[Houseboy]

The general concensus here seems to be in agreement with the idea that party politics should have no place in local government, but the disagreement appears to be how much it actually is. There must be a way of looking at voting trends locally to see how strictly local issues have been voted for and against by individual members of council, and looking at the political affiliations of those councilors to see if there are party "trends".
My point is that it is possible to be of a particular political persuasion but still have the individuality to express ones own views when faced with that which you fundamentally disagree. The problem arises, all too often, that people with any political ambition at all seem to throw principle out of the window in order to tow the party line.
At a higher level, nationally, we only have to look at what the Lib Dems have done in order to cling on to that little bit of "power". The original question here was about power corrupting and I think that the Lib Dems provide an excellent example of that. They have abandoned all their "principles" and any semblance of moral value in order to cling on to that influence and power they have gained out of all proportion to the number of votes cast for them. The Tories are doing what Tories do and, while I don't like it, I have respect because they stick to what they believe in. The Lib Dems are simply doing whatever it takes to wield power.
To go back to the original question, "Does power corrupt?" I think that the answer is yes, look at the Lib Dems.