You won't be surprised to hear that I don't always agree with the Guardian columnist, Simon Jenkins ... but today, he has a pretty good article on the Communities White Paper that I mentioned a couple of days ago ...
... he may not debate the use of electoral reform, but the other criticisms he levels at the current state of English Local Government are (sadly) fairly applicable to Scotland as well.
STV-PR, up here, may change things over time (its not though, a panacea), but currently there appears to be no further, associated moves to devolve further powers to local people ... quite the opposite!
... indeed, I would contest that the last 14-months have seen more control removed from a local level than since the onset of devolution in 1999. We're pretty much nothing more than a 'delivery-arm' of national Government now.
All pretty ironic when you consider that many anti-devolutionists thought that the Scottish Parliament would lead to the 'immediate' emasculation of Scottish Local Government (it didn't happen) ... so, even more incredible when you think that its actually taken the Party of "Independence" to remove that very thing from the tier of Government they now control :-(
2 comments:
Andrew -
YOU, Andrew Burns sat quiet for one hour. That really takes some believing.
Really amazing what can happen now adays.
Harry
Harry
I assume this comment relates to the earlier "Badger" post?!
... why you should be surprised, I just don't understand ;-)
Andrew
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