It's not common to modify namespaces like this, generally they are treated "read only".  Also the docs recommend against modifying them: http://docs.python.org/release/2.6.8/library/functions.html?highlight=locals#locals  

If you want to bundle some data, along with functions to manipulate it, this is what classes are for :)

Otherwise, if you just want to bundle a bunch of data together, make a list or dictionary, and stick stuff into it.  You could even <code>my_dict.update(locals())</code> which will decouple it, but can sometimes make for some "interesting" debugging.