Councillor gender The Western Telegraph of July 11thcarried a report by the Electoral Reform Society Wales that alleges Pembrokeshire County Council ’s gender gap ‘one of the worst’ in Wales. Apparently this dreadful discovery adds ammunition to the Welsh Labour government’s allegations about the lack of openness and democracy in our county council.

The ERS Wales report “Women in local government” (June 2012) was produced by its newly appointed director Stephen Brooks. It is hard to imagine a more foolish paper emanating from a public body (The Electoral Reform Society). For how can the county council be held responsible for the fact that more men than women in Pembrokeshire choose to stand for election as county councillors ?

Notwithstanding its absurd claims, the ERS Wales paper will no doubt be used by the Labour government in Cardiff to bolster their attack on the Independent Pembrokeshire county council. Their end game of course is to take over the county council and replace its elected members by Labour commissars.

Richard F Shepherd by email