26 The Sunday Times May 1, 2022COMMENT
Robert Colvile
offered him upgraded premises right by
the railway station — as long as he put a
massive logo outside to show everyone
arriving in the city that it offered high-
quality jobs.
Last week I sat on a panel with Ben
Houchen, the Tory mayor of Tees Valley.
He was evangelical as he described how
he was turning a neglected industrial site
into a 4,500-acre freeport to lure global
businesses. One of his best tricks has
been getting planning permission agreed
in advance so that investors can start
putting up their offices and factories
within weeks of signing up, rather than
the usual months — or sometimes years.
The government has put a huge
amount of intellectual energy into
“levelling up”, and rightly so. And it’s no
coincidence that two of the four key
principles in its white paper on the topic
are to “empower local leaders and
communities, especially in those places
lacking local agency” and to “restore a
sense of community, local pride and
belonging, especially in those places
where they have been lost”. An excellent
sign of progress would be if we find
ourselves talking less about what future
local elections mean for whoever is
prime minister, and more about what
they mean for us.
@RColvileNo wonder the public are utterly
confused. In 2018 the think tank I run
published a report on local government
by Matt Warman MP. We asked more
than 2,000 people to identify the
layers of government with power over
them: parish council, district council,
elected mayor, police and crime
commissioner and so on. When we
matched the answers against their
postcodes, the proportion that got full
marks was 0 per cent.
Devolution is not a panacea. As was
shown by another report we did, the
new integrated healthcare system in
Manchester run by the metro mayor,
Andy Burnham, has delivered
significantly worse outcomes than
elsewhere, especially on bed-blocking.
Letting London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan,
impose his own restrictions on planning
in addition to Whitehall and the
boroughs has resulted in woefully little
housebuilding in the capital, even by
Britain’s abysmal standards.
But when we get it right, the impact
can be transformational. I recently
spoke to the head of one of the country’s
best-known firms, who had been touring
its regional offices. In one large city the
local councillors could not answer the
simple question of why people should
invest there. But in another the council24 county councils, 59 unitary councils
and 10 combined authorities, of which
nine have directly elected mayors but
one doesn’t. Some of these entities have
the same geographical boundaries, and
some don’t. Of the combined
authorities, some can retain their
business rates revenue, and some can’t;
some run buses or police and fire
services or justice or housing or health,
but some don’t. And none of this maps
in any way onto the powers devolved to
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.resources and expertise to develop the
next generation of digital government
products. If people come to expect
seamless, simple online services, it will
be the central state that builds them:
one-stop national shops for logging
potholes, finding school places and so
on.
It doesn’t have to be like this. One of
the most striking things about France’s
presidential elections was the continued
collapse of the traditional centre-left and
centre-right parties. But they still control
vast swathes of France’s powerful
regional and local governments, with
Marine Le Pen’s right-wing movement in
particular struggling to get a look-in. In
almost every other country there is far
more of a balance between the centre
and the regions — which also helps
prevent the hideous imbalances in talent
and investment that we have here.
Normally, working in a city makes you
richer and more productive. But those
effects are much weaker in Britain’s
regions, partly because public transport
in cities outside London is so shocking.
In recent decades we have made
various attempts to fix the damage and
devolve power. But it’s left us in a mess.
England has 38 local enterprise
partnerships to boost business, 42
integrated care boards to run the NHS,P
olitics is not exactly a
glamorous profession. For
every Tony Blair and Bill
Clinton, swapping well-
polished anecdotes on stage at
a cryptocurrency conference
in the Bahamas before a quick
dip in the infinity pool, there
will be a thousand volunteers tramping
the streets come rain or shine, knocking
on doors and stuffing leaflets into
envelopes. Theirs is the boring, vital
work that keeps our democracy ticking
over. And the thanks they get is that the
moment the polls close, everyone will
start talking about what the results mean
for Boris Johnson.
