On London Extra: Broke boroughs

Let's love local government. Plus Lime bikes, remembering Grenfell and more

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It might be tempting to respond to London Councils warning that boroughs face a £500 million funding gap in the next financial year by glazing over and switching off. After all, it is hardly the first time the body representing the capital's local authorities has protested that its membership is skint. I urge you, though - stay tuned.

Local government matters for lots of reasons. One of them is that it is trusted: not unquestioningly, but much, much more than national government ministers and MPs when it comes to delivering services, making decisions that affect daily lives and the spending of taxpayer cash.

That level of confidence should be treasured and built on, especially with up to a quarter of British voters, at least for now, allowing themselves to believe that Reform UK are something other than a bunch of hopeless nostalgists and shit-stirring opportunists peddling the fiction that if only immigration was slashed all the nation's problems would be solved.