Why can't we determine our own future!

Democracy this is a fundamental part of our way of life, we are told on a daily basis, but I'm just considering the fact that any day now we will have, whether we like it or not a decision made regarding the Turner contemporary centre.

As we are all well aware the previous incarnation of the Turner Gallery resulted in an nothing less than at a complete debacle as roughly £8 million was wasted on an improbable and unlikely design.

I can only assume that those authorities that make these sort of decisions, assume that Joe public does not have the sophistication, good taste to make decisions of a such a major importance to the future of this town, you can just imagine the smug and superior intelligentsia that make these sort of decisions being unwilling to accept that Joe public has a right in such matters. To be quite honest they have a point, who in their right mind would choose a design for a gallery that looks similar to the backside of a white elephant and then have the cheek to choose the only design, from many to be built out to sea, no wonder we get no choice.

Hopefully this time round perhaps the great and good who get to choose these things, could come up with a short list of maybe five designs and then submit them to public scrutiny and allow interested members of the general public to make the final choice. This would have two important benefits, one would be that we might have a more practical gallery design and secondly if it all goes tits up again we have only ourselves to blame.

Just as an afterthought, why don't we convert the Winter Gardens into a gallery this would have the dual benefit of saving vast amounts of money, and it secondly we would no longer be subjected to endless streams of tribute bands where once we used to have entertainment.