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Devolution and Regional Government

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
 Preamble

Chapters

  1. Salaries and Taxation
  2. Pensions
  3. Benefits
  4. Health and Care
  5. Education
  6. Housing
  7. Employment
  8. Trades Unions and Labour Laws
  9. Trade and Industry
  10. Transport
  11. Energy
  12. Environment
  13. Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Rural Life
  14. Crime
  15. Legal System
  16. Immigration and Asylum
  17. Local Government
  18. Devolution and Regional Government
  19. Parliament and Democracy
  20. Media
  21. Freedom of Information and Privacy
  22. Northern Ireland
  23. European Union
  24. Foreign Policy
  25. Defence and Disarmament
  26. Conclusions
The Tories' interest in "subsidiarity" applied to devolving powers from Europe to the UK but not from the UK to its nations and regions. They opposed any increased self-government in Scotland and Wales, and were linked with the Unionist tradition in Northern Ireland. They established Government Offices for the Regions, but only because some EU funding has to be channelled through regional bodies, and these were unelected quangos making decisions over public money at private meetings. They allowed market forces to create increasing disparities between the regions, an effect best known as the north-south divide.
Labour policy was:
1 To establish a Scottish Parliament with legislative and tax-raising (?) powers  
2 To establish a Welsh Assembly with ?  
3 To devolve power to elected regional assemblies, bringing decisions over regional funding under democratic control, and to have Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to encourage investment  
4 To distribute economic activity more evenly across the country  
In fact under New Labour:
1 A Scottish Parliament was established though Labour promised at the referendum not to raise taxes Pledge carried out
2 An Assembly was established but with limited legislative and no tax-raising powers; later an inquiry recommended that it should be able to make laws in all areas where administration is devolved, though this will need a new referendum We need more information on the outcome of this pledge. Can you help?
3 Regional assemblies were set up but with only indirect election of some members; elected ones were offered with few powers, mostly centralised from local authorities rather than devolved from Westminster, and this was rejected in a referendum in the north-east; assemblies were then abolished. RDAs were business-dominated quangos meeting in secret but then took powers like regional planning out of democratic control Pledge partially carried out
4 The north-south divide was not tackled, and population fell in Scotland and the north of England while green-belt land had to be built on in the south-east. The north had far more "hidden unemployed" and the life expectancy gap widened Left as under the Conservatives
In addition:
Bullet point Tony Blair compared the tax-raising powers of the Scottish Parliament with a parish council's  

 

 Bullet point 

Scotland and Wales have abandoned many of New Labour's trademark policies 

 

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