THE results of last week's local council elections should be enough to give most people involved in politics pause for thought.

The trend was clear - the Tories and Labour were being clearly warned that people were becoming increasingly fed up with business-as-usual politics, as exemplified by the protracted and increasingly exasperating wrangling over the vexed question of Brexit.

The exasperation, for many, was less concerned with the actual answer to the question of whether the UK should be in or out of Europe, but more with the grinding tedium of the continuing arguments.

Whatever kind of administration is formed at Malvern Hills District Council over the next few days, its members will do well to remember that the public will not look kindly on the standard-issue political posturing that has been all too prevalent across the country in recent years.

People are in the mood for pragmatism, not for empty virtue-signalling, for getting things done, not for striking concerned postures.

As a look through this week's Malvern Gazette - or that of any other week, for that matter - will indicate, there is plenty of civic life in our communities.

People get together voluntarily to take part in festivals of various sorts, to help their neighbours and others, and to celebrate the good things that happen locally.

None of this needs or warrants the approval or leadership of politicians; people are capable of achieving these things on their own. Politics is not all of life.