I think that Hermann Rorschach was really onto something with that little inkblot test of his. If two different but apparently sane people can look at the same picture and see two entirely different things then perhaps that goes at least some way explaining ideology as well as psychology.
A perfect illustration of this lies in the response of British socialist bloggers to the plans for the regionalisation of England. This is the plan to divide England up into nine entirely artifical ‘sectors’ and give each its own assembly with regulatory functions. The details of this project are currently being thrashed out by the Office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
Over on the left, this is an eagerly awaited development. One of the new kids on the left-block, Farringdon Street, waxes lyrical:
The northwest is going to have a referendum on a regional assembly. This is a development that should be greeted with alacrity. While its chief protagonist in central government John Prescott hardly has a reputation as a constitutional iconoclast, devolution is vital to the reconstruction of British politics.
Power is to concentrated, the agenda to London centric. The regions especially those furthest from the capital need their own champions. We must increase the sheer amount of political muscle deployable in London and Brussels to advance the regional interest.
And he is far from alone in his enthusiasm. It is sincerely shared by the rest of British left all of whom appear to be getting moist-knickered and dewey-eyed over what they are trying to present as ‘decentralisation’.
Now, if this really was a process of decentralisation it might have some merit. At the very least it would be worthy of further discussion. But this is not a process of decentralisation. Not even to the smallest degree. However, as in a lot of debates about administration, there is a germ of a genuine problem here. Britain is a grossly overcentralised country with every decision that matters being made in London and then applied nationwide. We are, in effect, a City-State.
This is an issue which should and could be addressed but if the term ‘decentralisation’ is to have any meaning at all then it must entail the devolving down of real political power to local level. That is not at all what this process is about. Casting my eye over the proposals (such as they are) there is plenty of creepy management-speak about ‘best practice’ and ‘reaching out’ and ‘partnership’ and ‘joined-up government’ but will the new assemblies be able, say, to abolish Income Tax? Or raise Income Tax? Or pass their own laws that run contrary to the desires of Whitehall? Will they be able to declare their respective regions a ‘free tade zone’? Or Legalise drugs? Will they be able to tell the EU Commission to stick their directives where the sun don’t shine?
The answer to all of those questions is ‘no’. This is not a devolution of power and decision-making, this is a retrenchment of power at the top; a mere administrative reshuffle to create yet another fantastically expensive tier of labyrinthine bureaucracy in what amounts to nothing more than giant job-creation scheme for technocrats, busybodies and form-fillers. Nobody is going to gain more control over their own lives and no community is going to have any more local power bestowed upon it. It is just another greasy pole for the social-working class to climb up.
And it would be bad enough if that is all they were. But that is not all they are because although Mr.Prescott may have been charged with implementing this grand scheme, he is merely obeying orders. The real drivers behind this are in Brussels. The regional assemblies are being created as civilian Gauleiters in order to ensure that the laws and directives of the EU Commission are administered and enforced at local level and to jockey with each for the chunks of redistributed largesse handed out by the various arms of the Euro-state. Their job is not to represent the will of the people to those in power, it is to ensure that the will of those in power is applied to the people.
If that’s ‘decentralisation’, then I’m the Dalai Lama and even for people who have faith in democracy, surely this is the very antithesis of democracy.
I hope I am right about that Rorschach thing and that the problem for my compatriots on the left is merely one of perception. It would certainly be instructive to know for sure whether their time-honoured battle-cry of ‘power to the people’ was sincere or merely a ruse. Because if this kind of thing is what they want, then they are not merely misguided, they are downright sinister.
[My thanks to Harry Steele for the link to the Farringdon Street blog.]
Didn’t dividing the Roman Empire into regional administrations bring about decentralization of power?
/snicker
I can’t see this going down very well. When the artificial county of Avon was created not so many years ago, the local people bitched so much eventually Avon was given the axe, and the likes of Portishead went back to being part of Somerset.
I’m from Devon originally, but at uni I had enough friends from Once-Somerset-Now-Avon to know they were not happy about it.
This looks to be the same, but more so.
…and having read the Farringdon Street comments, it seems to me the way to “reconstruct” government would be to give the existing local government structures more control over what they do.
Right now a huge chunk of local government income (National Non-Domestic Rate and grants from central government) is set centrally and apportioned out by arcane formula. And when it comes to spending the cash councils are hemmed in by a huge wedge of statutory duties and functions. Councils are seriously limited in terms of room to maneuver.
Central government has local government over a barrel. No wonder local government doesn’t matter. I don’t expect any future Government to let councils go, though. Labour is instinctively centralist, and Thatcher capped council spending.
She was on the right lines though with the poll tax, though few would dare (I dare 😉 to admit it. Trying to make council finances more transparent to the electorate. At the moment with all the indirect funding there is no real financial link between local council and local electorate.
I’ve followed this issue since devolution for Scotland and Wales.
There is not one politician in England,of any party, that will demand an English Parliament. The asssemblies already exist,just waiting to be voted in. England is the threat to britain in europe, so get rid of it.
I am all in favour of decentralisation… I rather like the idea of all tax money being spent where it is raised. Let the regions have their own assemblies just so long as they cannot vote themselves money from other regions. I would love to see London’s tax money remain 100% within the M-25
What would your unit of decentralisation be Perry? I know what mine would be.
I don’t think you’d be picking the wretched regions model the EU have chopped us into. I come from Cornwall and the people down there have no more affinity with Swindon, Bristol, Salisbury or Bournmouth than they do London, far west Cornwall is still a good 90 miles even from Plymouth. Then add in the fact that many think of Cornwall as separate from England, “have you got your passport ready for the Tamar bridge?” Of course everybody is also aware that they are going to be nothing more than a money pit for the quangorocracy to ponce about in like they do in Cardiff and the “pretendy wee parliament in Edinburgh”. In the main then the Cornish want nothing to do with the idea of English regions.
No. There is a perfect unit of decentralisation that pretty much anybody can releate to the traditional English county. Propery counties mind. Not Balkan Berkshire or where Luton is wrenched from Bedfordhire, Plymouth from Devon or Peterborough from whichever county had it last (it’s like the Alsace Lorraine of the Fens).
Labour (New or otherwise) would never go for it though. They don’t want you to keep a grasp of any tradition. House of Lords – get rid, don’t bother about what’ll replace it; Lord Chancellor – it goes back beyond Henry VIII you know, get rid, don’t bother about what’ll replace it. It’s just like in Doctor Zhivago when they hear the Romanovs had been shot. “It means that they want us to know that they won’t be any going back”.
You’re reading WAY TOO MUCH into it. Heavens, it certainly can’t be all that bad, but if it is, we’ll deal with it as soon as you’ve had a chance to shower, over there, go on… a soothing shower will do you good, get you clean, there’s a good Citizen…
Good I’ve obviously got someones nickers in a twist. I replied on my site under “Logic need not pass this point” but basically get over your Europe thing. “Gauleiters” I mean be serious.