Meat on the bone The White Paper takes a long time to make a few, admittedly important, points. It's like one of those Victorian novels which had to fill three volumes and therefore tended to be hugely verbose. So, we have not just the 171-page Volume One, but also a 59-page Volume Two, and then an addendum in the form of the quaintly-titled Invitations to councils in England – invitation to bid for unitary status, that is. However, once the reader can overcome the acres of jargon, platitudes and government buzzwords, there are some quite substantial proposals. The whole unitary issue, for example, which at one point looked dead, is now quite definitely back on the agenda. Furthermore, the WP makes it clear that even in those areas where unitaries do not get the go-ahead, there will be ‘virtual unitaries' through back-office mergers, which links in directly to the efficiency agenda. Parishes, too, now have a bigger place at the table. At one point, it looked as though they might be superseded by the neighbourhoods. Instead, ministers appear to have watered down the latter in favour of enhancing the devil they know. Councils will be encouraged to create more parishes and no longer require government permission. London, more controversially in the light of fears about extremists taking control, will be allowed parishes. And quality parishes will have a power of wellbeing. On governance, the WP treads carefully. It could have imposed all-out elections and single-member wards but ministers have been faithful to their mantra that one size does not necessarily fit all.The WP is more fanciful in believing that removing the need for referendums will allow a new wave of elected mayors. But its insistence on three alternatives of leadership could have a big impact, although it fails to address the question, ‘How do you get rid of a directly-elected mayor?' The city regions chapter is long on background and short on hard proposals, but then it was fought over furiously by the Blairites and the Brownies. The discussions continue and no-one has made up their mind seems to be the sub text. References to sub regions may cause some fluttering in the dovecots at county halls. But, overall, the WP has not turned out to be quite the damp squib at first feared.
