At full council in Gateshead last week, the Lib Dem group submitted a motion for debate welcoming Labour's new found support for proportional representation (as agreed at their conference) and calling on the Labour group to support its use in both local and general elections. In the debate I pointed out that back in the 1980s, when both myself and Martin Gannon, current leader of the council, were first elected, Martin was a supporter of PR. In his contribution to the debate, Martin said he now "sometimes" supports PR, but not for local elections (after all that would damage the near one-party state over which he presides.) Any progressives hoping that Labour in Gateshead would make the bold step of supporting their own party policy would have been disappointed with the result. Labour voted against the motion. I did point out however that Gateshead Labour's opposition to the motion actually puts the Lib Dems closer to Labour policy than the Gateshead Labour party themselves!
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