Only two hundred-odd days left. There may still be, and probably still ought to be, lingering doubts about the best way forward for democracy in Stoke. But no tears will be shed here over the disappearance of the  Elected Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent. Proper representation of the people by the holder of the most powerful elected post in the City is perceived, at least on the street, as being non-existent. The people are talking, or in some cases are having to shout very loudly, but their views fall on deaf ears. Decisions have been taken, without any consultation that allowed the people to express their views, that detrimentally affect the common man. A very large part of the voting population has been completely turned off local politics, and infected with Why Bother? syndrome (there was a pathetic 19.23% turnout at the referendum - will the 80.77% who did not bother to vote please remember, when decisions made under the new governance arrangements go against them, that they had the opportunity to express their views and chose not to).

We strongly hold the view that the Elected Mayoral system has been very badly let down by the current incumbent, and by all members, past and present, of the so-called Executive Members Board. The Mayoral system could have worked in Stoke, but political self-interest and an inbuilt inability to even consider that opinions or policies might be wrong have made the system fail - badly.

Yes, some good things have happened under the rule of the Elected Mayors. But the people have been failed on many counts:

• Transforming Schools for a Brighter Future
• the proposed closure of Dimensions and other leisure facilities
  
• the almost total neglect of Burslem and other peripheral towns, and of the opinions of their people
  
• the employment of over-paid, unaccountable, and often superfluous officers in the Council (especially in the Office of the Elected Mayor)
  
• the almost total exclusion of elected Councillors, and so also, by default, of the people, from the decision-making process
• the culture of secrecy that pervades the operations of the Council
• the culture within the ruling élite of threatening all opposition
  
• the overwhelming attitude within the EMB of "We are always right and you are always wrong!"
• RENEW - especially in Middleport and Burslem Park
• the closure of Council homes for the elderly
• the privatisation of Council services
• the total contempt with which the people of the City have been treated.

The list could go on and on ...

The outgoing Elected Mayor is quoted as saying "I was looking forward to delivering some major regeneration plans and there's now a great danger those won't happen." The sheer arrogance of this statement is breathtaking. It is as if this man actually thinks that he alone is the way forward for SoT. We think that he must actually believe that a continuation of the totally oppressive régime over which he has presided is the only path to a better future. We believe that he is wrong. We believe that there are good Councillors who are capable of providing the necessary leadership to continue and improve the regeneration process. We believe that, with the present system of political patronage and the present incumbent consigned to the scrapheap of history, capable people will be able to come forward and provide ideas and direction, rather than being muzzled by the party line or by the fact that they are not in the ruling cabal.

The Constitution of the City now has to be rewritten. The new Cabinet must be properly constituted of the most able Councillors available. It must not be composed purely along party lines, as in the case of the EMB today. Ideally, it ought to be composed of people experienced in the portfolio that they will represent - in other words, a former teacher representing education, maybe a bus driver representing transport. Experience in one particular job can bring much needed insight into problems faced, and possible solutions. Whether this action is possible, we do not know. But this idea, and other similar innovations, ought to be explored.

Morally and ethically, since the Elected Mayor has no part to play in the future governance of the City, he should recuse himself from voting on the future Constitution. It should be left to the sixty Ward Councillors alone. The concept of the sixty-first Councillor is dead and buried.

We sincerely hope, probably against all hope, that the Elected Mayor, in the last 200 days of his term of office, will start to work with the Elected Council, not merely with the EMB. The existing EMB should be terminated forthwith, and a new one composed of the Chairs of existing Overview and Scrutiny Committees should be formed. This will give decision making in the City proper political balance, representing a cross-section of political views. By this action, the Elected Mayor could at last prove that he is a true democrat, and the people would finally have some say in the running of the City. We know that there is a problem with this idea - but, on a temporary basis, it is not insoluble. Cabinet/EMB members cannot be involved with scrutiny of their own policies and actions. For this reason, until the new governance arrangements are in place, when the particular Committee is involved with scrutiny, the Chair would have to yield to the Vice-Chair and leave the meeting. Discussions involving overview would not be affected. Long-term there would have to be separate Overview Committees and Scrutiny Committees.

A properly representative political balance on the EMB would kill off the devisive "us and them" (i.e. the Lab/CIA/LibDem coalition vs. the rest) mentality of the current incumbents. Yes, somebody would sit on the EMB who has political views that are abhorrent to the majority, but extremist views could never become policy. This set-up would ensure that a consensus about what is best for the City would have to be reached, and that everyone who has been bothered to vote in past elections would have their views represented.

The Council needs to pool resources. That is a completely different concept from everybody agreeing with some party/coalition line. It should and does accommodate argument, debate and controversy, but also it produces a decision which everyone has had a chance to discuss. No-one can have all that they want all of the time - that is why politics exist. Politics involve arguing about the distribution of scarce resources. Once the utopian era of abundance is reached, there will be no divisions because there will be no material basis for them.

We hope that the Elected Mayor will not, in the dying days of his lame-duck administration, implement some of the policies that have led to him, almost single-handedly, losing the referendum. We are sure that the "Yes" vote was not solely driven by implicit support for the Leader and Cabinet model, but was significantly enhanced by the actions and policies of the incumbent Elected Mayor. The people of the City, at least those who could be bothered to vote, have unequivocally shown that the majority do not want the man or his policies. Carrying on regardless has the potential of bringing disaster upon the City.

We also would like to call upon all elected Councillors to cast aside party divisions and devise a new Constitution that will benefit all Citizens of Stoke-on-Trent, and that will enable the City to rise from the ashes under a new moral, ethical and strong leadership. History, and the electorate, will judge you by your actions.

Let us now put this messy row, one which only the politically aware understood (even that is doubtful), behind us and start rebuilding our democracy and our City. Democracy has been virtually non-existent with either system in the past. Let no-one talk the BNP into a victory. The City's political parties and groupings have about a year and a half to get their act together, get back onto the ground and re-engage with the Community. They must start to deliver as much for the people as they can. From 2010 there will (possibly) be all-out elections, so the people can then get rid of the whole lot of them if they want to.

Politicians and political dogma got us into this mess. Politicians, with the help of the Community, are the only ones who can get us out of it. Those of us who like to stand on the sidelines and shout can certainly play our part in making the City fairer, and in making sure that those politicians who do have something to offer are no longer ignored.