In May 2015, Blackpool and Wigan Athletic hit rock bottom. Premiership clubs until recently, both experienced traumatic seasons complete with pitch invasions, abandoned games, and - all too often - hard-to-swallow defeats. Their Chairmen received F.A. bans for racist remarks and defamatory texts, whilst managers were hired and fired. Descent from the Championship to Division One was inevitable.

How does a club come back from such dire fortunes and could the 2015-16 season mark a new chapter? Would one, or both, clubs bounce back into the Championship at the first time of asking, or...

English local government is in a state of decline after forty years of incremental but cumulative centralisation by central government.

This book is the first to directly address this trend's impact on the institution of local government, a crucial element in the democratic viability of a unitary state. The process of centralisation, and its corrosive impact on the status and responsibilities of local government, have been widely recognised and deplored among politicians and senior officers within local government, and by academics with an interest in this field. However, there has...

English local government is in a state of decline after forty years of incremental but cumulative centralisation by central government.

This book is the first to directly address this trend's impact on the institution of local government, a crucial element in the democratic viability of a unitary state. The process of centralisation, and its corrosive impact on the status and responsibilities of local government, have been widely recognised and deplored among politicians and senior officers within local government, and by academics with an interest in this field. However, there has...