We need our own local champions campaigning on local issues. As their campaign strategy says: you win where you work.
Meanwhile observers are already speculating about whether today’s performance will cost Douglas Ross his job.
A key economic problem during the 1980s was union power. Now it is weak incentives to move and retrain.
Their unique role means one cannot simply transpose a normal commercial or public-sector HR regime into Parliament or a council.
It really worries me when coming elections are discussed only in terms of the future of the party leadership.
Judicial review is clearly more intrusive than it was. But it is the checks and balances which protect us in a liberal democracy.
Some of the arguments for a directly elected or mayoral model seem to be set up against a straw man.
For all the talk of levelling up ex-industrial towns, the contract for the scheme has been awarded to a mammoth Chinese state-owned company.
There is nothing for productivity growth, ageing, minimum wage hikes, tailoring care to individual needs, or councils’ incentives to build more homes.
The Government’s actions are also a sign of confidence in the combined authority model.
The more radical his plans are, the more resistance there will be. But one can’t serve up a municipal omelette without breaking eggs.
Local leaders must be given the power to take greater responsibility in achieving net zero.
A new paper from Localis and Human Engine makes the case for well-managed local authority entrepreneurialism.
The final piece in a ConservativeHome mini-series this week on the railways after Covid.
Decentralisation sits comfortably within the Tory tradition – and pays clear political dividends as well.