Dubious claims

Published: 11:44 AM May 22, 2008

Updated: 1:35 AM February 23, 2021

SIR, — In your report (Herts Advertiser, May 8) you refer to an un-named MP falsely claiming on national radio that the LibDems gained control of St Albans District Council from the Tories in the recent local elections. On the BBC s Any Answers (May 3), a

SIR, - In your report (Herts Advertiser, May 8) you refer to an un-named MP falsely claiming on national radio that the LibDems gained control of St Albans District Council from the Tories in the recent local elections.

On the BBC's Any Answers (May 3), a St. Albans LibDem zealot stated that the LibDem gain of the district council was "a reaction against the Tory county council".

This claim is not borne out by the facts. The Tories netted three extra seats, the LibDems only one, and it was Labour who crumbled.

In addition, comparing last year's St Albans election to this year's, the Tory proportion of the vote went up from 42 per cent to 44 per cent but the LibDems went down from 38 per cent to 36 per cent - even discounting votes here in Redbourn where the LibDems did not field a candidate against the incumbent and re-elected Independent.

I received four electioneering pamphlets from the Tories and a personal visit from their sitting councillor. Assuming I was not the only recipient of such largesse in the village, was this the worst return on investment since Peter Hain's vain (in both senses of the word) attempt to gain the Labour Party deputy leadership?

D. A. REYNOLDS,