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Friday, 31 March 2006 |
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Monday's Policy & Resources Committee saw a debate on Labour's proposal to stop the opposition speaking out. At present P & R has 29 members, 25 of whom (86%) are Labour. This is not exactly fair given that Labour only got about 50% of the vote at the last election. However, at least the four opposition parties have a seat each and can force some debate. Therefore, they are prepared to live with that system.
Next year's new electoral system is intended to better balance the votes a party gets and the number of councillors who they have elected. However, Labour are obviously doing their best to "get round" the new system. Their proposal is that the new executive committee replacing P & R should have 15 Labour councillors and no opposition at all! So not content with outvoting the opposition, labour are wanting to totally silence them. That is why John Mason on Monday compared the plan to North Korea or Zimbabwe where the opposition is stopped from speaking altogether.
Next Thursday's (6th) full Council meeting is due to debate the issue and reach a decision.
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