I understand that for readers of The MJ, local council elections are always interesting. But believe me, for millions of others they are just a tad dull. So what happened on 4 May was extraordinary because it meant that, for once, everyone was talking local politics. Suddenly we were all poring over the national significance of votes for mayors, wards, unitary authorities.

One of the big breakthroughs of the EU referendum was that millions of people – defying official advice – got a taste of what it means for their vote to really count, of what it feels like to be active agents in shaking up the status quo.