When in 1979 the government of James Callaghan lost a vote of confidence in the House of Commons, a general election was called and the people were allowed to exercise their democratic right to turf out the failed Labour government and elect Britain’s greatest ever Prime Minister in its stead.

Yet last week, in a shoddy deal between Blackburn with Darwen’s Labour group and a couple of insignificant councillors, the leadership of our council changed hands without the people of borough’s consent or support.

As Coun David Foster said at the meeting, it is a sad day when democracy counts for so little in our council chamber.

The Labour Party has arrogantly reassumed office on the back of malcontent independents and now the borough risks losing the achievements of the past three years brought about by the Con-Lib coalition.

We risk losing weekly bin collections, we risk losing free leisure for all in the borough and we risk ever-increasing council taxes to pay for the whims of the local Labour party and the criminal negligence of the last Labour government’s handling of the economy.

As the rest of the country is part of the new wave of fiscal responsibility and sound economics proposed by Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Osborne, our borough will, as in the 1980s, languish in the failed politics of tax-and-spend and will languish behind once again due to the economic illiteracy of the Labour Party.

In losing Coun Lee as the Leader of the Council, the borough has lost a thoughtful, articulate and – most importantly – personable leader who has been overwhelmingly successful in his post.

Blackburn’s Labour Party cannot take the people of the borough for granted, as Coun Maureen Bateson seems to in her comments at the extraordinary meeting.

Before subjecting the people of this borough to reckless spending, extortionate tax rates and the fate of languishing behind the rest of the country who are currently having to make sacrifices to pay for Gordon Brown’s 13 years of economic folly, the new executive board and Leader of the Council should put forward exactly what their policies are and let the people of the borough decide if they want to go to hell in a handcart with them or not.

Simon Wilkinson.

Heaning Avenue, Blackburn.