One of the features of contemporary politics is the speed with which things move. My last column for The MJ came out on local election day. Since then, we have seen local elections in which the Conservatives lost over 1,000 seats; European elections in which the largest vote share was won by a party that barely existed when that column came out, and the Prime Minister announced her resignation, triggering a Conservative leadership race. So, a quiet month...

Amidst all the drama and uncertainty it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. What is signal and what is noise? When we think about local government's place in all this, is it complete chaos or do there remain some basic laws of political physics that can guide us?