AS YOU may well have heard, half a dozen councillors decided to do the dirty on the Labour Party and set up shop with the Tories and the Lib Dems.

Whilst much has been made about the rights and wrongs of their actions, one thing is for sure - voters in Audley and Bastwell have been used and abused, and have the right to ask for another election.

Most people already have low confidence in their local politicians and the actions of these six is not going to improve that.

We are used to seeing politicians promise one thing and never deliver. But to turn your back on the party you stood for apparently because they wouldn't give you a seat on a council committee makes a mockery of the elections.

However, a couple of theories have done the rounds and it seems there is more to this than meets the eye.

Firstly, should these men be held accountable for Sir Bill Taylor losing his seat - if indeed that's what happened?

Each politician is responsible for winning their seat. And if the blame has been put on other party members just because they are Asian and Sir Bill was standing in a majority Asian ward, then that is wrong.

Whoever implies this is also saying certain politicians had ulterior motives for Sir Bill losing his seat.

Secondly, what has the Labour Party's handling of the war or racism got to do with the six defecting?

Very little but much will be made about these issues in the weeks to come. Four of the six apparently threatened to resign last year as the country went to war with Iraq. But they didn't.

If there was a moral point to be made, then why did they not resign then?

The fact of the matter is, if positions on committees and as executive directors are more important than making sure the council doesn't have to go through a period of uncertainty, then the six need to re-think why they became councillors in the first place.

Wasn't it to help the very people that elected them, as well as for the benefit of the whole of Blackburn with Darwen area?