Tag Archives: brian coleman

Mike Tuffrey AM writes… The question I asked top London Tory: “Is there anything you would not privatise?”

By Mike Tuffrey AM | Published 6th November 2011 - 10:10 am

“Is there anything you would not privatise?” That was the question I asked Brian Coleman, the controversial chair of London’s Fire Authority — a public body which sadly is in the grip of an ideologically-driven Conservative administration thanks to shameless gerrymandering by London’s Tory mayor Boris Johnson and unelected political appointees.

My question to him was prompted by the Tories’ current plans to privatise the London fire 999 emergency control room.

Mr Coleman’s answer? It was a bald and brazen “No”: there’s nothing he wouldn’t try to privatise if he could.

It’s true that in the London fire service …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Also tagged boris johnson, london fire authority | 6 Comments

Even Boris Johnson is moved to criticise Brian Coleman’s latest expense claims

By Mark Pack | Published 19th May 2011 - 12:25 pm

Even London Mayor Boris Johnson (a man not adverse to a generous claim or three for expenses) has been moved to criticise fellow Conservative Brian Coleman, whose latest expense claims for a London body attracted criticism a few days ago.

Boris Johnson said,

We have had a word with Brian and I think he understands this is a time for restraint in public spending all round.

Quite.

Hat-tip: @BorisWatch

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged boris johnson | Leave a comment

Brian Coleman tops lists of expense claims, again

By Mark Pack | Published 16th May 2011 - 7:24 am

Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman has often been in the news over the years for his expense claims (not to mention his attempt to ban questions of himself), so I hesitate slightly to says it is “news” that new figures from the London Fire Brigade show him topping the list of expense claims:

Assembly Member
Brian Coleman	April 2010 to March 2011	£3,480.20
Darren Johnson	April 2010 to March 2011	£0.00
Gareth Bacon	April 2010 to March 2011	£0.00
Mike Tuffrey	April 2010 to March 2011	£0.00
Murad Qureshi	April 2010

…

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged caroline pidgeon, ed butcher, mike tuffrey, terry stacy | 10 Comments

Meanwhile, in other news…

By Mark Pack | Published 13th January 2011 - 9:10 pm

Let’s start with some updates on stories we’ve previously covered here on The Voice.

Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman has backed down from his attempt to ban questions to him at London Fire Authority meetings.

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is to investigate the Daily Telegraph, following complaints from Tim Farron and others that the newspaper had gone on a fishing expedition rather than having the sort of public interest case which justifies journalistic subterfuge. On the substantive policy issue at stake, Ofcom look set to recommend that the Sky bid should be referred to the Competition …

Posted in News, Opposition watch | Also tagged daily telegraph, eastleigh council, journalism, press complaints commission, sefton council, tim farron, winchester council | Leave a comment

Brian Coleman: the secret shrinking violet

By Mark Pack | Published 10th January 2011 - 8:03 pm

It’s not often that Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman comes over as a shy, quiet, introverted man who likes to shun the public spotlight.

But I’m sure that’s why he is proposing to ban members of the London Fire Authority from asking him questions at future meetings. Nothing to do with wanting to avoid scrutiny for his actions, I’m sure.

Just as it was his shrinking violet nature that previously made him ban both questions and TV cameras from a meeting.

But a little unfortunate given the national Conservative Party’s frequent message about how important transparency and accountability is, don’t …

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged david cameron, eric pickles | 3 Comments

Conservative politician accused of threatening charity

By Mark Pack | Published 24th April 2010 - 5:20 pm

Adam Bienkov has the story which involves, surprise, Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman:

Boris Johnson’s fire chief was questioned by police this week after a woman accused him of a threatening and “intimidating” phone call.

Independent candidate Linda Edwards, who runs a charity linked to Barnet council claims Brian Coleman warned it would:

“suffer after the election” because of her candidacy and added it is “now open season for everyone to have a knock at you and [your charity] The Larches will suffer…“After the call I felt he was trying to get me to pull out and not stand for the council.

…

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged adam bienkov, barnet council, linda edwards | 1 Comment

How long can Boris Johnson carry on defending the indefensible?

By Caroline Pidgeon | Published 27th March 2010 - 10:20 am

Caroline Pidgeon is a Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member and member of the London Fire Emergency and Planning Authority (LFEPA)

Walking out of a meeting as a protest is something I would not normally recommend, but last week I felt had no other option and left a key budget meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). Both the Lib Dem leader on the Fire Authority, Councillor Ed Butcher from Haringey, and I knew we had to make a protest at the decision of the Conservative Chair Brian Coleman to prohibit TV cameras from filming the meeting, and Coleman’s decision to …

Posted in London, Op-eds | Also tagged bertha joseph, boris johnson, ed butcher, london fire and emergency planning authority | 2 Comments

Brian Coleman forced out of post in no-confidence vote

By Mark Pack | Published 17th March 2010 - 3:20 pm

So reports Adam Bienkov:

Boris Johnson’s fire chief Brian Coleman has lost his position as Chairman of a National fire board after increasing concerns about his behaviour.

