For weeks we have been reading about the scandalous behaviour of councillors Hugh Rayner, John Hart and Dean Cohen, which is unethical at the very least and might be illegal.

We have read about about the forthcoming investigations (do them now, please) by the council’s monitoring officer.

We have seen the Tory-led council pass a motion by a one-vote majority to allow blanket dispensations to councillors so that they can vote on policies in which they have a vested interest, another action that broadcasts their lack of integrity.

We have learned that the rescheduling of the next council meeting – a nasty little manoeuvre to make attendance of Labour councillors difficult because it clashes with their party’s national conference – will not be reversed; this despite leader Cllr Richard Cornelius’s public assertion it would be, and despite a convention by which all parties honour each other’s commitment to national party conferences. The Tories claim they had to reschedule the meeting because the original date conflicted not with another political obligation but with Tory councillors’ holidays.

The only things open and transparent about this administration are its monumental lack of integrity and disregard for democracy. It’s not a matter of innocent until proven guilty, because none of the three councillors under investigation have publicly denied the complaints against them; they have simply tried to excuse them. The spontaneous chorus of ‘shame’ that accompanied Hugh Rayner’s retreat from the council chamber will follow them all until they do the right and decent thing – resign.

Barbara Jacobson

Barnet Alliance for Public Services