It ill becomes a professional politician such as Local Government Minister Hilary Armstrong to attack local councillors for rejecting the cabinet system "for political purposes", since she is, presumably, in favour of it "for political purposes". It is one of the worrying features of New Labour that for all its talk of "open Government and greater democracy" in practice it tends to block democracy "in the name of democracy".
A classic case in point was the attempt to thwart the popular will in the election of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London. Those councillors who voted to preserve the traditional system of open, democratic and accountable Local Government, particularly the courageous Labour "rebels", should be commended not condemned.
-Fred Shipton, Donald Hall Road, Brighton
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