Yes, this newspaper has an indication to make to its readers in preparation for next Saturday’s local council election.

Local council elections are not a general election and voters should resist the efforts made by political parties to turn them into dry runs of a general election.

Local council elections should be local affairs. They can be praise or condemnation for what the preceding council did or did not do. By the same token, they can demonstrate their confidence in one or more persons when compared to the rest.

In the same way, local council elections can be used to drive home what people want done urgently at ground level.

This paper feels this country has now been overtaken by what one can call the entrapment culture. The principal culprits here are the wardens and the pernicious system that has been allowed to flourish around them.

It is one thing to keep order on the roads to allow the free flow of traffic, but a quite different thing if you come upon wardens, such as the one in daily attendance at the Kappara roundabout who pounces on people talking on their mobile phone, or the two wardens who religiously and seriously sit in a car just under our offices and nab the unfortunate drivers who switch lanes at the lights.

Perhaps the most unfair of the entrapment devices are the speed cameras that have been installed at both ends of the Regional Road tunnels. First of all, the speed limit is for the bridges, not the tunnel. Secondly the other prohibition – that regarding overweight trucks – has never really been enforced even though these are more damaging than speeding cars. Thirdly, it has reduced the car driving population to a bunch of schoolchildren who behave only when the headmaster is around: you can see cars whizzing by in the tunnel only to brake at the very end.

The entrapment culture has become ingrained in the way local councils operate because, having been starved by this government of funds, they can only generate funds by fining as many people as they can. For that, and for the way the whole system has been set up, blame this government. But Labour too runs local councils and they are equally pernicious and grasping when it comes to boosting their income through fines. Nor has Labour promised any change of tactics; perhaps when the Labour leader says this or that Labour-led council has attained 90 per cent of its programme, he is actually saying it grabs 90 per cent of the fines.

This entrapment culture, although not alone, has raised road rage to a national mode of being. One sees it in the way people act, on the roads and not just on the roads – the lack of courtesy, the abominable manners, the selfish, me-first attitude. And also the desperation that lies at its core: that anything as small as a road fine can upset the carefully balanced family finances at a time when expenses are increasing and income is static or decreasing.

This entrapment culture must be resisted. We must return to the time when law enforcement was there to enforce the laws, not to increase revenue. When law enforcement did pay attention to small infractions of the law and was sensible about them but then tackled the bigger and more pervasive infractions and treated them accordingly. Whereas today, as the photo on our front page shows, blatant disregard of the law is allowed while wardens look for drivers using mobile phones. As to speeding, once you are away from the speed cameras’ eye, you can speed as much as you like. And as for drink-driving, you have to be involved in an accident to be pulled over.

There is still a week for voters to decide. This newspaper’s advice to them is to be courageous and be not afraid to ask challenging questions. Nor to be afraid not to vote if none of the parties sounds credible. If enough people stand firm and refuse to be pushed into the annual Punch & Judy show, perhaps things will start to change. The local council election is the time when voters can stop being shoved and push back those who think they can scare voters so easily.