Now here’s a surprise: Liberal County Councillor Jean Fooks (Oxford Mail, August 18) is trying to suggest that she opposes the switching off of speed cameras in Oxfordshire when this is the direct result of the Liberal-Conservative national coalition’s policies.

You can’t have it both ways, Mrs Fooks. I am afraid the days of pointing in every direction imaginable at local elections are gone now that your party is sharing power for the first time since Lloyd George (yes the chap who sold peerages)!

If you hope to retain any credibility in the new era, you might do better to remind your dwindling number of Liberal electors that it was a Labour government that left the current Liberal-Conservative government a mountain of debt close to a trillion pounds. This is £1 plus fifteen noughts and is a huge and unsustainable level of debt, only made possible by a party of the far left that believed unbridled public spending was bound to lead to an improvement in public services.

Dream on, Mrs Fooks!

Keith Mitchell Leader Oxfordshire County Council County Hall Oxford