How Tony Blair torpedoed elected regional assembly

By William Green on Feb 25, 10 08:30 AM

I have been reading an excellent new book by Joyce Quin, a senior Labour figure from the North East. It's published by Northern Writers and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in politics.

It is well written exploring the changing British constitution, interlaced with episodes from Baroness Quin's long political career bringing the issues to life.

One such example is how Tony Blair's inaction helped scupper the elected regional assembly vote in 2004.

In her new book, the former minister said Labour decided to move "much more slowly" on English regional government than in Scotland and Wales - apart from in London.

"There was little doubt that Tony Blair himself was unwilling to deliver quickly on regional government within England and that he was unconvinced by the arguments for it," said Baroness Quin.

She added this was in tune with the "Whitehall machine" fearing loss of power and relocation of civil service jobs.

The issue became a "hesitant, second-term issue" despite John Prescott's support and regional campaigns - with the assembly proposals far more limited than offered to Scotland, Wales or London.

Baroness Quin said this paved the way for an "unholy alliance" of opponents to devolution and those who wanted more powers given to the region.

And the timing of the referendum could not have been worse, she said.

The euphoria of Labour's first term had evaporated with the Government unpopular over the Iraq War - with the vote providing the opportunity for the electorate to give it a "bloody nose".

"Secondly, the Government itself seemed half-hearted about the idea. The Prime Minister, a North East MP, had never pushed it and was almost entirely absent from the campaign.

"It seemed odd that John Prescott, however ardently he personally supported the issue, had to be drafted in from outside the region to raise the issue with the voters.

"Furthermore, he did not get the support from the national party machine in terms of campaign organisation, strategy and sheer hard work that was necessary," said Baroness Quin.

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5 Comments

E justice said:

It still hurts those that wanted these assemblies does'nt it?Tony Blair was right about one thing ,no one wanted these quangos.
And John Prescott striding through Newcastle saying "there is no such thing as England" and Ms. Quin saying "the North East of England should become part of Scotland"helped the NO vote quite a bit.
That they are still around wasting millions of pounds of tax payers money(under a new name)is how much the Labour Government take any notice of Democracy.

February 25, 2010 9:36 PM

Helen Wright said:

You refuse to acknowledge that we don't want RAs, as a third class answer to devolution.

WE WANT AN ENGLISH PARLIAMENT - and anything else will be decided by representatives, elected by us and not the unelected bunch of plastic Celts gerrymandering as British MPs in OUR Parliament.

What a back-stabbing bunch this lot in power have turned out to be! [if you live in England, that is]

February 26, 2010 12:38 AM

tally said:

Quin would know that going back as far as the kilbrandon commission in the early 70's that it was understood then that England would not accept regionalisation, but they carried on for party political motives and nothing else.Gordon Brown signed the Scottish claim of right to put Scotland first in all his dealings, he has certainly done that.English MP's of all parties have let him get away with continually talking about british legislation when because of devolution he can only mean England.shame on you all.

February 26, 2010 9:09 AM

Patrick Harris said:

No he didn't. The voters of the north east did all the torpedoing.

February 26, 2010 10:17 AM

Stephen Gash said:

The whole campaign for England's regional carve-up was dishonest from the start.

It was funded with millions of English taxpayers' money, the "official" opposition chosen by the government stooge, the Electoral Commission (even though everybody knew Neil Herron's group was the real opposition), then the Welshman Prescott and his anti-England Labour cronies started sneering about the "No" campaign being led by a "Tory Toff Southerner".

Once the "North East" region was kicked into touch, Labour and the anti-England regionalists, such as the Liberal Democrats, (has ever a party been more misnamed?) started saying that the "no" vote was against *elected* regional assemblies, not against regional assemblies. In other words the people of County Durham, Northumberland and north Yorkshire, voted against democracy.

The people of Sedgefield voted 76% "no" to the unitary authority, just as they voted against the regional assembly, but they have both the unitary authority and regional grand committee foisted on them.

Time for an English Parliament and for local government to return to the English counties where it belongs.

If Scots, Welsh and Brussels mandarines can't live with the English looking after England - tough.

February 26, 2010 2:51 PM

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