Tories' Bizarre Concept of Democracy

9.40.46am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 27th May 2007

Basildon's Tory council has reneged on its commitment to cross-party cabinet working by removing Lib Dem leader Cllr Geoff Williams from his post and replacing him with a second Labour representative. Cllr Buckley, leader of the council, declared this to be a "punishment" for the Lib Dems for not standing in all council seats. The announcement was met with embarrassed silence on the part of some Tory councillors, while others, in true Tory fashion, resorted to personal attacks on the 3 Williams councillors. Cllr Geoff Williams commented: "While we're not shedding buckets of tears at the loss of the cabinet place, it does seem a bizarre way of administering local democracy to reward Labour with an extra seat on cabinet when it was the only party to lose a seat in May's elections."