It is not often that you hear local politics being spontaneously discussed in local pubs and shops, but this weekend people around here really are discussing Lib Dem Cllr Philip Thomson s secret move to Arizona with amazement and outrage. They find it in

It is not often that you hear local politics being spontaneously discussed in local pubs and shops, but this weekend people around here really are discussing Lib Dem Cllr Philip Thomson's secret move to Arizona with amazement and outrage.

They find it incredible that he really thought he could continue to serve local residents by email and claim the full councillor's allowance, and that he only changed his mind and resigned after a media outcry.

When I was a Conservative councillor in Belsize I realised you simply can't do everything by email - I often took my damp-detecting meter and other testing equipment with me when I visited constituents, especially those in council homes or other social housing.

Philip Thomson of course is very young, he's made an error of judgement and has now rectified that by resigning.

What is much more concerning is the way Camden's senior Lib Dems backed his attempt to hang on, presumably because they didn't want to fight a by-election.

Jonny Bucknell

Chamberlain Street, NW1