9 July 2011

Reverse spin #1 - The Finchley Carnival (cont)

Mr Mustard has just noticed a Letter to the Editor in the Finchley Arrow. Please pop back once you have read the letter on the following website:

http://www.finchleyarrow.co.uk/

The letter is from the Chairman of the Finchley Carnival, a Mr William "Bill" Lethorn, who has a Civic Award which you can read about on the Barnet Council website ( of all places ! )

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/civic-awards-2008

and about whom the then Mayor said:
The Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Maureen Braun, said: "All our nominees have truly inspirational stories to tell and make a difference to the lives of so many by their hard work and dedication."

Surely that cannot be the same Bill Lethorn about whom Cllr Coleman has recently said "We saved it ( the carnival) from a bunch of amateurs ( Bill et al ) who failed to deliver."


Evidently they had a NotVeryMerryGoRound at the Finchley Carnival.

Anyway the point Mr Mustard actually wanted to make was that his figure of £3,500 for funfair income, in his earlier blog, is evidently way off the mark as Mr Leghorn suggests it should be nearer to £10,000 which would buy a lot more fireworks or a lollipop patrol or books or carers or.... 

Mr Mustard is trying to get the exact figures for you and will post them as soon as they are available.

Hopefully his mole at the Town Hall will be able to ferret them out quite soon.

And when nominations are due at the end of the year for Civic Awards for 2012 Mr Mustard will be nominating Mrs Angry, a shoe-in surely after being praised by Mr Eric Pickles MP ?

Yours frugally
Mr Mustard

5 comments:

  1. ha, Mr Mustard - just rushing out to buy a dress for the civic reception ... but re the Carnival, all is not what it seems. This is not a straightforward issue, and yet it is tragic that it has descended to such an undignified squabble. I live very near to Victoria Park, and we always used to attend our local carnival, but something has gone horribly wrong in the last few years. And I'm not sure who is to blame. Getting rid of the parade was a mistake, for one thing. And of course the interference by certain people has done nothing to improve matters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nothing too short in the dress department please Mrs A, we don't want our Councillors getting over excited.

    Not being a Finchley boy I have to rely on what I read and doubtless the story is complicated. I shall try and stick to taking the finances apart. I can't see that no money for charity and lots for showmen and firework makers is "Putting the Community First" however. If the Council can't run a booze-up in brewery then they aren't going to manage to run a Carnival. They are good at pantomime; most Council meetings !

    If the Carnival returns to normal next year Mrs A, Mr M will be delighted to buy you a gin in the beer tent ( I hope they have such a thing ).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I seem to remember that two years ago they tried to turn it into a music festival, and charged (?) £8.00 to get into the park.

    There were literally only a handful of people in the audience, in front of the stage, so they then said it was free to get in, which made little difference.

    So, yes, it is complicated. However, last year it was back to "normal" and seemed okay, even with Brian Coleman lurking around.

    (How appropriate, Mr M: I mention Brian Coleman, and your blog's 'word verification' test is the word "ching"!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. In the likely event of Mr. Mustard, busy blogging, being sadly unable to attend the Finchley Carnival Firework Display, those magic moments can be revisited again here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_s4vsQgE18

    I am sure this is not the first time Mr. Mustard has seen Barnet Council explode £1,500 into thin air...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is that what our money was wasted on?

    Finchley Fireworks

    and then just 2 minutes of the 15 minutes Mr Mustard saw at Lake Garda last month

    Lake Garda

    Do you know for definite that Finchley Fireworks costs £1500 ?

    ReplyDelete

I now moderate comments in the light of the Delfi case. Due to the current high incidence of spam I have had to turn word verification on.