SIR: Prime Minister Blair says he wants to make local government more accountable. He also says that he wants the electorate to take more of an interest in local government. The only way to ensure both these ideals is for all prospective councillors to stand for election as independent, non-political candidates.
The fact that only some 30 per cent of people bother to vote in local elections demonstrates that the representative-party system inspires no confidence in the electorate. The people realise that voting for political parties will only alienate them from access to local government. The people would be far more supportive of a system that returned non-ideological independent candidates, whose only aim is to serve the community and not some political doyen. Also the people would have more faith in a system which limited candidates to one term only in office. That would allow other members of the community the opportunity to serve the people. Single terms in office would also be a good idea for MPs. The electorate will only begin to take an interest in local government when the system is geared to serve the people, and not political career-councillors.
Anthony Makara
Broadwalk, Westhoughton
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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