"Unruly", "raucous", "puerile", "disruptive", "wild" - just a few of the words used by Barnet councillor Brian Gordon in reference to a rabble-rousing mob wreaking havoc at last week's Residents' Forum.

"The wild cheering and applause from your supporters every time you spoke, together with their raucous interruption of other speakers, was puerile and disruptive," he wrote in a letter to the head cheerleader of the offending party.

"I have to warn you that if unruly behaviour from yourself or your supporters repeats itself at a future forum, I may be left with no alternative but to introduce stricter measures."

So who was this rowdy ruffian instilling fear and loathing into all those unfortunate enough to witness his outbursts? A local trouble-maker? A madman from the clink? A teenaged hoodie looking for an Asbo? Or Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore?

Mr Dismore, it seems, had incurred the forum chairman's wrath with his speeches about Watling Avenue cages and Pavilion Way Football Fields in Burnt Oak, and the Spur Road redevelopment in Edgware. By doing so, said Mr Gordon, he had "turned the forum into a political rally" and prevented others from expressing their views.

But this political scourge was having none of it. "If you want the Area Forum simply to be a talking shop and nothing more than a cosmetic exercise in public relations, I think you ought to make that clear to members of the public who attend," he penned in his reply. "If you can't take the political heat, you should stay out of the political kitchen!"

Mr Dismore argued that he had conducted himself in a "good-humoured" manner, and that the only sour note at the meeting had been injected by Conservative councillor Richard Weider, who had continuously heckled him "in an extremely personal way".

Having not attended the meeting, Between the lines could not possibly pass judgment, but we can offer a suggestion for the next forum discussion - the politicisation of local government: cause of mindless partisan spats and inefficient decision-making or healthy offshoot of the democratic process? You decide.