Delighted to see that the Liberal Democrats have not given upon the idea of regional government. Last year the party’s policy paper ‘Your Community, Your Choice’ was referred back by conference delegates because it totally trashed the longstanding Lib Dem concept of English regions having an element of self-government. Yorkshire delegates were particularly vociferous in their opposition to the paper in Brighton last year.The new policy paper (The Power to be Different – Local and Regional Governance Policy Paper) contains lines (53-56):
The establishment of directly-elected regional government in those regions that want it, taking powers and functions from central government; outside those areas the existing regional chambers should be reformed, making them more democratic and accountable to the people they serve.
This is the speech I wrote in support of the revised policy:
“Watching the two recent English internationals, a question came to mind: why didn’t he play Emile Heskey earlier? No seriously the question which came to my mind as fans, pundits and players waxed lyrical over the opulence that was the new Wembley was: why would we never get that sort of facility in Yorkshire? I came to the conclusion that it goes back to the way we are governed.
The Scottish Parliamentary elections earlier in the year with its sub-plot of independence brought to the forefront of debate the evident lack of democracy when it comes to the House of Commons. The argument goes why should Scottish MPs continue to vote on laws that apply only to England? Added to this is the apparent injustice of the funding Scots enjoy. As a remedy some are calling for an English Parliament.
So do we need an English Parliament? Perhaps the real question facing us and which this policy paper sets out to address, is how do we improve the way we are governed, specifically for us here in Yorkshire?
I remain unconvinced that an English Parliament would improve matters in Yorkshire much. London and the South East dominate a UK Parliament anyway through sheer weight of numbers and I can’t see how losing Scottish MPs would give Yorkshire greater influence at Westminster.
Aside from the new Wembley Stadium, let’s look at some of the examples of major capital projects over the past few years: the Millennium Dome, the Channel Tunnel, the 2012 Olympics and Cross Rail likely to be approved in the next short while. This amounts to over £31 billion of investment and all of it in London and the South East. By contrast, in Yorkshire, I would be hard pushed to think of single project on that sort of scale since the M62 was built!
London has an energetic Ken Livingstone battling for it but who are the champions of Yorkshire in Westminster or Whitehall? Our Members of Parliament, rightly, primarily tend to look at their own patch; a relief road here, a school extension there and so on. The case for Yorkshire by contrast is too often ignored.
When there is a justification for money to be spent on a really significant project of benefit to the north (and for London too ironically) such as the High Speed Rail link it is rejected. When West Yorkshire wants money to pump prime projects to tackle congestion it is rebuffed. Hardly a week goes by without some real or potential traffic crisis in this region and yet the solutions seem as far away as ever from being implemented. I look with envy at the way high speed trains are revitalising regions of France as their network expands eastwards. Yorkshire should have much greater responsibility for the funding and implementation of transport projects.
The claim is made but ‘isn’t this what Yorkshire Forward does’? Well, in general the Regional Development Agencies do a fine job but I question what real political clout they have. For example, why are they not at the forefront of the campaign to bring the High Speed Rail link to Yorkshire and the rest of the north when just about everybody else from businesses onwards wants it?
Added to this I worry about the increasing responsibility bodies such as Yorkshire Forward have for expenditure in our region matched by a pretty modest level of scrutiny. After all, Yorkshire Forward is just one of the many quangos spending billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in our region with little or no local democratic accountability. Quangos outspend councils by a considerable margin. For example, as the Policy Paper points out, for every £1 spent in Leeds by the council, £8 is spent by unelected public bodies. Democratic control must be reasserted over this quangocracy.
Of course, regionalisation took a knock when the North East voted ‘no’ in a referendum for a directly elected regional assembly. But the issue has not gone away. The rationale for less centralisation and greater devolution along with improved democracy remains the same.
In Yorkshire over the past 20 years we have reinvented ourselves almost entirely. What was an economy based on coal, steel, textiles, farming and fishing is now largely built on a thriving service economy. We have gone into this wholeheartedly and relatively uncomplainingly. What we want now is a something of a quid pro quo. What we want is a fair share of the enormous amounts of money spent on those large-scale projects in London and the South East. What we want is the power on a regional level to make the important decisions ourselves. That is why I am delighted to support the motion and lines %53-56 in particular.”
