MP's demand an answer to 'the English question'.

It seems the move towards devolved power for England is gathering pace.

www.bbc.co.uk...

It's obvious that the anomaly of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland having devolved powers and a certain level of control over their own affairs whilst retaining the power to vote on English only issues requires addressing.

My only concern is that this will increase the London centric nature of English politics.

Will this devolved power see an England only assembly or will each region be given their own assemblies?

There is already growing concern over the influence London has on the rest of the country and how perhaps London should be treat as a seperate entity from the rest of England.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Could this be the start of a move towards some sort of Federal United Kingdom?

Isn't central London actually one of those break away sovereign states, a long with the Vatican and Washington? Maybe that explains a little..

reply to post by Freeborn


Well I would support regional assemblies but I don't think that would address nor solve the north south divide or should I say London and the rest of England divide?

For instance government loans to Nissan in my area, if local people were in charge of such schemes and ideas I don't think loaning it to a company worth multi-billion pounds, their is more pressing issues within my local area that could have done with that kind of money... Housing and road/rail/port infostructure.

Politics and how they are implemented in this land are changing fast this much is true, what would you like to happen?

I have to admit that I would like to see an English only parliament, but I would hate to see devolved regional ones, my reason is equally selfish, while I might live in Southern England I live in an area that still fall in the poorest 5% of the country and that would only get worse if the South was lumbered with London in a regional assembly.

Personally I would love to see an English parliament outside of London, Winchester would be great for me.. and I would even prefer one centred on York or any of the ancient capitals rather than London, failing that I would prefer to see us break free of England and return to being a kingdom in our own right.

An interesting little bit of information for those that do not know is Henry VII had 2 sons, his first he named Arthur, Prince Arthur of Wales, and was going to move his capital back to Winchester as he'd identified this as Camelot.. His plan was to invoke a golden age by enthroning King Arthur at Camelot. however Arthur died and his other Son, the First Prince Harry, became Henry VIII and married Prince Arthur's bide, Katherine.
en.wikipedia.org...

While that last part is off topic in a sense it also shows that we could have a capital/parliament outside of London that still sits comfortably within our heritage as a nation.

Originally posted by Freeborn
Will this devolved power see an England only assembly or will each region be given their own assemblies?

I can't see them splitting it up into different assemblies. It will just be one English one.

The northern cities will have to shout loudly or all the money will go to London.

Remember the fight when Ken wanted the country to pay for The London Underground?

Personally I'd like to see regional assemblies.

We had a vote for one a few years back here in the North East and it was overwhelmingly voted against so I accept I am probably in the minority.
It was an incredibly one sided debate with all MSM's heavily against the idea of regional assemblies and the pro-assembly arguement was given very little exposure at all.
But it is what it is.

London dominates politics at present, imagine how much it would dominate an all England parliament.
The regions would get even less consideration than they do at present.

In addition any all England parliament would be predominantly Conservative and no Tory government has ever done much for the North East, not that Labour have done much more.
We would be consigned to a Conservative government for the foreseeable future and they would be able to give even less regard to the interests of the North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Midlands etc than they do at present.

My reservations are that the EU would exploit any move towards regional assemblies to dismantle both England and the UK as a whole.
As such my preferred option would be devolved power to regional assemblies within a Federal United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with trade agreements etc with the EU.

Early days, I suspect any move towards any devolved power in England will take some time with many a bloody arguement in the meantime.

reply to post by ObservingYou

Isn't central London actually one of those break away sovereign states, a long with the Vatican and Washington? Maybe that explains a little..

The City Of London is a district of London that has it's own Mayor, Police Force etc and is the seat of enormous wealth and significant influence but it's hardly a sovereign state and is as much a part of England as Greater London, (the parts of London outside of The City).

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by thoughtsfull


I sympathise my friend.

Perhaps we could cut London out of England and set it adrift somewhere far away from the rest of us - we'll keep Camden Town though in exchange for a large portion of the Home Counties and parts of Essex.

reply to post by Freeborn


That's a cool idea, made me smile but I do believe it vital that any English Parliament not be in London, or easy reach of London.. one of our historic towns/cities would be far more appropriate, I have to admit I would be happier to see an English Parliament in the North East over London, as I believe, even situated that far away it would see us more kindly than one inside London and dominated by London interests.

My fear is that if we get one inside London all things will stay the same, and London will continue to drive regional divides and nothing will change.. and we, as a people need to see positive change...

