Whoever you vote for, the government always gets in.

Sadly either at national level or local level - the same officials will always be in place whoever gets voted in. And will stay in place even when they fail to reply to an MP's letter for 6 months!

In the case of legislation that gets passed to local government to administer - like the Licensing Act 2003 - the public is in the worst of both worlds. When it does not work, neither will accept responsibility but the blame will just pass backwards and forwards for ever.

The classic is the one about ministers not being able to comment on the actions of individual local authorities. Where local authorities will state in return that they are only following central government's guidance - even when they are not.