Tag Archive for Regionalisation

Lord Adonis proposes regional government in England again

Unelected Labour peer, Lord Adonis, is spearheading yet another campaign for the destruction of England by regionalisation.

Lord Adonis

78% of people don’t want regional government you say? I honestly don’t give a shit.

The Labour Party always refer to the deceitful referendum on the common market held in 1975, which nobody currently under the age of 56 was able to take part in, as giving legitimacy to our continued membership of the EU despite the majority of the population being opposed to it.  Yet the referendum on regional government held in the north east of England by his party just 8 and a half years ago which resulted in a 78% “no” vote can apparently be safely ignored.

Adonis is producing a report for Nick Clegg – another Deputy Prime Minister that wants to destroy England – on the economy of north east of England and wants regional governments in England with control over major budgets.  His vision is for a return of the unelected regional assemblies and regional development agencies that we’ve only just got rid of.  It’s a kick in the teeth for democracy and if he’s successful, another major broken promise from the British government.

Local authorities can work together perfectly well without an unaccountable, undemocratic regional quango taking powers and money away from elected representatives.  Local government is a devolved matter, the British government has no moral or democratic mandate to ride roughshod over our democratic wishes and dismantle our system of local government to suit their own political ambitions.  Labour is already behind a campaign for a regional parliament for the north of England and this renewed interest in “devolution” to regional quangos is a regionalist trojan horse.  The fact that it’s an unelected peer trying to dismantle our country makes it even more unacceptable.

Regionalisation putting lives at risk again

Yesterday I got a call from Mrs Sane who was out on the road asking me to phone the police for her and tell them that some clever person had lobbed a traffic cone off an island onto the dual carriageway below and that just after the cone was a broken down and the two were causing a danger.

I phoned West Mercia police and asked to be put through to the control room at Telford and they duly put me through to the communications centre in Worcester.  I explained which dual carriageway it was (the A442) in Telford and which interchange had the problem.

“Would you say it was Shifnal to Telford or Shifnal to Bridgnorth?”  Completely different bit of road, not a dual carriageway and miles away from where I said it was.  I explained, yet again, where it was and that it was only a quarter of the way from the police station and that the local police will know exactly where I’m talking about.

“What’s nearby, so I can tell them?” Arrrrgh! I told him to trust me, just to put down what I had told him and the local police who, as I’d just mentioned, were only a quarter of a mile away, would know where I was talking about.

He finally accepted it and after a couple of minutes taking my home address and phone number and asking me if I wanted a reference number for the call I managed to get him off the phone.  All in all it took me a good 10 minutes to report a dangerous obstruction on the main arterial route through a busy town at rush hour and all because it’s no longer possible to speak to your local police station thanks to pointless regionalisation of public services.

West Midlands NO!: Coventry leaves City Region

Please try not to laugh because this is very serious.  Coventry has left the City Region of Birmingham, Coventry & the Black Country.

Since Telford & Wrekin parted company with the city region, it’s become more and more irrelevant as its focus narrows to providing the same Birmingham-centric services as the plethora of regional quangos infesting the euroregion.  In other words, a pointless duplication.

They had to change their name from Birmingham, Black Country & Coventry City Region after West Midlands NO! registered the name to the City Region of Birmingham, Coventry & the City Region.  They can’t call themselves the City Region of Birmingham, Coventry & the Black Country now that Coventry is no longer part of it so I wonder what they’ll call their quango now … has anyone though about Greater Birmingham?

Anyway, I’m sure the City Region’s unelected leader, Dr Simon Murphy, will appreciate any helpful suggestions you might have.  His email address is simon.murphy@birmingham.gov.uk and his phone number is 0121 464 8168.  Let him have your suggestions, I’m sure he’ll appreciate them.