Awesome! But Mummy, "What is that man for?"

The Telegraph
England united
(Filed: 06/11/2004)
It is an awesome result. Supporters of a devolved assembly in the North-East had everything going for them. They were supported by Labour and the Lib Dems, the trade unions, the regional press, the BBC, most local councils (whose members saw themselves enjoying larger salaries and expenses) and every prominent busybody who fancied himself as an assemblyman, including the Mayor of Middlesbrough, Ray Mallon. Against this, No campaigners had some cheaply produced leaflets and an inflatable white elephant. Yet, on the day, the No side won no less than 78 per cent of votes cast, and on a respectable turnout.

The first thing that this shows is the conservative temper of contemporary Britain. The difference between Left and Right, at its most elemental, has to do with faith in the capacity of government to do good. Blairism is sustained by the belief that agencies, action zones, new deals and, indeed, politicians in general make society happier. Yet the plebiscite in the North-East suggests that, even in Labour's own heartland, this belief has little resonance. By four to one, practical-minded Geordies rejected the idea that more tax and more politicians would ameliorate their condition. This is not to say, of course, that they are all secret Tories, but there is something intrinsically conservative about the rejection of bureaucratic schemes, the preference for the organic and traditional over the synthetic and rationalist. It is significant that No campaigners should also have tapped into a deep suspicion that the dismemberment of England was somehow an EU plot - a belief that is not wholly unfounded: Brussels may have no direct power to demand the regionalisation of its member states but, by recognising regions in its structures, it has quietly encouraged the process.

Two more conclusions follow. First, instead of regionalism, the political parties should look at proper devolution - devolution, that is, to the lowest practical level. They should think imaginatively about US-style town hall democracy, with a proper link between taxation, representation and expenditure at municipal level, and local control over policing, schools and welfare. The Tories and Lib Dems are groping towards some of these ideas, but seem reluctant to go the whole hog.

Second, the Deputy Prime Minister ought to do the decent thing and retire. The apocryphal child's question "Mummy, what is that man for?" has been variously applied to Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir John Simon, Lord Mountbatten and many others. But never has it been more apposite than now. Since losing the transport brief, John Prescott's only role, apart from periodically mediating between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, has been to oversee the regionalist agenda. As of yesterday, even that portfolio has become empty.