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Why has ‘less Westminster’ become ‘more politicians’?
It’s great the new Government is trying to breath fresh life into devolving power from Westminster, but their new ‘Rewiring The State’ proposal doubles down on some big mistakes in Blair’s last attempt: 1, It adds more expensive extra layers…
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A Matter Of Life & Death
Almost lost between this week’s national mourning (in England anyway) over the World Cup, and the endless Westminster fantasy-football speculation about who’s going to be in or out of Andy Burnham’s first cabinet, was an oh-so-British announcement about Dartmoor ponies.…
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Manchesterism’s first big test is the bond markets
Here it comes again. Whoever Andy Burnham chooses to be his Chancellor of the Exchequer will face the same challenge as all their predecessors since Gordon Brown: producing ‘fiscal rules’ to reassure the City they will be prudent holders of the nation’s…
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Blair’s devolution experiment is broken – and someone needs to say so
The ‘Burnham effect’ that propelled Labour to victory in Makerfield is only the latest example of regional and devolved democratic leaders who are miles more popular than their opposite numbers in Westminster. Political talents as diverse as Boris Johnson and Alex Salmond…
