Suppose that you heard that the next election has been cancelled by the government. How would you react to that news? Quite probably with disbelief and the suspicion that it was fake news. Very likely with outrage. And maybe also with a frisson of fear. Possibly a mix of all three. After all, a thing like that isn’t supposed to happen in a settled democracy like ours, is it?
Except that this week it really did happen. It was even announced in parliament. It took place when Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and communities secretary, decreed that nine English local authorities, where council elections had been due to take place as usual this year on the time-honoured first Thursday in May, would not now go to the polls after all.
