I must admit, I don’t mark the start of local-elections season with much fanfare at home – who does? And yet, I was momentarily pulled up by a leaflet I received through the door this week, reminding me that the elections were actually a real thing and not just another Westminster event. The leaflet was an official campaign booklet of sorts, containing the election promises of my area’s candidates. As I spread it out on the kitchen sideboard, what struck me was just how pedestrian the Labour and the Conservative pitches seemed compared to those offered by the Greens and Reform. Where the Tories promised to reconsider low-traffic neighbourhoods, Reform promised to end the “war on drivers”. Where Labour promised gradualism, the Greens declared themselves “tired of the establishment protecting billionaires while our rivers fill up with sewage”. Does any of this matter? My bit of London is effectively a one-party state, as most of the council seats are held by Labour. But how long will this hold?…