Oh dear oh dear. We're barely a week into the new campaign and already I'm going to have to dust off the Golden Porkie award - and since the Tories romped away with it last year it's only fitting that the Tory candidate for Crookes should be the first one out of the gate this year. And it's an absolute stinker.

The latest "inTouch" from Tory Robert McIlveen - which I feel looks uncomfortably like a tax return form - bears the headline

Only the Tories offer value for money here

And goes on to scaremonger about how those nasty Lib Dems are going to raise your Council Tax.

EXCEPT: the Conservatives in Sheffield proposed RAISING the Council Tax by 2.9%, which is ABOVE the rate of inflation. The Lib Dem budget contained a below-inflation rise of just 1.96% - a cut in real terms.

The Tories have a real problem in Sheffield. People have started to realise that this election is about Lib Dem vs. Labour in the Town Hall. They want to vote for a party that can win - and all the evidence shows that the Tories could be completely wiped out by May 2008. But if these bare-faced lies are all they can offer in response to genuine community action by the Lib Dems, it will be well deserved.








There you go my friend - wear it with pride.