Harrow Tories more trick than treat

You may recall that one of David Cameron's big themes is that more should be done to support the voluntary sector, and local community organisations. Local Tories are still struggling with this a bit.

Tories in Harrow, for example, had a meeting in which they rejected bids for funding from groups in the Turkish speaking community, some African communities and the Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi communities, and agreed to cut the overall grants budget in real terms next year. Then they all put on Halloween masks.

Now some would regard this as rather insensitive, but, as Cllr Rye (leader of Harrow Council) explained, the wearing of the masks was just a bit of fun, "we are very happy that we enjoy what we do and that's what we were doing."

Going 'trick or treating' can, indeed, be very enjoyable. But is it really part of the new compassionate Conservativism to start playing 'trick or treat' with the voluntary sector?