More recycling – Barnet be ashamed!

 

Barnet is blessed. Yes – you heard that right – blessed with citizens ready to read council documents – all written at dismaying length, couched in soul-sapping jargon, and set out in intimidating formats. Small wonder the councillors themselves rarely read them. (Is there some prepense element here? Far be it from me.)

But our Barnet bloggers, tireless archaeologists (watch out for the extended metaphor here) excavate them, and carefully brush off shards of colourless clay to reveal much about the culture that buried them there.

This once, an innocuous relic brought out of the depths was passed onto me. Labelled “Barnet Council responses to all customer feedback received via the GovMetric surveys on the website January 2014”  this is an Excel spreadsheet covering 130 rows (each represents a query to the website) and features columns including the original query, the response, and a customer rating for the response (ranging from ‘poor’ to ‘good’ – I did see a few of those. Impressed!)

The one to which my attention was drawn was row 17 and dealt with my favourite subject (no fool that blogger): rubbish! You may know that talking rubbish is a speciality of mine.
“No information on how to recycle shredded paper. So I have put it in a plastic bag in my blue bin. A note on this site would be helpful”, noted the conscientious resident. Hats off to her(?) for making the effort.

This blog has been trying, in its own small way, to shift our paradigm of rubbish – from discarded detritus, tainted, and triggering the disgust mechanism found in all of us humans, to a recognition that rubbish is no less than a resource in the wrong place worthy of the same attention we pay to objects we want. Really! Why? Not because it’s worth money (though in the right hands it is), but in the same way that we care for our friendships though there is no pecuniary advantage to them – because it has inherent value.

So, here is a resident saying Yes, my shredded paper may be worthless to me, a burden I need to get rid of, but I recognise that for it to realise its value, it needs to be disposed of in the right way. What is that way please?*

The answer she receives is wrong on every level!

Firstly she should be reminded in capital letter DON’T PUT PLASTIC BAGS IN THE RECYCLING.
The reason plastic “film” (bags, wrapping etc) shouldn’t go into the recycling is the same reason that shredded paper shouldn’t go in: it can’t be processed by the separation mechanisms (about which you can read more here) and instead gets blown about, gumming up the machinery, and creating a fire hazard.

Sadly the response read: “The service is working to provide a comprehensive A-Z list of what can be recycled which will include information on what to do with shredded paper. Shredded paper can be placed loose in your blue bin.”

What does this tell us? Firstly that the “service” is still not sorted out – working out a comprehensive list should have been done long since (it was brought in in October and planned long before that) and a draft should surely have already gone up and included shredded paper. Because, as Fareham council recognises here: “Shredded paper has been a feature of office waste for many years and is now more common in households as people become concerned about identity theft.”

Clearly the question never went to the staff who run the recycling plant, who kindly showed us Green Party members around the plant, and who told us about shredded paper. Instead who was consulted? Anyone? This answer is wrong, wrong, wrong – which is what you get when you do a half-arsed job aimed at finishing quickly, ticking boxes, and meeting KPIs. (Where’s the KPI that measures how accurate these answers are? It would cost more to police the KPI than to do the job of providing answers. Where’s the commercial logic in that?)

The resident supposedly graded the answer ‘good’. How was she to know? (Less ‘Impressed!’)

*Fareham Council tells you what you should do with all that shredded paper lower down the webpage (please allow for the fact that it is Fareham, not Barnet – so local differences will apply).

The Political Beauty Parade

This month’s brilliant EN4 and EN5 newsletters have appeared with this contribution from me about voter choices:

How did you choose whom to vote for in our momentous elections in May?

 

Plenty of people avoided the question altogether by not voting. Just as well. After all, if you don’t have a view, best to keep it to yourself, right? Similarly, if you resent the political system, don’t engage with it. It’s a perfectly legitimate form of protest; if wholly ineffective, and eventually, counter productive. But I’m not judging here. Just reviewing the options.

Others (many, many) voted tribally. One wonderful lady we canvassed told me she was 94, had always voted Conservative, as had her parents. End of. Tribalism speaks to a deep, atavistic need in us to belong. It is, potentially, a hugely valuable instinct that builds community. However, its role in voting preferences helps buttress vested interests, which encourages the generalised corruption… you get my drift, because I’m really not judging.

That tribalism is reinforced by the system of first-past-the-post. By confining all the benefits to the top winners and leaving no consolation prizes for the runners up, the system rewards tactical voting for the least worst option. That too reinforces the established parties.

In High Barnet three sitting Tory councillors were defending their seats against three rival parties also vying for your vote. What did you do? Did you decide on a goal (reward / punish the incumbents) and then consider pragmatically how best to achieve it? Or conversely, did you take a lofty approach and choose the party whose manifesto most closely resembled your ideals? Or did you take the opposite approach (how many opposites is that, now? Never mind) and base your decision on the personalities involved: Do they live in your street, been helpful to you in the past, or, lets face it, share the name of your cat?

Whatever your criteria, did you get the chance to do a comparison that could combine all these considerations: a hustings?

Stick with me. Hustings – a beauty parade for politicians – may suffer some of the naff image of their namesake events, and they share some standard questions to which ‘world peace’ is frequently the right answer. But while hustings don’t have a swimswear round, they are just as revealing in their own way. Putting the aspiring politicians in a room and subjecting them to a touch of accountability tells you about their policy promises, acquaints you with their record, but just as importantly you learn a hell of a lot about their attitudes. With insights that can only be had when you can smell each other, you get a feel for the people in front of you. Are they sincere? Do they listen? Are they clever, but uncaring?

There are those (OK, my mates) who say that we shouldn’t be allowed into the voting booth without first attending a hustings. By eyeballing our candidates and putting them through their ordeal, we become qualified to make a choice. Three residents associations in Barnet borough organised hustings for the local elections. None did in High Barnet. Shame. Do you think they could be persuaded to hold one in future if we instituted a swimwear round?

 

 

 

 

 

Message to Green voters in Barnet

Barnet now has, for the second time, confirmed that the Green Party is the third Barnet party. In the recent local election, Green Party candidates came third behind the behemoths – Labour and Conservatives – in most cases.

In High Barnet, Phil Fletcher and I, with well over 900 votes each, achieved the Greens’ best votes ever in Barnet borough elections and easily beat the top LibDem candidate, a former councillor.

Nor is this a fluke, but confirms a trend that was already evident in 2012 when the Greens beat the LibDems across Barnet in all three sections of the London Assembly elections – Mayor, Barnet & Camden constituency, and party list.

Greens are confirmed as Barnet’s third party, and in a proportional voting system we would now have several councillors fighting to reverse the One Barnet sell-off, get more affordable homes built, promote community and our high streets, and build democratic inclusiveness.

Elsewhere Greens did well – Camden retains a Green councillor, and in nearby Islington, Green councillor Caroline Russell is the sole opposition, taking on 47 Labour councillors.

We acknowledge all who voted Green in Barnet. We recognise your wish -made loud and clear- to bring about a fairer, healthier, happier Barnet. We hope that Barnet’s politicians will register your wishes and reflect on that.

As the leading alternative to the two big parties, we Greens will continue to be the progressive voice in Barnet. We invite you to join us and push for a politics for the common good – for people and the planet.