In this article we pose the above question and recall from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian, the frustration of Reg, leader of the People’s Front of Judea.

He becomes increasingly frustrated by the litany of positive answers from his followers to his question: ‘What have the Romans ever done for us?’ Transpose this scene to modern Britain and ask a random group of citizens the question, ‘What has your council ever done for you?’ I suspect few would say that councils deliver local solutions to local issues with imagination, innovation and enthusiasm, within a system that is directly democratically accountable to local people.