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Friday 29th February 2008

Electing the Lord Mayor

Stoke-on-Trent has been blessed with the confusion of having two types of mayor since 2002 when the first Elected Mayor appeared with the then newly introduced Elected Mayor & Council Manager system of governance. I think it is fair to say that the office of Elected Mayor has proved to be widely unpopular. The office of Lord Mayor was conferred upon the City in 1928 and the annually Lord Mayor enjoys widespread respect as first citizen of he City and the ceremonial representative of the City. All councillors would agree that the office of Lord Mayor is strictly non-party political. However, the road to the Lord Mayorality is exceedingly party-political. There appears to have been little grace towards minority groups but plenty of party political favour for the majority!

Recently political Group leaders have been looking at criteria which might be a guide for the annual election of the Lord Mayor. Three of the long list of desirable requirements include, to be articulate, committed and to able to chair Full Council meetings. Interestingly there was no requirement that the nominated Councillor should live in the City. Curiously, therefore, someone with only a slender connection to the City could be elected its First Citizen. Neither is there reference to how far away from the City a candidate might live. A Lord Mayor living some distance beyond the City boundary could incur considerable additional costs to the Council for the official car mileage.

Perhaps in these financially stringent times, when £60,000 cannot be found for a vital leisure facility that benefits thousands of people, such costly additional travel is deemed unimportant. Perhaps the newly approved Corporate Plan's commitment to consultation could be deployed to see what residents think on the matter.

Thursday 28th February 2008

BUDGET DAY...and...9 WEEKS TO MAY DAY

I congratulated the leader of the Conservative Group for having so successfully created a Conservative Coalition with the Labour and Lib Dem groups. In fact, the Labour Elected Mayor's introduction to the Budget could well have come straight from Conservative Central Office. The Budget was remarkable for two things: first, all the important nitty-gritty consequences of the repetitive rhetoric for the lives of people throughout our City were carefully NOT included. Not a single dot or comma about the withdrawal of funding from pre-school nursery provision, for example. Secondly, the closure of part of one of our leisure centres, Dimensions, was paraded as a "difficult cost-cutting decision"! Just how disingenuous can these coalitionists get?! It is nothing of the sort. It is a straight-forward introduction of the thin end of the wedge of privatisation of all of our leisure centres. With the private, global conglomerate, SERCO, (some Trojan horse!) running our Children & Young People's Services, this Conservative coalition, will not be satisfied until all public assets and services held and run by the Council have been sold to the profi-making private sector.

My message to the voters of our City is quite clear: you only have nine more weeks to wait before you can vote out the trickster Labour and Lib Dem turncoats. If you really want privatisation you will be able to vote for a Conservative. If you don't, then you can vote for the Independent Potteries Alliance. At least we always say what we mean!

Wednesday 27th February 2008

Schools' Fairtrade Conference declared a success

Some 120 young people and teachers from 12 secondary and primary schools in the City and Newcastle-under-Lyme packed the Port Vale Conference Centre today for the Schools' Fairtrade in the Curriculum conference. There was an enthusiastic and positive involvement throughout the day. Davina Allen from the Bridges Development Education Centre in Shropshire outlined in an interactive way the requirements for gaining Fairtrade school status. One school present, St Peter's C of E High is already signed up and working towards the goal and after today they will surely be joined by a number of other schools.

Thistley Hough High School is certainly one that is about to register their journey to Faitrade School status. Staff and students attended the conference and during the Fortnight each Year group will have a special Fairtrade Assembly, the Fairtrade shop will be open daily, the F/T coffee documentary, BLACK GOLD will be screened on each of the Wednesdays plus several other lunch time events to focus on Fairtrade.

There was a very interesting chocolate tasting session and incredibly the overwhelming majority correctly chose the Fairtrade chocolate! Haywood High students' 20 minute drama on the theme of Fairtrade cotton was very well received as were the various workshop projects in the afternoon, particularly the one where each school group worked on producing a Fairtrade theme poster using Fairtrade products...and copius amounts of glue! Incredibly, it seemed to me, although the tables were strewn with loose tea, coffee, pasta and goodness knows what the hall carpet remained relatively clean and tidy! The completed posters were varied, creative, attractive and extremely colourful.

The posters will be displayed at the Stoke Town Hall all next week and so a good number of epople will have the chance to see some of the tangible outcomes of the day.

