It’s not every day that you come in to work to hear that a Lib Dem councillor has defected to the enemy. When I read the news it took a few seconds to realise it wasn’t actually April Fools Day and Catherine Harris had indeed changed her allegiences to Labour.

I’m still trying to get my head around it. It’s like marmite. You spend all your life convinced you dislike it, a staunch believer that it is devil food and firmly rooted in the ‘hate it’ category of the infamous ‘you either love it or hate it’ adage. You couldn’t possibly wake up one day and happily spread it on your toast. Could you?

Ok granted Catherine’s bombshell isn’t entirely akin to moving over to the marmite-loving dark side, but it’s hardly an everyday occurrence.

Haringey Lib Dems tend to berate Labour at any given opportunity. This is reciprocated by Labour in a continuing cycle. So how does a politician of one group, who steadily spouts frustration and anger at the opposition on a regular basis, decide she actually wants to be one of them?

And is it really fair? More than one person has pointed out this week that Catherine was elected to Noel Park ward as a Lib Dem councillor. Should her constituents just accept that their representative is now a Labour representative? In an interview she suggested to me that her policy of hearing what residents have to say and getting their voices heard is the same now as it ever was. In fact she says she can better serve their needs in her new role. Except what happens when what she hears goes against Labour policy?

And as the former Lib Dem housing spokeswoman and occasional critique of Diakides’ opinions, it’ll be interesting to see how they come together on one of the borough’s biggest issues.

I suppose all of this drama should be expected in the rough and tumble of local politics, especially with such a strong opposition presence and in this instance round one goes to Labour.

Round two, let the battle commence.