Yes, this Thursday brings the local
elections. Voters will be deciding who
controls the Northern Ireland
government, all 54 councils in Wales and
Scotland and many of the big cities in
England, as well as voting for thousands
of local and parish councillors plus a
handful of mayors. But you can probably
ignore all that, because most of the
coverage will focus on what the results
mean for the next general election, the
one that really matters.
This is hardly a novelty. Just as fish do
not notice the water, so the British fail to
notice how centralised we are. The
author Ferdinand Mount points out thatover the course of the 20th century we
moved from having 90 per cent of
spending controlled locally to 90 per
cent controlled nationally. And in the
21st, the number of people employed by
central government has climbed to
record highs, even as local government
manpower has fallen and fallen.
The result has been a vicious circle. As
the power and prestige of local
government have eroded, so has its
attractiveness as a career. Councils, with
a few honourable exceptions, have
steadily become more neglected, cash-
starved and often corrupt. (If you think
the headlines about MPs are bad, check
out the “Rotten Boroughs” column in
Private Eye.) Then, when people argue
that we need to devolve more power,
Whitehall responds that you can’t trust
councils with it. Scotland has an even
more acute variant of this disease, with
the nationalists hoarding power in
Holyrood to build it up as a rival to
Westminster, while ensuring that
councils are too weak to object. In 2013
the SNP even took central control of the
police and the fire service.
These trends may even get worse.
Tom Forth, one of the few UK policy
thinkers not to work within walking
distance of Westminster, points out that
fewer and fewer councils have theWe asked people
to identify all the
layers of local
government in
their area.
Nobody couldKeep voting in the May elections and one
day they might actually make a difference
JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE
Your comments from
thesundaytimes.co.uk READERS’ POLL“Why is the woman in the
photo holding the wishbone
of a gigantic turkey?” asked
Mike Branson. “It looks like
an early model of Concorde
to me,” hazarded Moon
Mantle. What had they seen?
A McGuinness set them
straight: “It’s the clitoris.
There you go — you’ve learnt
something new today.”
“That’s exactly why someeducation is needed,” added
Hilary Manser. Victoria
knew how to bring the men
up to speed: “Someone needs
to do a clitoris nav.” Robert
Langford begged a little
understanding: “From the
male perspective, the issue is
that all the clitorises are
attached to someone else,
which does pose a problem of
access for the purposes offamiliarisation.” And, as
Archie Rees pointed out:
“Every woman’s is different:
clitoris allsorts.”
From fumbling men to the
ick — that moment when you
know it’s over. Apparently
saying croissant in a French
accent is enough to kill a
relationship, but, as GK41
quavered: “How are you
meant to say croissantwithout sounding a bit
French?” TM London was
icked by “a much older man
who thought it was sexy to
cook Sunday roast naked
from the waist down. I’ll
never lose that memory of his
wrinkly buttocks.” “Oh my
God!” howled Caroline
Turner, “pass the brain
bleach!” Sharvep “once ran
away from a guy I was datingwho took his shirt off at a gig.
At the end, when he found
me, he stamped his foot and
said in a baby voice, ‘Why
don’t you like me?’”
Spongeworthy included
“anyone who uses the word
yummy”. Bird Song added:
“Bitten nails. Poor grammar.
Too much aftershave.”
Joanne Blades topped the lot
with the “uni housemate’sboyfriend who asked for a
glass of H 2 O”.
India Knight wrote about
bad house guests, prompting
RA Patrick to warn: “Never
go on holiday with friends.
Did it once and spent the
whole week waiting for them
to be ready. Sadly both are
now deceased.” “So still late,”
deadpanned robin leggate.
Rob NashLast week we asked: Is Keir Starmer doing a good job as
leader of the opposition?From a poll of 17,570 Times and Sunday Times readers
This week’s question:
Do you need to be in the office to do a good job?
Have your say at sundaytimes.co.uk/pollNO
54% 46%YES
2006 assassination of
Alexander Litvinenko. This
shocking act on British soil
went virtually unanswered.
No wonder Putin thought we
were a toothless old lion.
Rodney Pinder, London SE24
Party lines
I hope your excellent leading
article “Asleep on the job for
years, the West must stay
alert over Putin” (Comment,
last week) serves as a wake-up
call. I am incensed that soBoris Johnson was shameful.
It invites comparisons to
Neville Chamberlain. But at
least Chamberlain never (as
far as one knows) accepted
donations from Nazi-
supporting German tycoons.
John Kidd
Queensland, Australia
Trail goes back years
Your otherwise excellent
review of Russia’s outrages
committed while Britain slept
did not extend back to theSadness is not an illness
A good article by Faulks. As a
psychiatric nurse, I would
add three observations.
ECT, however barbaric it
sounds, works and can save
lives. Overdiagnosis has
become an enormous issue,
often conflating unhappiness
and distress with illness. And
I believe that in future we will
look back on the present
obsession with trans issues,
in particular medical and
surgical intervention in young
people, with similar feelings
to the way we now view the
widespread use of lobotomy.
Eric Redmond
Melbourne, Australiawidely, rates of distress rise
with the number of drug
prescriptions issued — surely
the opposite of what we
would expect if those drugs
corrected the “chemical
imbalances” that cause the
problems, as is claimed.
Fortunately, some effective
emerging approaches such as
trauma-informed models do
take account of relationships
and social context. But unless
psychiatry as a whole is
prepared to abandon the
failed “disease” paradigm, its
future will be as shameful as
its past.
Lucy Johnstone, consultant
clinical psychologist, Bristol
Complaints concerning
inaccuracies in all sections of
The Sunday Times should be
addressed to complaints@
sunday-times.co.uk or
Complaints, The Sunday
Times, 1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF. In addition,
the Independent Press
Standards Organisation
(Ipso) will examine formal
complaints about editorial
content in UK newspapers
and magazines. Please go to
our website for full details of
how to lodge a complaint.Managed moors
teem with life
Rod Liddle lets a story get in
the way of the facts when
writing about grouse moors
(Comment, last week). Rather
than being a “desolate
moonscape”, they are the last
refuge of some of our most
endangered wildlife. Our
peer-reviewed studies haveThe Sunday Times,
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
Email: letters@
sunday-times.co.ukmany in parliament are
obsessed by minor
indiscretions involving wine
and cake, while Vladimir
Putin causes chaos, death
and destruction and tells
nothing but lies about it.
Johnson will stand firm
against Putin’s genocidal
war in Ukraine and his
ambition to extend Russian
influence. Surely that is the
headline act. Partygate can
wait in the wings.
Mike Haigh, YorkAgeless wisdom
Each Sunday, week in, week
out, I skip to Rod’s and
Jeremy’s columns in my
Sunday Times — not just to
read their sage comments but
to see whether, like the rest of
us, they’ve aged in the
previous seven days.
Miraculously, their mugshots
tell me they haven’t. In fact,
neither has aged in many
years. They seem to have
mastered the secret of eternal
youth. Maybe they could have
it bottled and sold in Jeremy’s
farm shop so the rest of us
could benefit from it.
George Taylor
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Sweet and sexless
You report on gummies to
boost libido (News, last
week). Are there also
gummies to suppress it? I find
I have become much happier
since losing mine.
Jeremy Walker, London WC1
Friend with benefits
I am hooked on Anatomy of a
Scandal but I acknowledge its
deficiencies and would go
along with some of Camilla
Long’s comments about the
series (Comment, last week).
However, I must take her up
on one point: Rupert Friend,
unshaggable? Really?
Jan Weller, Shenfield, Essex
Illegal entry
Writing of cross-Channel
migrants, Vaughan Thomas
asks, “Since when have we
punished the victims of
crime?” (Letters, last week). I
would ask him: since when
has it not been a crime to
enter a country illegally?
