Cheshire (Structural Changes) Order 2008

My Lords, if we have listened to a classic tale of how things should not be done, then this is it. When I was in local government, we used to have an apocryphal tale of how Governments came to conclusions on anything. It ran along the lines that a problem was perceived, which was soon identified across the department. Eventually, some bright little clerk at about the fourth tier would say, ““Well, my gosh, this is a solution””. He would talk to his superior, who would say, ““Yes, by gosh, that might work. That’s a solution””. And he would talk to his superior, who would talk to the Permanent Secretary, who would talk to the Minister. And that was that. Of course, I am sure that that is not what is happening here. What we have been talking about, tragically, is process. This is the end of the process. I hope that, when we get to the end, the noble Baroness will say, ““Well, these are non-fatal amendments and, in fact, the order will be implemented””. It seems to me that, whatever we say tonight, that is going to be the reality, which we unfortunately have to recognise. If the Minister is going to say anything else, I shall be very surprised. Other counties or areas are climbing up this greasy pole. The real question is whether the process is sufficient and sufficiently robust. Here, I come to the conclusion that the Government have been at fault, because they have not released sufficient information to the public for them to be persuaded. If one has listened to the whole of this debate, it is clear that, as people increasingly realised the implications of what was being proposed, opposition to those proposals strengthened. That is not unusual, but the problem is that there is no mechanism within the system to allow that opposition to have explanations or, when the opposition is as strong as it is in this case, to change the decision. This decision has not changed one iota, as far as I can see, from the original proposition. The Government will of course say that they invited proposals and they got these proposals. But the problem for the Government is that they then choose the wrong conclusions. The difficulty that they have is that they cannot get off that hook. This is not a happy situation to be in. One report that I saw said that the process corrupts the body politic. That is a highly opinionated report and I would not give it any greater credence than that, but it is written by academics. We should never as a Government allow ourselves to get into a position where that could be an academic view of what was going on in government. It is incredibly damaging to the whole structure—everything that we do and that we stand for as a House of Parliament. This is a mess and nothing we do tonight will change that. We can—and I hope that we will—pass one of these Motions, because that is the only protest that we have and the only possibility that we have to make the Government process more sensitive in the future. I am sorry for Cheshire. I have listened to the story and I am all too familiar with the territory—not with Cheshire as a county, but with what has happened. That die was cast a long time ago and it is a warning to other authorities in the country that they need to look at what has happened to Cheshire. They need to examine what has been said in this debate tonight and then think very carefully about where they really want to go in the future. Counties already involved in this process will have to look at that and take a decision, but I hope that they will be more fortunate than the county of Cheshire.