ONE is a military dictator who single-handedly took on the might of NATO over Kosovo.

The other is a local politician stripped of her position with a Hampshire organisation in a bizarre coup.

Worlds apart, you might think, but the chairman of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority was yesterday compared to Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic as she was ousted from power.

Then Liz Brett plunged the organisation into chaos by leading a walkout of fellow Liberal Democrats and Labour members at a special meeting arranged by the Tories to gain control of key positions.

Mrs Brett said the meeting was unfair and closed it before leading the mass exodus - leaving the Conservatives alone to vote themselves into power.

She said the matters should be dealt with at an annual meeting next year.

As she left, Tory Michael Cartwright, who was later voted as the new chairman, declared that it was undemocratic and compared her to Slobodan Milosevic.

Afterwards he said: "We were all absolutely flabbergasted."

"We had been advised that the way we had gone about calling the meeting was lawful.

"We had wondered if something might happen but the course of events took us completely by surprise and we are extremely disappointed."

But Mrs Brett later declared that she was still in power.

"The reason why we felt so strongly is that if you look at the last time the Conservatives controlled the authority it was brought to is knees.

"We didn't do what we did lightly as I am not that sort of person, and I just feel very strongly about the situation," she said.

"As the chairman I had the right to close the meeting.

"Though I understand the meeting continued without me, I am still the chairman and will be taking further advice, and we will just have to see what happens."

Jeff Patterson, clerk solicitor of the authority, admitted he was shocked at the chaotic scenes - but said that the Tories had been lawful in re-starting the meeting.

Mr Patterson said: "In my 30 years in local government I have never seen anything like it.

"But to my knowledge it was a lawfully-held meeting and that the decisions made were lawful."

The bizarre scenes came about following Southampton City Council's decision to have representatives on the authority from all three political groups, as the Tories had been excluded.

It meant the Tories gained overall control of the authority.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.