I will not be the only MJ reader who thinks the General Election makes the prospect of local government reorganisation more likely within the term of the new Parliament.  There were guarded allusions to ‘unitarisation' under the previous Government but I tended to regard these as a tacit warning to local government not to push complaints about austerity too far.  Think Northamptonshire.  I suspect the mood may now be different. 

Getting Brexit done in some fashion is clearly the Government's overriding priority, although I lean towards the view that the 31^st January may be the end of the beginning for Brexit, but it is almost certainly not the beginning of the end however apocalyptic it might feel.  I would also be surprised if the somewhat moribund boundary review of Parliamentary constituencies does not follow soon thereafter, as the electoral attraction for the Government will likely prove impossible to resist.