Political View: Local Government Reorganisation – getting it right
Recent announcements by the Labour government have been met with mixed responses across the political spectrum of our country, writes Alex Bowerbanks of Peterborough Green Party.
The proposal to expand the voting age to 16 year olds has been welcomed by those who care about citizens’ rights and the young, while being a sore point for more tyrannical factions in our society. For if you are old enough to pay tax, get married (with your guardian’s consent), and enlist (again with parental consent), and are a citizen then why shouldn’t you have the right to have a fair and equal say in the future of our country?
Some say this has been done in an attempt by the Labour government to grow their increasingly diminishing vote share. We think this is a welcome development. However, there is great concern over other Labour plans, especially regarding devolution.
Devolution has been a key policy for the Green party for a long time. In a political context the word means moving power away from big government and towards local people. Such a move places greater power and responsibility on elected and local representatives; city councillors, parish councils, etc. By giving these people who are supposed to be more involved in, and so are more accountable to, their local areas than MPs in Parliament, they will be able to tackle the problems of residents more effectively and with less bureaucracy.
However, although they use the word devolution, that is not what the Labour government offers. Rather than increase and grow the nation’s democracy this is a move to erode it. The proposals are not devolution as I have explained above, but an attempt by big government to consolidate powers in the hands of a few, specifically mayors, and reduce accountability. This is a shift away from a more direct democracy towards a more American style governorship. There is concern that this corruption of the core principles of devolution will lead to greater removal of local powers in favour of mini prime ministers.
As areas are broken down and reorganised, there are questions regarding which areas should be grouped together under the new unitary authorities. Do you group people together over cultural and heritage links? Use geography and transport? Or strengths and weakness of local economies?
Towards answering these questions, the government has put together an online survey. Some people have doubts as to the impact the survey will have on the outcome. There are suspicions that the centralised big government have already made their decision and will only use the survey data that supports their desired solution.
Devolution is not perfect, but then what is? There is the possibility of greater corporate influence and interference if implemented poorly. But that is a topic for another time.
It is more important than ever that we hold the government accountable, at every level, to protect our democracy. We owe it to ourselves, those who came before, and those who come after, to build a better Britain and a better world.