Last year the Labour Party won the general election in a landslide that was a mile wide but only an inch deep. That vote, which gave Labour a commanding majority on a vote share of 34 percent, reduced the Conservative Party to a rump of just 121 seats and, for the first time ever, elected five lawmakers from the far-right anti-immigration Reform U.K. party. Local elections on Thursday are an opportunity for voters to register their discontent, and Reform U.K., which is standing candidates in almost every contest, is polling ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives. A few weeks ago I took a train from Cornwall, where I live, to the Midlands, to attend the launch of the Reform U.K. local election campaign in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city. “Rats ‘bigger than cats’ are roaming Britain’s second-biggest city,” CNN reported.