Bill Moores
Stoke-sub-Hamdon, SomersetOffender gender
Your report “Three cabinet
ministers face sexual
misconduct claims” (News,
last week) makes disturbing
reading. However, nowhere
in the piece did it make clear
whether all the MPs under
investigation were male. Is
this a given?
Susan Hamlyn, London W5
Turn left for heaven
Further to your
correspondence on last
words (Letters, last week), on
my final visit to my father
(who was then barely
conscious), my mother asked
me which way I intended to
drive home from Leicester to
Derbyshire. I told her, and as
I did so, my father roused
himself sufficiently to tell me
that I’d be going the wrong
way — thus, with his final
words to me, encapsulating
our entire relationship.
David Simons
Bakewell, Derbyshire
Harry’s real life
Laura Pullman reports that,
in his memoir to be released
in September, Prince Harry
has promised to give an
“accurate and wholly
truthful” account of his life
(“My mad holiday in Harry
and Meghan’s home town”,
News Review, last week). Am
I being old-fashioned or is
that not the minimum
requirement for any
autobiography?
Adrian Brodkin, London N2Appeasers in
Downing Street
Your Insight investigation of
the refusal by the past three
prime ministers to arm
Ukraine (News, last week)
was uncomfortable reading
for one who grew up in
England as an enthusiastic
Conservative Party member.
The appeasement of
Putin’s Russia by David
Cameron, Theresa May andBoring Starmer is
just what we need
Robert Colvile says, “The ace
up Starmer’s sleeve is
something the Tories can’t
match: boring predictability”
(Comment, last week). Yes,
he’s dull. He doesn’t dress up
in a yellow jacket very often,
doesn’t drive JCBs, doesn’t
promise something he can’t
deliver, knows how many
children he has and looks as
though he might put the
interests of the country ahead
of his own. In other words,
Keir Starmer is a decent,
honest, hard-working man.
I used to vote for a One
Nation Conservative Party. I
cannot vote Conservative
while the present chancer is
lying to the country. Good on
you, Starmer. Bore on.
Chris Braithwaite, Blackburn
Last party standing
This flawed, decent dullard
seems to be inching towards
credibility, as does his
drearily underperforming
party. One feels this is more
due to Tory nastiness and
ineptitude than any intrinsic
merits. At the next election
we will probably have to hold
our noses and vote Labour —
if only because Toryism is in
terminal decline.
Stephen Chappell, Malvern
Woman problem
You cannot win when you
have alienated 50 per cent of
the population by refusing to
admit they exist. How can
women vote for Labour when
it fails to support their rights?
Caroline Attwood
Welshpool, Powys
Spendthrift tendency
I had a conversation on the
doorstep with local councilcandidates this afternoon. I
told them that until Starmer
can define what a woman is,
he and his party will never get
my vote, though it has been
given in the past. I am a
woman, not a cervix-haver or
a birthing parent.
I used to live in frugal
Wandsworth and now I live in
Merton. The Labour-
controlled council here
seems to think locals have
endless sources of wealth for
it to waste.
J Wilkinson, Morden, London
Ready to rule
Colvile made some cogent
points but I dispute that
“name recognition for the
shadow cabinet is abysmal”.
Any front bench that includes
Yvette Cooper has something
going for it, especially given
her trenchant performances
against Priti Patel; and the
rest at least don’t resemble
the homogeneous cabinet
côterie of this government.
Starmer’s leadership gives
his MPs this advantage:
unlike their opponents, they
are not constantly being
placed in the desperate
position of firefighting on
behalf of their boss. If that is
predictable, bring it on.
Judith Daniels
Great Yarmouth
Man in the middle
After the 1983 election it took
Labour 11 years to fully shake
off the far left’s control.
Starmer has done it in two.
He’s not a political superstar
but he’s honest, competent
and dedicated, none of which
I can say about Boris Johnson.
