We need a better and more honest account of how much money they spend and how much power they have, and more focus on their options and responsibilities. With that, more people would see a good reason to go and vote.
It’s simply not possible to attract a superb candidate without the beginnings of a revival already underway. Nor can a revival happen without a mayoral standard bearer.
He does not just say what people want him to say, regardless of whether he can achieve it.
Since 2018, seven local authorities have effectively gone bankrupt. The roll of dishonour includes, shamefully, three Conservative councils: Northamptonshire, Thurrock, and Woking.
One of the few perks of the position is that you can ignore the inevitable compromises of office: the difficult civil servants, the blocking backbench minorities, the hostile opinion polls.
While his personal deficiencies certainly contributed to his downfall, don’t underestimate the dogged and persistent work by the Scottish Conservatives in exposing his government’s failures and holding him to account.
Fear of differing outcomes means councils are reluctant to use the powers they have, and government is loath to give them more. Not so in other parts of the world.
The renaissance of places like Dudley demands great skills and single-minded determination. As Mayor, he has proven he has both.Â
Whatever the specific issues upon which the Bute House Agreement foundered, the two parties are suddenly competing for votes in Holyrood’s regional lists.
More than 60 years on from CP Snow’s famous lecture on the ‘Two Cultures’, the gulf he identified between the sciences and the arts is still with us.
If the Rwanda scheme succeeds, it will be a personal vindication for Sunak. But it will also show that Parliament works. If not, however unfairly, it will be the Government voters blame for the failure.
The West Midlands needs a financially-competent executive who will put the interests of its citizens above petty national politicking.
Her history is confused but some may still be persuaded by her argument that the judiciary is too left-wing and Conservative ministers should be able to appoint more ideologically sympathetic candidates.
It is an absurd caricature of Tory philosophy to pretend that our Party must unthinkingly defend whatever the status quo happens to be, no matter how poorly it serves the nation.
Can the new settlement retain cross-party support when one of the major parties controls only one mayoralty?