Monday 15 December 2008

He’s All Right, Jack


The Liberal Democrats are very clever political operators. They portray themselves as a cuddly middle-of-the-road party somewhere in between the Conservatives and Labour, but on many issues they are actually quite left wing to those of us on the right!


That said, two of the best MPs in Westminster are LibDems. Vince Cable, who famously coined the Mr Bean phrase about Gordon Brown, was the first to have correctly called the state of the economy and seems to have a better idea than most as to how to deal with the mess the Prime Minister has caused.

Norman Baker has earned himself a fearsome reputation in Parliament for asking searching questions of the Government and uncovering abuse of the allowances system. I wonder why I admire him?!!

In Barnet, the Liberal Democrats have proved themselves very effective in the questioning of Mike Freer over the Icelandic banking scandal. It is very regrettable that the Conservative councillors have just acquiesced on this issue rather than asking probing questions of their leader.

Cllr Jack Cohen is leader of Barnet’s LibDems. He has a blog on the Barnet Times website under the title “Joined Up Thinking”. He has written several articles about the frustration of being in opposition. No sympathy from me on that count!

In his latest blog, Cllr Cohen explains that he is prohibited from revealing how much the council is spending on consultants. Information which we, the taxpayers, have an absolute right to know.

The Conservatives have complained, quite rightly, about the shameful arrest of Damien Green for revealing embarrassing information about the Government. His defence is that he was acting in the public interest, and there is widespread all-party support for his position.

So come on Jack, go for it!!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be happy for you to join the Lib Dums David, it is where you belong!

Don't Call Me Dave said...

I'm sure you would be happy, but I wouldn't! I'm a right of centre Conservative. The fact that the LibDems occasionally get things right is not sufficient reason to join them.

Most Conservatives recognise that Frank Field is an excellent and knowledgeable MP. Should we all join Labour?

Rog T said...

And I'm not quitting Labour because Freer is a Brownite Mr Bean. Grow up Mr Anon !!!

Anonymous said...

Shut up Rog!

Anonymous said...

Like David Cameron, David Miller is one of the most sound fiscal Conservatives in Barnet. He, like David Cameron rails against wasteful spending by Councils, 'fat cat' Councillors allowances, wreckless borrowing etc. He also, like Boris, condemns plans for 'rabbit hutch' flats of which the Council (following Ken Livingstone's wishes) is going to build 33,000 of these despite Boris' emphatic pleas.

It's not David who has drifted towards other party's policies but the self appointed, so called, "Conservative Group" (note this body is not part of the Conservative Party nor is recognised or controlled by the Board of the Conservative Party). Increasingly acting as a party within a party, in the Town Hall it has gone native being too weighed down by '£1,000,000+ expenses' to dare to rock the 'all party' consensus.

I'm a Conservative and it's time that the good and fair minded grass roots Conservatives to stand up and enforced some Cameron and Boris Conservatism on the Town Hall before its too late.

Rog T said...

Dear Anon 17/12 @ 15:16)

Dream on !!!!!

If I'm upsetting the invisible men of Barnet then I'm doing my job. You should take a leaf out of Dan Hope's book and try and argue your case rather than posting anonymous inane comments.

Anonymous said...

" 'fat cat' Councillors allowances"

Which you Daniel no longer get! Bitter are we?

Anonymous said...

Re: Anonymous / Coward,

Anyone can ask the Council for my attendance record and allowances for 2002-6. For the work I did and the hours I put in, I'd have got more money working at the checkout at Tesco.

In any case my soul isn't for sale....

Rog T said...

Funny isn't it. The only people who seems to have any positive comments to say about Conservative ideology are David Miller and Dan Hope. All of the seeming supporters of the Council just post inane digs at all and sundry?

You would think that with the hundreds of comments they've left on David and my blogs, they could at least manage a few semi coherent criticisms and a bit of pertinent analysis.

I can't decide whether they are too stupid to construct an argument, too corrupt to care or too arrogant to bother.

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Or all three?

Anonymous said...

Or 4. Many have become so detached from reality, peering down at the rest of us from the lofty heights of the Town Hall, they have forgotten what Conservatism is!

Anonymous said...

I also find it very disconcerting that you no longer see any letters in the newspapers from Conservatives defending the Council. They were quite common, now the only Conservative letters are from Councillors promoting themselves or correcting errors.

Rog T said...

Dan,

To get a letter in the local paper you have to give a name and address.

For those of us who are honest and genuine in our beliefs, that really isn't a problem