As West Midlands goes, so goes . . . .

The local British elections, long scheduled for May 4, were expected to be a bellwether of opinion looking ahead to a general election in 2020. But now that Prime Minister Theresa May has called an election for June 8, the May results are of greater import — and the one with the greatest import, for Britain and perhaps beyond, was the mayoral election for the new West Midlands constituency.

About one-third of its population is in the city of Birmingham, with its large Muslim population but also some comfortable upper middle class precincts. To the east, with about one-fifth of the population, is the factory town of Coventry and its bombed out (in World War II) cathedral and the intervening suburb of Solihull.