Pity Labour in Lowestoft, soon to be marooned in a sea of blue

SUFFOLK council leaders are convinced the Governent will rumble the "nonsense" of Ipswich's bid for unitary status in the 12 week consultation period. Certainly, Ipswich councillors shouldn't get too cocky about their prospects of independence from Big Brother County. "Steady the Buffs" should be the order of the day instead of breaking out the Asti Spumante.

County leader Jeremy Pembroke and his pals running the county's districts aren't best pleased with ministers for short-listing Ipswich. So sure were they that the financial case didn't stack up, that they sat back waiting for Ipswich to fall flat on its ***.

Wrong. It's the politics in Suffolk that's up the creek. County district leaders totally misunderstood the political clout that even a small, relatively insignificant county town, has in the upper echelons of the Labour Party.

And with all three political parties in the borough on-side for the bid, it was enough to convince ministers that there was general support for it in the town for a breakaway from the cloying influence of Suffolk. And a Labour government was always going to enjoy making the shire Tories in Suffolk look like prize chumps.

It's not over. Like the South in the American Civil War, the Tories of Suffolk will rise again. But Ipswich has more than a toe in the door. Suffolk's public relations machine will need all its guile to see off the Heroes of Ipswich. 

But hang on a minute, what about Lowestoft? Once Suffolk loses its 10 Labour county councillors elected in Ipswich, that just leaves Lowestoft as a northern outpost for the great Labour movement, marooned by a sea of blue. Labour will soon by flying the distress signals from the most easterly point in mainland Great Britain, pleading: Don't neglect us Gordon.