ALMOST overnight, it seems politics has gone from boring to scintillating. It all began with the Scottish Referendum, where voters demanded to be heard in never-before-seen numbers.

Then we had the late summer defections to UKIP and yesterday the Prime Minister finally displayed admirable podium thumping fury as he refused to pay a new EU demand for £1.7billion.

York has also seen a fair share of political shenanigans since Labour witnessed its own string of defections, which plunged it into a minority and allowed the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents to outvote it by acting in unison.

This week they did so and dramatically seized control of key council positions.

Today we look at the fall-out, which scarcely seemed possible just a few weeks ago. And it makes fascinating reading, from claims of ‘grubby backroom deals’ by Council Leader James Alexander, to Cllr Julie Gunnell pleading ‘don’t grab what you can’.

We haven’t seen passion like this for ages, but is it good for democracy? Well a shake-up may be no bad thing. Labour has been accused of steam-rollering unpopular policies such as closing Lendal Bridge and and while it’s not our place to comment on rhetoric, we do know that transparent government is core in a democracy and when any party has a stranglehold there must be a temptation to think it knows best.

This week was only the beginning of what will undoubtedly be an unrelenting round of dogfighting until next May’s elections. But politics on a local and national stage has come alive once more and hopefully transparency will be the real winner.

Which has to be a good thing.