[Houseboy]

I would not stand for election as a councilor simply because I would not wish to become that which I have heavily criticised over the years. There is corruption at all levels in politics and I think councilors are just as suscetible as those higher up the food chain. As I said earlier, there are good councilors as well as good MP's but I still believe that most councilors do what they do for a certain amount of self-gratification and, in the case on non-independents, pushiing the bounderies of party politics.
In reply to Jay, I agree that local councilors are a good idea in principle because they do or should have the interests of local people at heart but my experience is that mostly they do not seem to listen to local people at all. Things are built that nobody seems to want building, by-laws introduced that no-one wants and only have the effect of causing difficulites to most people and, reference my point above about party politics, which still dominates local government, even though it shouldn't.