These are difficult times for anyone who wants to see government policy engage with the issues that matter and to make a positive impact. We have rarely seen anything like the policy limbo we are all in at present. As we have emerged from the Whitsun recess, Parliament is still virtually empty of substantial business to argue about or vote on outside of Brexit. We look very unlikely to have a proper three-year, strategic Spending Review in the autumn as promised, as the uncertainty about where our economy will be heading is just too large for this to make sense. The European elections could have clarified what to do about Brexit but instead revealed, once again, that the country is pretty much split down the middle. The question, ‘when will normal service be resumed?' is impossible to answer.

Some might say that fewer new requirements on local authorities is not necessarily a bad thing. But there are many things wrong with our country and with no capacity to act on them, we can surely only go backwards.