I am indebted to a colleague in Chandlers Ford who notifed me that a senior Andover Tory has written to the Southampton Echo commenting on our Focus newsletters. The letter complains about our “negative campaigning and attacks on local Tories”.

We were both confused as to why the letter was sent to a newspaper not widely available in Andover rather than to the Andover press or better the editor of our Focus.

The  Focus mentions, amongst other things, that a Tory candidate doesn’t live in the area in which she is campaigning.  If they really thinks such a remark constitutes a ‘virulent personal  attack’, what would they say about a Tory leaflet circulated in Chandler’s Ford a couple of years ago which printed a recognisable cartoon of a local Lib Dem councillor wearing a dunce’s cap?  People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. We have stated facts and left residents to draw their own conclusions from these facts.

The letter goes on to complain that the Lib Dems in Andover attack the Tories but never Labour. This is, of course, because there is no longer a local Labour Party in Andover worthy of comment. The Tories run the both borough and county councils. The Andover Labour Party has been silent on every important local issue from the Guildhall closure, to the MDAs, the Andover Airfield development and the council budget deficit.

On present performance the Labour Party has no relevance to Andover and the only alternative to the Conservatives in Andover is the Liberal Democrats. We will continue to run our campaigns on that basis.