Wolstanton High School R.E. teacher, Don Blackman, is pictured with the six students who devised an informative power presentation which they shared with us all.

The cost of the venue was sponsord by the Co-operative plc and the bulk of the cost was borne by the City Council.

Tuesday 26th February 2008

Labour's descent into deception deepens

Leaked Labour Group minutes revealed on today's local paper's front page illustrate the depths to which the Labour group have sunk in order to push through unwelcome Building Schools for the Future (BSF) reorganization plans. First, they agree unanimously that Labour councillors can say what they like about the schools' restructure publicly but that they must obey the party whip should the issue come to a vote in Council! I think that's known colloquially as being two-faced.

To compound their distaste for democracy they further agree unanimously to call-in the restructure plans immediately the decision is made by the Executive so that the Labour group can control the manner in which the call-in will be handled! Having been exposed by the free press that the Council so assiduously struggle to strangle with supposedly good news spin stories, Labout Group Leader, Mike Tappin, is reported as saying: "The Labour group will not be involved in any call-in. We did consider it, but it will not be happening." Not so colloquially perhaps, that is rather compounding the felony.

I attended the Executive meeting this evening with the express purpose of making it quite clear that I shall call-in the decision once it appears in the Green Book, due to be published on Friday. At the meeting, Cllr Tappin said that the "grand coalition" of Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems had put aside party politics and even parochial politics. As far as I can see, whatever principles and distinctive policies they may have held have been put aside also. They have failed miserably to debate openly and honestly the principles underlying their proposals. For example, they have resolutely refused to explain and discuss the characteristiscs of academies, foundations and trusts but merely chant the mantra fed to them by government that through some strange way such schools offer greater "choice and diversity". It is time the deception was stopped. We can only hope voters make sure it is stopped on May 1st.

Tuesday 26th February 2008

Fairtrade school lunch

The Lord Mayor, Cllr Bagh Ali, was guest of honour for lunch today at St Mark's primary school, Shelton. We were met by the headteacher, Mrs Cross, and the Head of the School's Catering Service, Brenda Oliver, who with her colleagues had arranged a Fairtrade products exhibition and an excellent work-sheet for pipils to link the products with their country of origin. The Lord Mayor took a keen interest in the exhibition, seen talking with one of the officers, Jane Hunt. The "guess the Fairtrade ingredient" in the pieces of fruit cake proved very popular with the children and it was tasty because I had a portion with custard for my sweet. The canteen staff are enthusiastically committed to devising different ways of incoporating Fairtrade products into the school lunches. Of course, during Fairtrade Fortnight, schools throughout the City make a special effort to underline their commitment to Fairtrade.

Staff were sporting attractive and very professionally looking home-made Fairtrade badges. Radio Stoke came along to record interviews with the Lord Mayor, the head cook, the headmistress, myself and some children. Growing up with Fairtrade as an everyday aspect of their lives helps to secure an increasingly wider societal commitment to Fairtrade.   

Monday 25th February 2008

Lord Mayor Launches Fairtrade Fortnight

More than 250 people from across Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding North Staffordshire and South Cheshire areas packed into the Forum Theatre in the City Centre for a dynamic start to Fairtrade Fortnight in the City. Jointly sponsored by the City Council and the Co-operative, the evening started with an abundance of Co-operative F/T foods for tasting. Hard to know which was more popular since all was eagerly and enjoyably consumed! 

Special guest speaker was Comfort Kumeah (left in picture) from the Kuapa Kokoo Fairtrade cocoa co-operative, about forty miles north of Ghana's capital, Accra. Comfort and her fellow co-operative worker, Christana, started their UK tour at the national launch of F/T Fortnight in London yesterday. Comfort easily engaged the audience with both her humour and the account of just what a difference Fairtrade makes to the lives of thousands of families in Ghana.

The screening of BLACK GOLD reinforced Comfort's personal account and powerfully points up that there must be something wrong with a system of world trade which reduces so many innocent millions of producers to destitution, despair, and often, death.

It was encouarging to hear the students from Mitchell High School say that the evening had been really worthwhile and how they wanted to come to the Schools' Fairtrade conference on Wednesday!

Saturday 23rd February 2008

Fantastic Fairtrade Fortnight news...

