Seasons greetings

Mike and all the team send seasons greetings to all our friends. We wish you all a happy and prosperous new year.

lay off attacking barnet council staff

we have seen the local bloggers whipping themselves into a frenzy of excitement. over the news that barnet council sought to contact the ICO. barnet attempted to stop one of its employees being harrassed. where is the voice of reason. the poor man was just trying to do his job. the bloggers may not agree that barnet council need someone in that role, but is it necessary to question his faith and draw attention to his personal website. the so called bloggers have recently criticised barnet for its attitude to its employees. isnt it a bit rich to then criticise the council for sticking up for one of them. by all means knock the council if you feel you must. just lay off the staff.

Mike threatened at constituency surgery

You may have seen this report about an incident at Mike's surgery yesterday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15508697

Mike issued this statement following the incident

Events at my surgery on fri in no way represents the mainstream majority at my local Mosque. I will continue to work for all constituents.

Mike was extremely frustrated that the actions of a few prevented him from helping many people who had turned up for his advice. Mike observed that it is clear such people are not interested in democracy, free speech or the rights of others. Mike was heartened by the support from the vast majority of people at the Mosque. Most of those present were extremely upset that a group of people, many not local, had turned up to cause trouble.

The tricks of the Trots !

Never trust a lefty ! Our lovable loony leftys organised organised a "residents forum", inviting all of our MP's and Councillors and then made a song and dance because no Conservatives came. They scream that this shows that we are not interested in big society in Barnet. What they didn't tell anyone is that they deliberately organised it during the Conservative Conference, when we were all away. Sadly some well meaning and sincere residents were taken in.



If anyone has any issues they want to discuss, that were raised at this meeting, please come to one of Mike's regular surgeries and he'll be only too happy to help.

Mike is out and about reassurring residents and businesses

Whilst many MP's have been on holiday during the riots, Mike has been out and about in Finchley and Golders Green. He's also been keeping in constant touch with Barnet Police and reassuring local people generally that we're on top of the situation in the constituency. Through the holidays, Mike has continued to hold regular advice surgeries. We urge anyone who has worries or concerns about the way the riots have affected them in the constituency to get in touch. Mike is out there working for you every single day. We do not want to see civil unrest, anti social behaviour or thuggery on our streets. If you know of anyone involved in such behaviour contact your local safer neighbourhood team. Mike firmly believes that local policing is the answer to many of these problems. We can only tackle these problems if we pull together as on big society!

Mrs Angry says I agree with Mike

Many years ago, Mike coined a name for various malcontents in Barnet. He described them as one handed bloggers, because you know what they are doing with the other hand. In recent times, a new breed of barnet blogger has sprung up. Seems like they also have the number of our one handed blogging friends. Amid talk of discontent in the barnet blogging ranks, we were reminded of a blog by Mrs Angry. She mentioned this blog and she took the trouble to explicitly confirm our suspicions about Mr Roger Tichborne, AKA the barnet eye. If you want a good chuckle, read the last two paragraphs

http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/05/brian-coleman-fightback-starts-here.html

She's not the only one. Another blogger, the anonymous (in every sense) Mr Mustard, left this comment on Tichbornes blog yesterday

Mr Mustard said...

You remind me of what I said about a nameless agent in another country who I am obliged to deal with.

Company motto " We aim to displease"!

4 August 2011 23:52

It is good to see that the new breed of blogger in barnet has woken up to what the Friends of Freer have known all along. To paraphrase our good friend, Brian Coleman, Tichborne is a poisonous individual and the sooner everyone in Barnet wakes up to the fact the better.

Mike identifes nearly a billion in savings

Mike has been inundated with praise for his latest cost saving initiative, where he identified nearly a billion pounds worth of savings. Unlike some MP's, Mike isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, do some hard work and identify low hanging fruit in the form of savings. Mike's efforts will save every household in the UK £30 - quite an achievement for an MP who has only been in the job for a year.

Brian Coleman sends Labour into a panic

The friends of Mike Freer were rather amused to see that our article concerning the Labour party and its choice of candidate has caused panic in the local Labour party ranks. Responding to the charge that selecting Andrew Dismore Ex MP proved that it was same old Labour in Barnet, they had a flurry of activity. To prove that they have changed, they wheeled out none other than Ken Livingstone to visit East Finchley on a walkabout with Andrew Dismore. Nice to see they've freshened up the team !

Andrew Dismore claimed he was “not going to get into a personal slanging match” with Councillor Coleman. Of course not, he left that to Ken Livingstone who told the Times : “He represents everything that’s wrong about the way City Hall works".

