A core Reform message is that no matter who you vote for, the Government always gets in (in the words of Neil Innes). Each main party promised to control taxes, borrowing and immigration, only to let down voters repeatedly. In doing so, they made Farage’s case for him.
None of this is news to Farage, who has spent more time and effort on these issues than anyone else in modern Britain.
Winning control of 10 local authorities, including the new mayoralty in Greater Lincolnshire, opens a new and risky phase of the campaign to win power nationally. People voted for change, and for business as usual to be swept away. They expect it to happen, sharpish.
A party promising a revolution must be seen to deliver it. There are three main obstacles that could stand in Reform’s way.
As participation in party politics has declined, the complexity of council budgets and operations has grown. In some town halls, part-time councillors simply lack the capacity to wield executive power; in others, there has been outright empire-building by council officers who wield more power and patronage than any transient elected representative can build effectively from outside.
The second obstacle is the deep centralisation of the British state, even in “local” government. A large share of councils’ responsibilities are mandated from the centre or in statute, and a large proportion of their finances are determined by central government, too.
Perhaps ironically, much of this centralisation came about under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, to stop “loony left” councillors running authorities into the ground. Now the boot is on the other foot, and it’s the insurgent right railing against left-wing dogma emanating from Whitehall.
Or planning. If a council denies an application for, say, a solar farm that has legal grounds to be approved, then the authority (i.e. taxpayers) have to fund the extensive legal costs of fighting an appeal.
square MARK WALLACE
Kneecap and Maga have more in common than they realise
Read MoreThat’s not to say that Reform councils cannot change things locally. I expect we’ll see some administrations which are determined and able enough to shake things up, and I hope we’ll see council officers accept that they must defer to a democratic mandate.
Expect to hear from Reform councillors, sooner rather than later, about institutional inertia, about obstructive officialdom, and about overmighty Whitehall.
And all of it, conveniently, will point to one conclusion: that the best way to change the whole system is to put Farage in Downing Street.
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