Lambeth town hall has come if for a good kicking:

AN INFAMOUS council has become the worst in London. Lambeth has been judged the poorest performing council in the capital. It is now ranked among the five most pitiful councils in the whole of England. The borough's Labour administration has been left reeling after the national body that measures local authorities' performance decided the council's services to residents had got worse. The Audit Commission looked at the state of all the services the council provides before making its damning judgement. The commission uses star ratings between zero and four to indicate council performance...

Lambeth used to have a lowly two stars, but it's now been stripped of one of them. In a story filled with words like 'pitiful', 'damning' and 'deficient' it takes a Tory to deliver the death blow:

"Labour councils are like fish - they rot from the head down. It is now time for the Government to intervene."

Ka-ching! But over on the Lambeth Council website there's a slightly different spin on the news:

The Audit Commission has awarded Lambeth Council a one star rating and said that our services are "improving well".

Yeah, in the same way that Iraq is 'improving well' after Saddam Hussein was 'awarded' a new necktie.