Twos company, threes a crowd

Barnet bloggers are tigers

If ever you wanted proof that Barnet Bloggers are starting to get to the meat of the problem with Barnet Council then today was it. Last week three bloggers attended together to look at invoices received by the council. They were redacted within an inch of their lives. This made an armchair audit impossible.

Today Mrs Angry and Mr Reasonable had an appointment with Paul Hughes, the external auditor from Grant Thornton, acting on behalf of the Audit Commission, to discuss the finer points of the accounts and a number of related questions. At the invitation of Mr Reasonable and Mrs Angry, Mr Mustard went along to take notes. He did not have any questions (except the same ones as they had) and so he was going to sit quietly in the corner, listen and take notes on their behalf so that afterwards there would be a better recollection of what was said.

Paul Hughes refused point blank to let Mr Mustard stay and take notes. If any of the meeting subsequently gets reported with anything less the usual 100% accuracy then this will be the main factor as to why.

Did Mr Hughes have another person sitting there to take notes on his behalf? Yes he did.

It is an oddly un-businesslike approach from Mr Hughes. His job is to audit Barnet Council. He should therefore be all ears when bloggers are speaking and want to meet as many as possible because they know where the skeletons are in the cupboard and they make his work more insightful & valuable. Anyone would think that someone at Barnet Council had warned him off as he knew who Mr Mustard was before he spoke.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard