Is local democracy a contradiction in terms?

Mark Wallace (the Conservative blogger, not the former Glamorgan wicket-keeper and captain) had a piece in the i newspaper before the local elections claiming that councils are neither local nor democratic.  He draws attention to the way in which the opposition nationally projects the aggregate of local votes as a judgement on the Westminster government, the government mounts a defence and the centrally-based media commentators lazily amplify the effect. It's likely, Wallace says:

on Thursday a large chunk of voters will act with the national political picture in mind. The Labour Party is encouraging people to do so. Their election broadcast features the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Chancellor – neither of whom are up for election this week – and focuses on the cost of living and energy policy, neither of which will be influenced by the result. Obviously, they’re doing this because they think that capitalising on frustration with the Government will work – and it’s a legitimate tactic. In various parts of the country, Conservative candidates are standing under the banner “Local Conservatives” in an effort to neutralise the attack. 

This is a perennial issue, delivering unfair punishment and undue victory in equal measure. Councillors of all parties often suffer defeat through no fault of their own, while “safe” Parliamentary seats often also have one-party dominance in their town hall.

My initial  reaction was that the effect was less outside England. Local issues loom larger the further one gets from London. Moreover, between Whitehall and town hall in Scotland and Wales sit governments of different stripe to the one at Westminster. However, I should have remembered (it was painful enough) the Clegg effect. Hundreds of good, hard-working Liberal Democrat councillors were swept away in council elections following Nick Clegg's failure to stand up to the rejection in 2011 by Cameron and Osborne of the original coalition prospectus and the reversion to the Tory austerity programme. We are only just beginning to climb away from that disaster.

Now it is the Conservatives' turn.  My successful colleagues in local council elections tell me that normally Conservative-voting citizens actually volunteered on the doorstep that they would be switching to Lib Dems because of the way prime minister Johnson has dragged down the reputation of the Conservative party nationally. It seems that throughout Wales decent Conservative candidates along with the rest have been relegated to the bottom of their respective polls as a result. 

More generally, sitting councillors are liable to take the blame for decisions taken at Westminster. As a former civil servant, a former unitary councillor and a current town councillor I have seen something of both sides of government. There is a tendency for Westminster to pass laws whose administration they then off-load to local authorities, not always funding that. 

Wallace proposes two ideas which he says are controversial.

The first is variation – often characterised as a “postcode lottery” but actually the opposite, not a game of chance but a recognition that it’s OK for different areas, with different problems, and different potential, to choose to govern themselves in different ways, so long as it truly is their choice.

The second is that the freedom to succeed also requires the freedom to fail. If a local electorate democratically chooses a council leadership that promises the moon on a stick – for example that quadrupling business rates will see the money roll in without negative consequences for employment or the high street – then it should be free to do so. If it works, that area should be allowed to reap the benefits. But if it fails, then those making the choice must bear a share of the consequences.

I would add one of my own: that there should be no party political broadcasts on radio or TV,  or posts by national parties on social media during the period of campaigning for principal authorities. This would give local media (local Facebook pages as well as print media) the chance to highlight the real issues and actual personalities in each council area.