Famous five Barnet Bloggers' open letter

Silence has been golden these last few months on the subject of the alleged assault of Helen Michael, a cafe owner (those words may come back to haunt you Richard Cornelius) which turned out, and no Barnet blogger ever doubted Helen for a moment, to be a real assault, if Brian had swng Helen around much more he could have been appearing in Dancing on Ice, and now finally disciplinary action is to be taken.

Barnet's Bloggers don't sit silent and we have written to the current "leader" of the council, Richard Cornelius demanding some action.You didn't show any leadership Richard last September did you?

This is what we wrote:

Dear Mr Cornelius

On Friday 3 May Councillor Brian Coleman pleaded guilty to the charge of common assault by beating of Helen Michael, in the High Road in North Finchley. Evidence from CCTV was shown in court and proved incontrovertibly that this incident was nothing less than an utterly indefensible act of aggression. It resulted from Councillor Coleman being caught parking in a loading bay, trying to evade the hugely controversial parking payment scheme he had imposed on residents in this borough.

Despite the fact that he has now been convicted of a criminal act of assault, Barnet Council has refused to comment, absurdly claiming that this is unnecessary as the attack did not take place while the Councillor was on council business.

Indeed local Tory members, including leader Richard Cornelius, openly continued to support their fellow member after he was charged, and were privately informing others that the story of the assault was false. Councillor Coleman was suspended from the party only after intervention from Conservative Central Office. Since the conviction, local Conservatives have issued no statement.
By his own actions Councillor Coleman has shown himself to be unfit for public office: such bullying behaviour, dishonesty and hypocrisy are not acceptable in an elected representative of the community. We demand therefore that he stand down from his seat in Totteridge, and that the Conservative Party expel him from membership.

We call on Richard Cornelius, as leader of Barnet Council, and on behalf of the Conservative Party in this borough, to apologise to Ms Michael, and to dissociate himself and his colleagues from this appalling incident. To remain silent is not an option: to remain silent is to condone an act of violence against a woman, and this was and must always be absolutely unacceptable.

Signed:

Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

Richard always seems to be on holiday when the proverbial hits the wotsit. Welcome back to Barnet, Richard.

Don't expect the pressure to relent between now and May 2014; will you bother standing?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Fight night in North Finchley

Mr Mustard likes Cafe Buzz. He greatly admires Helen Michael who has campaigned tirelessly on behalf of her fellow traders whose businesses have been badly damaged by the double policy assault of making it hard to pay (by removing parking meters) and increasing charges at a time of recession and increased internet competition, a policy spearheaded by the then Cabinet Member with "responsibility" for parking, one Brian Coleman.

Imagine how incensed traders were when they saw Brian Coleman's car in a loading bay and him at a nearby ATM. Not one to talk and not act Helen Michael grabbed her phone and started to film Brian's car. At this point pandemonium ensued, which you can read about here in the Evening Standard.

Would the Finchley Boxing Club have allowed such a mis-match between two fighters of different weights

Half of photo stolen from son of Mrs Angry?

No, they wouldn't have risked Brian in with such a tigress. If Mr Mustard was a betting man, which he isn't, same as Brian funnily enough, he would say Brian was twice her weight.

Grappling with a lady and bruising her arm is not gentlemanly behaviour.

Mr Mustard observed Brian at close quarters on Wednesday evening. In Committee Room 3, the public are only separated from the meeting table by about a metre. We have to look at the back of the heads of councillors on one side of the table but get a reasonable view of the other 3 sides. Mr Mustard has never spoken to Brian Coleman, although they have exchanged a few emails, including the lovely one from Brian that said:

"stop emailing me you idiot"

which looks rather pot and kettle now.

Mr Mustard noted down, more or less, some of the things that Brian said (Mr Mustard writes in a frenzy of purple ink on a yellow pad - Paperchase pads are top notch).

At the end of public question time which Brian raced through like a greyhound, albeit the fattest greyhound you could imagine, and which the public who asked the questions found wholly unsatisfactory, see Mr Reasonable's blog, he finished by saying "Thank you for the exciting questions" which he quite possibly didn't mean. Mr Mustard thinks that the Police will have expected proper answers to their questions and won't stop asking until they get answers. No convenient 30 minute time limit for those questions.

Brian said "I don't mind how people live their lives as long as they don't break the law" which are words he may have to eat at some future date.

On Brian's turgid King of Bling blog, no don't look, it will only encourage him, there was a posting "Get a life" about the "amateur and often obsessive blogger”. In this piece Brian made some amazing claims, including:-

"my 88 year old Mother was attacked in the street" oh dear, Helen Michael is not a blogger but Brian obviously doesn't approve of attacking ladies in the street and yet he has been arrested on suspicion of assault (and we know that was of a lady, whether 88 or not is irrelevant and Mr Mustard has never seen his mother in person, only on film at the GLA election count).

Here is a tweet from today which is apposite to the whole situation.

When it comes to making your mark on the world, do you want to leave scars, or do you want to leave smiles?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard