What is local government really worth?

摘要

Local government does love a bit of comparing calamities and poverty one-upmanship. Back in the early days of austerity, council chiefs could be found hanging around conferences, wafting their social care 'graphs of doom' aloft, decrying their financial fate and jangling the keys to their budget hotel as a badge of austerity honour. Every authority has its own tale to tell of cuts and crises - each as compelling as the next.