Percentage turnout at elections is in the low 40s if you're lucky and if you asked most people which authority – town, parish, district or county – was responsible for what, many wouldn't know.

So how much do we really care about the latest moves to reorganise local government in Suffolk?

The story so far... Ipswich wants to go it alone. In July the Government agreed. Then, last Wednesday, to huge consternation over there, changed its mind. Apparently Prudence had a word with Gordon about how much it would all cost.

Since then political spin merchants of all sides have gone into overdrive. When you are weighing what THEY tell you is best for Suffok, it's best to start by thinking: "What's in it for their party or council?"

But where do we go from here? Our divorce from Ipswich is not completely off the agenda. The Boundary Committee is taking another look.

Then there is the small matter of what to do with the rest of Suffolk.

One big county council for all of Suffolk except its most important town, plus seven little districts, and the strange division of services that exists now does not seem particularly sensible.

It sounds as though ministers may be leaning towards splitting Suffolk into East and West. Out with the old, in with the old. Unitary authorities would be responsible for all the services in an area and we say goodbye to Babergh. That's if that is really is what ministers want. After their latest flip-flop over Ipswich, who knows when we will finally be given a steer.

Babergh, stretching from here to the tip of the Shotley peninsular, looks a bit odd on the map, but I've nothing against the present regime.

My soundings this week, however, give me the impression that lots of our readers want to go back to a West Suffolk Council. Forget the party politics. I think the issue should be judged on two grounds:

Will the number of civil servants and the bureaucracy we, their paymasters the taxpayers, must fund grow or shrink? More and more expensive bureaucracy is bad – hence the failure to get support for regional assemblies in a country too small to warrant them.

And will schools and other services for the people of Suffolk become more or less efficient and useful?

Anything else is just hot air.