The nearest local government has to Kremlinology – the study of apparently trivial but actually, very meaningful changes of terminology – is guidance on local government reorganisation. Followers of this version of Kremlinology, currently heavy on the ground in Devon, Norfolk and Suffolk, study these circulars with all the enthusiasm of mediaeval monks examining parchments from the Venerable Bede. The latest guidance, not in the name of Venerable Bede but the Venerable Blears, is directed at the Boundary Committee, which was supposed to be just weeks from delivering its final report on the three counties to said Ms Blears. She – or at least her officials – has asked the committee to go back and have another think, and given it another six weeks to cogitate. And, in an accompanying document Guidance from the secretary of state to the Boundary Committee, otherwise full of the usual legalese, certain key words and phrases leap from the page. One is ‘it is not clear' which is Whitehall-speak for ‘you haven't done what we asked you to do'. Another is ‘it would be helpful' which is jargon for ‘do it now.' Yet another is a request ‘to provide additional guidance', which means ‘now do what we asked you to do in the first place.' The issue is whether or not the committee has sufficiently looked at the unitary bids in the three counties, and judged their affordability and popular support ‘in aggregate.' If not, then the argument for two unitaries may be stronger than the single ones currently proposed by the committee in Devon and Norfolk. Quite why this should be pointed out so late in the day is a puzzle, but then in Whitehall, time moves in a mysterious manner. This, of course, potentially throws a spanner in the works, especially if the Boundary Committee decides, after all, that it ought to revisit its earlier proposals. It could well delay the timetable, and if the plans then miss the parliamentary deadline next summer and get caught up in the election, they could be shelved altogether. If the blight is to be lifted from the three counties, ministers must make their decisions quickly. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ
