Council elections are, or should be, about issues the council can do something about. National issues where the council has to implement whatever government has decided are relevant in so far as the candidates have to explain how they are going to implement things. National issues as such, where however much the council may support or oppose the government's policies, it can do nothing to change them, are not relevant at all.
Party politics are completely irrelevant. I would much rather all candidates were independents. That would not guarantee a sensible council, but it would get rid of the silly arguments and spurious disagreements which plague councils. Sadly, all too many towns and boroughs resemble all too closely Eatanswill as described in The Pickwick Papers.
"It appears, then, that the Eatanswill people, like the people of many
other small towns, considered themselves of the utmost and most mighty
importance, and that every man in Eatanswill, conscious of the weight
that attached to his example, felt himself bound to unite, heart and
soul, with one of the two great parties that divided the town--the Blues
and the Buffs. Now the Blues lost no opportunity of opposing the
Buffs, and the Buffs lost no opportunity of opposing the Blues; and
the consequence was, that whenever the Buffs and Blues met together
at public meeting, town-hall, fair, or market, disputes and high words
arose between them. With these dissensions it is almost superfluous
to say that everything in Eatanswill was made a party question. If the
Buffs proposed to new skylight the market-place, the Blues got up
public meetings, and denounced the proceeding; if the Blues proposed the
erection of an additional pump in the High Street, the Buffs rose as
one man and stood aghast at the enormity."
