DOLE NOT COLE

SO FAREWELL, then, to the Labour party's overall majority on Doncaster council, swept away on 10 June by a surge of support for Independent candidates and the Lib Dems which cost the party of Doncaster 18 seats.

Among the casualties was Labour councillor Tony "Antisocial" Corden, whose aggressive rant at a couple of safety wardens (Eye 1106) led to, er, the wardens being suspended from work for reporting him (Eye 1107).

And farewell, too, for now, to the ambitions of Phil Cole, husband of gorgeous, pouting home office minister Caroline Flint. When Eye 1102 reported that he had ambitions to replace Doncaster's elected mayor, Martin Winter, Cole penned a smug denial which claimed he aspired only to "the more modest role of Labour candidate for the June elections". Sadly Cole came fourth in his ward, behind two Labour colleagues and an Independent, so we will have to wait for his ever-so- 'umble contribution to local politics.

After the dreadful result for Labour. Mayor Winter, whose fat cat 50 percent pay increase (Eye 1099) and freebie Mercedes (Eye 1093) dominated doorstep conversations with canvassers, defiantly declared: "People have to understand that as elected mayor I have executive control of the council... I will continue in the direction I have set." Winter himself is up for re-election next year, so he had better get a move on.

Private Eye No.1109 25th June 2004

SCHOOL'S OUT

Earlier this year Doncaster's education director Mark Eales sent a stern letter to parents warning them that taking children out of school to go on family holidays had to stop. It was disruptive to schools, he said, and damaging to children's education. at one school last year such unauthorised absences accounted for 430 days.

In Doncaster, as elsewhere, it tends to be middle-class parents who allow their children time off in this way, while disapproving of old-fashioned nicking-down-the-shops truanting by the offspring of lower classes. Middle-class parents, in fact, such as Martin Winter, elected mayor of Doncaster.

At the mayor's banquet and ball on 28 June - the highlight of the South Yorkshire "season" - Winter apologised to the audience if his speech seemed rambling. He said he was just back from the Glastonbury pop festival, where he had composed his oration on his laptop, sitting cross-legged in the mud, absorbing the smoky, blissed-out ambience. He said he had taken his children aged seven, nine and 13, to Glasters because he believed time spent there was more "educational" than school. The Eye has learned that Winter's concern for his children's education extended to taking them out of school so they could attend Euro 2004 in Portugal with him the week before.

Still, as a man who earlier this year awarded himself a 50 percent pay rise, Mayor Winter - who has spurned the Eye's request for a chat - can no doubt afford the £100 fines the government has introduced for the parents of truants!

Private Eye No 1111 23rd July 2004