If last year’s general election was all consuming and everywhere, this year’s local elections, in truth, are neither.That is not to denigrate for a moment how much they matter in the places where they are happening, nor the extent to which they will mould the mood of national politics in their aftermath.But the reality is there are not many contests this year, not least because some have been postponed because of an imminent shake-up in local government structures in some places.So there is a very good chance you are reading this in a part of the country without any contests.And there is a good chance too, given what I hear from the political parties, that your heart might not be pulsating in ecstasy even if the community centre down the road is morphing into a polling station tomorrow.I detect a curious paradox right now: anger confronts an expectation of widespread indifference.Turnout in local elections that do not coincide with a general election are almost always shrivelled.But what I pick up anecdotally – I’ve just spent the last few days in Lincolnshire, reporting on the race to be the county’s first directly elected mayor – matches what the research group More in Common has picked up in focus groups.The group’s UK Director, Luke Tryl, diagnoses a “despondency or misery about the state of Britain that doesn’t feel sustainable”.Put that sentiment, reduced turnout and a splintering of party support in all sorts of directions into the mixer and what you end up with is a wildly unpredictable politics where the margins between victory and defeat could be very narrow indeed.Or to put it more bluntly: if n …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnIf last year’s general election was all consuming and everywhere, this year’s local elections, in truth, are neither.That is not to denigrate for a moment how much they matter in the places where they are happening, nor the extent to which they will mould the mood of national politics in their aftermath.But the reality is there are not many contests this year, not least because some have been postponed because of an imminent shake-up in local government structures in some places.So there is a very good chance you are reading this in a part of the country without any contests.And there is a good chance too, given what I hear from the political parties, that your heart might not be pulsating in ecstasy even if the community centre down the road is morphing into a polling station tomorrow.I detect a curious paradox right now: anger confronts an expectation of widespread indifference.Turnout in local elections that do not coincide with a general election are almost always shrivelled.But what I pick up anecdotally – I’ve just spent the last few days in Lincolnshire, reporting on the race to be the county’s first directly elected mayor – matches what the research group More in Common has picked up in focus groups.The group’s UK Director, Luke Tryl, diagnoses a “despondency or misery about the state of Britain that doesn’t feel sustainable”.Put that sentiment, reduced turnout and a splintering of party support in all sorts of directions into the mixer and what you end up with is a wildly unpredictable politics where the margins between victory and defeat could be very narrow indeed.Or to put it more bluntly: if n …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
