I attended the beginning of the Business Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting last night, where the Barnet Alliance for Public Services handed over thier petition to call for a referrendum on One Barnet. What was most interesting were the exchanges with the new Interim Chief Executive, in which he was asked questions like "When you have just told us that you expect future cuts to be 30-50%, how can you know what the Councils financial position is going to be in 10 years to lock us into these contracts." And other gems like "In my businesses, when I write words like variances in, it helps compensate for a low bid- it's where I get my profit from." Tow hich the reply was "That's standard Practise in the private sector" (!)
It's clear now even Tories are getting cold feet, but there is still some effort to go. The Committee did not vote to send the request to Cabinet for their consideration.
