Dear All
Just as Scotland has changed post 18th
September, so has England, people want more democracy and accountability of
their elected members.
It seems the by-product of the Scottish
independence campaign by default is that four out of five people support
devolved powers for regions in England.
The results of a new poll aren’t really
surprised, there has been a political shift, in England; things have moved
because of Ukip’s rise, it shows that people don’t just want change in their
life which is important but a wider change in how politics operates.
The political market is being opened by the
introduction of more choice.
A ComRes poll commissioned by the BBC shows
82% of 3,000 adults surveyed by phone last month would support regional
devolution.
This shows that the main parties should
have developed more opportunities to regions, a good way to do so would be the
transfer of Whitehall departments to other areas of the country, when we think
driving licences; we think Swansea.
If there had been more of an exodus from
London to the rest of the UK, it might have triggered more renew and perhaps
generated investment opportunities. Although London is great, it can have a polarizing
effect that sucks everything into a bubble.
The new poll also highlighted that 60% of
people backed allowing English MPs only to vote on English issues.
If that is forced through, it would mean
two tiers of MPs, the problem with this is that a government with a narrow
majority might find that yes, they won the election but the opposition can veto
their government policies when presented as bills in the House of Commons.
Would the idea of the major political
parties at Westminster backing the idea of handing powers to local regions work?
In theory, it probably could work out, I
suspect at the start, there might be a lack of knowledge and experience kicking
about which may take some time to have the new setup bedded in properly.
Chancellor George Osborne yesterday
announced Greater Manchester would be the first to benefit from plans to give
cities more freedoms and powers. Manchester is big enough to be a good area for
a pilot, it should yield interesting results.
The new poll also found just one in five
people said they wished Scotland had voted to leave the UK.
Two-thirds of people agreed however that
Britain was better off by having a strong capital city, although many expressed
the view too much money was spent on London.
Striking the right balance is important,
but you can understand why people seem to have a mixed message about the
capital.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told the
BBC the Government was undertaking “the biggest decentralisation of power for
decades”.
The trend in Scotland by the SNP is the
other way, possibly because the clique is power mad, and their elected
representatives are dross.
Can’t be trusted!
Under reforms announced by Osborne earlier,
Greater Manchester would have the first “metro mayor” outside London. It this
venture a roll out of mini London across the UK, well the jury is still out on
that one. The reforms will see the Mayor having responsibility for policing, a
£300 million housing investment fund and strategic planning powers.
The Westminster Government will legislate
to enable the changes, with the potential for the mayoral election to take
place in 2017.
Although people really want change, we
should be careful that such change enhances communities for the better, a
change that sees no real benefits passed down would be at best be a waste of
time and resources.
As an idea, it is worth a few laps around
the track to see if it has traction, if it does, then perhaps others may pick
up on the ideas as well, however, to see it in operation, people would have to
stand back and watch the results objectively.
And that requires time!
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
3 comments:
could it be any worse that a world full of Salmonds?
Thank goodness Georgieboy Eck doesnt have ANY KIDS eh
:)
Crookie
George,
Alex Salmond and Boris Johnson between them have made the prospect of multiple devolved authorities across the British Isles much less attractive in the mind of the voting public.
we have been slowly moving towards a federal system of devolved regional governments or about 100 years. So far we have had Stormont which ended in failure. and we now have Holyrood, the welsh and Northern Irish assemblies and the London Mayor acting with devolved power from Westminster. the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies appear to be getting on with their allotted tasks without grandstanding.
I would like to see a federal system of devolved assemblies based on 5-10 million population regions, but the thought of them being headed up by the likes of BJ and AS, little cockerel crowing atop their dung heaps, is slightly more of a price than I would care to pay.
Cheers
Terry
Boris is actually quite popular in London - he's not seen as he is in the rest if the country. He's done well there and is a sharp operator.
Post a Comment