Clearly the points we raised about Mr Dismore stung as both Mr Dismore and Mr Livingstone said they also recognised a need for school places as well as housing development in the borough. I wonder why Mr Dismore has not been supporting Etz Chaim, if this is the case. Surely he recognises that there is a chronic lack of places in Mill Hill.

He also responded to our comments about living in the Notting Hill champagne socialist belt by making the following comment “There is far too little in terms of affordable housing, particularly affordable housing for rent, and this is something which needs to be worked on.”

Strangely, the pair were rather quiet about the other issue we raise. Andrew Dismore and his expenses as an MP.

Brian Coleman congratulates Andrew Dismore on his selection as Labour GLA Candidate

The friends of Mike Freer caught up with an old friend of ours recently. Brian Coleman is our larger than life GLA representive for Barnet and Camden. Brian is well known as one of the most hard working politicians in London. He is also well known for his other work, recently co-hosting a show on LBC with his old adversary, ex Mayor Ken Livingstone.

We asked him what he thought of Labour selecting Andrew Dismore to face him in the GLA elections in 2012. Brian told us he was thrilled. Brian said "The selection of Dismore has conclusively shown everybody that it's the same old Labour party". Brian will be keen to highlight the fact that before Matthew Offord beat him in Hendon, Dismore was the MP with one of the highest expense bills in the country. Despite living in London, Dismore claimed allowances for a second home. Unlike Brian, Dismore doesn't even live in Barnet, his main home being in the champagne socialist belt in Notting Hill. Recently Andrew Dismore has been leading opposition to the Etz Chaim Jewish free school in Mill Hill, despite a desperate need for school places for Jewish children in Mill Hill.

It should be an interesting battle and we look forward to Brian being re-elected with a much increased majority.

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Congratulations to William and Catherine for giving us all such a wonderful day. We wish them a long and happy life together. It was great to see all of the smiling faces, young and old, out on the streets to celebrate. The country needed a tonic to cheer us up. The Royal wedding certainly did the trick.

Mike on cost cutting without damaging public services

Mike has written an article for the Public Service website, detailing why costcutting doesn't have to damage front line services. Mike describes how he successfully transformed the finances and services at Barnet Council during his time as leader. Mike goes on to explain how his approach could bring major savings and reform to national government.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=16189

Once again, it show just how lucky we are in Finchley to have such an outstanding MP.

Mike catches the public mood with his plans to ban squatting

Mike yet again caught the public mood, speaking about the menace of squatting.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8949321.MP_secures_meeting_over_squatting_problem/

Justice Minister Crispin Blunt is keen to meet Mike to see whether something can be done. It is great to have an MP who cares about the real issues which affect real people.

Mike says "Throw Gaddafi out of Finchley"

Mike Freer MP has called for the house belonging to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the dictator’s second son, in his constituency to be seized and for the extended Gaddafi family to be barred from entering the UK.

The Colonel’s son owns a property in Winnigton Close, Hampstead Garden Suburb. He has made recent attempts to rent the home out for £10,000 a week but with other members of his family seeking to flee Libya there are now fears Saif al-Islam will attempt to re-enter the UK.

Mike Freer MP said, “Other members of the Gaddafi family have tried to escape the anger of the Libyan people by flying to Malta and the Lebanon but have they have rightly been turned away by those nations. Britain must take exactly the same stance and refuse entry so they do not come and use the house located in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

This house and any other assets in the UK should be seized until the provenance of the family’s funds can be determined.”

The real reason bloggers hate Mike Freer

http://www.notthebarnettimes.co.uk/2011/01/boris-slams-coleman-freer.html

Please have a look at the comments on this blog written by one of of Mikes biggest critics - David 'Don't Call Me Dave' Miller. I have added stars to spare the blushes of our more elderly friends. Mike is rather pleased that some of his former critics have realised that much of the criticism of Mike is unfair and rather unpleasant.

Let me quote former Conservative Councillor Daniel Hope.

Daniel Hope said...

http://friendsoffreer.blogspot.com/2010/05/barnets-huge-debt-of-gratitude-to-mike.html

"Mike had to put up with a vicious campaign by a team of malcontents and bloggers. The friends of Freer believe that much of this was homophobically motivated."

So for full accuracy shouldn't DCMD have really attributed to Mr Freer that Barnet bloggers -

Vicious gay-bashing w**k*rs ?

Quotation ends.

Thank you Daniel. We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

Please note we are not Mikes official blog, we are the blog for his numerous and growing band of friends and admirers.