I took the train up to London last week to celebrate forty years since my casual football team first played a game.

We used to play in something we co-founded called the Phene League, named after the pub in south-west London where we first met with ten other teams to organise fixtures.

Sitting in the Phene Arms bar that night was the late George Best, who was, as was his habit, genially drunk, an addiction which tragically cost him an early death.

Despite this maudlin backdrop, we hired the upper room of the pub.

Our skipper, my best friend, had found a few old photos in his attic, in which I, a free-scoring, slim, dark-haired striker appeared.

I am no longer any of those things, but it was that kind of evening, full of laughter but of course reflection.

When you enter your seventh decade, it turns out that friends who did not seem to have much promise in their early twenties are beginning to retire, some from pretty interesting careers.

Forty years ago, the last thing anyone would have wanted to discuss was government.

I’m not sure we would even have known what it was.

But a couple of them, to my astonishment, were more than happy to buttonhole me on the subject of devolution.

In short, the new government has signalled its resolute will to create huge mayoral authorities to follow the example of Manchester and the West Midlands.

And that the bigger the population, the better, and easier it will be to negotiate directly with the central government to fund the major infrastructure work we all know is needed nationwide.

Our left back had worked at the heart of New Labour all the way through to Gordon Brown’s downfall and is a successful businessman in his own right.

Labour is in his blood.

Our strolling central midfielder is now senior advisor to a proposed devolution deal in the Midlands, also Labour to the tips of his toes.

Huddled at the end of the table, the three of us chatted, and I offered my sincere worry that on three things which really matter to a district leader the new government does not appear to know what it is doing and risks doing actual harm – in planning, water & sewage and devolution.

The latter is because nobody seems to have a clue if Devon will end up in a mayoral unit with Cornwall when Cornwall is saying no thank you – loudly.

Or do we join with Somerset and Dorset instead, leaving the door open for Cornwall one day?

My Labour friends astonished me.

They openly said that the problem was that Keir Starmer was so focused on winning the election that he was not interested in policy.

Tony Blair Gordon Brown and the other big beasts had spent five years before winning in 1997 and came in with over 250 policies, only three of which they did not implement.

In these early months of Downing Street in 2024, they are having to conjure policy from thin air.

It shows.

By the end of this month, the devolution white paper is due.

I wish it well.

This will be a major moment for the new government, and from Devon’s perspective, I will be working with other leaders in districts and at the county to make sure we negotiate the best outcome for local people.

Let’s see.