That was pretty strong stuff. The noble Baroness said that she was against the Government, against their motivation and against their policies. The noble Baroness said that she wanted locally chosen delivery of services. The whole point of these provisions is to make unitary authorities get closer to the people so that they can provide better services than previously. The noble Baroness said that central government is assuming rigid powers and that she did not like the cap.
Central government is bound to contain some fairly rigid powers.
When one considers that 24 per cent. The noble Baroness said that she wished that we had not started here and said that perhaps we should have started with functions and finance. The trouble is that wherever you start, there is always a reason why you should have started somewhere else. We have taken the bull by the horns with these structural orders. The noble Baroness will readily accept from what has happened this afternoon that that has not been universally popular.