We've recently had a bunch of local elections, and I was reminded of the famous quote of Tip O’Neill, then US House of Representatives Speaker, that “all politics is local."
A good case though can be made for the prosecution that politics is far from being local but rather national even international as we are now in an era of globalisation, where events in countries like China, Russia and the US have have a big impact on our economics and politics.
However, what I think the late O’Neill was getting at was similar to the words Margaret Thatcher said to me soon after being elected MP in 2005 - “keep your eye on your patch."
What makes a leader? Reflections from the Conservative Party Conference
I am writing this article on the way back from the Conservative Party Conference, where most of my time was …