In a shock move yesterday councillor John Berry of Brigg quit the Conservative Party and declared him self as an independent candidate. What does this mean for the people who elected him? Indeed actions like this do bring in to question the legitimacy of party politics in local government. Surely if you stand as a candidate representing the views of any political party and then find that your beliefs are no longer in tune with party doctoring, then surely your should resign not only membership of your party but also your seat? As I understand things currently, Councillor Berry will continue to hold his seat until the elections next May, what his intentions are at the next election do however remain unclear. While perfectly legitimate under the constitution, I do honestly believe that if you are going to stand for local election representing the views of a given political party and not swap or drop part way through. Personally I�m of the opinion that there is too much party politics involved in local government, and that a fairer more honest system could be derived by the removal of party voting within local government elections. Those local elected representatives of Labour, Conservative or Liberal parties are after all instructed at a local level to enact policy in accordance with their central party�s doctoring to a greater or lesser extent. Meaning no offence to those who do choose to uptake the reigns of public service, wouldn�t it be better if individual councillors were banned from representing political parties, so that their focus is 100% on the communities they server, and not the political puppet masters?