Hillan Hangs on - The Barnet Tories Hang themselves

The Barnet Tories have (as predicted before the vote) bottled it and voted to keep Lynne Hillan. Given the closeness of the vote against Mark Shooter, she is clearly holed below the waterline. Moves are already afoot to allow Andrew Harper to step in and "unite" the party in as painless a way as possible "for the good of the party" (and his wallet).

Sadly, reports reach the Barnet Eye that Brian Coleman hasn't got "party unity" on his mind, he's bent on revenge. Brian doesn't really get it. A massive number of his colleagues think Shooter would be a better leader than Hillan. Only enormous pressure and threats managed to prevent him taking over. If Coleman moves against Shooter, it could start a full scale civil war. Coleman forgets that only eight Tory councillors need vote with their coalition partners, the Lib Dems (and Labour) to remove Hillan as leader of the Council.

I can understand why some Tory Councillors would be reluctant to vote for an unknown quantity like Mark Shooter. For such a significant number to take the risk, shows just how bad Lynne Hillan really is. She may have hung on, but in reality the Barnet Conservative Party has chosen to hang itself. They have lost all credibility and unless they can find a way to get rid of Hillan pronto, they run the risk of imploding completely.

Sadly they've lost their bottle and chosen to reject the only Tories who have shown any guts whatsoever and the only ones who are prepared to address the issue of public trust.