FOR one tier of government in Scotland it really is ‘get on with the day job’. Overshadowed by the constitutional question and contaminated by the looming Westminster poll, the fallout from the local elections has been a blast.

Staid regimes have been toppled, edicts on political deals issued and ignored, entire council groups suspended and splitting, and coups from the opposition benches are already in motion. Town hall politics, normally driven by esoteric concepts like ‘best value’ and ‘service reform’ has become sexy. For now.

Hovering in the background the same austerity agenda and financial pressures, demands on cherished public services and concerns about the general state of our towns and neighbourhoods remain.

But while the context hasn’t changed, the election results and complexion of new regimes will alter how local politics is done.

Glasgow, as is often the case, crystallises much of this. The SNP took control of the city for the first time on May 5. Since then the new leadership has barely had time to come up for air. This week, leader Susan Aitken’s in-tray has had a mega-millions equal pay case go against the authority (triggering a costly manifesto pledge to immediately fulfil) and notification the council is being sued by a global services giant over a decision taken by her Labour predecessors.

Ms Aitken, as head of an organisation which is a first responder in a major incident, also had the ramifications of the Manchester bomb attack and the heightened terror threat levels to content with. Meanwhile, internally her new ‘city government’ will have to do things differently. Unlike any time in recent decades a minority administration is in charge and Glasgow is lead by negotiation. Rivals require persuading to push things through and it won’t always go the SNP’s way. This is very different politics for the city (and one where the tribal instincts and conduct of the odd backbencher needs to be brought into check).

In other authorities the end of majority rule and the changing of the guard has seen political groups haemorrhage members in bouts of bad blood or wilt under the heat of the General Election. And it remains to be seen whether the flood of rookies in places like the Lanarkshires brings a freshness to the local landscape or years of cack-handed inexperience.

But where power has shifted between the SNP and Labour, council civil servants will expect a continuation of civic left-of-centrism. No key approaches to economic growth or tackling inequalities will be torn up. Issues will be decided on a case by case. Consensus and compromise could be king.

There is however a heightened political fragility. And the hesitancy and paralysis caused by June 8 won’t last forever. The biggest story of the local elections has been the newly enlarged and emboldened Tory groups, some of whom hold the power balance in the most unlikely of authorities. Having found profile and glory on anti-SNP/second referendum ticket, we may not have to wait long to see if they operate as the municipal wing of Scotland In Union, or, to use their own phrase, get on with the day job.