  Tate & Lyle are to switch all their sugars 100% to Fairtrade by the end of 2009. They are starting immediately with their hugely selling white granulated sugar. This is great news for it increases TENFOLD the Fairtrade sugar sales in the UK and will mean an additional £2m for the 6,000 small-scale Belize sugar cane farmers in Central America in the first year alone.

Tate & Lyle are to be commended. Unlike Nestle, who launched their ONE Fairtrade product last year, PARTNER'S coffee, while continuing to market 8,500 non-Faitrade products, Tate & Lyle are going all the way!

This is a particularly significant development. Last year we celebrated the bi-centenary of the abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire. A major cornerstone of that vile trade in human lives was sugar based on enslaved Africans, transported to the Americas and the Caribbean, many put to work on vast sugar cane plantations. 

Monday 18th February 2008

Pioneering Pilot Programme

Stoke-on-Trent Primary Care Trust (Stoke PCT) and the Chell Area Family Action Group (CAFAG) today signed & sealed a new partnership, aimed at developing and delivering a sustainable Lifestyle Programme. Smoking and adult obesity rates in the City are considerably higher than the national average while the levels of physical activity are amongst the lowest in the West Midlands. Operating from its Whitfield Valley Centre base in Fegg Hayes, it is planned that the staff at CAFAG will work with 200 GP referrals over the next twelve months. A combination of individual and group discussions and activities will form the basis of each of the quarterly courses. The main aim is to support individuals who have made the decision to address their smoking and/or obesity through group discussion, encouragement of increasing levels of physical activity and through cook and eat sessions.

The PCT started their first pilot programme some six months ago in Bentilee in the south of the City. Now it is the turn of the north of the City to roll out the second pilot. The PCT aim to have the Lifestyle Programmes city-wide so that the estimated 24,000 obese adults suffering coronary heart disease and diabetes or at a high risk of developing those conditions are given the opportunity to change their lifestyles and therefore, hopefully, the severity of their condtion or their risk of developing the conditions. 

This is a very exciting development for CAFAG, a registered charity community group. As Chair of the Trustees I know that they are all very keen that this programme is a success and fully supportive of the Centre's staff and volunteers who will be running this very important project, which literally, may well mean the difference between life and death for a number of people.  

Wednesday 13th February 2008

Stoke-on-Trent Number One...on the Red Alert list

The good news is that the Council's Executive have formally endorsed the establishment of the North Staffordshire Credit Union and furthermore, provided £90,000 for each of years one and two and £60,000 for year three as a contribution to the organizational costs during the Credit Union's gestation period. Neighbouring District Councils, Newcastel-under-Lyme Borough and Staffordshire Moorlands are making proportionate financial contributions.

The Office of National Statistics has revealed that some 10% of households have no bank or building society account. Further research indicates as many as 20% of adults are victims of "financial excliusion". Translated, that means some 70,000 people in North Staffordshire are unable to secure mainstream credit facilities and so many become victims of the ever-predatory loan sharks that particulary target Council house estates and typically charge grossly immoral interest rates as high as 95%, 160% or even more.

The Treasury's Financial Inclusion Task Force have identified 25 "Red Alert" and 56 "Amber" local authority areas where a high proportion of the population are excluded from mainstream credit. Stoke-on Trent is number one in the red alert category while Newcastle-under-Lyme is 27 in the Amber category. The mystery is that North Staffordshire has languished so long without a Credit Union and although Credit Unions are not able to wave a magic wand for everyone, once the North Staffordshire Credit Union becomes operational towards the end of the year, thousands of people will be able to access safe, low interest (typically 2%) loans.

Hopefully, a very large percentage of the City Council workforce as well as employees in other major campanies in the City and surrounding Districts will sign up for regular monthly savings to be deducted at source. With such a minimal individual effort a massive collective benefit will be created. Congratulations to the officers who have been quietly but persistently moving this development forward.   

Oatcakes on the back burner...

Not a very clever header to lead into say that yesterday afternoon's Scrutiny Committee deferred a decision until they had conducted a site meeting. At least they will have a clearer idea of the actual issues involved as a result of an on the spot examination.

Tuesday 12th February 2008

Community Consultation

City Council planners consulted residents in St Michael's Road, Chell about making the road one-way. Having found a more or less even split 50-50 between those who agreed with a one-way and those against, the planners recommended introducing a one-way system. The Executive endorsed the decision and I joined several local councillors to "Call-in" the decision. The issue is before the relevant Scrutiny Committee tomorrow afternoon.

