The Tory-led coalition Government plus previous Conservative and New Labour governments - despite their rhetoric emphasising "community empowerment" and "localism" - in practice have all intervened on behalf of monopoly capitalism to restore the conditions in which profitable investment and capital accumulation can take place.
Hence the main aim of the Localism Act 2011 - which gives Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) at least 142 powers to lay down regulations and issue guidance and should be called the Centralism Act - is to complete the privatisation of local government services started under previous Tory governments and intensified under New Labour.
There are 13 English councils (Bedford, Doncaster, Hackney, Hartlepool, Leicester, Lewisham, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newham, North Tyneside, Torbay, Tower Hamlets and Watford) with US-style executive mayors following New Labour's Local Government Act 2000. Moreover, the mayoral system:
- with power in the hands of one person leads to cronyism, patronage and corruption;
- is the optimal internal management arrangement for privatised local government services;
- removes the working class from this layer of local democracy;
- creates an arena focused on personalities not politics;
- has not increased turnout;
- lacks voter support;
- has an undemocratic voting system;
- gives voters no right of recall.
Read the full article: http://www.southwestcommunists.org.uk/press-releases/125-no-to-elected-mayors
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