Lib Dem leader shows his true colours

 

Lib Dem leader and Hedge End South councillor Keith House has once more revealed Lib Dems will put development in our green spaces above protecting the environment and biodiversity.

In recent Twitter / X posts he has sided with the discredited Sunak government's plans to throw out more regulations designed to protect our waterways from pollution resulting from housing development. 

In doing so, he has undermined the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and fellow Eastleigh councillor who appeared to take a stand against the Conservatives in her post "England's rivers at risk as Michael Gove rips up rules on new housing". 

So the question now is will Liz Jarvis stick to her principles or fall in behind her leader? How badly are local Lib Dems split on this issue?

Moreover Cllr House backs up his pro-development stance with reference to Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, and co-author of Boris Johnson's 2019 election manifesto. The CPS is an increasingly right wing think tank which has drawn praise from some of the hardest of hard right Tories (cps.org.uk):

Rishi Sunak: "Lots of exciting ideas are being generated at the CPS, many of which are finding their way into government"

Boris Johnson: "The Centre for Policy Studies - the pre-eminent centre-right think tank"

Liz Truss: "The CPS is making the case for free markets, free trade, free speech and a free economy"

Cllr House would seem to have planted the Lib Dem banner squarely in the pro-developer, pro-Tory camp. We must therefore question if the Lib Dems can be trusted as an anti-Tory party at the next election(s).

Meanwhile, environmental organisations, including Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust are horrified that the Conservative Government is breaking promises it made as recently as July this year about environmental protection. The Trust's CEO has called it "Outrageous back pedalling by Sunak and Gove." 

The Trust has developed a scheme to protect the Solent from excessive pollution which depends on the mandatory regulations being in place: Nutrient Reduction Programme | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (hiwwt.org.uk). This must now be at risk if the Tories go ahead with abolishing these protections.

Even Eastleigh Borough Council's own website recognises there is a problem with excessive nitrate pollution in the Solent: "The Solent has recognised problems from nitrate enrichment; high levels of nitrogen from human activity and agricultural sources in the catchment have caused excessive growth of green algae (a process called eutrophication) which is having a detrimental impact upon protected habitats and bird species." (Water Quality Issues in the Solent Catchment Area (eastleigh.gov.uk))

Has Cllr House rewritten council policy on social media? He describes himself as "Lib Dem Council Leader. Green." Perhaps he should change his profile colour to Blue.

Local Lib Dems getting on the world cup bandwagon

Lib Dem council leader and Hedge End councillor Keith House has joined the growing list of politicians trying to get a bit of free publicity on the back of our women's football team's success. Cllr House went on Twitter to say "The World Cup Final Sunday morning is a special national event." No problem with that. 

He goes on to say he has said to the Eastleigh Borough Council licensing team to "go light and get relaxed" and to not block pubs and cafes from opening ahead of their licensed hours. No problem with that sentiment. 

However the Borough Council website shows that there is no Eastleigh licensing team. "These functions are administered by Southampton City Council's licensing team."

Also, they would not normally be working on Sunday morning anyway. "Members of the Licensing Team are normally available on weekdays at the Civic Centre, Southampton, from 9am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm..."

It seems Cllr House has forgotten he transferred licensing administration to Southampton. Otherwise his twitter post is just empty gesture politics. Like so much from our local Lib Dems, it looks good on the surface but there is no substance behind it. 

Alcohol and entertainment licence | Eastleigh Borough Council