The LGA confirmed to me this morning that Brian is no longer Chairman of the National Organisation of Employers of Local Authority Fire & Rescue Services.

A spokesman said that Brian had lost his position but would not confirm the exact date or circumstances of his departure.

Brian himself has also failed to respond to my questions about this.

However sources within the National Joint Council tell me that Brian’s chairmanship was recently the subject of a vote

…

Posted in Opposition watch | 1 Comment

Why I’m not celebrating over Brian Coleman

By Mark Pack | Published 11th September 2009 - 10:19 pm

Highly controversial Conservative London Assembly Member Brian Coleman is in the news again, though this time it’s not for an outrageous expense claim or the like.

The Barnet Standards Board has ruled that he broke the rulesfor sending an email that called the blogger Roger Tichbourne “an obsessive, poisonous individual”.

I’m not exactly over-joyed at the outcome. Yes, Brian Coleman has once again behaved stupidly. Yes, he deserves criticism. But should such matters really be up for standards boards to rule on? I don’t think so. Let the actions of politicians be public and then let the voters or (if it’s …

Posted in Op-eds | 6 Comments

Brian Coleman was wined and dined before awarding contract

By Helen Duffett | Published 14th July 2009 - 1:19 pm

Such hospitality – it’s astounding!

Not only did Asset Co treat Brian Coleman (London Assembly Member and Chair of the London Fire Authority) to three dinners and a Harvey Nicks hamper before the LFA awarded it a £12 million contract – but also Mayor Boris Johnson continues to give him house room at City Hall.

After his huge taxi bills and refusal to publish his expenses at the same time as the other Assembly Members, Coleman has outstayed London’s welcome – but when will Boris do something about it?

Adam Bienkov at Tory Troll has the story:

The London Fire Authority have awarded

…

Posted in London, News | Also tagged boris johnson, expenses, london assembly, london fire authority | 1 Comment

Brian Coleman in “mad, bad and sad” expenses smokescreen

By Helen Duffett | Published 7th July 2009 - 5:56 pm

London Assembly Member Brian Coleman is refusing to publish details of his expenses, despite the Mayor, his advisors and the other 24 members of the Assembly agreeing to do so voluntarily.

Apparently a graduate of the Anthony Steen Charm School for Politicians, Coleman has blamed bloggers for being interested in how taxpayers’ money is spent:

“I won’t do it voluntarily. It’s none of the public’s business. They have coped well without knowing this kind of detail for more than 75 years. They are not entitled to drool over our personal lives. I’m not going to help the mad, bad and the

…

Posted in London, News | Also tagged anthony steen, boris johnson, expenses, london assembly | 4 Comments

Brian Coleman runs up another huge taxi bill

By Mark Pack | Published 26th June 2009 - 8:20 am

One of the oddities about London Assembly Member Brian Coleman’s record in running up huge expenses bills (e.g. in one year he managed to run up more taxi bills than all the other 24 Assembly member added together) is the incredibly soft line that Boris Johnson has taken on them.

For all Mayor Johnson’s talk about value for money, clearing out dodgy practices and so on, his message to Brian Coleman has in effect pretty much been, “Carry on as you were”. Of course, the news about Boris’s own big taxi bills does help explain this. And so perhaps it …

Posted in London, Opposition watch | Also tagged boris johnson | 2 Comments

The latest goings on in Barnet

By Duncan Macdonald | Published 28th May 2009 - 8:10 pm

The Tories running the London Borough of Barnet do not appear to be reading from the same script as Mr Cameron when it comes to spending tax payers’ money. LDV has previously reported on some of the antics of new Barnet Mayor and London Assembly member Brian Coleman.

An update on the Not the Barnet Times blog would appear to indicate that Mike Freer, leader of Barnet Council and Tory PPC for Finchley and Golders Green, has some questions to answer as well.

It is interesting to note that the author of

…

Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged barnet council, mike freer | Leave a comment

The LDV 2×2 Daily View (17/05/09)

By Mark Pack | Published 17th May 2009 - 8:00 am

Welcome to the first Sunday outing for The Voice’s new daily post series highlighting two big stories from the media and two “must read” blog posts from Liberal Democrats. As it’s a Sunday, there’s also a bonus extra supplement. If you spot anything for future posts, do let us know on

2 Big Stories

Indian elections
The big election story of the week is India: massive democracy, increasingly influential in the world and located right next to some of the world’s trouble spots which most make their impact felt here in the UK.

The election results, which have been coming through on Saturday, …

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged india, mps expenses | Leave a comment

Did Brian Coleman lie to his local newspaper?

By Mark Pack | Published 15th May 2009 - 7:54 pm

Here’s the story from the Not The Barnet Times blog:

Yesterday, Not The Barnet Times broke the story that Mike Freer was wasting £10,000 of taxpayers money providing legal services for a councillor being investigated by the Standards Committee. The real scandal of this story was that the council’s insurers were willing to provide a lawyer at no cost to the taxpayer, but the councillor in question wanted one of the biggest London firms to act for him instead.

Our friends at The Barnet Times followed this up with an article of their own in which

…

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Opposition watch | Leave a comment

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