From today's addition to our Top London Bloggers page, the dauntless Barnet Eye:
If you asked me to point you in the direction of a good blog by an elected politician, you may be rather surprised to know that I'd point you at the blog by the Leader of the London Conservatives on the GLA, Roger Evans AM.
However, the eagle Eye thinks Roger's recent post about the new fire station opening in Harold Hill contains a significant omission:
What I found amazing is that there is not a single mention of Brian Coleman in Roger Evans blog. Given that he's the chairman of the LEFPA which commissioned the station and accompanied Boris and Roger, why can this be?
The Eye's view is:
The truth is that it's because [Coleman] is a huge embarrassment.
Well. it's certainly true that Roger doesn't mention Brian (although there is photo of him). Neither does he mention the vociferous demonstration by members of the Fire Brigades Union against the changes in shift patterns it believes Coleman wishes to introduce in the name of efficiency and which they claim will reduce emergency cover and put firefighters at greater risk.
Challenged about this omission on the comment thread, Roger quips that he "always like to get to events early and avoid the crowds." But both London Tonight and London's section of The Politics Show thought the demo well worth reporting. Interviewed on the latter, Coleman was straightforward in saying he couldn't rule out closing fire stations in an economic context in which - repeat after me - it will be necessary to do more with less. The Union's Ian Leahair was not impressed. A vote on industrial action "up to and including strikes" is scheduled for the coming months.
I'm reluctant to take sides: those studio exchanges had the unmistakable flavour of preliminary public sabre-rattling in advance of serious arm-wrestling behind the scenes. But, I couldn't help noticing Coleman's following the Mayor's lead in appropriating full credit for the new station at Harold Hill, despite its having been commissioned under Ken Livingstone (in his blog post Roger Evans tells of his part in past campaigning for improved local fire service provision, but would a Tory London Mayor have coughed up in the same way?).
Coleman is famously upfront and combative. This isn't always a bad thing. Alas, he is also famous for his luxurious expenses claims and an extreme reluctance to moderate them. Given the mood his attitude has helped put the union in, he'd do London a favour to get in touch with his subtle side - assuming he possesses such a thing.
