Riverside Parking Charges - another year on

Back in August 2010 HDC was imposing car parking charges on the Riverside Car Park. There was outrage at the thought of imposing 20 pence a hour - free evenings and Sundays. In the annual footfall survey taken in St Neots and the surrounding Towns there has been a fall off in footfall but an increase in St Neots by 1.3%. This blog held firm that imposing these charges against the background of cuts was the only way forward. 

Back in 2010 the doom mongers were out at the imposition of this modest imposition of charges.

Former Councillor and Town Mayor Gordon Thorpe said: "We have already been advised there has been a 6 per cent downturn in footfall and charging for parking will only increase that downward trend, as people will be unwilling to pay when, for the same price, they could go to Bedford, Cambridge or Peterborough. (Wrong)

"Town mayor, Cllr Gordon Thorpe described the news as “bitterly disappointing” predicting it would have a “devastating impact” on the town’s trade.

“HDC has chosen to ignore the people of St Neots. People who visit the town will now be out of pocket and once we lose shoppers we won’t get them back.”

Cllr Farrer who said: "...he would consider going Independent if the 3 hours scheme did not go through." It didn't and Cllr Farrer didn't resign the Conservatives.

Steve van de Kerkhove said:

"the impact on the town would be immediate with shops and businesses suffering during an already difficult economic period."

“This is going to be tough on the town. All you have to do is look at all the empty shops in High Street to see that the town is already suffering. We should be trying to increase footfall not drive shoppers away.

Town Councillor Jennifer Bird predicted that the move could result in retail businesses closing.

Of the others:

Jon Mountfort amongst his website full of lies said:

They (HDC) will bankrupt our shops
We will lose the Thursday Market

Then there were the statements made on the Facebook site.

Well the charges haven't kill the shops. Trade hasn't been killed off by the introduction of a 20 pence an hour charge at the Riverside. Footfall may have risen by 1.3% after a fall of 3.6% in the previous year.

HDC was right to impose charges as there is a big hole in the revenue. Either the Council Taxpayer pays or the user. I'm for the user paying. As for killing trade this hasn't happened.

Riverside Parking Charges to go?

In an article in the this weeks Hunts Post, Cllr Churchill (currently suspended by the County Conservatives and voted against by a majority of the District Conservatives) is in the news about being against the car parking charges at Riverside Car Park. Apparently the St Neots Conservatives gained an agreement that charging at Riverside Car Park will be reviewed when the District Car Parks are reviewed. No date for the review has been set.

Cllr Churchill said: "I was always against parking charges at Riverside, and I abstained on the cabinet vote."

Abstaining is non-committal. You are neither for or against the proposal. To be against the parking charges at Riverside Cllr Churchill must have voted against this proposal. Which he didn't.

As a Cabinet member Cllr Churchill says the Riverside Car Park is used mainly for recreation and that 38 spaces are not enough. Hmm... Hinchingbrooke Country Park is charged at £1 for 2 hours with no free spaces. This was instituted at the same time as Riverside. So why is there one policy for recreation users at Riverside and another for Hinchingbrooke?

Cllr Churchill is in the Conservative bad books. Having been dumped off many panels he is groping round for popular issues to show he is doing something. All the St Neots District Councillors who vote for the District Councils budget therefore endorse the car park charges at Riverside, yet deny they do so.

The St Neots Conservative Councillors all have a choice on this issue.

They could have voted against - which they didn't.
They could have resigned the whipped - although Cllr Farrer did threaten he didn't resign the whip.
Cabinet members could have resigned from Cabinet - none did.
They could have voted against the budget - none did.

In the end this is a continuation of the pantomime. With the worst case scenario being £6 million of cuts still needed at District our Councillors should concentrate on this.

snrednek says:
There is a solution to this. The Town Council takes responsibility for all the functions in St Neots which it has powers to do. Parks and recreation grounds are really the Town Council's responsibility and should be paid by the Town. The Car Parks should be run by the Town Council instead of District Council. There needs to be a fundamental look at who does what in the District. Currently the District Council wants contributions from the Towns for running a number of services. I feel this should change. It is what Localism is about. Decisions about services brought closer to those who will have to pay for them.


In the case of car park charges this would be decided by the Town Council who will have the responsibility for running and maintenance. The trouble is this is a revenue item for the District Council and the District Council wants to keep revenue and only lose the costs.

