It is now clear that if devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) are two nags at Aintree, the former has now overtaken the latter and is heading swiftly towards the finishing line. Will LGR be sent to the knackers' yard or stabled ready for another, perhaps less gruelling race – say, Bangor?
Quite simply, LGR has been put to one side because it is too difficult, complex, rife with legal threats and a turn off to voters. A flick through the back issues of The MJ could have told ministers that. The Tories dumped the 1960s Redcliffe Maud proposals and kept the two-tier system in 1974. Then in the 1990s they launched a hugely divisive consultation into creating a unitary structure that had counties and districts at hammer and tongs for years.
