Media shocked that ex-Labour councillor criticises government.

Yesterday the papers and Television news was full of the enws that independent head of Community Service Volunteers, Dame Elisabeth Hoodless had criticised the government's cuts and said that the Big Society won't get volunteers becuase of them.

Except Dame Elisabeth Hoodless isn't quite as independent as she was made out to be. Why? because she was a Labour Councillor in Islington and is apparently married to a former Labour leader of Islington Council.

In May last year she was careful to distance herself from the labour Party claiming she quit shortly before Tony Blair stood down in 2007 and saying "The Labour government scrapped the 10p tax band and cut benefits for single mothers, and I had to ask myself why I was paying money to a party that behaved in that way," she says. "So I quit. I'm not a member of any party any more."

Although in May 2008 she was happy for the Islington Tribune to refer to her as a former Labour Councilor without the claim she had left the party in disgust.

Either way, I think we can stop claiming that she is some kind of independent charity figure concerned about the actual effects of policy and not just ideologically opposed to cuts.

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