The problem is the District Council will want to cherry pick the services. Those that cost most will go to  the Town and Parish Councils and the revenue retained by District. There needs to be a whole package of revenue and cost for the Town Council to take up these services. Trouble is I feel any deal is now too late.

Will those who were wrong apologise?

I was intrigued by a document issued by HDC on the footfall numbers in St Neots. This was down by 3.6% in St Neots. But Huntingdon had a 3.8% decrease in footfall. Indeed across the UK the decrease in footfall was 4%. Only St Ives saw an increase in footfall numbers. With all the dire predictions on the introduction of car park charges destroying the Town the footfall hasn't significantly decreased over and above the UK average.

Will those who were involved with Car Park protest which sparked a small demonstration but little else actually apologise for getting things wrong?

Back in August this pantomime resulted in a protest march over the imposition of 20 pence an hour - free evenings and Sundays at the Riverside Car Park. Whilst these protesters were mounting their campaign this blog doggedly pointed to the utter uselessness of this protest. With the announcement of more shops opening and a higher footfall than the doom sayers expected it just shows that the public led by local politicians can take the wrong decisions.

So who should apologise? I list those below starting with Councillors:

Town Mayor Gordon Thorpe said: "We have already been advised there has been a 6 per cent downturn in footfall and charging for parking will only increase that downward trend, as people will be unwilling to pay when, for the same price, they could go to Bedford, Cambridge or Peterborough.

"Town mayor, Cllr Gordon Thorpe described the news as “bitterly disappointing” predicting it would have a “devastating impact” on the town’s trade.

“HDC has chosen to ignore the people of St Neots. People who visit the town will now be out of pocket and once we lose shoppers we won’t get them back.”

Cllr Farrer who said: "...he would consider going Independent if the 3 hours scheme did not go through." It didn't and Cllr Farrer didn't resign.

Steve van de Kerkhove said:

"the impact on the town would be immediate with shops and businesses suffering during an already difficult economic period."

“This is going to be tough on the town. All you have to do is look at all the empty shops in High Street to see that the town is already suffering. We should be trying to increase footfall not drive shoppers away.

Town Councillor Jennifer Bird predicted that the move could result in retail businesses closing.

Of the others:

Jon Mountfort amongst his website full of lies said:

They (HDC) will bankrupt our shops
We will lose the Thursday Market

Then there were the statements made on the Facebook site.

Well the charges haven't kill the shops. I see another shop has opened in Huntingdon Street in the old Choices video outlet. Worx is going to become a games lounge despite Town Council opposition. Trade hasn't been killed off by the introduction of a 20 pence an hour charge at the Riverside. Footfall maybe down and just less than Huntingdon and just above the UK average.

HDC was right to impose charges as there is a big hole in the revenue. I see no alternative.

Liberal Democrats dodge the question

News and Crier Latest News

In an article Cllrs Thorpe and van de Kerkhove complain about car parking charges. With the Tsunami of cut coming, what would they cut instead of raising car parking charges. Utter silence from these two Liberal Democrats. They are District Councillors so I would assume they have more information than us residents.

Even with doubling of car parking charges St Neots will be paying significantly less than surrounding Towns. When Cllr Thorpe made a statement on car parking back in February be said:

"as people will be unwilling to pay when, for the same price, they could go to Bedford, Cambridge or Peterborough."

I did some research back then to show this wasn't the case.

So Cllrs van de Kerkhove and Thorpe, please inform me where you would make the cuts to replace the £500,000 of lost income! 

What happened to the Car Park protest at the last St Neots Neighbourhood Forum?

Back before 26th July 2010 some of the Anti Car Park Charges protest leadership complained there was no way to challenge councillors over the car parking charges. At the time, I pointed out there were not only Neighbourhood Meetings there was also the Annual Town Meeting that could be used.

Neither had been used by the Protesters to ask questions or make statements. In fact the St Neots meeting was only attended by a few members of the public. So the Protesters decided decided to make a noise at the next event out in Kimbolton. On their Facebook site they set up an event for this meeting.

Now the minutes/notes have been published I thought I would take a what the protesters did and achieved at this meeting. At the previous meeting there was 36 attendees. At 26th July meeting there were 48. An increase of 12 over the St Neots meeting! Reading through the notes of the meeting I found NOTHING was raised about Car Parking Charges at the Riverside.
When the Forum was asked about ANY Neighbourhood issues Riverside Car Parking wasn't even raised.

