@hicksy2 @mike @pikesley @jon @Thebratdragon @anon_opin and the right to spend that on providing a public service

(whilst one might be inclined to expect that local councils, bodies elected to provide local services, are allowed to provide services, the reality is …thatcher'd)

@purple @hicksy2 @mike @pikesley @Thebratdragon @anon_opin you all realise parliament can pass laws right? If they really wanted to they could just pass one that says all the bus companies belong to councils now, but everyone is so absorbed in the idea that we can’t upset businesses or The Market we refuse to do anything good.

@Thebratdragon @jon @pikesley @mike @anon_opin @hicksy2 ^ this exactly.

Over the last 40 odd years local authorities have been intentionally, somewhat explicitly, repeatedly undermined to the point they largely can't do ‘anything’.

Even things you wouldn't think of as privatised, like education, have largely been put out of reach of education authorities. Yes really.

(and we wonder why local elections get such little turn out)

But it very much doesn't have to be this way, we can, should, must, return power to our local bodies, and then we might start to get somewhere.