Mike gets the recognition he deserves

Check page 9 of the Hendon Times this week. There is a poll showing that 77% of Barnet Resident's think Mike is doing a great job. There is also a letter from Mr A Gupta saying that Mike has cut costs, eliminated waste and pulled council finances out of the red. It is great to see that ordinary people like what they see.

Welcome to Barnet's most successful blog !

It's a funny old world. I only started this blog to counter all of the nasty and unfair comments about Mike that various Barnet malcontents were continually publishing in the various Barnet blogs. It seems that these bloggers were rather upset to find that rather more people read Mike's leader listens blog (figures announced at the recent Hendon residents forum) than their rather dull efforts.

Well even Mike's fantastic blog cannot keep up with the Friends of Freer. We've put Google Analytics in to track us and it seems that a whopping 75,000 of you have visited in the last month. It seems that people rather like reading good news and what a great job Mike is doing. I really never ever expected this much interest ! Thank you

Yet again Mike leads the way !

It seems that Barnet is at last getting the respect it deserves under Mike Freer's leadership. It seems that even Hazel Blears is a big fan of Mike. She's been paying tribute to the innovative Future shape scheme, and has been praising Barnet for its pioneering and innovative approaches taken to involve local residents in shaping policy across the borough.

The use of social networking sites such as Youtube and Facebook, along with informal neighbourhood meetings known as Leader Listens are cited as improving dialogue with local people to give them a direct input into improving local services.

In response to the compliment Mike welcomed the support of the Communities Secretary and went on to say: “Our unique approach is now being copied across the country by other councils and public services showing that Barnet has been the trailblazer in bringing true public engagement to those the council serves.”

Good for the goose !

The various bloggers of Barnet have been in uproar recently. For year's they've been hurling insults at Mike. Recently he spoke frankly and honestly about his feelings regarding the criticism and guess what? They don't like it up em Mr Mainwarning

A criticism of Mike !

It may surprise you to know that the Friends of Freer are not completely uncritical of Mike !

One thing we've often asked him and he's yet to give us a satisfactory answer to, is why he's so nice to the 5 or so malcontents in Barnet who feel the need to post multiple comments on every single thing he does, no matter how good bad or indifferent. Mike meets lots of people every week who he gets on really well with, but it seems there are some people with nothing better to do than wait for Mike to say something and then make nasty comments.

Now the question The Friends of Freer ask ourselves is this. If these armchair critics are so clever, why haven't they got proper jobs? Any suggestions?