The Liberal Democrats in St. Albans District have a very simple strategy when it comes to elections. They will identify an issue you care about. Tell you that only a vote for them will fix it. And then blame someone else when they aren’t able to do anything about it.
Take this May’s Local Elections. In Harpenden and the villages they made a very simple, unequivocal pledge. Vote for them and the local greenbelt would be safe.
Just a few months later, after local residents backed them with their vote, the Liberal Democrat Council are now proposing to build thousands of houses on local greenbelt. Suddenly, your vote that you cast for them to protect the greenbelt can’t be delivered on, because of some Government targets that are stopping them from delivering it.
Now, here’s the thing. Those Government targets haven’t changed. Which means that when the Lib Dems looked you in the eye and told you that they understood your concerns, that they were on your side, that they would protect your greenbelt, they knew that they couldn’t deliver on those promises. Nothing has changed, so why was it possible the day before an election, but not the day after?
In fact, the Government is planning to relax those targets to allow for the greenbelt to be protected. And the Lib Dems are still pressing on with their plans to build thousands of houses on the greenbelt. Because it was always about gaining your vote, not delivering for you.
So here is my suggestion to those Lib Dem Councillors reading this column now: you hold 85% of the seats on our Council, so show a bit of ambition to deliver what you promised the people who voted for you. Tear up this plan, come back with something that actually protects the greenbelt in a substantial way (like you promised), and then challenge the Government and a Planning Inspector that your way is the right way.
Politics is a hard business and sometimes you can’t deliver everything you promised, but you should at least be able to say you tried everything you could.
And to those of you reading this who are considering backing the Liberal Democrats in the next General Election, remember – if they won’t even try to deliver on their promises when they hold nearly all the seats on our local Council, how would they deliver on them with a small backbench group in Westminster?
