It’s wrong to accuse us of being dismissive

WELL, what an eventful full council meeting we had last week.

There was a return to near normality, a lot of robust debate and yes, even some consensus!

But what there was, in spades, was Liberal Democrat hypocrisy.

Now we all know that councillor Jeff Brooks, who I must say I have a lot of time for, lives for the theatre of the chamber, and so do I.

But I must say that I was somewhat puzzled and disappointed, when he had the temerity to accuse the Conservatives of being ‘dismissive’, particularly given that later in the evening he told us there was no point in the Liberal Democrats putting any amendments forward in future, as we would just vote them down.

So much for cross-party working eh Jeff?

Earlier in the evening, we also happened to debate my good friend councillor Doherty’s cost of living motion, which we assumed would get widespread support across the chamber due to the important nature of the crisis and the great work that the council is already doing to help our most vulnerable residents. However, the opposition felt the need to deflect from the motion to focus solely on the one mention of our new Prime Minister.

We were accused of patting the

Government on the back, parroting party lines and making a party political broadcast to put on our literature.

All untrue of course, and yet, later on, we all had to listen to councillor Tony Vickers’ ‘statement’ on his (withdrawn) motion, which was clearly a not so thinly veiled election address for the Liberal Democrats 2023 campaign.

The words subtlety and flying brick come to mind…

If you’re going to throw around baseless accusations in future guys, at least get your own house in order first.

TOM MARINO

Councillor for Tilehurst and Purley

Executive member for internal governance and strategic partnerships

West Berkshire Council