Herald Opinion: We don't deserve political mischief

Two Tory councillors are refusing to resign after they have relocated to the West Country.

Linda and John Oliver moved to Bath less than a year after they were elected locally.

Mrs Oliver was returned to the district authority last May in a Conservative demolition of the Liberal Democrats while Mr Oliver was returned to the town council in Hythe.

Mrs Oliver claims that despite living hundreds of miles away she can remain involved in local matters and properly represent the people who live in her ward.

This is hogwash and she knows it.

Try as she might, a district councillor's job is more demanding today than it has ever been with mountains of papers to read and digest, and meetings and committees to attend.

That does not account for the amount of casework a member must undertake during the course of a four-year council cycle.

It seems inconceivable that she can do the job properly.

How on earth can she possibly know what is happening on the ground in Hythe when she is so far away?

One suspects there is a bit of political mischief going on here.

Senior Liberal Democrats want the Olivers to resign to force by-elections.

The Lib Dems are keen to get back to winning ways after recent years of lurching from disaster to disaster.

One senses that they are beginning to feel a resurgence in their ranks and self-belief that had almost gone after the catastrophic 'tax and toilets' debacle of 2004.

They would fancy their chances in Hythe by fighting the Tories on sensitive issues like council tax.

The Tories, on the other hand, would be desperate not to lose any ground on the indomitable position they secured last May when they swept the Lib Dems aside.

But big majorities can breed laziness, arrogance and contempt.

The Tories tore themselves asunder prior to their famous defeat in 2003 by in-fighting and ever-shifting splits.

Leaving aside the politics, is this really fair to the local electorate?

The Olivers should resign.