Recent debates about the Thatcher government's legacy for local government prompted me to look out a pamphlet I wrote when I was deputy secretary at the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, published 25 years ago.

Titled Local Democracy at the Crossroads, it examined the constitutional implications for local government and the impact of the avalanche in legislation on democracy before Parliament in 1988. These included bills to introduce the poll tax, CCT (compulsory competitive tendering), local management of schools, Housing Action Trusts and other changes in local government finance, education and housing and Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.