In village politics, as elsewhere, what matters is not agreement but conflict | Simon Jenkins

The debate is raw, people participate and outcomes matter. Even if localism fans a fierce rural social protectionism, I like it

Sometimes I need a philosopher. I recently attended a community meeting for a group of Cumbrian villages outside Penrith. They were preparing uncertainly to pilot the government's new "localism agenda", and I wondered what they wanted from it. The cry was unanimous: they wanted protection from market forces. Above all, they wanted the right to social housing for...