Anne Smith has been a busy woman.

Despite her demanding role as Leader of the Sheffield Conservatives "Team" (total councillors: 2), she seems to have found time recently to claim to have singlehandedly thwarted Persimmon Homes over a housing development at King Ecgbert's School (turns out she had some help - see my previous post on Dore and Totley), "protect our local heritage" and save the planet from a giant ball of fire. All in a day's work, you understand.

Don't let her unruffled exterior fool you, though: Anne Smith is deeply passionate about politics. So much so, in fact, that she recently stormed out of a meeting chaired by a Lib Dem councillor (and then stormed back in to tell all and sundry that Dore and Totley was "in the bag").

With victory apparently assured, you would expect Anne to be planning a party for her triumphant candidate, or perhaps moving on to new battles elsewhere in the city - not so! This landed in our mailbox today: a flyer bearing Anne Smith's signature and bearing the headline "SCURRILOUS ELECTIONEERING ALLEGATIONS FROM THE LIB DEMS". It says: -



Well. We've been called liars before - after all, this is politics. If any of it were true, then we ought to prostrate ourselves in shame. Fortunately, we have 36 councillors who can testify that the Tories have supported and continue to support Labour's favoured areas policy.

Anne Smith's Conservatives are taking a gamble here: that no-one who receives this leaflet will spot the fraud before polling day. Unfortunately, someone forgot to remind the Tories that they had issued this leaflet mere days before: -




We are charitable folks here, and we think that such efforts should not go unrewarded: therefore, A Liberal View of Sheffield is proud to present Anne Smith and the Sheffield Conservatives with the prestigious (and delicious) Golden Porkie Award 2006 for the most outrageous fib told during an election contest this year.

(This, at least, will give them something to celebrate on Thursday.)