Notebook: Some things will never change

11:52am Wednesday 7th March 2001

It seems the tradition of offering the council fatherly advice is a long established on this paper.

David Smith of East Finchley had sent me details of what the Hendon Times was saying 100 years ago.

The issue of 18 May 1900 reported: "There was nothing very heroic before the Hendon District Council on Monday, but it took nearly three hours to get through the business.

"Having made some changes in the personnel of the committees, there now appears to be a standing grievance by the members who are left out in the cold. No doubt it will right itself ere long, but at present there are three malcontents, Messrs Sims, Anderson and Cramp.

"We now have the various chairmen of committees appointed. Mr Lovejoy, who makes one of the best chairmen in the country, is left off the list."

The report ends: "The new chairman has hardly settled in his place yet, for the members seem to be very erratic in their ways and methods. They want a little fatherly advice just to bring them into line."

A hundred years hasn't seen much change.