//a winner today was one Lutfur Rahman,
a fickle thing, the electorate.......//
Not really, mush. The Good Burghers of Tower Hamlets elected him as their Mayor in 2014. The election, however, was declared void as he had been found guilty of electoral bribery, spiritual intimidation of voters, personation, postal vote fraud, fraudulent registration of voters, and illegal payment of canvassers. But I have some connections in Tower Hamlets and I'm reliably informed that, far from wanting to see him removed for those minor misdemeanours, the people there took the view that “we wuz robbed” when he was cashiered in 2015. They had to serve their sentence during Mr Rahman’s period in purgatory by having to endure a mayor whom they did not want and whom they took the first opportunity to depose.
I have taken a passing interest in the results in my ward. The turnout was 21% and the three ward councillors were elected with around 13% of the vote each. So each of them now sit on my local council, having secured votes from about 2.7% of the electorate. Not their fault, I know. Mine was among the 79% of votes uncast. It is no secret that I would like to see the abolition of local government in all its forms. So unless there is a box marked “No local government, thank you” or at the very least “None of the above candidates” (which is not going to happen) no candidate for my local authority will get my vote because, quite simply, I don’t want a local authority at all. I’m often told that my idea of no local government is an outrage but, with 79% of my neighbours not bothering to vote, I’m not so sure.