Neil Williams (Leader of the Haringey Council LibDem Group) and I go to meet residents in Ringwood Avenue, Fortis Green, whose houses back on to the proposed development at 79 Creighton Avenue.

I feel pretty confident that this application will hit the dust as the vast part of the development is on Metropolitan Open Land – and I have in writing from Haringey’s Chief Exec the view that the development is too large and the applicants have been told so.

We go and peer at the trees that have been devastated in the area. This needs proper investigation by Haringey Council – and prosecutions if necessary.

In the evening, host a fundraising dinner. Ed Davey MP is the celeb for the evening – and it was quite a lively one. Happily, I don’t do the cooking or a) no one would come (or certainly not a second time) and b) Isabel does – and Isabel can really cook.

Several of the paying attendees were ex-Labour members who have moved across to the LibDems for a mixture of reasons. The overarching reason: more than the war, more than top-up fees etc is the loss of trust in Labour and Blair. I guess it is quite difficult when you have been involved in the Labour party (or any party for that matter) to switch allegiance to the point of campaigning for the new party. But that is the case now – and I often find that the individuals are pretty much natural Lib Dems in reality.