Europe not an issue in the UK elections

...but it should have been

When British voters went to the polls on May 5 to elect their local authority representatives, it was the first time in years that Europe was not on the ballot.

It was the first time in at least a decade that Europe — its ills and attractions; the perils of staying in or leaving — was not be a significant factor in the choices made by British voters.

As many have noted, this is ironic.

Europe should have been on the ballot (at least in terms of what Boris Johnson and his governing Tories have done in relation to it).

For, Britain is now faced with the obvious economic consequences of a hard Brexit. Not only are small businesses unable to trade with Europe (and even large ones such as M&S have had to reduce their European footprint and ambitions), there are long queues of lorries at Dover.

Continental trade has become a fraught and rather distant aspiration.

That said, this local election day had a strange twinning. It was also the 73rd anniversary of the creation of the Council of Europe t…