Last week, plans were announced for a Bucks / Oxon / Northants combined authority, a move that raises important questions of local and regional identity. We’re assured that this is just a practical measure of co-operation that won’t affect day-to-day services but these things have a habit of acquiring their own momentum. The case forContinueContinue reading “Losing Direction”
Category Archives: Regionalism
We Are Not London
We know where London is, but is the rest of England also London? It seems that the London regime would like to make it so. Manchester has a proud history and a distinctive identity. Or used to. Yet Greater Manchester Transport has become ‘Transport for Greater Manchester’, because that’s the word-order they now use inContinueContinue reading “We Are Not London”
Reasons to be Regional
Two common objections to regionalism are that another tier of government means more politicians and more cost. It needn’t in fact mean either. First though, let’s be a bit more broad-minded. We need government to be more effective and efficient – but to achieve that you need to invest, politically in the right people andContinueContinue reading “Reasons to be Regional”
Homes Ancient & Modern
Nearly a millennium ago today, regional England was trampled beneath Norman hooves and, as Chesterton’s poem puts it, “gored on the Norman gonfalon, the Golden Dragon died”. Yet history has a habit of undoing itself. Dismembered Poland was put back together. Twice. The Albanians, Belarusians, Bosnians, Croats, Cypriots, Czechs, Estonians, Finns, Hungarians, Icelanders, Irish, Latvians,ContinueContinue reading “Homes Ancient & Modern”
Now It’s Our Turn
“The media may have succeeded in creating Essex Man, but they would be hard pressed to resuscitate Wessex Woman.” John Redwood MP, July 1992If that is still the view of the Right Honourable Member for Wokingham, then Wessex Woman may wish to have a word with him. (Just visualising the power bracelets and maybe aContinueContinue reading “Now It’s Our Turn”
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!”
Another Fine Miss
“The slightly eccentric Wessex regionalists have been around for a while but tend to be backward-looking and potentially reactionary.” So writes Professor Paul Salveson in his online newsletter, Salvo. It’s always good to see regionalism recognised, but it’s simply sloppy to misrepresent us.We’d prefer to describe ourselves as more than usually different, and refreshingly so. ContinueContinue reading “Another Fine Miss”
Digital Devastation
As the implications of the Heartbleed bug continue to be revealed, it becomes clear that while a digital society, including a digital economy and digital government, delivers many benefits, many of these are exceedingly fragile. Two items from the press last month further illustrate the point. The first is from Metro, which reported on theContinueContinue reading “Digital Devastation”
Softly, Softly
Angus Macpherson is Police & Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire Police. He recently told a business breakfast meeting that the police were now working as a region, taking in Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, but, he added, “We will not lose Wiltshire Police – neighbourhood members of the police, working and living in local communities. ItContinueContinue reading “Softly, Softly”
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”
Wessex Regionalists 