Lynne Hillan for Leader

Up and down the country, excited Tory canvassers are merrily knocking on doors. Right now they have a great story to tell. We've been lumbered with a leader in no 10 who wasn't actually the bloke we voted for. He's made a right royal cock up and its cost the country a kings ransom.

Sadly there is one place where this story may not work too well. Here in the London Borough of Barnet. You see shortly after the last Council elections, the glorious winner (Brian Salinger) for the Tories was ousted by a right wing cabal, lead by Brian Coleman and Mike Freer. Freer was imposed on the voters of Barnet by a vote of 23 Tory councillors. He took on juicy Council cabinet roles such as head of resources (with a juicy £3,000 responsibility allowance). Sadly, rather like Gordon Browns tenure as Prime Minister, it all started to unravel. £27.4 million was lost in Icelandic Banks, another £11 million at Aerodrome Road. Every time, the excuse sounded rather Brownite - Mike Freer only had two excuses a) No one saw it coming or b) It was someone else's fault. More senior Council officials have been fired with big payoffs than Jordan has had Botox injections.

Eventually Mike bit off more than he could chew. He called the CEO, Nick Walkley "cack handed" and "clumsy". Unlike previous Council officials, Walkley was made of sterner stuff and it was Freer who toddled off to spend more time with his campaign to stand as an MP.

So when Barnets Tories knock on your door, they can't say "Labour lumbered us with an unelected leader". They will have done the same trick twice by the next election. They won't be able to say "Labour couldn't run a whelk stall" as they've shown themselves to be incompetent. Worst of all they can't say "Labour takes the credit when it goes well and blames every one else when it goes wrong" as they've been doing it themselves.

I hope they make Freers latest deputy, Lynne Hillan into the new Leader. She's a totally discedited figure, who has championed the butchering of the Sheltered Housing Warden scheme, she's Freer's biggest supporter and she is recognised by many as the face of all that is wrong with Barnets Tories.

So why do I urge all Tory Councillors to vote for her? Because they deserve to get kicked out en mass. They've kowtow'd to every bonkers scheme Freer has dreamed up. They've said nothing during scrutiny meetings, more concerned for their fat cat allowances. I hope that the gutless and the nutlesss bunch that make up Barnets Tories elect the one person who could deliver a victory to the opposition. We want someone who's track record we know. Freer hasn't left a fresh successor time to build any sort of legacy, therefore we deserve someone who is mired in the cesspit of his regime.

As there is such a short time left before the election, there isn't really enough time for her to do too much damage (or at least I hope there isn't). As such I strongly urge all Barnet Tory Councillors to give Lynne a chance, so the voters can vote for someone they know and understand. Let's turn it into a referendum on the Sheltered Housing Warden Cut !