Local. Spit. Politics.

A few years ago, my local city council held a referendum to determine whether the citizens would prefer to (a) spend more to improve the dreadfully low standards of state educational provision in the city or (b) have lower council tax.

I voted for option (a), partly because I'm a parent, partly because I'm a teacher, and partly because I am able to see further forward than the end of my own rather snub little nose. I bet my husband that most people woud be the same and that the city would end up with the schools it deserved.

Well, it did, but not in the positive way that I anticipated. I lost the bet. There was a landslide decision in favour of the miserly option and, lo and behold, a couple of years later, our city's schools have slipped down, and we now glory in the lowest school results in the whole country. Most people, obviously can't see beyond the limits of their wallets, and would rather have a few more takeaways a month than decent education for their children. Quite extraordinary.

I mention this for two reasons; firstly, because we're looking at schools for our little girl, and secondly because there's a local election looming, and to be honest, I'd quite like to look out the Einstein who came up with that weasly little stratagem and lobby against them. It's the single most damaging thing that I've heard of a council doing. It points me towards a belief that the best you can hope of of your councillors is that they don't do too much harm. I'm not sure that in matters of strategy, they do any good. So let's just hope that they don't mess up the bins, council housing, education, the roads and whatever else. Any interaction I've had with the council has involved my speaking to very pleasant people who have to work within really stupid rules.

Why the hell do we have party politics involved in local elections and local government? What's that all about? What the Hell difference does it make to me if my councillor is in the Labour group, the Lib Dem group or the Conservative group? As things stand this council seem to spend their time lobbing their toys out of their cots at each other. The Labour Group don't like the Conservative group and won't go along with anything they suggest, the Conservatives don't like the Lib Dems... It's a nonsense and absolutely the right way to ensure that nothing sensible is ever done. As for local democracy, having all your councillors standing under a party banner means that many of the electorate, myself included, simply choose their candidate on the basis of national party preferences. So this year up and down the country Tony Blair will probably be perceived to have taken a political bloody nose as dissatisfaction with national policies spilss over into the local elections, which should be about much more immediate issues.

Personally I think we should elect independent councils made up of men and women who care passionately about local issues, headed up by a mayor who has real standing in the community, along the lines of the French model. The there wouldn't be any 'groups' who fight over theoretical differences and forget that the wrong-headed decisions which come out of their wrangling can adversely affect the entire future of a generation of children.