Nor was Riverside Car Parking raise for future issues to be considered.

For all the protesters hype they did nothing at this meeting. This protest was part of the political pantomime.

--------------------------

How is the rest of the "Protest" movement getting on. The silence is virtually deafening.

The No Car Parking Charges Facebook site: A flurry of activity on 22nd August 2010 and nothing since.
The St Neots View Facebook site: A comment on 30th August 2010 about how well the Festival went and that is about it. Obviously no other issues of concern to the people of St Neots.
Support St Neots website: This had the potential of being a good place to properly discuss issues. As with the other sites it hasn't moved.
Scrap HDC website: This site, supposedly run by Lorraine Hines, which is full of lies and misinformation has also gone very quiet.
Save St Neots website: Jon Mountfort's other site which is also full of lies and misinformation is also very quiet.

Whilst others may fall by the wayside, this blog will continue to look at politics in St Neots in a critical way without fear or favour. The other place that will continue is The St Neots Community Forum where debates about St Neots can and do happen.

The "Protest" numbers game

The Protest numbers are up for dispute. As they always are.

"It was a resounding success with nearly 200 people showing up for the protest" says protest organiser Cllr Steve van de Kerkhove.

Yet there is discrepancy with the Danny Noonan, Facebook protest, and his "150 turnout, well done to everyone involved, thank you"

Even the Town and Crier said the numbers were "dozens".

Cllr Barry Chapman (Conservative) gave the figure as "50".

The picture in the News and Crier shows about 100 adults and children.

In the end whether this is either nearly 200 or 50, both numbers were small beer. To make this count the protest needed a minimum of 3,000 people to turn up. They didn't.

Is that it?

Stop HDC introducing parking charges at Riverside Park, St Neots seems to have come to an end. In a message to all members this message reads that this is it. I hope this is the last act of this political PANTOMIME.

According to Steve the Protest was about giving "everyone a voice" and "send a message to HDC...". I thought it was to Stop Car Parking Charges!


The Protest is thinking about setting up another website for "everyone to debate issues in the Town and Voice concerns. There is already a site and that is the St Neots Community Forums. Or is this just another way of controlling the "debate".

Please remember: the Liberal Democrats have guaranteed to reverse this decision when they gain a majority on HDC. I take it they will all resign if they don't?

So how did it go at Mandeville Hall?

There was an event where this Facebook protest group were going to turn up at the St Neots Neighbourhood Meeting on 26th July 2010.

Now, I would have thought there would have been lots of talk about all this. But nothing. If everybody who said they would attend did, then St Neots should have dominated the meeting. The silence is telling. I suppose I'll have to wait for minutes to be produced to find out what went on.

Where does the protest go now?

They had the march and now the protesters are thinking what can we do next? The Facebook site has been very silent on this issue. The natural progression would be to make the protest into a political movement and stand for council. But this protest was mainly organised by the Liberal Democrats and therefore a new political movement for St Neots would disadvantage the Liberal Democrat elite.

There are some who want to take this further and compare the small numbers to the poll tax demonstrations in 1991. There were far larger demonstrations in 1990.

If there is no way forward then it is likely to be a damp squib.

What could they do to carry on the protest? Here are some ideas:

Call a Town Meeting and hold a Parish Poll on the subject. This would cost money, but SNTC has lots in reserves. The downside is the Facebook protest was an utter failure at a leaflet campaign.

Demonstrate outside Pathfinder House. Go and protest at the next Council or Cabinet Meeting. Of course this would take time and effort to organise.

Don't pay the parking charges or the fines. Set up a protest where people simply park and don't pay. Needs a good support network.

Stand candidates against Conservative Councillors. The Liberal Democrats won't be happy about this one.

The problem with this campaign is where does it go now? I hope it will turn out to be a damp squib and the demo will turn out to be the last act in a political PANTOMIME.

Charges Protest Hots Up

The Hunts Post St Neots - 28/07/2010

Apparently the Town Mayor, Gordon Thorpe, and fellow Liberal Democrat of organiser Steve van de Kerkhove will be attending the march. Though Gordon does his best to kick the protest in the teeth with: "But he added that REALISTICALLY he did not think the march will make much difference." - SO WHY MARCH?

