So what, remind us, is this town twinning lark supposed to be for? Harrow Council Labour’s administration has voted to investigate twinning the borough with a ragbag of assorted slums and pet projects of its Labour administration. At a Council meeting on 4th November, Labour councillors voted through a motion to:

“Explore the possibility of twinning with more towns and cities such as Balakot, Bhuj, Broken Hill, Hargeisa, Pattan, Port au Prince, Kingston, La, Tilburg and Tel Aviv.”

Four of them have Foreign Office ‘do not travel’ warnings against them – for reasons ranging from terrorism to natural disasters and disease – and the others don’t formally have one mostly for politically correct reasons.

Bakalot: “Advise against all travel to areas where there are ongoing reports of military or militant activity or where the risk from lawlessness and kidnapping is most severe”; applies to “much of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.”

Hargeisa: “Advises against all travel to Somalia”; “There is no British representation in any part of Somalia and we are unable to provide consular assistance there. Should you need consular assistance please travel to the British Embassy in Addis Ababa or the British High Commission in Nairobi.”

Pattan: “Advise against all travel to rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir; “In some areas terrorist incidents are frequent, especially Jammu and Kashmir.”

Port au Prince: “We continue to advise against all but essential travel to Haiti.”

Kingston: “There are high levels of crime and violence, particularly in Kingston”

Twinning with the rubbish dumps of the third world would be a waste of money and time at the best of times, but it looks even worse at a time they are making political hay out of sacking 34 library staff and blaming the government.