IT'S X-Factor time again.

This Thursday is the big one for 125 town halls in the local elections.

National politicians will be watching the outcome as they are seemingly divided on so many issues. #

Local councillors should be united in serving those they were elected to represent.

As I have stressed over the past two years in the Inferno, I am apolitical. I want what is best for the people. All they want is the truth.

I have written political columns for all media, articles for trade unions, the Labour Party and lobby groups and written for various newspapers backing each of the political parties.

I have a code of conduct.

Give people the facts and let the man, woman and teenager in the street make up their own minds.

I have stood in the rain reporting on exit polls – rain-soaked, fed up outside crafty church halls and school gyms relaying the outcome of local elections in numerous towns across the UK.

What I used to dread was rampant apathy.

Low turn-outs, especially when so much is at stake. 

What has intrigued me recently has been campaigns were local people are saying councillors should live in the actual place they represent.

Why?

If councillors do a decent job representing the people who elected them, why should where they live be a matter of concern?

If they fulfil the requirements of being a councillor and the needs of their own wards and stick to their own guidelines then that is all we ask of them.

Councillors go in to local politics to change society for the better.

To make it fairer and to ensure town halls are transparent with what they spend your money on.

So tomorrow look at what the elected person voted in your area has done in the past 12 months.

Did they keep to their promises... did they do what you asked of them?

It's a curtain-raiser for the referendum on Europe to come. To be in the EU or not to be ... that is the question ...

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AND talking of William Shakespeare.

The world has gone Bard Barmy – marking 400 years since his death. Wirral's Glenda Jackson is returning to the stage to appear in King Lear in London.

Many have said she is returning to theatre after decades away.

Surely not, what about her performances in the House of Commons.

And forsooth I was delighted to see that Wirral’s Hand in Hand Theatre company reached the English finals of the All-England Theatre Festival in Maidenhead for their inspiring play with a difference RIP Mr Shakespeare, a critically-acclaimed collection of Bardisms.

This is their third RSC Open Stages production.

I will toast the company’s future with a glass of mead in the Shakespeare pub in Liverpool.

Sadly, good Will's words come to my mind when I heard Tranmere failed to reach the National League play-offs.

But like the Leicester fan who betted on her team wining the Premiership at odds of 5,000-1, I shall have a wager on the Rovers returning next season to where they belong.

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PERCHANCE to dream ... I was very proud of the Wirral Globe's team covering the Hillsborough verdicts outcome.

The paper rightly highlighted those victims from the Wirral.

Covering the events last week brought back a chilling reminder to me.

I went on location to see the filming of Jimmy McGovern's drama, simply called Hillsborough, which was re-screened last week.

A mock-up of the Sheffield Wednesday ground was created in Manchester.

It was eerie to see the actors make their way down through the tunnel ... past the few turnstiles allocated to Liverpool fans.

I cannot imagine what it was like on that fateful day, but Granada and Jimmy did a fine job in recreating the events leading up to the tragedy.

I sighed with relief when I saw the actors re-emerge.

Now 27 years on it is surely time for a sequel, Hillsborough: The Truth At Last.

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AND finally ... out of the mouths of babes.

A sign at Liverpool’s Central station greets you as you go down the escalator saying "Do Not Rush."

I heard a toddler tugging at his mum’s sleeve asking: "Can we get some donuts ... there's a rush on."

Peter Grant