also in early march I received the Liberal Democrat Focus On…Mapesbury newsletter. This newsletter was the first opportunity to meet the Lib Dem candidates for the Mapesbury wards. The candidates are Chris Leaman, Sami Hashmi and Hayley Matthews.

The BELDs expect that a Labour council would again increase council taxes significantly after the local elections. The LDs (as we know) propose a ‘fairer system’ of local income taxation.

Local education and student finance also make an appearence in the newsletter. Sarah Teather has been consistantly raising the issue of numbers of school places in the House of Commons. And the Lib Dems have been against tuition fees, as highlighted by Hayley Matthews.

The newsletter also draws our attention to a number of quality of environment / quality of life issues that the BELD have been responding to in the Mapesbury area.

Brent Lib Dems have been redistributing the comments made by Labour Cllr for Queen’s Park Jonathan Davies on the governance and effectiveness of Brents’ Labour Council.

I’m glad to see that Cllr Davies has the ability to speak his own mind and to make judgements based on his observations. His views on the consultation around the proposed development consisting of a tower block in Queen’s Park will chime with many in the local area.

The BELD let themselves down by reprinting the Tony & George snap again - I thought we’d stopped all that after winning a by-election and a general election seat with it. This is a LOCAL ellection after all!

…picking a shadow cabinet when you don’t have all eyes watching, waiting for you to make clear exactly what your intentions are with regard to the party. If your leadership hasn’t been subjected to intense probing by spectators and participants alike you are not under the same pressures and scrutiny and can take stock, deliberate before revealing your hand.

Having worked as a constituency MP for the last 18 months and increased her majority in the face of a strong Labour campaign, Sarah is to join the Liberal Democrat ‘front bench’ team. She will now be responsible for the Communities and Local Government portfolio of policy.

Lib Dems Press Release. BBC News. FT.com. Guardian.

Otherwise it’s all quiet on the news front. There has not been a news posting to the BELD website since Charles visited Brent East before the election. I guess we are waiting for the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen’s Speech and for the MPs to take their seats for the 2005-09/10 parliamentary term. Whether or not reform to Local Government, devolution and the like, and further inititives to promote cohesion and community are in the policies announced this week, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Sarah pretty soon.