The joy of local elections!

So the other day a friend of mine sent me this link about the local elections. It's basically a forum site for the the entire UK local elections and features a thread per Council.

Now, obviously looking at my local council as I had heard that my Labour councillor was being "deselected". I'd heard that this was because of some minor disagreement. However, after posting on the site I discovered that the truth (assuming that it is true) is much deeper than that.

Basically, this councillor was closely aligned to the local (Labour Right) leadership for a number of years and his 'independence' was largely tolerated by them (mainly because he was popular with the Left of the local party). However his dissention became too much when (as a Cabinet member) he voted against the Labour whip on an Education Committee about plans to merge some local schools.

After this vote he was - allegedly - hounded and bullied by the local party until he eventually agreed to fight a safe tory seat. There is a little bit inside me that feels sorry for him, and then another bit that doesn't!