The Hunts Post gets a major point wrong. HDC is NOT introducing these charges to fill a funding gap left by a Central Government cuts. THE REASON why HDC is introducing these charges is the deficit budget HDC has been running for many years.

Yet more on car parking debate

St Neots News and Crier - 29/07/2010

Why should we help you? - Joan Gutteridge makes some very good points about the whinging that comes from St Neots. And that is a good point. St Neots residents are looking like a bunch of whingers who don't know a good thing when it happens. If St Neots carries on this way then the rest of Huntingdonshire will stop listening.

Was there a covenant? - John Slack asks this question. The answer is there was and it has run out.

Charge won't deter visitors - Cllr Paul Ursell breaks cover with a letter. The difficult choices that Paul refers to have always been there. This is why I have always considered the car parking issue to be a political pantomime played out to the watching public.

Protest without music?

St Neots News and Crier - 29/07/2010

I read that Steve van de Kerkhove, District Councillor and Town Councillor has called off the music part of protest this coming Sunday. Member of the Licensing Committee, Steve says: "We are not going to have an amplifier or music because there's a licensing issue". DOH!

To find out what licensing issue was I looked up on the HDC website to see if any licences had been applied for. The Town Council does have a licence for the playing of music on Sundays. If the Town Council supports this protest why isn't the Town Council allowing this licence to be used?

There is something called a Temporary Event Notice which organisers have to put in for regulated entertainment. On the licensing website there is no Temporary Event Notice.

So the "licensing issue" is they didn't send in a Temporary Events Notice. Not really a licensing issue! Just an issue of bad organisation! I just hope they have informed the Police of this demonstration?

More on the Riverside Car Park campaign

I thought I would take another trawl through this Facebook protest site to see what is being said. Last time I found lies and untruths. This time I found:

Steve says Town Councillors get no allowances or expenses.

In the Annual Accounts it says:

So they do get expenses!

And do any of them get an Allowance? Well the Town Mayor does!

Our Steve goes onto say:

But our Councillors don't get pensions on their allowances.

Then there is this statement:

These charges are opposed by St Neots Town Council, but are being forced in anyway

So what has SNTC got to do with all this? Does SNTC own the car park? No they don't. Someone thinks SNTC has bigger boots than they actually have!

And they still like linking to savestneots.org.uk

For some reason the admin staff like linking to this site which contains lies, untruths and twisting of the truth. Why do they keep doing this? Or do the admin staff stand by Jon Mountfort's statements.

On last thing. The Facebook group is producing a leaflet. Below is a parody:

And Peter Downes finally replies!

Finally, I get an e-mail from Peter Downes confirming the policy that the HDC Liberal Democrats will reverse the car parking charges if they gain a majority. In his e-mail Peter Downes said:

"Martin’s e-mail explains why we think the car parking policy proposed by the HDC for St. Neots is wrong and if we were to win majority control, we would reverse it. We would obviously have to find other ways of making savings to make up for the loss of income from not charging."

The sentence that talks about finding other way of making savings opens up another series of questions about where these cuts will fall. With £6.1 million of cuts already pencilled in there isn't that much that can be cut!

I've taken these cuts from the current HDC Consultation:


Citizens Advice Bureau
Volunteer Cars
Dial-a-ride
Activities for Young People
Holiday Schemes
After Schools Clubs
Close the swimming pool
CCTV Cameras in St Neots
Closure of customer services in St Neots
Cut in Street Cleaning
Withdraw maintenance of Priory Park and Riverside Park

So the selfish people who want Council Taxpayer funded "Free" parking are VERY HAPPY to cut some or all of these schemes so they don't have to pay 20 pence an hour/£1.50 a day (free on Sundays).

People to march over 20 pence (Free on Sundays)

On Sunday 1st August 2010 there is to be a march from the Riverside Car Park, St Neots to somewhere in the Town Centre. There are many issues which surround this march. The first should be how to gauge whether this is a success.
The population is roughly 30,000.
Electoral roll is roughly 22,000.
The 2 petitions handed in contained between them 2,193. It was said by the Liberal Democrats that many of the signatures came from people outside St Neots.
The Facebook campaign has passed the 900 mark.

So it would be utterly ridiculous if only a few hundred turn up for the march!

