Is England a democracy, if local elections can be delayed two yearsZ

@Thinkerbell Do you actually know anything about local government?

@ArishMell Sadly, local government councillors enjoy their expenses! They are not altruistic. Guided by self interest.

With Education now in the hands of Academy chains, their main thrust is in the care of elderly, the homeless, and social services. The provision of libraries is neglected. Planning permission is often corrupt. And the state of the roads, neglected.

Waste management complex.

At best there are good parks and recreational area. But their attitude to street art is curious. A whitewash seems to be the answer to people that lack culture and imagination.

Sadly they reflect society as it is.

@peterlee Knowing a number of people who have served on local authorities and as officers within, if you were to make those comments about expenses specifically, they would be considered libellous. You’re right that elected councillors reflect society generally, but perhaps your experiences are very negative leading to your conclusions. I come back to the same point I make regularly: we don’t want to pay for services but blame those we elect for not providing them.

Which council is having its election postponed for 2 years?

@FreddieUK I can only comment generally on local councillors that come under fire in my local towns from time to time.
Politics attracts an abnormal amount of bad eggs.

But I’m paying over £300 a month to people I have no say in. I have no worries about the police and fire service. Nor the amount I pay them.

Concerns about social services seems to be pretty common across the country.


I’m glad things are going well in your part of the country.

@peterlee I agree nothing is perfect.

It never was - some bits better, some bits worse.

It never can be - we can only hope for improvements where possible.

I don't think corruption is very widespread but property-speculators are given too much leeway by the planning laws, and they are no longer even bound to ensure proper building quality.


I believe the schools should never have been given to commercial contractors even though they still must teach at least a national minimum range of subjects to minimum national standards, but the original LEA system should have been retained.


The problem with the welfare areas is that they in a grim way the victims of their own successes; but I for one would hope we never descend to some "heritage foundation"-esque level of sink-or-swim. Even the much-criticised Victorians had some charity, though you had to be able to afford to be ill, and their dreadful workhouses were based on a cruel notion that desperate poverty was some sort of choice.


The state of the roads was well put recently by a friend who owns his home in probably an ex-Council House estate, in Yeovil. Having navigated the Landrover test-course to reach his home, he told me of a local radio news report that some "survey" praised the high standard of Somerset County Council's roads. My friend said the programme was deluged with e-posts and 'phone calls of "not round here", "what roads have they seen?" and "if ours are good I'd hate to drive on theirs" nature.


Councils up and down the land have been starved of central (general-taxpayer) funding for years by governments of both parties, but if the nation is short of money I place most of the blame on one thing -

- The "inward investment" myth, with its parallel sales of both the logically-State industries and utilities and of privately-owned companies abroad.

Started by a Conservative government but continued with great gusto by succeeding Labour as well as Tory ones; this policy neither sees nor cares about the obvious, inevitable results. The losses of encouragement, control, intellectual-property, service quality and especially, operating-profits. Even if the overseas stock-markets, sovereign wealth funds and assorted spivs pay the company taxes due (if we are lucky), the profits are not available to be spent by their beneficiaries in this country.

@ArishMell


Only too much about my local government. It's a corrupt old boy society where one hand washes the other, all at the expense of the taxpayers.

I doubt that it is much different anywhere else, perhaps worse in some places.