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The clash between local government and the central government of Margaret Thatcher provided one of the most dominating sights of the 1980s political scene. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the relations between two of the most controversial city councils - Liverpool and Glasgow - and central government. Through detailed analysis of the way in which these councils managed fiscal stress the book debunks the widely held belief that local government had been neutered by the relentless march of centralisation. The book employs ideas from beyond political science such as those of urban sociology and geography, with their work on the concepts of community, locality and place. It identifies the crucial role of 'locality' as a factor in influencing local behaviour, calling for a reappraisal of our current theoretical understanding to take this localities effect into account. While the focus of the study is on the two cities, the author provides a fresh insight into the theoretical debate about the role of local government and provides a synthesis of the policy developments which occurred at the national level during the 1980s. The book concludes with a powerful claim that local government does matter for the future of a healthy British polity and provides strong evidence of the resilience of local councils by being able to carve out a discretionary role even through the storm of the Thatcher years.