WE'RE a cynical lot when it comes to anything connected with politics, especially at a local level.
Without a second's hesitation most people will tell you they consider councillors to be either bumptious, officious characters with hugely over-inflated opinions of themselves or odious individuals who are on the make by grabbing various allowances or shamelessly using office to promote their own businesses - or both.
And there have, over the years, been some well publicised illustrations to encourage this feeling.
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I remember, for example, T Dan Smith, the former Tyneside council leader, holding court in Newcastle Civic Centre around the time Margaret Thatcher came to power after being freed at the end of his jail sentence for corruption.
The conviction of a man who had been dubbed Mr Newcastle' scandalised a region but there was no display of remorse.
He referred to his downfall with the indignant tone you hear from motorists who have been clocked by a speed camera.
But criminal behaviour of the man who spoke of rebuilding Newcastle as a new national capital like Brazil's Brasilia was exceptional - and that's why we remember it so many years later.
The vast majority of our councillors are people who do something most of us would run a mile from.
While only around half of us even bother to go out once a year to vote at council elections they sit at home ploughing through huge wads of reports that few would find remotely interesting.
They then give up weekday evenings (when we are in front of the TV or down the pub) to sit through meetings which can only be called interesting in comparison with making models out of matchsticks, or ironing.
They also have to explain themselves to gatherings of the public who only want to shout and berate them for something they have or haven't done.
And before anyone says 'they don't have to do it' that is just the point.
If they didn't all the local services we depend on like education, refuse collection, street cleaning and road maintenance would grind to a halt.
No one would suggest we should idolise our ward councillors,
But let's ease up a little on the constant denigration of their motives. Let's remember too that it's not a nice job but one that someone's got to do.
If I were Roman Catholic, this would be the moment to offer a prayer to Jude - the Patron Saint of Lost Causes!
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