THE votes have been counted. Fenland remains a Conservative-controlled one-party state. I would therefore like to look at the prospects for politics in Fenland. In the ward that I live, Wisbech South, there were five candidates: Conservative, Liberal Demo

THE votes have been counted. Fenland remains a Conservative-controlled one-party state. I would therefore like to look at the prospects for politics in Fenland.

In the ward that I live, Wisbech South, there were five candidates: Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Labour, UK Independence Party, and the Libertarian Party.

However, I only received election leaflets from the Conservative and Libertarian candidates.

This clearly suggests that the other three were 'paper' candidates.

For those readers who are not political animals, a 'paper' candidate is one in which no election work is carried out apart from the completion of nomination papers.

Big business and the rich are using the anti-politics reaction to the MPs expenses scandal to try to reduce the Labour Party to a rump at the next general election.

The model is Italy where there is no major worker's party. This is something that the members of North-East Cambs Labour Party should take very seriously indeed.

It is urgent that the Labour Party in Fenland is turned into a school for socialism just as local branches of the trade unions should be turned into schools for socialism.

Many people ask me how to get a Labour MP elected for Fenland. The answer is that the candidate should say that he will live on a skilled worker's wage of �500 a week.

The candidate should go further and prioritise the fight for democracy, including the call for: annual parliaments; recallable MPs; and the abolition of the House of Lords.

Only by campaigning for an MP on a worker's wage can Labour end Tory domination of Fenland politics.

JOHN SMITHEE

Wisbech

(Editor's footnote: Let us have your comments on today's results. Email: john.elworthy@archant.co.uk)