Think first, then vote

• THE Lib Dems ran Islington for a decade. In their first term they decided to economise by removing funding from most of  the voluntary groups across the borough.
One such group was Mencap Pathway, which helped prepare people with learning difficulties for work in the mainstream.
I have learning difficulties and joined Pathway hoping it  could help me into work. I was well into the course when the council decided to cut our funding, and we had to close down.
Our group only cost £50,000 a year to run. The leader and deputy leader of the Lib Dem council had voted themselves jointly a salary of £80,000 (far more than the leaders of adjacent boroughs).
Bridget Fox was deputy leader of the council at this time. We felt we were being sacrificed so councillors could have a large salary.
We made a video showing the work we did and sent copies to relevant councillors, including Bridget. They did not even acknowledge it.
I challenged her in a public meeting as a final attempt to make her realise the importance of Mencap Pathway – once again to no avail.
The people who knew her well voted her out as councillor at the last election. I do hope the people of Islington will think very deeply before they cast their vote for MP.
EMEKA OGBOGOH
Camden Road
N7

• SO many trees have died to provide election leaflets. And the worst offenders are the Lib Dems, who daily promote Bridget Fox in various smiling reposes on personalised envelopes that flop on my floor.
Is she the same Bridget Fox who the electorate threw out as a councillor in Islington four years ago? It is. Her boss, Steve Hitchins, was also thrown out of public office.
They were not re-elected because they did not listen, and I’m not convinced she’s listening now.
Martina Navratilova said this, and all politicians should take note: “The moment of victory is too brief to live for that and that alone.”
PAT EDLIN 
N1

• I AM being bombarded with misleading propaganda claiming Bridget Fox will stand up for local people. When she was deputy leader of Islington Council, we had a mass meeting of council tenants to discuss PFI (private finance initiative). The meeting voted overwhelmingly against PFI – more than 600 to one.
Ms Fox and her council completely ignored the wishes of tenants, and immediately imposed PFI on council street properties. Is this standing up for local people?
In this election we should judge the candidates on their record; that of Ms Fox, when she was council deputy leader, was not a good one.
Beatrice Harvey
Bemerton Street
N1

• I AM still surprised to see that Labour and Conservatives are trying to make out on their leaflets that the battle in Islington is between them when this is clearly untrue.
The Tories couldn’t even find a candidate from Islington to run here for them in the general election – and instead had to look to west London (Paddington) to find Antonia Cox.
So we have a Tory candidate who doesn’t live in the area, is taking on a record of being more than 7,000 votes behind last time – while the Lib Dems were 484 votes behind.
And the Tories came fourth in the Euro elections last year, and have no councillors – and haven’t done for years – so if you believe the Labservative Spin then you will be wasting your vote.
EMMA GOWERS
Huntingdon Street, N1

• I HAVE just been reading the Tribune’s election news (April 23). Balanced it isn’t.
We have pictures of Bridget Fox and Emily Thornberry – the front-runners. We also have pictures of the Greens and the Animals Count representatives.
For heaven’s sake, in the interests of fairness you even mention a quartet of independents.
But nowhere is there any mention of Antonia Cox standing for the Conservatives. No picture, no name check for her or her party.
Good grief! I had been steeling myself to vote Fox to keep out Thornberry, but now I feel a typo coming on and may just have to vote Cox to even the score.
CATHERINE ALLINSON
Furlong Road
N7