Cambridge Lib Dems - the root of all evil

I had a Labour Party news letter the other day but I've only just got round to taking a look at it. The thrust of Romsey News, for that is the august publication of which I speak, is that the Lib Dems are rubbish and, well, that's about it.

I tell a lie, they do also call upon the great general public; "if you are aware of any incident, however small, let them [the police] know." I'm sure the cops'll appreciate that, everyone with a hot line to Park Side police station "My neighbour whistles in a very nasal tone", "some boys were larking about, but they've gone away now", "that lady looks like she might get drunk later".

Libs Dems - boo

Anyway, far be it from me to leap to the defence of the local Lib Dems but Romsey News does seem to be rather over generous when it comes to the ability of the local council to influence world affairs. The two main criticisms of the council are that the company that organised the Cambridge Folk Festival went bust owing the council money and that the Icelandic banking crisis meant a loss of over £9 million in assets.

Now I blame the Liberals for many things. I shalln't forgive them for the First World War for a start, but I'm shocked to discover that Cambridge Lib Dems were responsible for the global financial meltdown. Why isn't this on the national news? Why hasn't the Mayor been led away in chains? Wont the US be considering targeted air strikes to obliterate these maniacs?

Either that or the council is the victim of the credit crunch, collapse of the Icelandic banks and has been unfortunate over the folk festival, and is learning the lessons for the future. But then again I suppose that's what Labour are good at - blaming the victims.

Labour has no alternative vision

Do you know what, when Romsey News asks why Cambridge City Council did not withdraw their money from Icelandic banks it may well be because the no one asked them to.

It is a glaring omission that at no point does the local Labour Party claim to have called for this - which you can guarantee would be in there had they done so. And I know for a fact that Labour nationally didn't put out an early call for councils to withdraw their money from Icelandic banks. Labour run councils up and down the country were effected by the collapse.

In other words, just like the Tories nationally, they are just blaming the people in charge at the time of the disaster even though they would have done nothing differently. Cambridge Labour would have lost the Iceland money and they would have made exactly the same decisions on the Folk Festival but their hands just happen to be clean because they weren't elected. I'm afraid that doesn't impress me.

As it happens, before the crunch, I called on the County Council, from the floor, to adopt an ethical investment policy that takes account of what and where they are investing in not just the attempt to make a fast buck - none of the three parties wanted to see this taken forward, so it's quite clear in my mind that local Labour politicians did not have any kind of alternative agenda on investments before the crash.

This kind of tribal politics does the people of the area no favours what-so-ever. They could be putting forward real alternative strategies for Cambridge but there is literally nothing in the leaflet that implies Labour has any vision for the area at all. They come across as a bunch of whingers frankly.