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of nodding down to the folly of monarchs A tough week for figureheads. The Dutch royal family handed over the baton from mother to daughter as police fought a pitcherd battle with some of Amsterdam's thousands of home'less outside.

Meanwhile Queen Elizabeth -who went to Switzerland "because she has not been here before" in the words of her Presis Officer-was whisked past the obedient masses with a heravy police escort; complaining that she was being driven too frist to receive her proper tributes.

This has not been good copy for Fleet Street. Monarchs are supposed to be safe reliable pages of turgid homage-a proof that the masses still have proper respect for authority.

The Daily Mirror in a fit of daring turned John Pilger loose on the Queen's tour of Switzerland. Complete with jokey picture captions ("Swiss role: The Queen inspects the everready Army of Switzerland") Pilger poked fun at the spectacle.

"The Swiss have made her feel at home. There are dogs and farl at kron Thran nan donn nad horses here, too, and a seemingUnder pressure from Labour and trade union activists to step up the fight against the Tories, Labour's NEC has instead decided to stage a one-day rally on 31 May under the misleading title of a "Special Conference"

This "Conference" will be confronted with a flabby and largely meaningless resoluțion ly endless supply dignitaries with su outstretched and ( ›ver dressed wives at the ready sion into the Roy al presence.

«Wisely she has brought the Duke who is somel how able to show interest in mountains and te ill jokes in German and is delighted to be in 1 a country which he would pr robably describe as having its ; finger well and truly out.

•The last strike was 35 years ago and much of thi e population seems to be in permanent training for a Dul ke of Edinburgh Award, or wa But Pilger stic *ks to • safe ground, being mi ore cutting about the Swiss tha in their parasitic visitors.

The Telegraph published a picture of a 'Britis h Army out of Ireland' bar iner being unfurled in front o if the Queen and complained that over zealous police and circling helicopters had "added intensity to what is otherwise a pleasant visit to a nice counti ry"

A personal pier se by Colin Welch in the Telegr aph took up the cudgels on beh: alf of Queen Beatrix of Holland.

He TI. 1 expressed horror' at the riots for propulsnow and obviously 'peculiar and put it veaty hands abdicating at all.

He mourned the fact that:

"Amsterdam was . to a dangerous extent handed over to scruffy, dirty rabble, disaffected youth, to a not exactly retiring or over gentle police force and to the media.

His conclusion (that monarchs should remain decently old fashioned and Orange) is shared by the Telegraph's leader writer, who described the response to both royal events as "ugly dismaying pimples"

"Who are these pink and purple haired monsters with Apache hair cuts who have sprung up amongst us? .. There appears to be a sort of Yobintern. which assembles various nasties and then moves them, by the chara' load, to the point of attack.

"The response we should give is no response at all. They are not misunderstood. They are the least deprived people in the world."

The Telegraph closes, as all good articies on monarchs should, on appeals for more antharity Anti-rovaliem cunds frighteningly like a death knell to its tender ears. Labour Group on the counci to oppose all cuts. I made clear in my seconding speech that i also opposed rate rises. From this resolution came the campaign in the District Labour Party against the cuts.

What have the cuts been like in Leeds?

Leeds has the worst library facilities, the worst social services and the lowest education expenditure per head of the major local authorities. Lord Bellwin has already carried out the policies which other local authorities are beginning to carry out.

Now the Labour Party is pledged to expand social services and education.

In particular it is pledged to provide nursery education places on demand and a massive expansion of day care facilities which are at the moment only available to the most deprived families. We also intend to pour more money to help the inner city areas and the elderly. Where is the money going to come from?

Leeds has received rather • more money from central government than expected and has a very low level of services. George Mudie, the leader of the just been elected Labour councillor for Chapel Allerton ward in Leeds along with Cedric Clarke and Neil Taggart.

He spoke to us just before the elections.

Labour Group expects to be able to carry out his pledges without too much conflict.

But I think that with the results of Clegg and the rapidly rising inflation it will be impossible to achieve even the most modest expansion without enormous clashes with central Tory government. The new laws the Tories are bringing in to restrict local government will be used against us.

Central therefore to our local defence must be a struggle against the Tory government and for its removal.

What is the position of the other candidates to your above position?

Both Neil and Cedric have said that they are determined that the present position in Leeds is reversed-and if it means a fight for the removal of the Tory government so be it. being full of Marxists and Communists.

May Sexton, a former councillor and a former supporter of the Anglo-Rhodesian Society has called for the expansion of Chapletown Police Station to deal with the "problems" in our area especially in the lower end of the ward which is a heavily mixed area.

What is the position of other 'left' organisations?

• The Communist Party have stood a candidate against us but fail to put forward any programme for expansion or how to deal with the Tories.

A group called Resistance has put up some candidates in other areas of Leeds fighting against the cuts and for a sliding scale of public expenditure-but they too fail to present a policy against central government.

.The political division came out clearly at a recent cuts conference in Leeds called by NALGO • and the Trades The International Marxist Group defended a formulation in the main resolution which called for 'occupations to stop and delay closures'. . The CP and the IMG helped to defeat an amendment which I supported to delete the words 'and delay'.