This localism bill shows Eric Pickles is Hazel Blears in super-sized wolf's clothing | Simon Jenkins

Like his predecessors, communities secretary Eric Pickles set out on the road to localism but has swerved off into the fudge factory

The big society is dead. Long live the small one. Big is bad, and anyway it was just a politician's cliche, glitter to dress the stage for a passing election back in early 2010. What matters is power, power and its distribution. That is the theme with variations of the coalition's most important constitutional measure so far, this week's localism bill published...