This evening, In the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley, I went to see a film.
No ordinary film, Billion Pound Gamble is a very personal look at what has happened in local Barnet politics in the last few months.
It went through the changes that are happening in the borough, such as the awful parking regime, and spoke of the damage done to traders. I see this myself in East Finchley, and residents often say to me that they strongly support our parking pledges.
It spoke about changes in social care, and Cllr Tom Davey's unwise comment that "we can't help people who won't be helped".
They described what has happened with Friern Barnet Library, and how the community has responded to the closure, and the new occupied library in its place.
It addressed Mike Freer's One Barnet catastrophe, and carried the brilliant video of Mr Reasonable and his "magic shiny box" which eloquently demonstrated that One Barnet is really a black hole, and no one knows what happens inside.
It is a hugely important film, and I well recommend people see it at a showing, or buy the DVD.
People are rarely moved by local politics, but Mike Freer's One Barnet catastrophe is stirring something. People not ordinarily political, even those who are staunch Tories are being put off by the undemocratic and opaque process that One Barnet is being implimented by. They are standing up and making films about it. They are making films about local councils that fill cinemas! if One Barnet achieves nothing else, it will have achieved that.
