THERE was a mature response from former Islington Liberal Democrat councillor Laura Willoughby, MBE no less, when she saw the front page of last week’s New Journal. “It is a s**t paper – they are tossers,” she wrote on Facebook, after seeing the striking grid of Lib Dem councillors who had lost their seats at the recent local elections. Messenger duly shot down, and to think: Laura always seemed to love her regular appearances in the CNJ’s sister title, the Islington Tribune, when she was a politician at the Town Hall.

ALL the hard work the Lib Dems put in locally seemed to have been forgotten when activists received a message from Annette Brooke, chairwoman of the parliamentary party, last week which repeated the mantra: “Where we work, we win.” Cheeky so-and-so, we’ve been working our bleedin’ socks off here, thought many north London members. Caron Lindsay, co-editor of the website Liberal Democrat Voice, explained it better than Peeps: “How dare they imply that the campaigns in Haringey and Islington and Camden weren’t strong or established enough.”

CONSERVATIVE Chris Knight, who has just stepped down from the council after eight years, has struggled to be sensitive about the Tory win in his old Hampstead ward. He has given himself the nickname The Chung Slayer, in reference to Lib Dem Linda Chung’s defeat. Having seen his repeated V-for-victory pictures, a few of his rivals thought it might be time to rein it in a little.

DARTMOUTH Park-dwelling Labour Party leader Ed Miliband told the Evening Standard recently that on a night off from defending the way he eats bacon sandwiches, he likes to go to the cinema. Which one? The Holloway Odeon, of course. A likely story, whispered the folk who like to portray him as a lofty out-of-touch north London man. Yet punch “Miliband” and “Odeon” into Twitter and the punters reveal he’s telling the truth. He was spotted looking disappointed with Lincoln last year at the Holloway Odeon, and watching Midnight In Paris at the Camden branch back in 2011. Journalist Darren Richman won’t be fooled, however. He tweeted: “Ed Miliband was in the same Woody Allen screening as us tonight. He went for the VIP Odeon Seats. #champagnesocialist.”