Whip me with your rhythm stick!

The Daily Mail and Ham&High newspapers have both published articles about the recent resignation of the former Conservative councillor for Golders Green ward Christopher Harris, who is now living in Australia.

If there is just one character trait which best exemplifies Cllr Mike Freer, it is his ability to deny knowledge of anything and everything untoward which occurred on his watch as leader of the council, and the Chris Harris scandal is no exception.

Freer claims that he thought Mr Harris had just gone abroad for an extended holiday and didn’t realise he had been away for four months. Does anyone seriously believe that the leader of the council would not have noticed sooner? Perhaps Mike Freer’s ivory tower was taller than we had first suspected?

But if Freer genuinely didn’t know, what does that say about Cllr Andrew Harper, who receives a taxpayer funded allowance of nearly £6,000 a year for his job as Chief Whip, supposedly keeping the Tory troops in line? Has Cllr Harper taken our money under false pretences, or is Cllr Freer being slightly economical with the actualité as to what he knew and when he knew it?

Either way, it is yet another sad indictment of this ever more dysfunctional Administration.