions.  At least Sean Bailey understands that if he were mayor he could play to the ultra right were they to gain a foot hold in the assembly - and there's only one way to vote strategically against Gammons and Labour won't make a difference.

Use all your votes for Labour.  According to the Mayor booklet you can leave the 2nd preference blank but if you vote Labour for both first and second your whole vote will be invalid - but Labour will still win the Mayor even with a few spoilt ballots.  The Labour Party will have some constituency seats but voting Labour on the London wide list is a wasted vote.  Assembly members like you will not ask the serious questions above to the Labour mayor because you're tribal and on the same side.  Greens will be the voice of Londoners against Gammons and holding the Mayor to account on things like youth services.  Greens have always done well on the list ballots but Sadiq's letter rejects that.

You should have received your postal vote This is just wrong.  My card says I won't get it for another week.  I look forward to your response before casting my vote.

As a Barnet resident and postal voter I ask for your help to raise the above question with Sadiq and Labour central as a matter of urgency.

 Ben Samuel

Twisted logic

 A certain politician has in his biography that he is a police officer.  He knocked on one door and said he'd been burgled.  When asked was anything taken he said the house was empty.  IS HE PAYING TAX PAYERS MONEY FOR A SECOND HOME IN A BOROUGH HE DOESN'T REALLY LIVE IN?

Again and again: Fly tipping action plan debate

 Last night I took part in a council meeting as a member of the public.  I pointed out that no one reads the council website and when I see sign posting in the plan I thought that meant actually doing something residents can see.  For my question I asked why the council isn't doing anything?

I read out a post on fixmystreet.com from last Saturday

The Chairman invited an officer from the working group to answer.  I said to the chairman that you're responsible for this.

The officer said that he will look into the problem on Blundell Road.

However the problem is much wider than Blundell Road.  It's likely that he'll pass many fly tipping hotspots on his way there.

Labour said they raised this back in September.  This is only partly true.  The dossier from the ward councillor contained a few examples and was in fact last year September.  In the following 12 months there's been some enforcement but no explaining so residents are unaware of the enforcement and unaware of what to do or what if anything the Council is doing.

There was some positive response to fixmystreet.  For some time the council stopped taking reports from there.  It's likely they will reverse this decision and scrap their own system and use fixmystreet as a sole system for reports such as these.

I pointed out how painfully slow the progress is.

The officer said enforcement is part of it.

Labour asked about CCTV.  I think the only way this would be possible would be to have around 50 cameras around every green space, basically on lamp posts.  Residents could then capture any evidence and report it to the council.

Who would then continue to ignore it and take away the rubbish every now and then.

The problem is not just on Blundell Road.  Rubbish has been dumped from North Road onto the river way on the wildlife walk.  It's been there for nearly a year.

Here's the thing.  Dean Cohen has been through countless officers and directors.  he's been re elected on the promise of no overflowing bins, and no fortnightly collections, but then cut all recycling back to a weekly blue bin collection that people generally abuse with no fines for compulsory recycling.  When it's contaminated they take away the bins for whole blocks of flats.  Large items are often put in bins or dumped nearby rather than proper disposal.

When I moved here 2 years ago my neighbours asked me if I'd have a skip and suggested I dump any refurbishment waste by communal bins, as they did with their house hold bin bags and rat eaten furniture.

The Conservatives said vote for them or rats would come and they'd increase council tax.  Rats have massively increased.  They've deflected blame away from the council stating it's a national issue; but it is the responsibility of councils and the Conservatives must get their Central Government to allow the funds to reach these services.

It's on your watch, Councillor Dean Cohen (Golders Green).