The photograph was taken on Sunday morning. The green corner shop was for many years a pet food shop, but now, sadly, likely to be converted into flats. Such a redevelopment would be quite contrary to the traditional character of terraced housing and small shops.

One such small shop, next door at 164 St Michael's Road, is Andrew and Marie Tunley's oatcake shop. They bought it some eighteen months ago and as they both said it was an ambition fulfilled! It's no mass production business, with only 15 oatcakes produced in each batch, but with an average of 32 batches, producing some 40 dozen oatcakes daily, Andrew has had plenty of practice in pouring just the right amount of mix on to the Baxter gas-fired griddle. Not bad for a non-Stokie! 

Andrew came from North Wales to Staffordshire university and having graduated some years ago in geography and geology he was one of those pioneering people who stayed in the City. Mind you, the connection between geology and oatcakes I have not quite worked out yet!

Unfortunately, with 30%-40% of their sales going to passing trade, making the road one-way may have a disastrous effect on their dream business. The sensible approach would be to leave the traffic flow as it is and review it six months after the nearby Tunstall Northern By-Pass has been open. Let sense prevail. 

Sunday 10th February 2008

Balkanization of Britain or Social Cohesion?

Perhaps the Archbishop of Canterbury should get out of Lambeth Palace and experience life in the streets of Britain a bit more. Quite rightly, given the widespread reality of the brutal aspects of Sharia Law, from actually hanging young gay men for being gay and sentencing a woman who has been raped to be stoned, to the everyday inqualities meted out to Muslim women (prevented from driving in Saudi Arabia, blocked from learning English in Britain) no wonder Rowan Williams' assertion that it was inevitable that aspects of Sharia law would be introduced into our legal structure has been greeted with a near unanimous storm of outrage. Hiding behind the defence of intellectualism is as inept as his statements. Which aspects of Sharia law, precisely, would Williams and his supporters be happy to see approved? More interestingly, how would he prevent the apsects he doesn't approve from being introduced? Williams isn't exactly the kind of decisive man with whom one wish to be found in the proverbial jungle. Dithering? First he appoints a gay priest to be a bishop then he unappoints him! With the world-wide Anglican Communion teetering on the brink of disintegration, Williams concerns himself with Sharia Law! 

Pandering to the extremist demands of religious groups is most definitely not the way to develop a socially cohesive society. Thank goodness the government, so often in the past obsessed with the multiculturalism of identity politics, has condemned the Archbishop's view. Thank goodness the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormack Murphy O'Connor, has had the courage to make clear he does not agree with multiculturalism. How much more clearly do the consequences of deep-seated cultural differences of the Balkans need to be? Feeding deep-seated cultural differences only exacerbates division and dissension, the us and them, the chosen and the excluded, with the inevitable clash, conflict and coercion that in the end  creates a conflagration which produces fragmented, and more homogenous cultural groups.

I suspect the majority of Muslims in Britain do not want Sharia law. The fact that a handful of Orthodox Jews have their Beth Din court to settle dietry issues and a few civil debt matters is neither here nor there. The fact that the Church of England has a court to deal with wayward priests and procedures known as "faculties" (like planning consents) for changes to anything inside a church is also neither here nor there. I dare say some golf clubs have rules about what can go where. Such "club rules" are hardly in the league of life and death punishments! No, however it might be dressed up intellectually, there should be no room for Sharia in Britain. For those who crave Sharia, the solution is simple: go and live in Saudi Arabia or any number of other countries where Sharia prevails. British people don't want it.   

Saturday 9th February 2008

Window dressing stars or vibrant communities?

Bob Welch,  Chartered Engineer, Park Estate resident and member of  PETRA - Park Estate Tenants' & Residents' Association & Haywood High Community Group, has written a powerful appeal for strong communities across the City and I think it deserves the widest possible exposure. Addressed to the Eleected Mayor, it reads in full:

Dear Mayor Meredith, The big mistake when you close a school in a Community that cares deeply about its school, is that you dishearten that Community. Some of the schools which you are closing are not resisting, either because the closing makes sense, or the school and Community do not care that much. But where there is such deep feeling that the Community turns out en masse to demonstrate, that is something else. People do not readily demonstrate. They say that for every 1000 people who don't agree with something, 100 might intend to do something, but only 1 actually does anything (or something like that). When you get 100s from a Community protesting not just once, but more than once, you are seeing a Community that really cares. Communities like this our City needs. The City does not need a patchwork of doormat communities which the Council does what it likes to, which has been the situation for far too long. It needs a network of vibrant, energetic, caring Communities. You want to regenerate the City of Stoke-on-Trent, and get loads of stars? You can only get so many stars with window dressing and expensive control of communications released into the public arena, known as "spin". If you want top class ratings, then you need top class substance. And that only comes from real Communities that care about themselves.

