This is a talking point published in the Hereford Times on November 21.

Matthew Engel on behalf of Independents for Herefordshire

HEREFORDSHIRE Council by-elections do not attract much attention in the media at the best of times, let alone in the week of the US presidential election.

Nevertheless, on November 7 Rebecca Tully won the county ward seat of Bishops Frome and Cradley, with a much higher percentage of votes cast than did Trump.

Rebecca’s result continued the pattern seen in all three county by-elections since May 2023.

All have been have won by progressive candidates closely connected to their community: Charlie Taylor in Credenhill, Matthew Engel in Golden Valley South, both Independents, and now Rebecca for the Green Party.

The successful candidates knew their patch and were intelligent, credible, committed and competent.

The Liberal Democrats– who would like to style themselves the main opposition in Herefordshire, and Labour both big winners in the recent general election, have only managed to secure an average of 26 votes for their candidates.

Whilst in the city, three quarters of the Liberal Democrat councillors actually haven’t been voted in by anyone.

Tip O’Neill, a wise American politician, once said “All politics is local”. That’s true in the US where power really is exercised within communities. It’s not like that here. Local authorities have been castrated by centralisation and hobbled by austerity.

Now the Labour government is pushing hard its urban-centric devolution agenda. Initial plans suggest they want to centralise regional decision-making and investment – perhaps through a “Mayor of the Marches” who will make it simple for Westminster to pull political and policy strings and ration out funding as reward for ‘good’ behaviour.

Almost certainly this powerful individual would be based in Shropshire or Worcestershire, meaning a return to the grim days of “Hereford and Worcester”.

Local people keep demonstrating through their voting choices that they don’t believe the national parties can be trusted to look after our interests, and a small county like ours is bound to lose out to bigger fish in the devolution pool. Take a tip from Tip – let’s keep it local.