We're Lumbered with It (Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats <info@barnetlibdems.org.uk>

We're Lumbered with It

March 3, 2010 8:18 PM
By Cllr Jack Cohen in Hendon Times

Last night's Council meeting cleared one thing up: the Conservatives read this blog. As far as any thing else goes nothing changes. The Conservatives used their majority to vote in the Mayor Designate and again their majority ensured our budget amendment was voted down and the Tory Budget went through.

We have a tradition in Barnet that the Mayor only comes from the ruling administration. This is a pity because there are capable candidates from all parties who are ready to serve. That is not to say that the chosen Councillor from Hendon Ward is not eminently suitable.

Whilst I am on about the Mayoralty I am quite getting to like the present incumbent. Yes you hear that correctly. He presided over proceedings firmly but fairly. He put the former leader firmly in his place when he tried to interrupt proceedings. No love lost between those two. I also amused myself watching the Mayor trying to keep a straight face during some of the contributions.

The main debate was of course about the Budget. The Mayor managed to call most of the Councillors who indicated they wanted to speak. The way the proceedings work is that Cabinet members speak on their area of responsibilities. I may be unfair but it seemed to me that most of them droned on reading from prepared briefs spewing out incomprehensible statistics. At one stage a reporter on the press benches fell fast asleep. I hasten to add it was not our respected Hendon Times Journalist.

My colleague Cllr Monroe Palmer livened things up. He ridiculed the Conservatives for the way they had managed the Council's Finances. He accused them of risk taking. Referring to the £27 million deposited in the doomed Icelandic Banks, he suggested that the Administration might done better putting the money on Mic's Delight which ran in the 4.45 at Kempton Park, (came in incidentally at 20-1) last Saturday. His point was well made. I thought we made a good case for the Liberal Democrat Alternative Budget. My Colleague Cllr Jeremy Davies knows his way around all things financial. He certainly knows how to sniff out money that is squirreled away. My reference to him as the Vince Cable of local government went down well.

The leader of the Council had the final word. The leader tried her best to defend the Conservative record. My colleague Cllr Wayne Casey had earlier coined the saying ""Great ideas are never remembered, dumb statements never forgotten." Perhaps that is why the Leader's explanation for the overspend of millions on the Aerodrome Road Bridge sticks in my mind. It went something like this" We kinda got a bit lumbered with it"-Indeed.

So it was all over the Town Hall emptied fast. I was one of the last to leave. Well not quite the last. I spotted the Times Series reporter hanging around. Was he after a scoop? Was he hoping to doorstep the Mayor? No he was simply looking for something to eat. You see we had not adjourned for the usual break when the press and public can find (or is it scrounge) a sandwich and coffee. It's a hard life.