Incumbent councillors and elected persons may see such community Feeling as a threat to their patches when election time comes. But one of the best outcomes of the recent Community opposition to the formal secondary education proposals is that the Community has emerged somewhat from its political slumber, and has come face to face with those entrusted with the future of their schools. And they have not been at all impressed. A flushing out of ineffective elected members will hopefully commence at the next elections. Where people are concerned, you must build on what you've got, and build them up. They are not like buildings which you can knock down to nothing and then build anew with loads of money.

I advise another last minute meeting about Trentham High School. Otherwise you will breed apathy, or better still antagonism - at least that will change things in due course.

SCHOOL + KIDS = COMMUNITY!

Friday 8th February 2008

Police guard for Elected Mayor's press conference

Labour's puppet Elected Mayor, possibly worried about a repeat of yesterday's vociferous and angry demonstration by parents, teachers and students outside the Council Chamber during the Full Council meeting,  felt the need for a police guard at this morning's press conference! He need not have worried. There was no demonstration nor, seemingly, any great enthusiasm for the press conference. The strained-looking Elected mayor finally wallked in fifteen minutes late, followed by the local daily newspaper's education reporter fifteen minutes after that! But then, the first edition was already on the streets and what was "likely" to be announced corresponded remarkably congruently with what was announced! Though held in a small committee room, the Elected Mayor deployed his Cabinet members (or at least those who could spare time from their day job) to boost the numbers and make the eve of half term event look worthwhile.

Rumour was at last laced with the official announcement that the Elected Mayor's original controversial and rediculous idea to close ALL 17 City High Schools had been scrapped, presumably because he had listened to thousands of angry parents, students and teachers at dozens of consultation meetings. Originally in place of 17 High schools there were to be 12. Now the plan is to have 13. The three Roman Catholic schools and the one Church of England School survive intact. The state sector on the other hand gets carved up in one form or another. Four of them will be closed: Longton, Trentham, Mitchell and Berryhill. The City's top performing St Joseph's R.C. College was reprieved as was high performing state school, Haywood High. James Brindley High survives the threat of absorption by neighbouring St Margaret Ward R.C. High. Government diktat has imposed 5 Academies and the rest are to be "encouraged" to become Trust schools.

There are thousands of relieved parents, students and teachers. There are still thousands of anxious and angry parents, teachers and students, not simply opposed to the closure of their schools but more importantly outraged by the proposed solutions.   

Significantly, there are thousands of people still dismayed and outraged by the sheer magnitude of the Elected Mayor's ineptitude. They still cannot understand why he created so much heartache, worry and frustration with his original ground zero proposal to close all High schools and even the City's five Special Schools, which, mercifully, have been left well alone, at least for a year or two. Everyone recognises the demographic fact of fewer teenagers coming up and therefore the need for fewer secondary school places. A calm, mature, professional appraisal was required not a crass, iconoclastic wholesale onslaught on the whole secondary school structure. The Elected Mayor and his political allies have inflicted an enormous cost on the Council's credibility. That cost should be paid by them on 1st May. 

Thursday 7th February 2008

12 Weeks to May Day

The City Council Election day draws closer by the week! Despite the creaks and strains within the Labour Group, if not within their cobbled coalition of the United Front with the Tories and Lib Dems, still no one has been brave enough to say if the three parties will fight on a United Front ticket, or revert to type and field separate party candidates. Will voters be told by particular Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, candidates if elected, whether or not they will in fact remain Labour, Tory or Lib Dem or merge into some United Front government agency?

A number of major issues will be competing for attention. Voters are not interested in meaningless bullet points but want solid evidence of plans, policies and practical implementation. All the signs are that this year's City elections will prove a watershed year. Last year Labour lost its majority party status; this year Labour will cease to be the biggest party. Increasingly, people are saying how fed up they are with labour's deceit (some call it "spin") and their detachment from ordinary people.

