Postscript - Does Damscheid need a Mayor?

As one correspondent from continental Europe has pointed out, the debate across Europe about centralised and decentralised state models is coloured by the recent European experience of dictatorship. The Federal structure bequeathed to West Germany by the Allies as part of post-war democratic reconstruction was influenced by the experience of the Nazi period.

The lessons from history look rather different in the UK - historically, the civil war following the death of Henry 1st is contrasted by stronger royal authority of the reign of Henry 2nd (in spite of the size of his domain, which included half of modern day France) and that of Wars of the Roses in the 15th century - weak monarchy, strong barons - with that of the subsequent Tudor monarchy. And the Union of Crowns in 1603, when James 6th of Scotland became also James 1st of England ended more than 600 years of Anglo-Scottish conflict (apart from the two brief Stuart attempts to recover the throne in the 18th century).