THE siren voices of New Labour that urged us to look forward rather than dwell on the unsavoury aspects of the war in Iraq have now gone very silent as the New Labour loyalists connive in London to give some legitimacy to the expulsion of anti-war campaigner George Galloway MP, charged with bringing the party into disrepute.

How many times has Peter Mandelson MP to bring the party into disrepute before being disciplined?

Freedom of speech once again is the casualty of New Labour's drive towards uniformity and if democracy or the principles of natural justice get in the way, then they are given short shrift in New Labour's long sustained campaign to remove dissent and debate.

The courageous BBC reporter who uncovered appalling racism in a police academy was first of all accused of making the news rather than reporting it.

Locally, we had Councillor Paul Browne's rubbishing of 8,000 staff employed by the council (although he did make an exception for the Chief Executive's £12,000 salary hike).

Misguided as his comments may be, it is certainly not the business of a standards committee to judge on an issue such as this. It is the electors to whom Coun Browne should be answerable.

Time and time again, elected representatives find they are accountable to spurious groups who have no accountability to the people they are elected to represent and then there is dismay and surprise when the turnout at elections falls to depressingly new low levels.

The three New Labour placemen having done the job they were expected to do and kick George Galloway out of the Labour Party do so secure in the knowledge that he has no right of appeal.

However, there still is one final arbiter, that is the electorate of Glasgow's Kelvin constituency, who will eventually, through the ballot box, no doubt give New Labour the democratic good hiding it so richly deserves.

COUN DON RISHTON (Labour), Wensley Fold Ward, Blackburn with Darwen Council.