I was interested to read in the Gazette and Herald that Coun Chris Caswill has resigned from the Liberal Democrats:

Many voters will agree with his reasons:

Coun Caswill said he had expected Lib Dems to “listen to and engage with the views of local communities, and support them when in conflict with powerful interests”.

Coun Caswill said he was keen to use his new independence to argue the case for the National Health Service, and had been shocked by the support of the Lib Dem party, including local MP Duncan Hames, for “the privatisation of the NHS, for secret courts and the destruction of legal aid and judicial review, for the demonisation of the poor, for assaults on support for the disabled, for the bedroom tax, for brutal cuts in local authority funding, for the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowance for the less well-off kids – indeed for the whole attempt to put the burden of our economic problems on the disadvantaged and the hard-working poor”.

He said: “Up until now I have hoped that Liberal Democrats would at least commit to trying to reverse some of these dreadful policies, but it’s now clear that they will not.

“More recently, the party has committed itself to support for fracking and for nuclear power and has sat silent while Conservative ministers have rubbished climate change and imposed a badger cull against all serious scientific advice.

“These are the directions in which the party leadership has taken the Liberal Democrats and it is not a direction which I’m prepared to go.”

Published and promoted by Chippenham Labour Party on behalf of Andy Newman, both of 5 Elm Hayes, Corsham, SN13 9JW