I was pleasantly surprised to read this letter from Derek Phillips in the Bath Chronicle yesterday. It really brightened my day by illustrating some of the current problems in Bath in a humorous way. The original letter can be found here.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We know a thing or two,
Like trusting folk will vote for us, What a silly thing to do.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We’re the best there’s ever been,We fill our ears with cotton wool, And pass plans we haven’t seen.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We think Bath buildings crass, We’ll knock them down, old things of stone,
And replace them all with glass.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We think the town is ours,
We’ll build some things that no one wants,
And call them Crossley Towers.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We know you’ll be like a mouse,
We do away with landmarks,
It’s started with the old Burnt House.

We are the Lib Dem council,
Your heritage is fast eroding,
We have schemes lined up, yes plenty more,
To fill you with foreboding.

We are the Lib Dem council,
Churchill House gone now any day,
Two fingers to our electorate,
And we’re standing again in May.

We are the Lib Dem council,
We know a thing or two,
Like people still will vote for us,
What a silly thing to do.

Today, Francis Maude, Chairman of the Conservative party visited Bath to meet our new Conservative Parliamentary candidate, Fabian Richter, and members of Bath Conservative Future.

Chairman Maude met us, along with local Conservative councillors and party officials outside the historic Bath Abbey. After a number of photographs were taken by a photographer from the Bath Chronicle, Fabian and Francis left to discuss a Conservative future for Bath and how best to defeat the current Liberal Democrat Bath MP, Don Foster who has a 4638 majority.

Later in the day Fabian and Francis went canvassing in the Combe Down ward, where Mr Maude told reporters:

Our concerns are with getting good value so that the money the council spends yields the best results. It’s not a choice between good services and low taxes. You can deliver good services and low taxes by making sensible decisions and running the council in an effective and efficient way.

This statement has been backed up by this year’s Audit Commission annual assessment of the quality of services provided by local councils, that proves Conservative run councils provide better services than any other party and at less cost to residents.

The recent actuality is full with news concerning the sailors and marines captured by Iran. How despicable the attitude of Iran might be, diplomacy is for the moment the only option in this affair, but at the some time some key weakness on our part are highlighted.

Some may question why the captured personnel did not opened fired on the approaching Iranian vessel. The answer is fairly easy, the Royal Navy is abiding to UN-made rules of engagement, so that the sailors could not fire unless fired upon. But at the same time a crucial weakness is also highlighted, inadequate air cover.

Had sufficient air cover been provided, the Iranian vessel would have been sighted miles off, by any plane and even dozens of miles off by a radar plane such as an E-2 Hawkeye. The air cover provided by Invincible class carriers, is wholly insufficient as radar planes or modern fighters can’t be deployed. As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War, it is also worth remembering that had air cover been provided, from a large aircraft carrier capable of deploying normal fighter planes, the war would have been much shorter and losses dues, to Argentine air attacks considerably reduced.

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