IS IT just me or does Brexit seem to be turning into a modern-day plague? Of course, Grexit never actually happened (courtesy of the European Central Bank) and, thankfully, last week the Dutch came to their senses and threw out the challenge of the anti-EU, far-right party of Geert Wilders, thereby avoiding Dexit.

But the French are still mired in an electoral mess that could yet bring about Frexit and Nicola Sturgeon is obsessed with Scexit (from the UK rather than Europe, of course).

And now it seems to have filtered all the way down to the Aire and Worth Valleys, where Tory MPs Philip Davies and Kris Hopkins have launched a bid for Kexit and Shexit.

Not surprisingly, their idea of splitting up the City of Bradford Metropolitan District to create two new local authorities has been met with fierce criticism. Who, in this day and age, really believes it’s a good idea to create yet more local bureaucracy?

We’ve all been here before, of course, with the local government reorganisation of 1972-74, when “Home Rule for Keighley” was emblazoned across many a wall, fence and bridge.

It was a campaign that never really died down until Keighley won back town council status. More recently, Bingley joined the ranks of those who, like Ilkley with its Parish Council, could never quite accept they were part of something bigger.

Those who still harbour dreams of controlling their own destiny through ultra-local democracy need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Big is beautiful nowadays, which is why Bradford itself is steadily ceding the real power over many of its traditional functions to the not-directly-elected West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Big provides economies of scale and big makes you more intimidating in the school playground. Ironically, the initial reason why unitary and district authorities thought it was a good idea to get together was to give them a louder voice in Europe. Regional government is how Europe works - the next tier down from federated national states, in many people’s minds.

It was a message emphatically expressed over a lunch I once enjoyed/endured sitting opposite John Prescott, with Yvette Cooper on my left (where else) and regional authority zealot Nick Raynsford seated less comfortably on my right.

Of course, Prescott’s version bit the dust after the emphatic rejection of his dream by the North-East region but it didn’t stop it eventually happening by stealth via the sadly mis-named Leeds City Region and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

The Prescott/Cooper/Raynsford charm offensive, designed to win regional newspaper editors over to the “Vote Yes” camp, failed miserably - because I could not in my heart of hearts recommend to readers that another expensive tier of local government was a good idea.

But now we’re on a wholly different boardgame. The whole Northern Powerhouse concept dreamed up by George Osborne and David Cameron is now seen by Labour politicians and capitalist business leaders alike as the best way to create a powerbase for our region and a louder voice in national affairs.

And exactly the same argument can be made for Bradford’s voice in the region. Splitting Bradford into two smaller authorities, far from giving the people of Keighley, Bingley and Shipley more of a voice will, instead, diminish it.

Bradford will be demoted to the ranks of big towns like Wakefield and Barnsley and left begging for handouts while places like the smaller towns represented by Philip Davies and Kris Hopkins will all but disappear off the map.

So, if it ever comes to the vote, I will happily be a re-moaning remainer....