I WOKE up with a huge grin on my face as my wife handed me a cup of tea.

“I can hardly believe what happened yesterday”, I said. “Clr Anthony Alford has invited Clive Stafford-Smith of Public First to a ‘Healing’ meeting!

Brilliant step forward!

He’s pushing through the Committees system and invited several Labour and LibDem councillors onto his strategy committee.

He also apologised for the WDDC failures outlined by the South West Audit Partnership.

I’m going to invite him out for a pint.

This is going to be a momentous time for everyone. It’s so uplifting when people admit their mistakes.

We’re all the same inside. Whoopee!”

My wife gently pushed me back down with a worried look on her face. Tears coursed down her cheeks.

“You’ve had another one of your dreams, love. That call last night must have unnerved you.” “What call”, I asked. “Am I losing my mind?” “No”, she said, “It was probably the shock of learning the truth.

Clr Alford decided to avoid making any changes to his Cabinet until he has to in May next year despite pressure from all the other political parties to implement it.

Also, the petition to increase Public Question Time to 30 minutes from 15 minutes was also ‘flushed down the pan’”

Today, I’m fully awake regretting WDDC’s decision not to voluntarily change to a ‘Committees’ system like Canterbury City Council.

By accepting what the public wanted in January and later confirmed by 65 per cent of us voting for it, they could have saved £95,000.

Instead, they pressed on in denial of what democracy stands for and now add insult to injury by delaying it unnecessarily.

This compounds the imper- fections of First Past The Post.

It doesn’t necessarily make autocracy obligatory but seems to have allowed it to happen here all too easily.

Regrettably, Proportional Representation now seems to be the only answer to its means to abuse power.

Mike Joslin

Garfield Avenue,

Dorchester