Next Monday Norfolk CC will be asked to agree the final stage of a much-mutilated devo-deal. If it does so it will have been cajoled, bullied and blackmailed to take the last step into a deal that four out of its seven districts have already refused and which commands no genuine popular support. I hope that Norfolk will have the courage to finally say NO!

It has not been a happy process, as so many local government leaders will know from their own experiences with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). But it need not have been like this.