There was a time when local government meant something recognisably local. Not perfect, and certainly not democratic in any modern sense, but at least anchored in the place it purported to serve. Councillors were shopkeepers, engineers, solicitors, the sort of people who had to live with the consequences of their decisions and could be confronted about them in the street. If they failed to collect the bins, they heard about it. Directly.
Now we have imported the entire Westminster circus into the business of emptying wheelie bins and approving loft extensions.
Candidates stand under the banners of Labour, Conservative, or whichever logo focus groups have decided is least toxic this month, and voters obligingly treat a decision about parking permits as though it were a referendum on the fate of Western civilisation. It would be funny if it were not so debilitating.
The result is a system in which accountability is blurred to the point of near invisibility. Councillors campaign on national slogans, get elected on national swings, and then govern locally with a mixture of caution and deflection. When a council fails to maintain its roads or drifts into effective bankruptcy, responsibility dissolves into a familiar fog. If things go wrong, blame central government. If things go right, issue a press release implying heroic intervention.
This is not politics as representation. It is politics as brand management.
The deeper problem is structural, and more awkward to fit on a leaflet. Local authorities are tightly bound to Whitehall through funding settlements, statutory duties, and ring-fenced grants. Councils raise only a limited share of what they spend. The rest arrives with conditions attached, often dictated by shifting national priorities rather than local need. Social care is the clearest example. Demand rises, costs rise, and councils are legally obliged to provide services, yet the funding framework lags behind. The gap is not ideological. It is arithmetic.
Strip that system away entirely and the illusion becomes obvious. Affluent areas would manage, even thrive, on their own tax base. Poorer areas would face a blunt choice between higher taxes, worse services, or financial collapse. The current model does not eliminate that imbalance, but it disguises it just enough to keep the show on the road. National politics fills the space where genuine local power ought to be.
Having hollowed out local autonomy, we then pretend that electing a different colour rosette will transform outcomes. It is a neat trick. It keeps the argument noisy while ensuring very little that matters can move very far.
And so local elections become a kind of mid-term tantrum. Voters, understandably irritated with the government of the day, kick the nearest available proxy. Councils change hands not because the outgoing administration mismanaged refuse collection or botched planning policy, but because someone in Downing Street said something idiotic six months earlier. It is cathartic, perhaps, but it is not rational governance.
Independents still exist, in the way that hedgerows survive beside motorways. Occasionally you find one doing something sensible and grounded, usually ignored by the broader machinery. They are reminders that local politics could be something other than a branch office of national campaigns.
The defenders of the current arrangement will say that parties provide clarity, coherence, a set of values. That sounds plausible until you notice that the "values" in question have remarkably little to say about potholes, planning committees, or adult social care budgets. What parties really provide is a shortcut for disengaged voters and a shield for underperforming councillors.
The honest position is uncomfortable. Local government has been colonised by national politics because it suits both sides. National parties gain another arena in which to fight their endless war. Local politicians gain cover, resources, and a ready-made identity. Meanwhile the underlying constraints remain exactly as they were.
The only people expected to take it seriously are the voters.
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