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New Conversations: a visit from Arlene, as the Tory right takes control of...
Tory Councillor Jennifer Grocock and the DUP's Arlene Foster at Margaret Thatcher House, the Finchley Tories office, in Ballards LaneIt was Mr Reasonable who spotted it, hidden away in the agenda for...
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Lord Pickles: "Public participation is an important part of council scrutiny"...
As you may know, at a recent meeting of the Constitution committee, Barnet Tories, despite all reasoned argument to the contrary, decided to approve a motion that would effectively end all challenge of...
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Bound and gagged: Barnet Tories attempt to silence the voices of their own...
A Barnet Tory fantasy: gagging the Barnet bloggersThe outcome was always inevitable. The extent of dissent amongst the Tory ranks was not. Yes, I'm talking about the other night's Full Council meeting,...
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Conference, "Common Sense", and a return to Broken Barnet
I didn't go to Conference last year. Not altogether a bad thing: rather like Glastonbury, having a year off gives the opportunity of a time of peace, and calm, and a chance for the grass to go...
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West Hendon: they call this 'Regeneration' - and: 'Relative Poverty', the...
Victoria Derbyshire, Brian Coleman, West Hendon tenant Annie, and director Ken Loach. Pics courtesy BBC.Poverty, explained Tory Councillor David Longstaff, the diminutive former Actor, (Beige man in...
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A Walk in the Park: Ten Years of Broken Barnet
Labour's Parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, and local councillor, Ross Houston: in the background the empty site of the former Park Keeper's Lodge in Victoria Park, soon to be a...
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Do the Right Thing, or: The Right Thing to Do? - another tale of two Barnets
Two stories, in one post. Saracens - and Marsh Drive. Where shall we begin?Last week saw a hugely significant development in the continuing saga that is the relationship between the London Borough of...
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Saving Barnet Libraries: the last battle
The 'refurbishment' of Barnet libraries ... remember that? This was the interesting claim that was written on banners and hung outside library buildings across the borough, two weeks before the general...
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Tell Us Like It Is: Barnet Tories confronted with the impact of their...
Reuben Thompstone enjoys being Chair of the libraries committee. Or rather being the Chair of the committee that deals with libraries, as an afterthought - which is all they are and can ever be to the...
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Finchley Memorial Hospital - new proposals to build on our community green space
During lockdown, normal life, of course, has come to a standstill. We have been living isolated lives, distanced from each other, in fear and anxiety for the future, the preoccupations of our former...
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Finchley Memorial Green Space: Clowning around, Weaving the Landscape - and...
Grimaldi, hoping to find a cure for his depression, asks Abertheny for advice, and the surgeon, unaware of his client’s identity, prescribes the diversions of “relaxation and amusement”:“But where...
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Too Long at the Fair: Victoria Park, and Barnet Tories, all on board the...
All the fun of the fair, in Broken Barnet, in the year of Covid.Update no 2. - Thursday, please scroll down to the bottom.Update no 1. with a response from Barnet's Chief Executive, below - and my...
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Caritas Christi Urget Nos: the Daughters of Charity, and another chapter in...
St Jeanne Antide Thouret, Daughter of Charity Of the thousand or so posts published on this website, over the last ten years, still the most frequently re-visited, perhaps rather surprisingly, are...
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The Treasure House: Barnet Tories resume their war on libraries and plot the...
Hendon Library, pic courtesy Historic EnglandThere is a time for everything, in Broken Barnet: a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a...
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In a green shade: Barnet's open spaces under threat - again - from Barnet's...
Highlands Gardens, New Barnet: of 'low value', according to Barnet ToriesPic credit here and last pic, Lucy Bridgers, High Living BarnetUpdated Monday evening:Well, goodness me. After a week, and two...
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The Boulevard of Broken Dreams: the Burroughs, the Hendon Hub - and Barnet...
The Burroughs, Hendon. All of these buildings except the old Workhouse, right, have survived. So far.Sometimes it is hard to know where to start, when writing about the political scene in Barnet. But...
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The Teardrop Explodes: the new Hendon library that is, and is not
Above right: the new 'library' design, which has not been designed.Well then. A short update to the previous post on the Hendon Library fiasco.As you know, the Broken Barnet web of informers spreads...
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Makerspaces and Make Belief: more on the Hendon Hub and the threat to...
Hendon LibraryMore news on the story of the Hendon Hub, and Barnet Tories' plan to help Middlesex University turn the most historic part of Hendon into what will effectively be a campus site,...
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Hubble Bubble: More toil and trouble in Hendon - Historic England sidelined...
St Mary's Church, Hendon, by Alan Sorrell, 1937Almost every day now, a new revelation about the Hendon Hub development emerges from the shadows. Today's story is about the heritage and conservation...
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Countdown to failure, for Barnet Tories, and Casting the Net: a Week in...
Labour Cllr Anne Clarke, AMAs predicted, the recent London Assembly elections saw Roberto Weeden Sanz, the Tory candidate for Barnet and Camden, soundly beaten by Labour's Anne Clarke, and we also...
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A Perfect Storm: Barnet's Tory pro-development council ignites an...
Undefeated by the storm, local residents protested against the Hendon Hub plansOn the 20th of July there was a Policy and Resources committee meeting at Hendon Town Hall, at which the highly...
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Storming the Town Hall: Barnet Tories, the lie of 'Regeneration' - and the...
Last week I was asked by a BBC journalist preparing for the May elections in London about the prospect of a Labour win in Barnet. Yes, this is a real thing. Hold on to your hats.There has been much...
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Welcome to Broken Barnet: soon to be under new management
Welcome to BarnetThe London Borough of Broken Barnet has always been of interest to the media, especially at election time, partly because of now fading memories of the area's association with Margaret...
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Welcome to the Borough of (Hopefully No Longer Broken) Barnet
Ok. I've been putting it off, but here is a sentence I've wanted to write for ... at least twelve years. Well, longer, in fact, much longer.We now live in the London Borough of (Hopefully No Longer...
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Learning How Not to Drown, or: Another General Election, in Broken Barnet
It's been a while, I'll grant you, but - for one night only - here we are. The Great Unpleasantness is upon us: another General Election has come along and all of us here in Broken Barnet must do our...
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