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The North East Party is launched.
onecitizen
Posts: 5,042 Forum Member
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The North East Party is launched to fight for devolution North East England.
There has been coverage of this new party in the Northern Echo.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...st_devolution/
A further report can be read in the Journal newspaper.
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/nor...unches-7175897
There has been coverage of this new party in the Northern Echo.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/new...st_devolution/
A further report can be read in the Journal newspaper.
http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/nor...unches-7175897
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Comments
A rather weak form of, yes.
One of the problems was that the various councils were urging their employees to vote against, scaring them with prophecies of them all losing their jobs if it went ahead. This seemed to work.
None of this precludes those who feel devolution of the regions would be a good thing from voicing their views. And if Scotland leaves, the NE will be potentially in a poor position moving forward, as a remote area of the country.
If Scotland became independent, perhaps the folks of the NE region could have a Ukraine style referendum and join Scotland?
Would the Scots want them?
Even with a No vote being returned in the Scottish referendum I can see further devolution occuring for Scotland and this will be a challenge to NE England in particular.
And with public expenditure so biased against the North East we certainly need a clear and independent voice to fight our corner.
"The Institute for Public Policy Research North says £2,700 is spent per person in London compared with £5 per head in the north-east of England."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16235349
Well, given that Edinburgh was historically part of Northumbria..... ;-)
Absolutely. This party could be very useful for getting the message out to people.
Sadly, the lack of media coverage of regional matters in general, in no small part due to the centralisation of independent television, isn't helping.
I think there is the potential for Cumbria and those parts of the NE north of the Tyne, to take advantage of Scottish independence, and also as a commuter area into Edinburgh for example.
However, if UKIP get their way the borders will end up being shut down and that will mess up that opportunity, sadly.
Im sure UKIP would have given more devolution on a par with Wales and Scotland to English regions and not treated them like second class like Labour did.
It did. Resoundingly.
If they'd have said yes, then the Assembly could have picked up more responsibilities over time... just as happened with the Scottish and Welsh ones.
What's the UKIP policy on regional devolution by the way?
Perhaps if UKIP placed in their manifesto plans to build regional devolution, rather than their old manifesto which called for the Scottish Parliament to be replaced with a setup consisting of Scottish Westminster MPs making policy decisions, they may get more votes.
Who knows, maybe that will indeed be in the new manifesto?
The policies are being revised so I cant say for certain now what it will be. But they were in favour of real devolution for the regions and countries in the UK. But Im sure it was for UK wide ' devolution equality ' and not giving one region or country proper devolved powers and offering another a glorified talking shop with no real powers.
Maybe UKIP will have a new policy as you cant undo Scottish devolution.
I think most people on here will know that I feel rather strongly about devolution for the NE of England, and if UKIP comes out strongly in favour of it, I will be left with a difficult decision.
On the one hand I am pro-Europe (with caveats), but if UKIP can push towards regional devolution and do it forcefully, I may have to re-evaluate my position. It will go against the grain though.
Both Labour and LDs have promised this in the past; Labour made a mess of it, and the LDs have not been able to push through reform to anything like the level I would have liked.
The North East Party is likely to sway me a great deal, but we'll see what happens.
The politics matter less than the principle -- regions of this country, and especially the more remote ones, are being strangled by a combination of underinvestment, and the Labour thought that moving public sector jobs around is going to keep things muddling along. The jobs are welcome, but it's doing the areas no good at all.