The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

I don't wholly agree with the op though...sounds too much like more quangoes to me.
Rainbows
Jane

Originally posted by angelchemuel
The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

I don't wholly agree with the op though...sounds too much like more quangoes to me.
Rainbows
Jane

I think the BBC and Parliament should be kept as far from each other as possible...

Originally posted by thoughtsfull

Originally posted by angelchemuel
The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

I don't wholly agree with the op though...sounds too much like more quangoes to me.
Rainbows
Jane

I think the BBC and Parliament should be kept as far from each other as possible...

I thought one was the mouthpiece for the other!....oh well, my bad!
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by Freeborn

As such my preferred option would be devolved power to regional assemblies within a Federal United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland with trade agreements etc with the EU.

So not too dissimilar to the states then?

I could see this as a good option of governance but one big problem would be that some regions are over swelled and could not pay for themselves without government intervention in part a problem created by government, a case of "bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy" something the NE has suffered in recent years.

I like the idea of a Federal UK because many Counties in the UK could be very successful and profitable but they would need some serious financial start up money especially here in the North East, potential is all their though and always has been. I know a lot of old fogeys around here would love to see ports and possibly coal mines being re-opened and invested into.

Napoleon famously said "England is a nation of shopkeepers" I bet he would bowl over with laughter if he could see us now and how our financial survival is pretty much controlled by the international markets... a so for corrupt and fallible system.

Originally posted by angelchemuel

Originally posted by thoughtsfull

Originally posted by angelchemuel
The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

I don't wholly agree with the op though...sounds too much like more quangoes to me.
Rainbows
Jane

I think the BBC and Parliament should be kept as far from each other as possible...

I thought one was the mouthpiece for the other!....oh well, my bad!

Rainbows
Jane

you're spot on and you know it

Was just hoping we could keep them apart...

reply to post by angelchemuel


Don't see how 'democratically elected' assemblies equate to quango's?

Do you mean an English parliament or regional assemblies?

Don't see why England should be any different than the other constituent parts of the UK.
Devolved power to regions within a nation works perfectly well in many other countries and can take many different forms.
Whilst not wanting to replicate it's policies perhaps something similar to that which exists in Spain would be viable.

We are some way from this happening and I'm sure that come the time there will be more learned minds than mine setting out the options available.

ETA

reply to post by RAY1990


Federal Union's like the USA, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Germany etc have all been shown to be workable.

Yes there would be 'start up' costs but done professionally I'm sure it would be manageable.

Originally posted by ObservingYou
Isn't central London actually one of those break away sovereign states, a long with the Vatican and Washington? Maybe that explains a little..

No Central London is not a break-away sovereign state. Silly statement.

To OP. I think this is a good idea. However, the current political voting in England is inclined towards the Conservatives. Therefore, if you don't like that then you won't want all the Scottish and Welsh Labour MPs to be removed from the equation. Personally, I would welcome a purely English political environment, but without the break up of the UK as I consider myself to be English with a bit of Welsh British.

It would certainly be an interesting situation.

Regards

Originally posted by Freeborn
reply to post by angelchemuel

 

Don't see how 'democratically elected' assemblies equate to quango's?

Do you mean an English parliament or regional assemblies?

Don't see why England should be any different than the other constituent parts of the UK.
Devolved power to regions within a nation works perfectly well in many other countries and can take many different forms.
Whilst not wanting to replicate it's policies perhaps something similar to that which exists in Spain would be viable.

We are some way from this happening and I'm sure that come the time there will be more learned minds than mine setting out the options available.

OK...maybe quangos was the wrong word to use....maybe I should have said Councils!
Rainbows
Jane

Originally posted by angelchemuel
The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

Actually, that's a really important point. However, relocating to Winchester would be better, surely. Winchester was an ancient capital of England.

Regards

Originally posted by paraphi

Originally posted by angelchemuel
The BBC has moved to Manchester...so why not parliament?

Actually, that's a really important point. However, relocating to Winchester would be better, surely. Winchester was an ancient capital of England.

Regards

So was somewhere up Northumberland way!
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by paraphi


That's the predicament for regions like the North East which is almost exclusively Labour.

Any English parliament would see a large overall majority for the Conservatives for the foreseeable future which is why my preferred option would be devolving power to the regions - but I accept I'm probably in the minority in thinking that.

There are many options, but nothing can detract from the fact that there should be some form of self-governance for England along the lines of the other parts of the UK and we must move away from the London centric nature of UK politics that has proven so detrimental to most parts of the UK other than London and the surrounding areas.

As other's have suggested perhaps placing an English parliament in somewhere other than London, whether it be Winchester or somewhere like Nottingham / Birmingham, would facilitate a breakaway for London centrism.