IT’S TIME to put UKIP on the spot. The party picked up a number of county council seats outside of Oxfordshire at last week’s election and now the spotlight should be trained on its policies.

We are hearing about UKIP’s broader appeal and how it has become a home for the disillusioned and angry.

But I have heard nothing concrete about how it would, if put in the position, run schools and social services. That concerns me. In the same breath it pledges to ring-fence public services, yet nods reassuringly about capping council tax.

How will its back-of-a-fag-packet-sums add up when council budgets are crunched?

It does not have a clue about what makes our communities tick. UKIP’s attendance in the European Parliament is woeful.

In areas outside the county, I also want assurances they will turn up to council meetings and involve themselves in local decisions.

CATHERINE BEARDER
Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the South East