British democracy is dead, at least in its present form. I don't say this because a rightwing party made a little headway in council elections, but because a democracy in which most people neither participate directly in government nor vote for a representative to participate on their behalf is self-evidently not a democracy.

The route to electoral success Ukip used was to paint the picture of imaginary or exaggerated problems and depict themselves as the only party to fix them. The EU drains the country of £53m a day, said their manifesto. Throwing around huge figures without any context is a guaranteed way to rally the irate. The fact is that it is not £53m a day.

Labour's Joe Anderson has become Liverpool's first elected mayor. The councillor, who has until now been leader of Liverpool City Council, won the ...

A Labour candidate in the local elections has apologised for sending a tweet about the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. Janette Williamson, who is s...