On Friday, I received an email from Mike Freer MP in which he stated: “Firstly, I’d like to offer my commiserations to Conservative colleagues who were unsuccessful (in the council elections). In particular, Rohit Grover, who missed out on a seat in Childs Hill by only nine votes”, whereas they gained two other seats in the ward formerly held by Liberal Democrats.

Evidently he is not so sorry about people already aggrieved by One Barnet contractor Capita over pensions miscoding or crematorium memorial benches. Nor for Childs Hill ward residents at the south end who will lose green and civic spaces because Tory councillors on the planning committee voted repeatedly for their destruction, nor about voters being misled by Conservative pre-election leaflets.

Voters misled? On three counts, actually. Tory leaflets in the ward stated that “the Lib Dems want to charge two per cent of the property’s value” in a Mansion Tax, and that this could have a starting point of £1million. In fact, Lib Dem policy is for a one per cent tax on the excess value of residential properties worth over £2m. Labour’s defeated Commons motion also only suggested a Mansion Tax apply to properties worth over £2m.

The same leaflet concluded in large print: “Conservatives: cutting council tax by two per cent”. The only recent local council tax cut has been by one per cent and their local manifesto promises nothing more than a freeze in 2016/17. So again, how did they confuse a one with a two?

J Levy

Golders Gardens, Golders Green