Back to pre-Clegg days in local government

 Mark Pack, president of the federal Liberal Democrat party, has posted;

Over the last couple of weeks, new Liberal Democrat council leaders have been taking up their posts all across the country, with the number of Lib Dem majority councils now back to where it was before the 2010 coalition.

I’ve covered many of these on social media, but in particular it’s worth highlighting the two new unitary authorities of Westmorland & Furness and Somerset.

The Conservative Party’s enthusiasm for large new unitary councils has always seemed to be fuelled in part by a political calculation – that larger councils, with larger wards and less frequent elections will benefit them compared to parties such as the Lib Dems. However, in both north west and south west England this May, that proved to be spectacularly wrong.

This resurgence is echoed in Wales, though patchily. There is clearly still resentment at Clegg's U-turn on the social security budget which hit post-industrial Wales more than most.