Less than six months to the local elections in May next year. So I wondered what the atmosphere would be like at Tuesday’s full Council meeting. It was all rather odd .It was as if War had not been quite declared but all sides were waiting for the other to fire the first shot.

The Tory Councillor who also now sits as an MEP came up to me for a pleasant chat. There was good natured laughter all round when a Council Official intoned apologies for absence including the “Member for Woolamaloo West” (except the Official obviously called the Member by name).

There was unanimity all round when we congratulated our schools for excellent GCSE results and we all nodded in approval of our Social Workers when we came to The Council’s Report on “Safeguarding Children” It did not matter that both the motions that praised these efforts were proposed by the Conservatives.

I did wonder what would have happened if any of the oppositions parties had submitted similar congratulatory motions. You see any thing we usually propose is rejected by the Conservatives on one pretext or another. Take for an example the motion I proposed about Cricklewood. Part of Cricklewood is in Barnet, Camden and Brent cover the remainder. All I was asking was for some joined up thinking so that each of the Boroughs worked in cooperation. I gave some examples including planning licensing and street cleaning where things could be improved, if we worked together. So why not set up a local forum of Councillors and other interested people to improve the environment and services No problem there you would have thought; especially because the Conservative National Leadership says they support localism. As usual the Conservatives could not bring themselves to support my motion. Instead they used their majority to push through an amendment which mauled my proposal. We ended up with a meaningless after thought which meant nothing and committed the Council to……..doing precisely nothing.

The Conservatives also rejected my amendment to their Policy Item. The Conservatives were proposing to make it policy that the Council will publish on line any expenditure over £500.00. I suspected they were only paying lip to greater transparency service so I suggested an amendment that put flesh on the bones of their proposal. Apparently they did not like that bit of my amendment that took out reference to the “wonderful leader listens initiative” What that had to do with publishing on line information was beyond me. And, any way I happen to think the Leaders Listens is nothing to do with listening.

My suspicions about the seriousness of the Conservatives on this were confirmed when a Cabinet Member (the one who does not like to see people upset), told us that Transparency is only an aspiration. Well that what it sounded like to me.

Finally, amongst many odd things that were said on Tuesday, the oddest was reserved for the Leader. The first part of the Council Meeting is given over to questions to Cabinet Members .A Labour Member had posted a critical question about British Conservatives in the European Parliament who are now in a new right wing group led by a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski. The follow up question was equally critical. The Leader gave a strange reply going around the houses he finally accused Labour of keeping equally bad company in Europe. Read that carefully, is that some admission or not?