Death of Localism

Peter Hetherington writes on the death of localism for the Guardian here.  In fact, I suspect localism was never more than a slogan for the government, intended to localise blame for their programme of budget cuts on anyone but themselves.  Eric Pickles attempt to micromanage all kinds of local decisions such as frequency of bin collection or the even the exact wording of letters sent by councils to council tenants show his cast of mind.