Updated 5 July to add this glorious quote from a forum on parking in Barnet:
“Appealing to the council is like playing chess with a pigeon. You might be a chess grand master but the pigeon will always knock all the pieces over, shit on the board and then strut around triumphantly.”
Gold.
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It’s kicking off in Barnet again…
…this time, the council (or its CEO at least) appears to be after a local trader who produced a poster on behalf of Barnet Traders – a group that campaigned against the abolition of pay and display parking in Barnet at the recent elections.
I post this in solidarity with Helen Michael and the Barnet bloggers who are also posting about the issue. I’m also posting this because I’m generally pissed off with heavy-handed reactions to protest posters and leaflets, particularly in the leadup to the Olympics. It does not thrill me to know that I could be fined, or jailed, or tasered, or whatever for hanging an “Olympics 2012 Sucks” poster out of my own window. For Christ’s sake. I’ll say that the Olympics suck if I want to – not least because I’ve contributed God knows what in tax towards the whole circus and as a direct funder of it, I reserve the right to describe it as shit.
Anyway – Mrs Angry backgrounds Barnet Postergate in inspired style:
“Helen had, as part of her efforts to oppose the parking scheme, created, published and distributed a poster directly linking [Brian] Coleman to the damage to high street trade. It was a hugely popular poster, for obvious reasons, with traders and residents alike, all of whom were badly affected by the impact of the scheme, both financially, and in terms of restricted accessibility.
“…out of the blue last week – and blue does seem to be the appropriate colour – Helen Michael was contacted by police and told that she would be obliged to attend a local police station for an interview in regard to the Coleman poster.
She was asked for her ‘co operation’ – failure to show such ‘co operation’, one imagines, might have led to her being arrested. Taking legal advice, she sent a statement to the DPP, putting her version of the matter.
Yesterday, Helen spent two hours at Barnet Police Station, not arrested, but under caution, being interviewed – a recorded interview – by two detectives from what she was told is Scotland Yard’s ‘Special Investigation Unit’ – whatever that means.
There is a Specialist Operations branch which deals with various security issues, including counter terrorism, but one would imagine that only a complete idiot would think it likely that a cafe owner from North Finchley worried about the drop in sales of her tuna mayo baguettes was a threat to national security, or even the security of a tedious minor local politician – or indeed think it a justifiable use of public resources, especially at a time of such need for counter terrorist scrutiny in the preparation for the Olympic Games.”
That last paragraph is particularly brilliant. You can read the rest of Mrs Angry’s post here.
From Barneteye:
“Let’s just stick to the facts. Helen Michael was yesterday interviewed by 2 officers from Scotland Yard’s special investigations unit. This is the unit responsible for, amongst other things, terrorism investigations. Helen was read her rights and interviewed under caution.
The reason? Because a poster produced on behalf of Barnet Traders, campaigning against the abolition of pay and display parking in Barnet and extortionate parking charges, may have breached election law on a technicality. The purpose of the law was to prevent anonymous smear campaigns against people standing for elections.
The complaint against Helen Michael was initiated by the CEO of Barnet, Nick Walkley. Mr Walkley doubled up in this role as the returning officer. The Barnet Eye wishes to explore the motivation of Mr Walkley in making the complaint and wishes to know in what capacity he has been pursuing this.”
Read the rest of the Barnet Eye post here.
From the marvellous Mr Reasonable:
“Something is very, very wrong in Barnet. I am sure you have read on other blogs about the questioning of Helen Michael by the Special Investigations Unit of Scotland Yard over the poster she put up regarding parking in Barnet. It appears that the complainant is Mr Nick Walkley, Chief Executive of Barnet. What I find utterly incomprehensible is that just days after we have been told there is a massive black hole in the Met Police Budget and just over 3 weeks away from the biggest ever policing event in the capital, that someone in the Met has deemed this worthy of investing so much time in such a trivial non issue.”
Perhaps Scotland Yard should leave this woman alone and go and throw Bob Diamond in the can. Just a suggestion.