Last night’s budget meeting was typical of many I have been at over the past 28 years. The ruling Tories agree with the Liberal Democrats’ ideas – and might even implement them on the quiet (IF THEY ARE RE-ELECTED IN MAY) – but can’t vote for the Opposition’s budget amendments because they – the Tories – didn’t think of them first.

They didn’t invent the Lib Dem proposals for solar energy to cut fuel bills; for a better Rangers service to tidy up our towns and villages; for making recycling more effective and for a fund to help deliver infrastructure to underpin an eventual Local Plan. So most Tories voted down the Lib Dems’ good ideas.

The only thing they did invent last night was a bogus excuse not to give a fair cash rebate to home owners. The council is awash with surplus New Homes Bonus cash handed out by central government; money not raised through Council Tax. The Tories threw out the Lib Dems’ proposal for a £4.25 flat-rate, one-off payment to all households on the spurious argument that they didn’t have time to deduct the sum from council tax bills and so would have to post out cheques separately at a cost – so they claimed – of £33,000.

Ever so out of date – any Peelites amongst Uttlesford Tories?

That is, of course, total nonsense. They have had ample time to amend bills. The bills haven’t yet been printed. So the Tories invented a fictitious administrative cock-up to get out of this fair option to justify what they want – a council tax cut to benefit the wealthiest households by three times the amount that the least wealthy households will gain. That’s Tory politics for you.