Why it matters

| Thursday, 1 May 2008 Source: The Times

Despite appearances, a vote in local elections is well worth casting

The prospect of casting a ballot in the local elections today will strike many people as less than compelling. Most of the major issues facing Britain now – the credit crunch, rising food and fuel prices, the threat of higher unemployment – are beyond the command of national government, never mind its far smaller cousins. This is, furthermore, an exceptionally centralised country, markedly so in the light of its sizeable population. Local councils do not determine the means by which their revenue is raised, nor do they have the standing to settle upon exactly what level of spending might be suitable for their neighbourhood. Even in sectors such as education where formally they exercise influence, the reality is that ministers in their offices dominate policymaking. These seem like the empty shells of our democracy. And it will rain again today.

As an argument for apathy, or a deliberate and considered abstention from the polls, these observations are not without some merit. There is even a school of thought which asserts that local government will never receive the powers essential for it to have a chance to revive unless turnout falls to the point where Westminster either has to concede the autonomy necessary and desirable, or just be honest about matters and scrap local government outright, employing a network of administrators across the land instead to execute the decisions made by national politicians.

It is a tempting analysis but a very flawed one. For while it is true that councils have limited control over their own expenditure, it is not the case that they have no control of their budgets. A switch in party control or personnel on a council can prompt differing levels of council tax, varying degrees of spending within the constraints imposed by the centre and affect competing priorities. The distribution of money counts, as do choices which have to be made between, for instance, a local library and a children's playground. It matters who makes such decisions in your name.

Secondly, councillors are elected representatives who in practice are more accessible and approachable than Members of Parliament. These are essentially unpaid people, volunteers from and on behalf of the community, whose purpose is to receive the views of residents directly and to put more weight on these and less on party interest than often occurs in the House of Commons.

Finally, while it may be fashionable to dismiss local politics as no more than dustbins or dealing with dogs' mess, these are questions with serious quality-of-life implications. The local environment means more in the everyday lives of many people than the precise content of any comprehensive spending review. If that sounds devoid of the passion which should be at the heart of politics, then in these elections there is a further factor to ponder. The British National Party will rarely win 35 per cent of the vote in any council seat. Yet a figure less than that could secure it councillors in many parts of England unless those who oppose its message of hate and fear unite behind the most credible alternative. In London, the BNP needs only about 5 per cent of the vote to win an Assembly seat, a threshold it would be unlikely to surmount if one in two of those with a vote cast it today, but is achievable if just one in three do. The price of apathy could be worse than more of the same. It could be shame.

Why do today's elections matter? Because voters do. And as Tip O'Neill, the longtime Speaker of the US House of Representatives used to say, “All politics is local”.