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Local and Regional Government

: I am aware of the time, so I hope that those who intervene on me do not mind that as a result of taking interventions I shall speak for rather longer than I had intended. Unless I hear otherwise, I will try shortly to draw my remarks to a close. However, I will try to deal with the questions raised. I will be coming to the question of how these things relate to the apparently leaked memo—I believe that the Minister will say that it was a letter—from the Minister of Communities and Local Government to some of his governmental colleagues. The important issue is the order in which reorganisation takes place, if it is to take place. I am sure that the leak leaves a number of people with the clear sense that merely cynicism lies behind the alleged proposals for local government reorganisation and that they are not part of an intelligent, thought-through policy.