It’s been a torrid few weeks for the Tory government. They began by whipping their MPs to allow water companies to continue discharging untreated sewage into the nation’s rivers and coastlines. Then came the Owen Patterson cash for lobbying scandal, and another whipped vote followed by a screeching U-turn. This was followed by claims of yet more Tory sleaze in the form of cash for peerages, allegations of free holidays for the PM, highly lucrative second and third jobs for Tory MPs, including one MP working for several months thousands of miles from Westminster advising a Caribbean tax haven.

All the while in the background, the serious business of CPO26 was going on, but Johnson’s hope of emerging from that triumphant failed to materialise. The COP fizzled its way to a disappointing conclusion, ending with only a hope nations would return in a year’s time and try a bit harder.

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, his woes were compounded when some old personal problems re-emerged over the weekend. The Sunday Observer ran a front page splash and story with fresh revelations about the Jennifer Arcuri scandal. And finally to top the lot, an apparently unassailable Tory lead over Labour has now evaporated, with latest polls showing Labour a clear six points ahead.

With all this going on, it is perhaps understandable that Watford’s local Tory Party would seek to divert attention away from the continuing Tory government omnishambles and onto the Liberal Democrats.

The letter from a Tory Mayoral Candidate in the Watford Observer (‘Face up to facts’, November 12) seeks to blame the LibDems for the consequences of excessively high housing targets set by their own party in government. Watford’s Tories can twist and turn all they like, but they can’t wriggle out of facing the real fact that housing targets are set by central government, not by Watford Council.

Make no mistake, policies have consequences and the truth is it’s the ridiculously high Tory Targets for new housing which have led directly to the Tory Towers now emerging here in Watford.

Cllr Peter Jeffree, Park Ward

Chair, Development Management Committee, Watford Borough Council