At next week’s local elections, few will be voting on how their council is run. They will be passing judgment on Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and other national figures. Local democracy no longer thrives in Britain. An opinion poll would be cheaper.

Cut to the humble youth club. I supported a private charity in my old borough of Camden, north London, that was struggling to turn young people, mostly in their teens, away from a life of crime. The local council-run youth club had been forced to close.

The charity’s triumphs are many, and its contributions to the neighbourhood have been little short of sensational. In one year, they include 300 young people guided back to school or college after a suspension, 60 who were found jobs, 205 who completed a mental health programme, 52 gang mediations and 231 knives surrendered. The charity reckons half the people it served were saved from turning to crime.

This is a private venture run from a church and supported by donations and grants. Its service can only be described as utterly essential. It is answering a chronic urban need. Yet these types of services are collapsing. An Institute for Fiscal Studies report last year charted a 30% fall in the number of youth centres in London between 2010 and 2019. A similar Unison survey found that 1,243 council youth clubs in England and Wales closed........

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