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To residents outside Devon, Suffolk and Norfolk the subject of local government reorganisation is considerably less interesting than watching paint dry. Yet the events of the past week have put into sharp relief the raging political background that now engulfs the Whitehall decision-making process. The long-running saga of whether there should be unitaries in the three counties ought to have been settled months ago, preferably when the other unitaries were created. Delaying a decision, asking for more consultation, then facing the inevitable judicial reviews and opposition from the Tories was bound, as the election loomed, to make the process even more politically-charged. Indeed, it has now become a battle of wills between opposition parties, with mandarins trying to keep their heads down. Some weeks ago, shadow local government minister, Bob Neill, told me that ministers were ‘placing civil servants in an invidious position' by ‘railroading' through unitary plans so close to an election. Since they were controversial, and his party was pledged to scrap them, ministers should have dropped them, he maintained. His argument appeared to be supported last week, when leaked correspondence between CLG permanent secretary, Peter Housden, and John Denham showed the former expressing concern about the value-for-money case for unitary Norwich and Exeter. Being seen to be sceptical about the decision will do Mr Housden no harm, should Mr Neill and his colleagues win the election. Yet there is also a strong argument for saying that an outgoing government, especially one facing the likelihood of defeat at the polls, should use its last few months in power to complete as much of its agenda as is practical. The criticism more often levelled at many current ministers is that of paralysis, of inertia, of giving up, a similar criticism made against Tory ministers in the last days of John Major's Government. If Labour ministers believe there is a strong unitary case for Norwich and Exeter, and indeed there are plenty of powerful arguments for a unitary system across the board, then they entitled to pursue their case to the end. Their mandate after all only ends when the next election is called. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ

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WHITEHALL

New plotlines in the unitary show

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