I've a couple of questions for you.
A) In Westminster, which opposition politician has proved the most effective in holding the governments record to scrutiny?
B) Who in Barnet has been the most effective srutineer of Council Leader Mike Freer's disasterous Icelandic investment policy?
You may have your own views, but as far as I'm concerned, in Westminster the Lib Dem spokesman, Vince Cable has been head and shoulders above anyone else. I was out for a beer with a friend a couple of weeks ago who is a very senior Tory and he was bemoaning the lack of a Vince Cable in the Tory front bench. He went as far as to say that if Cable was a Tory they'd be 25 points ahead in the polls (admittedly after six pints and a splendid curry at the Rajasthan in Monument).
As to locally, anyone who went to watch the Council debates would know that the Lib Dems destroyed Mike Freer. I'm a Labour member, so it doesn't really fill me with glee to say that it was the Lib Dems who administered the duffing up, but it was true. Wayne Casey, Jack Cohen and Monroe Palmer have lead the way in forensically examining the Tories disasterous policy, exposing the fact that Mike Freer should have known from the reports that he had last Autumn, that the council had breached its own policy.
In todays Barnet Tory Bugle, sorry Barnet Times, there is an article on the forthcoming Euro elections. As seems to be the current policy at the paper, only Tories are interviewed, but in this report, Barnet's cabinet member for policy and performance, Councillor Richard Cornelius, said: "This is the opportunity for residents to choose representatives who will scrutinise decisions made in Brussels that affect Barnet."
If you want an MEP to voice Tory views, then vote Tory. If you want an MEP to voice Labour views, vote Labour. If you want effective scrutiny, I'm sorry but from what I've seen you vote Liberal Democrat at local and National levels. It couldn't be clearer to me that if you trust Richard Cornelius and follow his advice about good scrutiny, the Lib Dems will be getting your vote. It has been widely reported that the Barnet Tories have done everything in their power to circumvent the scrutiny of the Icelandic investment strategy, to protect their leader and head of resource management, Mike Freer. I think that Councillor Richard Cornelius has done us all a favour by drawing our attention to how important scrutiny is. He may not openly say it, but I'm sure he knows every word I've said here is true.
3 comments:
My dearest Roger, feel the need to chip in here! All the LibDems, as Labour MEPs do in Brussels is to roll over on their backs and surrender Britain's interests following their EuroFanatism.
Both Labour and the Liberals promised in their manifesto to hold themselves to public account by having a referendum over the Lisbon treaty and both u-turned on that pledge. Where was the accountability there?
Dan,
I may be wrong but I don't believe any party would have a referendum unless they thought they'd win.
Thatcher didn't for the Single European act which was the biggest change of the lot
@ Rog, You are a cynic but I agree with you in certainly in respect to Labour and the LibDems. I don't think they had any intention to hold one. They announced this to stop the voters panicking and pick up some votes.
Lady Thatcher never promised a referendum on the Single European Act, so she can't be accused of rank hypocrisy.
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