[Cyclefrance]

Local Elections on 4th May

Tomorrow sees a large part of the country (if they have the will to do so) vote to elect local councillors.

Years gone by these elections used to be distinct from the main government of the country and you would see residents associations, independent parties and other 'non-political' bodies entering into the fray.

Nowadays, it is generally just a reflection of the government parties but operating at local level and dealing with local issues which are funded through a 'Council Tax ' system based upon the value of your house and the number of people resident in it. How much is this tax? Well, currently I pay £2,000 a year for what seems to be having my dustbins emptied and not much else - as I don't partake of any of the other srevices covered (education, policing, subsidised housing, libraries, road maintenance and so on). Clearly there are others who get more and pay less for the privilege - it's that sort of a system...!

So tomorrow we will see various Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates slugging it out across the country and the electorate giving their opinion on the current state of our government in their voting - because the local elections are now more to do with how we feel about the main government 's performance than the local issues they are meant to cater for.

So watch this space and see if Labour 's disastrous last ten days gets the reaction that many are predicting - a dramatic drop in the number of Labour held seats and wards in local councils.