From my twitter account this morning, best read from the bottom up:
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Agreed whole heartedly.
Agreed.
Agreed most certainly. However we also need local authorities to be much smaller and, em, local. Some of those in the UK and particularly in Scotland are geographically enormous. I live in Dumfries and Galloway. How can councillors from the Stranraer area in the west be expected to know about, let alone be interested in, the issues in the Langholm area in the east?
I agree
When I was a boy (time honoured phrase) Suffolk was split in to Ipswich, East and West Suffolk
And it worked
The Suffolk coast had virtually nothing too do with Newmarket, and vice versa
Also applies to somewhere like Edale in the Peak District, local authority is Derbyshire, but the area is in reality influenced by Sheffield, and in some respects, even Manchester.
To give LA’s more powers though, they need to be more dynamic and show initiative, I could fill a book on what could have been for various areas around England, Wales and Scotland.
They are not tabloid style headlines, they are well documented casesb and can easily be found by searching reputable sources.
Now more than ever a plan is needed, I am disappointed in Andy Burnham, he has a chance to show what competent leadership can achieve with the Greater Manchester Combined Authorities, but what I have seen so far does not fill me with any confidence.
‘when I was a boy’ – round here, in Suffolk, you still are.
And, yes, it would help to have local government still local – some Suffolk districts have merged and work out of Ipswich.
We do so need local knowledge and the ideal would be local government supported by Westminster.
My good friends in Skye say much the same about Inverness. And they positively spit about Edinburgh!
Joking apart, there is a sound principle of delegating power to where it is most appropriate to make decisions. (There is a word for it but Ive forgotten…) Thats true for business as well as the state. Some should be national or international (tackling climate change for instance). Some of course need to be very local. However it is not static and should legitimately be subject to regular review and checks and balances. Local decisions can be just as subject to special interests as centralised ones.
The UK has by any comparison swung towards a highly centralised model. A problem is that the two main parties have both had centralising instincts and the more ideological they become, the more that is the case as they become intolerant or any dissent. Now would be a very good time for Labour to adopt a policy of rebuilding local government around cities and regions, with both the power and the funding to make a real difference.
The attack on Local Government, initiated by Thatcher (remember the scrapping of the, I would argue highly effectiveq, GLC and ILEA) has, under this Government’s extreme interpretation of the Thatcher doctrine resulted in the equivalent of sawing off the branch central Government is sitting on.
Consider – Johnson’s Government is driving apart the four nations making up the UK, and has produced cross-party unity in Northern Local Government, effects driven by increasing contempt for the centre, for the London and Westminster-based Establishment.
Indeed, the BREXIT Leave vote was very much driven by the same contempt for that the London and Westminster-based Establishment, which had ignored those many northern and Midlands deprived communities, many ravaged under Thatcher’s “reforms”, for 40+ years.
It seems to me that Johnson’s government is in danger of finding itself all alone, except for the London and Westminster-based Establishment, at the end of the branch, falling away, as they finally saw through the branch, from the rest of the UK, which will simply have declared UDI, and decided they can do things better on their own.
Will it be the saga of Johnson’s Berlin bunker?
I’m not convinced.
In England, even in 2019, London largely elected Labour MPs, and (notwithstanding the so-called collapse of the “red wall” and consequent change of 30 seats from red to blue) Labour still won most of the seats in the North East, North West and Yorkshire. But the South West, South East, East, and East and West Midlands were all dominated by Conservatives (256 MPs from 302 seats).
It is not just a London/Westminster establishment. The south and southeast of England are solidly Conservative, and have been for decades. The Conservatives even won the three south and east regions of England outside London in the Labour 1997 landslide. Similarly, London is solidly Labour. Given the numbers, any change in the balance of power has to come from the Midlands and the North of England.
I should add, I doubt the thesis of a dominating Conservative establishment power base in London (as opposed to a more rural south/southeast county one) but I don’t doubt the marginalisation of local authorities – principally by controlling and restricting their finances – was a deliberate policy of the Thatcher government to battle actual and perceived sources of residual Labour power. It has left a legacy of power over-centralised in London and Westminster, and local authorities with more statutory duties that resources to undertake them.
Agreed Richard and also with Andrew who adds more good points here. Those in the North and other relatively deprived (traditionally Labour-voting area) areas, who castigate London as the centre of Tory affluence and dominance, need to remember that the average London voter is on the same side as us. And those ‘Red Wallers’ who colluded with their oppressors at the last election, need to get a grip.
I’d quite like proper local, though. Not saying that local means the whole of the northeast and Yorkshire and Humberside lumped together, with the north west as one other group. Even putting Yorkshire and the Humber together is wrong. East Yorkshire is nothing like West Yorkshire.
Adherence to Libertarian/Neoliberal ideology is at root pure ignorance, an inability to understand cooperation has actually been the primary driver for optimising adaption, hence the dominance of homo sapiens on this planet.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Friendliest-Understanding-Rediscovering-Humanity/dp/0399590668/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Survival+of+the+Friendliest&qid=1602594345&sr=8-1
I agree entirely to with your comments and observations.
I am amazed at the speed with which things are now unraveling, with the exposed faultlines occuring exactly where I expected.
For forty years local government has been eviscerated according to the neoliberal plan, and the pandemic has set the seal on the past ten years of austerity.
This evening the NorthWest News told of a growing anti- lockdown rebellion in the gyms of Merseyside.
How long before this occurs in other sectors and we find the authority of the national government shot? Proper local control would have been much more effective in the current circumstances from March onwards.
We need to remind voters that for 200 years the UK had the most admired public health system in the (known) world. The Victorians began a brilliant job of cleaning up the cities. The farmers did not pollute rivers and the name of the game was prevention and maintenance. Now it is ready aim fire, and correct, especially if you are Johnson, Hancock and Serco.
Dam’n, that should have been ready, fire, aim…… Apologies