1:28pm Wednesday 5th March 2008
Which party offers real opposition to Labour's misrule in Haringey?
Three recent issues provide an answer. Despite having 26 councillors, it took the Lib Dems until February 27 to report bungling council bosses to the Information Commissioner over the scandal of dumping local residents' confidential files. Yet Tottenham Conservatives chairman Justin Hinchcliffe had already reported this incident on February 18.
It took Highgate Conservative Peter Forrest to warn Highgate residents a couple of weeks ago of the threat of a lottery for places in popular schools (now a major national news story on the BBC), yet Lib Dems have been silent on the subject.
And on the issue of the Jacksons Lane Community Centre, the Lib Dems are shamelessly trying to claim credit for saving it when nothing could be further from the truth.
A national change of policy at the Arts Council (forced on them by the Labour Government) is what saved Jacksons Lane - not thousands of misleading leaflets stuffed through people's letterboxes.
If Haringey Lib Dems put half the energy into meaningful, targeted action they currently spend on papering the borough with leaflets full of pictures of themselves looking concerned, they might actually be an effective opposition, rather than just the official opposition in Haringey.
Sam Durant, Haringey Conservatives, Chesterfield Gardens, Harringay
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