Meltdown at Barnet Council

Statler and I have been receiving frantic telegrams and carrier pidgeon messages about the Grant Thornton report condemning the handling of the Future Shape program.

Unconfirmed rumours suggest that Andreas 'Hit Man' Tambourides has instructed fellow Conservatives on Audit Committee that they are not allowed to embarass Lynne Hillan / Howard or the Officers by asking any questions on the report at the meeting. Only questions that have been approved by the Officers can be asked. If Conservatives on this Committee tomorrow night are strangely quiet, you will know why.

We are also trying to get a comment from Department for Communities as to whether it is true that they are appointing an independent investigation to look into goings in at Barnet Council in the wake of this scathing report.

Johnny come lately, weblogger, Roger Tichbourne has posted here and here on the growing crisis. Statler and I are befuddled as to how a 'politically neutral' Officer of the Council has seemingly become a major player in the public debate between Councillors and Mr Tichbourne.

Statler and I are in no doubt that Cllrs Marshall and Harper will be getting ready to claim their crown very shortly...

A moment of silence please

Statler and I have been informed that our erstwhile colleague of many years, Mr Brian Reynolds, has been pushed out by Nick Walkley and his stormtroopers decided to move on to other opportunities which coincided with Mr Walkley restructuring his top team.

We wish the clapped out old wooly hatted, thermos carrying commie great man, with a wealth of experience in local government and a staunch reputation for political neutrality, all the best in his staring out of the window from his front room future endeavours.

Those with an interest in these matters can read about the restructure what the Council thinks you should be allowed to see here.

Statler and I have posted an excerpt from the minutes above showing how far Barnet Council is truly embracing the coalition goverment's approach to transparency.

Fiddlesticks! We were one vote out...

Statler and I have been kicking our big brown wooden clockwork Predicting Machine this morning. The damn thing is clearly faulty as it was a whole vote out from getting Lynne Hillan's vote correct. Maybe we are being too harsh as we chose not to pay the extra £5,633 for the Global Positioning System Device add on that would have alerted it to the fact that Alison Cornelius was in Strasbourg and hence unable to vote for her cherished friend, Lynne.