More Lib Dem double standards

Make no mistake, Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall is delighted that Gordon Brown has chosen not to call a General Election. Like most political parties, we were not prepared for a contest and know that a snap poll would have led to logistical nightmares for all concerned.

Unlike the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, we have no wish to barrack Gordon Brown and keep claiming, very untruthfully, how much we were desperate for an election.

But as in many things, it is the actions of the Liberal Democrats that are the most perplexing.

On the one hand, we have the political bravado of the Lib Dem MPs expressing great disappointment that Brown ‘bottled the election’ and claiming that ‘the Cornish people [should] have their say’ on the choice of successor to Tony Blair as Prime Minister.

But on the other hand, we have the Liberal Democrat controlled County Council arguing that there should not be elections for their transitional unitary authority in May 2008. They want the elections to be delayed until 2009 and the setting up of the new authority to be steered by a ‘Joint Committee’ of appointed councillors with no democratic mandate.

What is more, the Government states that such committees should “reflect the political balance of the area concerned.” Not surprisingly, the Lib Dems are refusing to work to the collective political balance of all seven existing councils in Cornwall. They instead have decided that the only political balance that matters is the make-up of the present County Council – it just happens that this Council happens to be 58.5% Lib Dem (albeit elected via less than 40% of the vote) which would give them a majority on the Committee.

Will the Liberal Democrat MPs join me in condemning the undemocratic and control-freak manner in which the Liberal Democrat administration at County Hall is taking forward the plans for their unpopular and unwanted unitary authority and their cynical manoeuvrings to guarantee a Lib Den majority on the new ‘interim’ Joint Committee? And will they also join me in calling for council elections to be held in Cornwall as soon as possible?

I still cling to the hope that the unitary proposal will not go ahead – but surely the Lib Dems will agree that, if it is to proceed, the people of Cornwall should have their say on who should be in charge of it.