John Pugh calls on voters to “smash machine politics”

With the local elections imminent, Sefton opposition leader, Cllr John Pugh is urging residents to use their vote to help “smash machine politics” and bring back what he calls “real local democracy”.

Cllr Pugh said: “Merseyside and Sefton have effectively become a one-party state and we have seen from recent events in Liverpool exactly how that ends.

“Power and all decision making is now absurdly centralised in the Labour leadership with the vast majority of councillors only used as obedient voting fodder. Outside elections it’s the party bosses not the voters that have all the cards even controlling the committees set up to scrutinise them.

“It’s a system that discourages ordinary councillors from asking too many questions – even those who belong to the ruling party. It leads to bad decisions that baffle and distress residents.”

On Sefton, Cllr Pugh, a Liberal Democrat, hopes to build a larger and more multi-talented group by attracting like-minded independents, rallying behind the cause of “democratic scrutiny” and earlier this year reformed the Sefton Liberal Democrat Group as the ‘Liberal Democrat and Progressive Alliance Group’.

“After Covid I really dont think there’s a big call for more party politics, but rather a need to get people properly involved in community life and decision making.

That can’t be done unless we end this age of machine, ‘Town-Hall-knows-best’ politics and restore a culture of open, civilised and more tolerant democracy on Merseyside.”