tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post4680971032072073660..comments2023-12-23T09:28:20.869+00:00Comments on The View from Cullingworth: Local government is about local services - and it should be localUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-47168189426311758912020-09-17T13:18:44.563+01:002020-09-17T13:18:44.563+01:00I'm glad someone has written this. I understan...I'm glad someone has written this. I understand the temptation to make things 'nice and neat', but that often doesn't work out for the best in practice. It should be obvious that a report from the Centre for Cities isn't going to have rural interests at heart.<br />One of the proposals from the CFC is to merge Herefordshire with most of Worcestershire. Something similar was tried back in the 70s and it was dissolved again in the 90s. One complaint was that everything was centralised in Worcester (a good 50 minutes away from Hereford). It makes sense that this would happen again, but how does that benefit Herefordshire, especially when it's relative voting strength is much smaller than its neighbour? It doesn't seem like a recipe for harmony and success to me.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13560830479834349700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-65699667454274872802020-09-17T13:17:46.587+01:002020-09-17T13:17:46.587+01:00I'm glad someone has written this. I understan...I'm glad someone has written this. I understand the temptation to make things 'nice and neat', but that often doesn't work out for the best in practice. It should be obvious that a report from the Centre for Cities isn't going to have rural interests at heart.<br />One of the proposals from the CFC is to merge Herefordshire with most of Worcestershire. Something similar was tried back in the 70s and it was dissolved again in the 90s. One complaint was that everything was centralised in Worcester (a good 50 minutes away from Hereford). It makes sense that this would happen again, but how does that benefit Herefordshire, especially when it's relative voting strength is much smaller than its neighbour? It doesn't seem like a recipe for harmony and success to me.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13560830479834349700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-3051207175684683202020-09-17T10:36:03.456+01:002020-09-17T10:36:03.456+01:00This really has been a problem that has been kicki...This really has been a problem that has been kicking around ever since the New Labour Government of 1997, and the creation of devolution in Scotland, Wales, and the London Mayor. All 3 initiatives were coherent and justifiable, and in the case of Northern Ireland absolutely essential. But the approach was lop-sided and asymmetric, and left a constitutional blackhole for England (outside London). New Labour tried to resolve this with regional assemblies, but a regional assembly for the North-East had no support because, basically people don't identify as being from the "North-East"; they are from Newcastle or Northumberland etc; and their interests and needs are utterly different - what creates a bond between an office worker in Newcastle and a sheep farmer in Northumberland?<br />So, The Coalition and Conservative Government came up with the idea of regional mayors a la London. This might make some sense for Greater Manchester, but it is still a lop-sided and asymmetric response to devolution. Are we going to have a regional Mayor for Cheshire; and if not, why not? Does West Yorkshire make much sense - I may have heard people identify as "Yorkshire", but "WEST Yorkshire"; is there a logic to thinking of Sheffield as having entirely different needs to Leeds and Bradford?<br />The problem is devolution is a concept that by definition is lop-sided and asymmetric i.e. a devolved as opposed to a federal system. Resolving the knotty tangle that is a Constitutionally Devolved State is... well, difficult.... Chris Hugheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06006853696113708484noreply@blogger.com