• The local elections are over but there are European elections coming up, on Thursday 23 May. Seldom has there been less appetite for a democratic event. Two of the parties standing have only just been created, while the governing Conservatives seem to be approaching the contest will all the enthusiasm of a nervous first-time parachutist with altitude sickness and a bad hangover. I’ve now all but lost my grip on what’s going on. Come the results, every party will doubtless use the results to justify why it was right and everyone else wrong. If you want to know how the votes are apportioned and winning candidates selected, have a look at this article about the d’Hondt system which is used for these elections.

• Former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Judith Bunting is standing in these elections and, on p7 of this week’s Newbury Weekly News, explains why these are important and what she would hope to accomplish if elected.

• Another aspect of the Euro elections has just struck me, which also probably explains the dearth of initiatives which one would normally expect from the new councils. For six weeks before any local, national or European elections, a state of purdah applies which prevents councils from making announcements designed to favour a particular party. For the local elections, this started on 14 March and for the Euros on 11 April. This means that, between these two dates, the country was in a state of double purdah, or purdah-plus. How was it for you?

• I’ve never watched a Jeremy Kyle Show all the way through but have seen enough bits of it to venture that it’s a form of emotional bare-knuckle boxing, and of a ferocity that no one wishing to appear on the show can be unaware of. I don’t know how many participants have had their relationships or self-esteem improved as a result of appearing on it – perhaps some have – and have every sympathy for the family and friends of the man who recently killed himself as a result of failing a lie-detector test (a procedure which I thought had been discredited decades ago). ITV, the regulators and MPs have suddenly adopted a highly moral position, axing the show and calling for an investigation. Love Island, two of whose participants have died, is also likely to come under this spotlight.

Confrontational reality shows are cheap to make and entertain on the same basic gladiatorial, love-or-hate, winner-or-looser level as does premier League Football (though this is not cheap) and, in a more benign way than either, quiz shows. For years they’ve provided TV companies with what’s probably their major source of revenue. Damian Collins MP, Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (a demanding remit which appears to encompass every aspect of our leisure aside from food, drink and sex), recently told the BBC that ‘Programmes like The Jeremy Kyle Show risk putting people who might be vulnerable on a public stage at a point in their lives when they are unable to foresee the consequences, either for themselves or their families.’ I think we knew that – it’s exactly this combination that made the show the success it was, something Mr Green and his committee must have been aware of for years. A death seems like an obvious tipping point but it marks a quantitive and not a qualitative change. Surely the point of regulation is to prevent things like this happening, not to make obvious remarks after they have done. With only a few changes of words, Mr Collins’s remarks could have been made by a financial regulator after the 2008 crash: many would say that not nearly enough has changed since then.

• I’ve recently emailed the West Berkshire Councillors congratulating them on their various victories and encouraging them to send me newsletters or other information about what’s going on in their wards so I can share them with you here. I needed to call one because his email address wasn’t yet on the West Berkshire website. His wife told me that he was grappling with a burst pipe. When he finally came to the phone he told me that he’d just fixed it. If that kind of hands-on, can-do, sleeves-rolled-up attitude extends to all his other colleagues then we’ll have little to worry about. 

• There’s an interesting letter in this week’s Newbury Weekly News from Ian Hall, a regular correspondent, who compares the EU’s institutions, which are often accused of being undemocratic, with some of our own. Many of his points seem very fair. The question of the composition of district councils is one I’ve referred to before. The first past the post system we have at present is based on the idea that we are electing councillors to represent us. This is in part true; but there is also another dimension in that we’re also deciding on the political composition of the council. He rightly points out that about 10,000 people wanted a Labour candidate (or perhaps some form of Labour representation) but that party won no seats in West Berkshire. I’d add that if I had wanted to vote for the Greens or UKIP I couldn’t have done as there were no candidates from those parties in my ward. Exactly the same criticism can be levelled at national elections.

As for the House of Lords, there are no words to describe exactly how peculiar is its composition. Reform has been promised and fudged time and time again. I’d also agree about the newspaper bosses. Indeed, when you add organisations like Facebook into the mix, it’s depressing to reflect that the amount of influence a media organisation has is often in inverse proportion to the amount of UK tax it pays. I don’t have a problem with the monarchy, though. There’s no positive link between elected presidents and greater freedom: compare the monarchies of The Netherlands or Norway with the republics of Zimbabwe or Russia, for instance. He says that the Queen’s family has been in power for 200 years, but I’d put this at 330 years if you go back to the Glorious Revolution of 1689, which is when the current system of constitutional monarchy was established (as a result, incidentally, of a meeting which took place in The Bear in Hungerford). Otherwise, you could argue for 953 years and go back to Hastings, as all the subsequent monarchs were related to each other and thus to her.

• Congratulations to the Newbury Weekly News which has been commended in the UK weekly newspaper of the year category at the recent news awards 2019 in London.

• The animal of the week are three animals, our cats. All day today they were just lazing around in the sun, from time to time pouncing at shadows or being stroked by anyone who happened to pass. In some previous life, if such things exist, they must have done something really good to have got this gig. We look after them and they do damn-all in return (unlike dogs, which have to get slippers, fetch sticks, retrieve dead birds, locate sheep, bite postmen, etc). That’s what I call a successful species – felis catus, I salute you. However, none of you would get my vote as councillors.

• The letters pages of the Newbury Weekly News this week include, as well as the above-mentioned letter about democratic institutions: questions on the origins and treatment of potholes; praise for the supporters of the Crafty Craft race; an encouragement to walk children to school rather than driving them; and the need for people to be more aware of and informed about dementia.

• A number of good causes have received valuable support recently, including: Newbury Soup Kitchen (thanks to Swift Couriers); The Friends of Castle School, Age Concern Newbury and The Berkshire League of friends (thanks to the recent Dragon’s Den awards at Greenham Trust’s Pitch to the Panel); several local charities (thanks to the Rotary Club of Newbury’s sponsored walk); Eight Bells for Mental Health (thanks to shoppers in Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford); New Road Centre, Jubilee Centre, Kennet Community Bus, Finlay Foundation, Marlborough St Mary’s, Preshute Primary and Macmillan Cancer Research (the Marlborough Mayor’s charities for 2018-19); many charities in and around Swindon (thanks to the recent Swindon Rotary Club’s annual ball).