The reason being that local councils are more and more restrained by central government. Some political pundit was commenting about the difference between the turnout locally here and in France for instance, which is high. He said, and I think he's probably right, that local government there has more autonomy, so people know their vote is important and whoever they vote for can make a real difference to their everyday lives. We have governments that are control freaks, in spite of all the talk by Pickles et al about 'localism', they only give the crumbs they feel inclined to. Look at the way Gove has behaved by forcing primary schools to become academies, when parents were overwhelmingly against the idea, but they didn't count. Local councils should have more power to make real decisions, that, I think, would make voting in these elections much more relevant to all of us.
Vanessa Smith ● 4097d