It was with both anger and dismay that I discovered on Thursday when I arrived at an all party hustings meeting held in Alvering Library in Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth, that the lovely library is to be closed down by the Tory Council.  It was a super venue, peaceful yet well appointed.

Closing libraries is, I believe, very short sighted.  Libraries allow children access to books in a way which cannot be matched by other means and also provide adults with an invaluable service.  Where else would you get your Ruth Rendell and Ian Rankin?

The other parties at the hustings – Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens and UKIP – may not all have shared my views on closing libraries.  I am, however, sure that everyone liked this particular one.  My thanks to the Wandsworth Society for organising the hustings and for making sure the meeting was so well attended

The hustings itself was most memorable for the total lack of any real grasp on policy by the UKIP candidate Strachan McDonald.  The only thing he seemed able to talk about was the Little Englander view that we are better off alone, no matter what that may mean and how much it may cost.  When asked what UKIP MEPs would do on the environment and climate change he was totally at sea.  You would thought he would have briefed himself on such an important matter.  Or maybe UKIP really do not have amy policies on the environment.

Which brings me on to the Conservative candidate, number four on their list, Belgian born Jean-Paul Floru.  An articulate libertarian, Jean-Paul believes there should be no control over the free market, seemingly even when an unregulated market would endanger workers’ health and safety and increase poverty.  Mr Floru, incidentally, has close links with the ultra right wing LLD Party in Belgium.  The LLD itself is very closely allied to the Vlaams Belang, which can be best described as the Belgian version of the BNP.

In fact, the table was very much divided into two – UKIP and the Tories on one side and the Lib Dem and Greens and myself on the other.  A very instructive observation, I think.