More and more people are recognising that the Potteries Alliance is an alliance of values, policies and people with a common commitment to co-operation.

Tuesday 5th February 2008

"Unfettered choice in the market place leads to unacceptable choice." Official!

Schools Minister Jim Knight has admitted to the Commons' Schools Select Committee that parental choice of school for their child/children is impossible in some rural areas. Sir Bruce Liddington, the Schools' Commissioner, went further and admitted that so many state schools in urban areas were oversubscribed that parents were denied a choice. If that weren't embarrassment enough for the government's choice mantra, Philip Hunter, the schools' adjudicator pointed out that introducing a market into education, giving parents choice, was leading to social, religious and ethnic segregation! 

And the Schools' Adjudicator's solution? Apparently: "Somebody has got to decide what is an acceptable degree of segregation."

Did the government not realise it was exempting its schools' policy from its obsession with social cohesion, admittedly via the cul de sac of identity politics which demands that ethnic minority people, disabled people, differently this and differently that people are employed/represented in numbers that reflect their proportion in the nation's population? Of course, as long as the government can keep us fixated on the individual physical differences we wil be distracted from the social economic differences. 

The rhetoric of class politics may have been seemingly consigned to yesteryear but the reality of class nevertheless remains. And it is no more hilariously illustrated than in the policy contortions of the government to satisfy the strident demands of one particular class while wrapping those demands into the confetti of choice!

Monday 4th February 2008

Massive message for Governance Commission, Government & Council

Stoke-on-Trent's first public opinion poll today revealed a massive 95% support for an Executive Committee system of governance at the City Council when the present grossly undemocratic Elected Mayor and Council Manager (Chief Executive) system is scrapped in May 2009.

Just over 100 people attended this morning's monthly public meeting of the North Staffs Pensioners' Convention at the City-centre Forum Theatre, Hanley. I had been asked to explain the background to the City's government-appointed Governance Commission and the principal features of the governance options available. Contrary to the widespread misconception there are NOT only two options: either an elected mayor & cabinet or a Council elected leader & cabinet. The minister, John Healey MP, couldn't have made it more clear during the debate in the House of Commons last October, as the following quote illustrates:

"Although the Bill no longer contains proposals for directly elected executives, the measures set out in part 3 will still result in stronger and more accountable leadership. Councils will be able to choose between a directly elected mayor, and a leader and cabinet executive, which will be significantly strengthened by the Bill. We retain the ability to make regulations under the 2000 Act to provide for additional models of executive." (John Healey, House of Commons, 24 October 2007, Col 351.) My emphasis.

The public are convinced that since such vitally important, high profile regulatory committees such as Development Control and Licensing are capable of executive decision-making that all areas of the Council's responsibilities could be similarly organised. In short, a Children & Young People's executive committee, an environmental executive committee and so on is a more inclusive, and potentially more cohesive approach than the divisive executive leader models.

The straw-poll at the end of the meeting revealed zero support for the elected mayor & cabinet system; 5% for elected leader & cabinet and 95% for an executive committee system.

Congratulations to the North Staffs Pensioners' Convention for devoting their monthly meeting to this vitally important issue. To date, it has been the ONLY public meeting on the governance issue.

Thursday 31st January 2008

13 Weeks to 1st May City Council Elections

With yet another demonstration planned by parents angry with the Labour Elected Mayor's United Front's mis-handling of the secondary school restructure programme for Thursday 7th May prior to the Full Council meeting and opposition councillors angry over the lack of briefings on the restructure, the Council meeting promises to be a lively event. Many Members are more than a little displeased that the Elected Mayor has not included a paper on the restructure for discussion at Full Council but has arranged a press conference to outline the restructure the very next day AFTER Full Council! No wonder the Elected Mayor and his United Front are mistrusted when they display such contempt for the democractic process. 

In only 13 weeks time all those thousands of angry parents and their relatives and friends and neighbours and in fact all voters who believe communities should be treated with respect will have the chance to express their feelings at the ballot box. I wonder how many United Front candidates we shall see fielded? More likely, the United Front of so-called "mature politics" will fracture into party self-interest and Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and and those so-called independents tagged on to the Tories but too afraid to stand honestly will be flying their individual group colours. For fear of too much competition and losing, I expect deals will be done to minimise fighting against each other in too many Wards. How many will declare that they will join a renewed United Front to prop up a spectacularly inept political leadership?