Fair Fares- No Indirect Taxation Without Direct Representation

Next year, May 1 is Ascension Day. Those of you who are keen followers of the Church calendar, will realise that means it's a Thursday.

Obviously, that means it's the first Thursday in May. Hence, time for local elections.

A day for me to go along to a polling station, and cast my vote for someone to represent Shirley on Southampton City Council.

I will look in vain for a ballot paper to elect the Mayor of London. Neither will there be one for me to elect members of the Greater London Assembly.

This morning, when I turned up at Southampton Central to get my train, I picked up a leaflet for Southern Trains about their services to Brighton and London Victoria. Their franchise runs out in 2009, and I read that Ken Livingstone, Labour's Mayor of London, is aiming to put in a bid on behalf of his office.

If successful, then he would be free to raise fares for those services to pay for his pet projects in London. Not enough money in the kitty? Danger of angering Londoners by raising Council Tax there?

Why should he annoy the voters of London (who could vote him out), when he can annoy the voters of Hampshire and Sussex (who can't vote him out)?

Not only that, but I read Livingstone wants control over "commuter" services to and from London. Well, I have an annual season ticket between Southampton Central and Basingstoke. I can either take an Arrive train or a South West Trains one. A SWT one will be the type of service that he wants to control. So, if successful, the amount I have to pay for my season ticket would be largely determined by a Mayor I cannot vote for, who is accountable to an Assembly I cannot vote for.