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Local and Regional Government

: I am sure that the Minister will take on board that plea on behalf of the area that the hon. Gentleman represents. Many of the proposals and the spatial strategies emanating from those bodies are particularly ghastly documents, and those local authorities that wish to engage with them find it extremely difficult to do so. There is very strong objection to the way in which such documents have been drawn up and about the fact that they fail properly to reflect some of the strategies and intentions of the local authorities with which such bodies are engaging. Having said all that, it is rather sweet of the Government to respond as they do whenever I raise the issue of the Cornish dimension to devolution. Despite the fact that a large number of people aspire—I would argue that it is the settled will of Cornwall—to modest powers devolved to a regional assembly that covers the local authorities of Cornwall and of the Isles of Scilly, the Government take the view that they know better than the people of Cornwall how to run their affairs. It is extremely kind of them, but we could do without that level of intervention.