[Tubby Isaacs]

Mark Jenkinson again. I'm old enough to remember when this sort of thing was bad because "the answer isn't more politicians".

No word on the Prime Minister being directly elected by 25,000 people in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. Or indeed the Prime Minister being safe from lying to Parliament because of 360 Tory MPs.

[Andy McDandy]

Considering that England's outdoor playground is potentially splitting into two in the near future, this strikes me as really pointless.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I thought these mayors/ metro areas were basically a revival of the old metropolitan counties, cities and places that were closely tied economically to them. How does having one for a place the size of Cumbria work? You might as well have a mayor of Cornwall.

[Watchman]

Is he saying a directly elected mayor to run the country? What happens to elected leader of the council, what about country councillor elections, what if the majority of councillors are from a different party?
Am I missing something, or just thick?

Edit: thats county not country, you thick twat!

[Andy McDandy]

Police boards did a perfectly good job of running regional forces, and drew from across the community. But PCCs were somehow sexier, like him off Batman.

Yeah, it's about putting in placemen who owe it all to central government.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Labour was going to dump elected commisioners under Milliband, but Jez changed the policy back.

[davidjay]

Metropolitan councils were bad because they were Labour. Elected mayors are good because the electorate can be blackmailed into voting Tory.

[Killer Whale]

Yep. First past the post, Tory gets in on 35% of the vote on a 40% turn-out.