OF all the headlines which have graced the front pages of The Northern Echo over 132 years, 'Monkey Is Mayor' is surely the most unlikely.

And yet it has happened. It couldn't happen. But somehow it did and the news will reverberate around the world.

It is impossible to argue with democracy. The Government pushed for a new way. Tony Blair wanted to revitalise local government by giving the people the chance to vote for its mayor - and the people voted for H'Angus the monkey.

What started out as an attempt to make local government more meaningful has turned into a night-mayor.

When The Northern Echo revealed that H'Angus was to stand, he was considered to be just another joke candidate. Now the joke is on Hartlepool and the world of politics.

The sadness is that Hartlepool has worked wonders to shed its image as a joke town. With the enterprise, dynamism and sheer hard work of the local community, the town has been transformed over the past decade. It is a town rightly proud of its achievements.

But what now? H'angus the monkey is to share the local political limelight with Hartlepool's MP Peter Mandelson and the laughter will be heard all the way around the globe.

For the Labour Party, it is nothing short of a disaster. The introduction of elected mayors has been exposed as ill-considered.

The party had a strong candidate in businessman Leo Gillen - passionate about the town and politically astute. He would have been a good mayor - but apathy and the monkey beat him.

With Ray Mallon likely to be victorious in Middlesbrough later today, the Labour Party in the North-East has found itself with two mayors it prayed would not win.

But Middlesbrough and Mr Mallon will have to wait. For now it is Hartlepool making historic, hysterical headlines.

The town famed for having hanged a monkey as a suspected French spy during the Napoleonic Wars has voted for a monkey - or at least a man in a monkey suit - as its Mayor.

They will talk about it - and find it hard to believe - for generations to come.