Prestidigitation. Legerdemain. Sleight of hand. Distraction techniques the magic trade uses to draw your eye away from what is really going on. But such misdirection is not confined to the magic circle.

They are a tactic used by the powerful to divert attention from what they are really working on.

From ‘burying’ bad news when a significant other story is in play, to the Machiavellian use of an Olympics or world cup, or a jubilee, or even a well-timed military campaign - all have been used to distract the public from matters of greater import.

And so we turn to the eye-catching baubles of devolution. The hand-me-downs of power and seemingly significant funding from central government is portrayed as a watershed moment for local government.

Countless pages in the trade and national press are taken up analysing the coalitions of authorities seeking deals (not to mention those in conflict), the devolutionary credentials of new ministerial teams and the details of the deals being agreed.

But is that what is really going on?

Well firstly, the deals themselves - while a small step forward - are more delegation than devolution. And while a billion-pound infrastructure fund sounds like a lot of money, over 30 years that produces less per annum than the cost of a decent road junction and pales into insignificance compared with the revenue cuts that continue to be inflicted.

And what is the magician’s other hand doing in the meantime? The transfer of education functions from local government to DfE, and the rise of academies and free schools; the increase in right-to-buy discounts, and the sale of higher value council houses, herald the end of council-provided social housing; the incorporation of housing benefit administration into Universal Credit; the move of children’s services into arm’s-length trusts; the centralisation of land charges; the localism agenda; the mutualisation agenda; and LEPs, all constitute the transfer of activities out of council control, and away from direct democratic oversight.

To be clear – I am wholly in favour of devolution (though not necessarily elected mayors).

But on the one hand, we must work to make devolution real and substantive. And on the other, we must not allow ourselves to be distracted from the damaging dismantling of council services.

If only as many words were directed at this as to devolution, we could let light in on the magic going on up the magician’s sleeve.

Abdool Kara is chief executive of Swale BC