Tories "open to the people", but only their own.

At their Local Government  campaign launch, Tory "Welsh" Leader  Mr Davies said councils should be more open to the people they served.

"Time and time again, whether it be the planning system, whether it be exorbitant council tax increases that people have had to face, they believe that Labour-run councils - along with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats - haven't been listening to them," he told BBC Wales.
"Welsh Conservatives promise to listen, promise to deliver, and above all will make sure that we're held to account when we get into county halls across the length and breadth of Wales."

The Tories always talk about councils being open to people they severe but only if the people agree with them

Ken Livingstone’s high-spend socialist policies put the GLC into direct conflict with Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.when Livingstone soon became a thorn in the side of the sitting Conservative government. He antagonised Thatcher through a series of actions (including posting a billboard of London’s rising unemployment figures on the side of County Hall, directly opposite Parliament); a Fares Fair policy of reducing Tube and bus fares using government subsidies;

By 1983, the government argued for the abolition of the GLC, claiming that it was inefficient and unnecessary, and that its functions could be carried out more efficiently by the boroughs. The arguments for this case which were detailed in the White Paper Streamlining the cities. Critics of this position argued that the GLC’s abolition (as with that of the Metropolitan County Councils) was politically motivated, claiming that it had become a powerful vehicle for opposition to Margaret Thatcher’s government. Ken Livingstone and 3 other Labour councillors resigned in protest, and won back their seats easily in the September 1984 by-elections because the Conservatives refused to stand.

The point is despite the GLC facing a hostile press the Tories could not risk it going to a election and Livingstone winning on a Left  Mandate completely opposite to Thatcherite thinking

Earlier, he told the BBC's Good Morning Wales programme that high pay in local government "drove people around the bend", and questioned why some officials in county halls were paid more than the prime minister.

The Tories only run Monmouth with the help of the Liberal Democrats. I wonder what officials in the many county halls in England are paid?

The party's local government spokeswoman Janet Finch-Saunders said 

Labour and Plaid Cymru-led councils

 "continue to hold back our communities with a complacency that has seen our high streets deteriorate, picturesque green spaces diminish, and council tax bills spiralling out of control".

Those of us who have the honour of a Tory (or one pretending to be an Independent) standing  in their area will have or soon receive leaflets from them in which they don't call for cuts but will be calling for more expenditure on their Ward.


At no time will they mention the Westminster led cuts to Local Governments finances which has led to the closure of Libraries and other social amenities.

Don't be fooled by the Tories waving the flag of Democracy they  have no interest in the views of ordinary people, They call for openness is a lie, they seek only to serve  a a minority of people who resent  the welfare state  and would rather they paid no taxes at all.

Why should anybody vote for a Party that  has tried to use an economic  crisis to attack the poor and dispossessed rather than the bankers who caused it and who will seek to extend it to your Town Halls.