Politics of devolution in the UK
The Economist editors are enthusiasts for devolution, so the headline and conclusion of its account of competing partisan devolution proposals in Commons should be expected. As usual for the The Economist, the editorial position does not get in the way of teaching us about issue and the controversies.Trust the locals: Reasons to be hopeful that Britain will become less centralised
"WHENEVER Britain is diagnosed as ill-governed the same remedy is proposed: split up the mammoth bureaucracies in Whitehall, the wide street that runs from Parliament to Trafalgar Square* and is still haunted by the ghosts of the men in bowler hats who built the welfare state from their offices there...
"The centre could be forced to do less and local government trusted a little more. Those who think this is a good idea dream of renewing the kind of government that flourished in Victorian Britain, when councils housed in magnificent town halls decided for themselves what they would spend money on and how they would raise it. Happily, a consensus is gradually forming around this idea. It might even happen.
"Take the sustainable-communities bill... it would give councils and local authorities far greater discretion over spending...
"Meanwhile a separate proposal, this time from the government, to give greater local control over health care, was debated in the House of Commons this week...
"Local government accounts for a quarter of total government spending but the great bulk of this is handed out by central government rather than raised locally...
"'The reason that British prime ministers look so exhausted when they leave office,' says Tony Travers of the London School of Economics, 'is that they not only do the job that George Bush or Angela Merkel is doing; they also do most of what the states or the Länder do too.'...
"For opposition parties observing the mess, decentralisation is an appealing (if hardly catchy) solution. The problem is that when new governments get their hands on power at Westminster, they tend to find it hard to let go voluntarily...
"Yet even the most enthusiastic Tories refrain from calling for more tax-raising powers for councils... businessmen fear that if councils could set business taxes they would head in only one direction. Ministers are also under constant pressure to deliver public services that are the same everywhere, even if this means levelling down..."
*There's a nifty web cam showing Trafalger Square from a tall building across the street. You won't see the top of Nelson's column, but you will see the fountains, the traffic, and the weather. Mind the time difference.
Labels: UK devolution
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:09 AM
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