If all the signatories of the petitions turned up there will be 2,193. That would be the minimum number needed to make this protest work. In my view 4,400 would make this protest worthy of note.

So what are these people marching on a Sunday for? To stop the imposition of car parking charges of 20 pence an hour / £1.50 a day - Free evenings and Sundays - at Riverside Car Park, St Neots. Rather ironic the day used for protest is the day that stays free!


A typical outburst is below by Jon Mountfort. His sites are frequently linked by the Facebook campaign run by with some Liberal Democrat Councillors on the admin team.

A typical outburst by Jon Mountfort: (my comments in red)


"This is the bunch of incompetent money-wasters (your opinion with NO EVIDENCE to back this up!) who've built themselves an 18 million pound palace (in previous rants this was £12 million) while removing every single facilitiy and amenity (every single facility and amenity? What has HDC closed? This is a downright lie. The Leisure Centre, Riverside and Priory Parks are some of the facilities and amenity STILL open.) from St Neots to pay for it. As their latest money-making scam, they have just voted to charge for St Neots' last two remaining free car parks (there are many other free car parks. The Hardwick Road Car Park and Priory Park are both still free. Another downright lie!), in doing so ignoring the wishes of over 2000 St Neots residents (the Liberal Democrats says many signatures came from people outside St Neots. So over 2000 St Neots residents didn't sign the petitions. Another UNTRUE statement) who signed two petitions. According to our Great Leader's own figures (which you can read for yourself if you wish by clicking on his face), the most that charging for the Riverside car park can raise is 20,000 pounds a year - that is if anybody still uses it once they have to pay! This is about a quarter of the annual electricity bill for Pathfinder Palace! If you move your mouse over their faces, you can see how much each of them claimed in expenses (this is a twisting of the truth. Councillors are paid a basic allowance plus more for more responsibilities. To label all these as expenses is WRONG and TWISTING the truth.) for 2008/09 - it adds up to about 120 thousand pounds. So if anyone knows of another five car parks they can charge for to cover their expenses, please email our Great Leader - he will be pleased to hear from you. 
Not only that, but HDC produces a glossy newsletter called District Wide to tell us what a good job they are doing! (That's a laugh!) How much does that cost? (Instead of asking the question why didn't Jon look this up?)And the publicity department to produce it? The Right Honourable Eric Pickles has described these newsletters (no he didn't) as "propaganda on the rates" and "town hall Pravdas". (Eric Pickles was having a go at Councils producing local newspapers like the News and Crier and Hunts Post not District Wide. There is an issue Councils using CT Payers money for newspapers.) Good for Eric Pickles! He's absolutely right. (And Jon Mountfort is absolutely wrong!) Let's tell him what these buffoons are doing with our money, while they are charging mums to park their cars so their children can feed the ducks! 
They also pay a Chief Executive 200,000 pounds a year to run the Council efficiently (that's a joke!) What does he do? Does anyone know? (The Councillors do and you can find out.) As we are paying him, perhaps he could have a webcam installed on his desk so we can see him in action! There's one thing I can promise you - I bet he doesn't pay to park his car! Just for fun, I've included his expenses claim for 2008/09 - yes, you've guessed it: 469 pounds for car parking! (Wrong! It is for Transport/Parking. There is nothing to say any money was spent on Parking. Jon Mountfort is distorting the truth.) Nice one! 
But it doesn't end there! There are three other executive officers employed by this second-tier Council (remember it's not a County Council), who each get over 100,000 pounds a year. How can it take so many expensive people just to empty your bin? (Jon Mountfort deliberately misses out on the other services HDC provides) And talking of emptying bins, our poor dustmen have been cut back and cut back so often, they now have to run to do their job! This is so the fat-cats can say they are being more efficient. When was the last time they ran to work?"


I looked up scraphdc and savestneots on google and found these are pointing to a site called classic car tests. A bit of a weird site which tests two cars and has many photos of a woman called "Alex".

Those who are going to march on a Sunday to stop the charges, 20 pence an hour/£1.50 a day, free in evenings and Sundays, should think where the cuts will fall instead. Here are some options: Citizens Advice Bureaux or Huntingdonshire Volunteers. 

What a mucking fuddle

I wrote to Peter Downes, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on HDC, asking him about what is the Liberal Democrats Group policy towards Car Parking in St Neots. So did I get a reply from Peter Downes? Well no. My e-mail was passed onto Martin Land - who is not a Councillor or anything to do with The District Group. Martin Land informed me that local policy is made by the local branch. Hmmm! Martin also informed me that once the Liberal Democrats gained a majority they would reverse this charge!