Matthew Dean
Prestwich, Greater ManchesterForced off road
by DVLA fiasco
As your report suggests, the
chaos at the DVLA is appalling
(News, last week). I applied to
renew my HGV licence in
August, in time for its expiry
in September (I have to renew
each year on medical
grounds). The DVLA has not
processed the application.
I have since been sent a
letter asking me to consider
returning to driving to ease
the HGV driver shortage.
David Fountain, StamfordLimited appeal
I received my medical
renewal from the DVLA this
week — after 15 months of
waiting. In the end my MP got
things moving.
The DVLA sent me a letter
the very next day outlining
how I could appeal against
being given only a five-year
licence. Even if I wanted to, I
don’t think I could face it.
Kathryn Moody
Brackley, Northamptonshire
Asleep at the wheel
The unanswerable question
is why the dysfunctionalDVLA’s chief executive, Julie
Lennard, is still in post. The
exposure of scandalous
dereliction of duty,
systematic skiving and even
paid absenteeism among the
staff should surely by now
have resulted, at the very
least, in her suspension
pending an investigation.
Nigel Henson, Cheltenham
Complaints waste time
I became increasingly cross
while reading your article.
You report that John Lawless
phoned the DVLA 230 times,
which would have taken up
several hours of the DVLA’s
time. If he had not done this,
maybe the DVLA could have
spent those hours on
processing applications.
I am a GP and constantly
have to deal with pointless
phone complaints, explaining
to people that they are in the
queue and must await their
turn. If our working hours
weren’t continually
interrupted by these
pointless phone complaints,
we’d be able to get things
done quicker.
Elizabeth Peel, BuckinghamDVLA chaos is exacerbating the shortage of lorry drivers1707 Great Britain created
by Acts of Union
1851 Great Exhibition opens
in Hyde Park, London
1994 F1 star Ayrton Senna
dies in a crash during San
Marino Grand Prix, Italy
2011 Al-Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden shot dead
by US Navy SealsJamie Dornan is 40 todayLETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
ANNIVERSARIES
Letters should arrive by
midday on Thursday and
include the full address and a
phone number. We may edit
letters, which must be
exclusive to The Sunday TimesBIRTHDAYS POINTS
Wes Anderson, director, 53
Judy Collins, singer, 83
Rita Coolidge, singer, 77
Jamie Dornan, actor, 40
Sir Gordon Greenidge,
cricketer, 71
Dame Joanna Lumley,
actress, 76
Antony Worrall Thompson,
chef, 71CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS
Lives harmed by
failed psychiatry
Sebastian Faulks provides a
damning description of
psychiatric practice in his
book review (Culture, last
week). I can endorse the
picture of a lack of progress,
interspersed with brutal
harms.
Electroconvulsive therapy
(ECT) is still used on about
2,500 people a year in
England, a third of whom are
unconsenting: more than 100
victims are planning legal
action on the basis of long-
term brain damage. MoreWe listen
As a psychiatrist with nearly
30 years’ experience, I take
exception to Faulks’s phrase
“the majority of those drawn
to its treatment have been
morally or scientifically
bankrupt”. My colleagues
have a capacity for
compassion and empathy
that far exceeds the average.
How many people would
choose to sit day after day
with people long since
discarded by their families,
the community and the state
who are going through
extreme human suffering?
Dr Emma Went
Forensic psychiatrist, NorwichWe said the investor coalition
Climate Action 100+ was
planning to vote on motions
at the annual general meeting
of the building supplies firm
CRH (Business, last week). In
fact it had flagged the
motions for its members to
consider voting on. Climate
Action 100+ does not take a
formal position on
shareholder voting.shown that management on
these moors benefits a range
of rare species including
mountain hares (35 times
more abundant on ground
managed for grouse), lapwing
and golden plover (whose
numbers were shown to drop
by 81 per cent when grouse
management was stopped).
Joe Dimbleby, Game and
Wildlife Conservation Trust
Fordingbridge, HampshireGETTY IMAGES