We were surprised to see Tory election literature has focussed on the question of honesty from the Lib Dems. Though the Lib Dems haven’t been entirely honest our criticism published in the Woking News and Mail is that they contributed to the most publicised problem with the local Conservatives. It is true that the Tory party drove the debt crisis in Woking but there were times when Lib Dems allowed the Tories to do so as pointed out by John Bond, our Pyrford candidate and a former councillor.
The Lib Dems now claim to have fought against a variety of Tory policies but the council records, which aren’t being questioned by any party, agree with John and his recollection of events. While the Lib Dems are right to say that this was some time ago their actions, and their misrepresentation of them, should not be ignored by voters. The actions of the main parties have consequences, and for Woking council bankruptcy is now a real possibility. If we hold only one party responsible for their actions while the other benefits from deception and poor decisions then we encourage the same behaviour in the future. Also, talking about good work the Lib Dems are currently doing only highlights that this should’ve and could’ve started years before it did, the Lib Dems only had to work with councillors like John who actually opposed the Conservative policies they now claim to be fighting.
When reading the Tory response please remember that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine affected other parts of the UK too, and most of them now have significantly less debt than Woking. Besides this their representative briefly clarified a few finer details in the article which we admit we could’ve been clearer on, but we were discussing multiple connected issues.