As an update to this post, somebody asked a representative sample of Yorkshire folk what they wanted. What happened? Well.
- A directly elected, Yorkshire-wide regional assembly
- Stronger powers that would include some tax-setting and law-making powers; this is to ensure actual power is achieved over issues such as transport infrastructure, economic development and education.
- To reject the devolution deal currently on offer for the Sheffield City Region and press local politicians to push for a better deal (stronger, more ambitious, more democratic and based on proper consultation) rather than walk away from devolution completely.
Right. Project “Last Chicken in the Shop” can bugger off.
What is clearly needed is the Yorkshire and Manchester Combined Authority.
“Young man there’s no need to feel down, even though IDS is in town..”
Well, the Hannah Mitchell foundation and some other people around the Labour Party were arguing before the elections that we should offer devolution to a re-founded Council of the North.
Unfortunately, in the current context all that devolution to (city) regions means is that central government cedes responsibility for enforcing austerity to local areas, who will have no power to make policy or achieve any progressive change. In practice it will lead to an intensification of rivalries and competition between different cities and areas, and the entrenchment of the trappings of local authority in the usual corrupt and/or self-serving political elite.
Chasing some kind of genuine devolution of powers is a chimera while central power is in the hands of such dedicated neoliberals and, despite what any surveys might suggest, a common Yorkshire identity is remarkably weak at all except the vaguest cultural levels. Even in cricket interest is waning! As such, this is still a UK-wide political question, and even the smallest amounts of local separatism represent a complete dead-end.
Ha, I should have read your previous post first!