John Prescott (picture time-4-change.org.uk)
Regional government puts effective powers into many more hands, hands that are closer to the problems that need to be solved. But for the mess caused by John Prescott over the referendum in the north east, we might be some way towards such a system. Regrettably, the case for regional government is as discredited as the man who was supposed to champion it, but maybe regional government will bounce back first.
A study commissioned by the Assembly of European Regions suggests that it might. Countries where the regions have powers over taxation, legislation and education do better than countries where the regions do not, on the whole. It is no longer just an argument of Federal Union, it seems.
A further point is a reflection on the case for an English parliament. It could be part of a federal United Kingdom of a kind, and would solve a number of the problems posed by the current system of asymmetry in the British constitution. On the other hand, it would still represent 48 million people, the population of England. It could hardly to deliver the benefits of true regional government demonstrated by the AER study. An English parliament would itself have to set up some kind of regional system if it were truly to provide effective and democratic government of the kind the English are looking for.
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An English parliament would cause MORE asymmetry of the Union. England has a population of 52 million out of 62 million in the UK as a whole. This would create a situation where the English parliament would end up completely dominating and becoming more important to many than the UK Parliament – hence probably eventually cause the whole Union to collapse as this became apparent.
A better solution is a move to a full federal Union where the population of each federal region is as pragmatically equal as possible (as was Labour’s original plan for devolution). England is not one homogeneous region, and has a clear north-south divide. Federal regions would allow less well off regions to introduce policies that would be more befitting to the more local needs e.g. the North East could reduce corporation taxes to attract more investment to that region. This would help to reduce the north-south divide by reducing the excessive concentration of political and economic power that currently exists in the South East.
Another good idea would to be to give the English federal regions more meaningful names than the purely geographical “South West” or “North East” etc. These names could be taken from the rich ancient heritage of the regions e.g. Dumnonia, Mercia, Northumbria, Brigantes etc.