The excitement of drawing boundary lines in maps of our country to fit devolutionary whims is seemingly as irresistible to armchair commentators as it is to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) mandarins and ministers alike. One is reminded of the lines from the W H Auden poem Partition, written in the aftermath of Indian independence. ‘Time,' they had briefed him in London, ‘is short. It's too late/For mutual reconciliation or rational debate.'

Now that we have a grasp of the areas prepared to submit ‘credible proposals' (only awaiting the small matter of official government criteria to submit against), one has to hope there will be an adequate passage of time to bring rational debate, if not understanding, to bear on the redrawn map of local authorities and plans for strategic growth deals.