Most elections, local or national, act as a wake-up call to government, causing a policy change, a ‘refresh’ or a Cabinet reshuffle. This month’s local elections, like the forthcoming European polls, reveal little other than voters’ disgust at the paralysis in Westminster.

They can hardly be interpreted as a call for a change in policy because the Government has no policies, especially in the one area which was supposed to define Theresa May’s surprise election as party leader in 2016: it was when she promised to curb the excesses of capitalism and help the so-called ‘left behind’ who had voted for Brexit after almost a decade of stagnant or falling living standards.