Letter: Blair vs town halls

Letter: Blair vs town halls

DOES the Prime Minister's apparent stance on local councils ("Blair ready to ditch elected councils", 4 March) remind anyone of a previous incumbent of 10 Downing Street?

Many Labour politicians were outraged at Margaret Thatcher's abolition of the GLC and other metropolitan county councils. Much of the anger arose because it seemed that this decision was taken on the almost personal grounds of the GLC "insulting" the Government by broadcasting unemployment figures from County Hall and, even worse, subsidising bus and tube fares.

Is Mr Blair so affronted at the thought of the (mostly Labour-run) town halls not being at his beck and call that he feels the best solution is to introduce yet more quangos, a method of running things which Labour spent much of the 1980s and early '90s condemning?

If so there will be many sickened Labour supporters who will see this as another rapid step down the path from being a party of principle and local democracy to being a mere imitation of the Tories a decade ago. If this is so, where can we turn?

MICHAEL CRYAN

Newcastle upon Tyne