One of the key lessons from the General Election for anyone involved in local democracy has to be the ease with which a group-thinking echo-chamber meant that pundits, pollsters and politicians alike misread the real intentions of the electorate based on crude assumptions about voters.

Sadly, too many had their eyes glued to the polls and Twitter rather than having a real-life feel for the mood of the nation, let alone locality. It was striking that in the only appearance of voters in the leaders’ debates on TV, the Leeds audience’s piercing cross-examination during Question Time led to gasps of ‘who are these people?’ from observers. Goodness, an articulate, well-informed public! Who knew?

On a visit to my home town last week (solidly Labour, working class, Northern), a number of people confided to me that they were rather pleased at the election result.