The City of Chester Liberal Democrat Executive is deeply disturbed that the Prime Minister chose to exercise a veto in the early hours of 9 December 2011 and thereby side-lined the UK from the crucial negotiations on the European financial strategy.

We are very concerned that senior Liberal Democrats have given political commentators the opportunity to present our party as shifters and equivocators on a subject as important to our parties views on Europe.

The deputy Prime Minister's initial support for the Prime Minister and confirmation that he had supported the negotiating strategy changed with each revealing news item to a dismay at the outcome!

The Chester Executive believe that the party should be resolute in explaining why Europe is so important to our country's future economic health to the public and why we believe working with our European partners is in the long term best interests of our country. We are dismayed that on such an important subject the party has been presented as marginalised ( i.e. not at the negotiating table at all ), at odds with our beliefs and shifty