Sir - Watching all bar one of the Labour city councillors petulantly straggle in behind the mayor at the recent council meeting as a 'protest,' with the leader Adrian Gregson sloping in last, was an absurd sight.

The drama over the mayor has very little actually to do with Alan Amos personally. It is the result of years of fear and loathing in Worcester Labour Party.

In recent years a steady stream of Labour councillors and activists have left to join the Independents, Conservatives and Greens. It is no secret why they left.

They were fed up with the Labour council group being treated as nothing more than a vehicle to promote Michael Foster when he was Worcester's MP, and now to get their parliamentary candidate elected against Robin Walker. Nearly everyone with an independent mind has either been pushed out, or marginalised so that they walk out.

Last year Labour intrigued with the Lib-Dems to get them to break their two-year agreement with the Conservatives. So they gained power at the Guildhall by a coup.

Such is their sense of entitlement to power that now, without any sense of irony, they are protesting because they have received the same treatment! Welcome back to deserved opposition.

Francis Lankester

Worcester