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As economic crisis turns to political crisis across Europe, what are the lessons for local democracy here? The May 3 elections sent out some strong messages on mayors, majorities and political mandates - but is anyone in Whitehall listening?
EUROPE'S VOTERS ARE getting fed up with austerity. May's election results in France, Greece and (at the local level) Britain suggested that people want an end to the gloom and doom that has dominated politics since 2008. Indeed, it will soon be five years since the Northern Rock bailout in September 2007 - an event that turned out to signal what will be the longest period of low growth in the UK since 1945.
Nor is there any end to it. Greece remains an ominous threat to the eurozone, and so to growth in the UK. Spain's banking system is in a dreadful condition, risking a collapse of economic confidence from the Peloponnese to Lapland. It is against this unremittingly glum backdrop that public services must now operate for, it would appear, years to come.
If there are straws in the wind for the future of UK politics, they suggest a mild revival of the European political Left, albeit against a backdrop of no particular model to replace the one that led to the current dire straits.
NewFrench president François Hollande promises a milder form of austerity in France, but no radical change to that country's economic system. He will be eagerly observed on this side of the Channel. If growth is faster there than here, Labour will use it as evidence that Ed Miliband could do the same in the UK.
But if the UK grows faster than France, or turmoil hits the French economy, Chancellor George Osborne will say: 'Look, I told you so.'
Radicalism on the Continent was paralleled by milder change in England, Scotland and Wales with Labour making significant gains in the May elections.
There were also referendums in ten English cities as to whether or not they should introduce directly elected mayors. It turned out to be 'not' in all but Bristol, with Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle among those voting for the status quo. In Liverpool, which had decided by a vote of the council to adopt...