Weblog of a liberal

Letter to the Richmond & Twickenham Times, 17th July 2007

Sir,

I note with interest that your publication was quoted on the back page of the leaflet left by Tories campaigning for the erstwhile leader of the council, Tony Arbour, who is, I understand, hoping that the local voters who so unceremoniously booted him out of office in Richmond will fail to make the same choice when choosing their London Assembly member.

The publication includes a photograph of the upper two thirds of a Richmond & Twickenham Times billboard which says “Richmond Arbour fights…”

Perhaps you might be kind enough to remind us exactly what Mr Arbour was fighting and why he was fighting it?

Many thanks in advance for your clarification.

Yours faithfully,

Cllr George Beevor

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Kew

On-line communities page: www.beevor.oncom.org.uk/

Weblog: http://www.georgebeevor.typepad.co.uk/

If I recall correctly, the truth is that the opponent Cllr Arbour was fighting was the Standards Board for LBRuT, to whom a case had been deferred from the Standards Board for England. Mr Arbour lost this 'fight' and was forced to apologise for divulging figures highly sensitive to the proper tendering process to journalists.

Cameron & Arbour - Happy Bedfellows?

One can not help but question whether or not David Cameron knows he has been photographed with the former leader of Richmond Borough Council, Tony Arbour.

Those of us with a genuine and informed concern for environmental issues have variously laughed, cringed and worried at Cameron’s transparent attempts to flirt with those voters with a green priorities, but to find on the latest campaign literature from Arbour, that Mr Cameron is apparently campaigning alongside the man who banned the very word ‘sustainability’ from an entire borough could only manage mirth!

Perhaps when David Cameron told The Forum Leadership for Sustainable Development Masters that “we need to create sustainability-literate leaders of the future” he had in mind that even the Conservative Party would have to move forward and reject the head in the sand culture of their recent past. What else could he have meant when he pledged that “just as Britain once led the world in industrialisation, I hope that we in the future will lead the world in sustainability?”

Surely being "sustainability-literate" and banning the very breathing of the word "sustainability" are two entirely irreconcilable positions? Can these men really be from the same party and stand on the same ticket?

Of course, in the London Borough of Richmond we are used to the split between national and local Conservatives, indeed the parties bear little relation to each other what so ever, but what worries me, is the question ‘who are the real conservatives’? Is it the likes of former public relations guru David Cameron? Or is it the man who banned sustainability Tony Arbour?

Perhaps the two might care to clarify the issue for us?