The local political system is seen by new Labour to be in very poor health.The quality of local democracy as expressed through elected localgovernment is seen as fundamentally inadequate.The first set of problems rests around the role and quality of ected representative.In private conversation ministers and their advisers make comparisons between the lively,ethnically diverse and gender-balanced representative
on some local quangos and police authorities and the dull,middle-aged or elderly men that dominate the politics of many elected local authorities.Indeed,they argue, appointments to local quangos open up opportunities for involvement to a whole variety of people that would not stand in local elections.