Ten Days That Shook Camden

So we won the most seats. Great. And we knocked Labour off their perch after 35 years. Fantastic. But now we have to find a way to govern Camden.

The constitution of Camden Council is a highly centralised affair which assumed that Labour would never lose power. It says: a) the party with a majority should run the Executive (the main decisionmaking body - equivalent to the Cabinet in the government) ; b) the party with the most seats should run the Council. It doesn't say what happens if the party with the most seats can't get its policies passed. And anyway, as Liberal Democrats, we believe that it's unhealthy for one party to rule with a minority of the votes. We believe in proportional representation.

So that's why we offered to share power with the other two main parties - Labour and the Conservatives. Labour immediately rejected the offer because they feel rejected, which they are. So we now have a Lib Dem-led administration with the Conservatives getting some seats on the Executive. Not ideal, but probably best for the stability of Camden. And now we'll rewrite the constitution so as to dilute the power of the Executive and decentralise as much decisionmaking as possible.