"Down Patch, Down!"

"London's Barnet council divided over controversial scheme
of cuts while outsourcing public services to the private sector"
Link to The Guardian

"Leaked emails have revealed a bitter internal dispute about whether the party has any mandate to drive through outsourcing for more than £500m in contracts under the 'easyCouncil' programme to provide no-frills council services. Barnet's programme has been seen as a testbed for wholesale cuts in the provision of public services by councils, but this week the local Conservative MP Matthew Offord and the Conservative councillor Sury Khatri engaged in an angry row over the party's right to push through cuts.

" 'The Conservative party did not campaign on this basis, and we do not have a mandate,' Khatri told Offord, according to leaked emails seen by the Guardian."