This year's LGA conference had less beating up of local government by the centre. Just as well. Ipsos MORI's regular survey of trust in different professions has some salutary findings this year. More people trust local councillors (31%) than Cabinet ministers (17%), and despite truly awful press, more people still think social workers are honest (60%).

But local government is different from other sectors. Elsewhere, the managers and professionals running services are almost always rated ahead of elected politicians. Not so in local government.