In the run-up to the festive season, all three main London parties set out their stalls on English devolution. On the whole, they’re rather against it. Labour were first, with a promise to devolve power to ‘city regions’ and ‘county regions’. Anything but region regions. These areas appear to correspond to those of the LocalContinueContinue reading “Christmas Crackers”
Category Archives: Devolution
Little Things Please Little Minds
The Scots recently held a referendum on independence. They discussed what currency to use, whether to join NATO, and what to do about Trident. BBC West’s televised debate on devolution this week took a different approach. At one point, the politicians on the panel were challenged with the problem of different wheelie bins on oppositeContinueContinue reading “Little Things Please Little Minds”
Just Watch It
Media interest continues, BBC Bristol and BBC Wiltshire both seeking interviews this week. David Garmston from BBC Points West went to Longleat to record an interview with our veteran founder, Lord Bath for Sunday Politics West. It took up 3 minutes, 42 seconds of a 1 hour, 10 minute programme filled mainly with much lessContinueContinue reading “Just Watch It”
False Flags & The Fallen
It takes a lot of planning to fit the First World War in between Sunday’s closing ceremony for the Stolenwealth Games and tonight’s televised independence debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling. The juxtaposition may give cause for thought. Scotland’s choice seems to lie between two visions of Europe. On the one hand, it canContinueContinue reading “False Flags & The Fallen”
Don’t Mention The Region!
A recent post on a left-leaning website makes an excellent case study, for all the wrong reasons. Dan Holden’s piece, ‘Westminster Must Address Regional Identities’, is the sort of thing that has been written many times before and doesn’t get any better, because centralist assumptions are never challenged. First up, the writer appears to sitContinueContinue reading “Don’t Mention The Region!”
The Summer of Discontent
David Cameron would like to think of Scotland’s referendum as a little local difficulty. Perhaps that’s why the mainstream media stay so quiet about the widespread discontent now simmering across Europe as our continent awakes to new possibilities. Catalans are ignoring Madrid’s refusal to allow them a vote on independence. Basques are thinking along theContinueContinue reading “The Summer of Discontent”
Terror Incognita
Channel 4’s Jon Snow is back from Scotland with his eyes opened: see his blog on the subject, and the many comments it’s attracted. To sum up, London is loathed from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Westminster politicians are vicious and corrupt; City slickers are the downfall of a decent society; the meejah couldn’t careContinueContinue reading “Terror Incognita”
Hold That Door
Last week, the London regime finally bowed to pressure to recognise the Cornish as a national minority under the relevant Council of Europe agreement. Or tried to, not very hard. The official press release talks about having to ‘modify’ the application of the European convention to accommodate the idea of a national minority – theContinueContinue reading “Hold That Door”
Berlin Wall II
Aye or nae, Scotland’s debate over its future is laying bare the fundamental structure of the UK in ways that no academic study could have begun to contemplate. There’s nothing like demanding answers to questions that were always thought too fanciful to ask but have suddenly become part of an urgent reality. We know whatContinueContinue reading “Berlin Wall II”
Wales: A Way And A Warning
In 2012 we noted the Welsh Government’s plans to create a powerful, integrated environmental body. Those plans took effect in April 2013 with the launch of Natural Resources Wales. NRW is the end result of a long process of bringing together powers that were once spread very thinly. Forty years ago, those powers belonged toContinueContinue reading “Wales: A Way And A Warning”
Wessex Regionalists 