Presumed written on 10th, April 2012. Such an odd Mayoral referendum. Weird. £300,000 of public money is being spent to give people a say and they're not interested. Executive Mayors to run city councils. No-one asked for it. No-one's campaigning for it. And yet it might win. Cos there's no consideration and the turnout will be low. The arguments against "big personality politics which appeals to testosterone- charged male egos" are being made - most recently in the Guardian opinion piece - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/09/elected-city-mayors-power-freak-politics Please read it! Contrast this with arguments along the lines of "Yes" is a very nice word and "No" isn't a very nice word, happily acknowledging that there is no "Yes" or "No" on the ballot paper. Colonel Pitts: You speak English? Corpral Kuniski: Yes. Colonel Pitts: I'm gonna give you five minutes to lay down your arms, and surrender your hostages. You understand what I'm saying? Corpral Kuniski: Yes. Colonel Pitts: Where's your commanding officer? Corpral Kuniski: Yes. Colonel Pitts: Are you makin' fun of me, soldier? [Kuniskijust grins] Maybe such opinion formers are just making fun of us. But their target is the very organisation that continues to deny any foothold to the extreme politics that grab seats elsewhere and even win Executive Mayors such as happened in Doncaster. A facile "yes" campaign, with an attempt to front it by a former Councillor who drank long and deep at the well of the existing system, before changing his mind and dragging the full concession of a first meeting with David Cameron at No. 10 if Nottingham adopts the Exec Mayor. Big whoop! And it's not "Yes", it's the second option on the ballot paper. Sharing power and involving more people is the way forward. Choose the first option on the ballot paper. .