Though Cowards Flinch

I’m not going to be doing a full review of the party manifestos.  There’s plenty of better read sites doing that.   In fact, I don’t think I’m going to be blogging much about the election; like Paul and Phil I’m starting to feel a bit blogged out with it all, and I’ve got more than enough drafting and designing of election stuff to do round my way. 

But I can’t let this wonderful little snippet go from the Conservative manifesto at page 75: 

[M]irroring our reforms at the national level, we will give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue if 5 per cent of the local population sign up… 

Two simple points: 

1) This power to call a referendum has now existed for 38 years, in the form of the Local Government Act 1972 (part 3, schedule 12, para. 18, sub-paras. 4-5) and was used by the good people of Bickerstaffe, Lancashire (where I live) in December 2005 to force the council to hold a referendum on its proposed sell-off of public housing.  The current provision does’nt require 5 per cent of the population to sign up; it’s much easier than that. 

2) The planned Power of General Competence legislation, mentioned further down page 75 of the manifesto, will necessarily enable local authorities to ignore the outcome of any referendum, just as it would allow them to ignore any other legislation. 

Oops, Tories.