David Boothroyd writes
Then there was the ILEA scandal... bloody Tebbit.

Which particular ILEA scandal?

ILEA was previously run by a committee of the GLC. When the GLC was
abolished the Government opted for a directly-elected education
authority - making ILEA unique in that respect.

It was meant to be part of a brave new world of making local politics
more accountable; directly-electing authorities. In the future it could
be extended to other education authorities - possibly even health
authorities and who knows...

The problem was that the voters of inner London elected a Labour-run
ILEA. This wouldn't do as the Tories had spent a lot of time and effort
to get rid of the Labour-run GLC (and Metropolitan County Councils
elsewhere). So they decided to allow individual boroughs to opt-out of
ILEA - but as that legislation went through Parliament, Tebbit tabled an
amendment to abolish ILEA completely.

So much for local democracy.

--
Dave