This is a very weird set up. In essence, the St Neots branch decides policy for the rest of the Liberal Democrats. That is fundamentally undemocratic as this is a small minority of Huntingdonshire taking a decision which will effect the majority.

If this local branch policy is therefore HDC Liberal Democrat Group policy, shouldn't have the Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Peter Downes, been able to answer this question himself? I wonder why he didn't?


These are essentially the same St Neots Liberal Democrats who promised much in the SNTC Forward Plan Mark 1 and yet reneged on many major points. How can they guarantee they won't do the same on this "promise"?

To ensure I get this right I have written to Peter Downes again. I hope I get a reply from him this time around. Passing this to Martin Land just makes me feel Peter Downes and HDC Liberal Democrat Group don't want to make this commitment.

Huntingdonshire strikes back

St Neots News and Crier - 15/07/2010

One point that is missed by the those who tell lies and untruths about the imposition of charges at Riverside Car Park is this is being read by the rest of Huntingdonshire. They tend to take a different view. In this weeks letter section of the News and Crier are a couple of good letters:

New Parking Charges are Fair Enough

- Simon Williams of Godmanchester makes some very good points about the reasonableness of the 20 pence and hour (Free on Sundays). Simon rubbishes the suggestion that people will go elsewhere and pay higher amounts in fuel charges and parking charges to miss out on the 20 pence charges.

- D W Steddy of Huntingdon also makes some very good points about the scale of parking charges here in Huntingdonshire (cheap) compared to the rest of the country (expensive). He also makes the point about the majority of money raised in Council Tax going to CCC.

The News and Crier continues in it series of letters that shows how ignorant some of the residents of St Neots are with a letter from:

- R T Watson of St Neots. In this letter entitled: Not surprised by the arrogance - Watson shows how ignorant St Neots residents actually are. His main argument is the cabinet are arrogant because they ignored the petition. What Watson ignores is £4.7 million deficit or the £6.1 million of cuts. HDC isn't arrogant. They are desperate!

Voice your ignorance of HDC

The Hunts Post St Neots - 07/07/2010

In a letter, Jon Mountfort voices his ignorance about HDC yet again! He promotes his dubious website still littered with lies and untruths in an attempt to encourage people to send e-mails to a whole host of Councillors and Ministers.

What would the Liberal Democrats do in power?

St Neots (Huntingdonshire Liberal Democrats)

I thought I would look at the official website of the local Liberal Democrats to see what is going on. I thought I would find many pages on the campaign to reverse the introduction of car park charges in St Neots.

What I found was nothing. Absolutely nothing. The page for St Neots is empty.

So I have written to Cllr Peter Downes, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group, to get an answer on whether they would return these car parks to being free. The following is the text of my e-mail:

"In St Neots, your colleagues are running a campaign to reverse the introduction of car parking charges in two additional car parks. As the Council Cabinet has pushed through the introduction of these charges, I would like to know what the policy of the Liberal Democrats is now on these car parks? Specifically, is it Liberal Democrat policy to return these car parks to being free car parks again?"

I await his reply.

One rule for the Liberal Democrats and another for everyone else!

Facebook | Stop HDC introducing parking charges at Riverside park St Neots.

I thought this site wasn't going to be political! That was until Barry Chapman turned up to support the campaign and inform residents what he had done.

Then Steve (Liberal Democrat) dives in and informs Barry (Conservative) of what he feels is wrong with what Barry had said previously. This is a correction. Funny that many of the lies and untruths get by without correction but Barry Chapman is jumped on.

Having made all these corrections and political points, Steve decides to say: "If you wish to continue to score political points I would ask you to leave the group."

Later, Fiona Birks joins the group and starts making party political points.

Did Steve admonish her for this? Did Steve show where the budget forecasts are? The answer is NO! When I brought Fiona's party political points to Steve's attention I was informed Fiona isn't a Councillor.

But Fiona Birks was a Town Councillor until a few months ago. So Fiona is still a Liberal Democrat making Party Political Points. Therefore it is alright for Liberal Democrats to make party political points but the Conservatives can't. One rule for the Liberal Democrats and another for everyone else!