Author Topic: Was Boris right on devolution?  (Read 495 times)

GrumpyOldFart

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Was Boris right on devolution?
« on: Nov 17, 2020, 09:50:09 AM »

Boris says devolution has been a disaster and the biggest mistake made by Tony Blair.

A big mistake but not his biggest I venture to suggest.

I was thinking about the SNP this morning when I read that they have spent £2.7m of taxpayers money on mobile phones for every prison inmate in Scotland.


Ashy

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #1 on: Nov 17, 2020, 10:46:31 AM »
Devolution is a good idea. We don't have it where I live, councillors meet miles away and our ward's are outvoted by 67/3 on any issue that they understand. Even then I think only one of them lives in or near the ward.

Any regional assembly will have the same remoteness, although less remote than Westminster. Then it's up to the voters to put sensible people in the seats, and that is where the system falls down.

If a party is owned and run by loudmouthed extremist  minorities, the loudest of them get chosen as candidates, and then the loudest and most extreme of them forms the regional government.

Traveller

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #2 on: Nov 17, 2020, 02:03:24 PM »
I think that, in principle,  devolution is the right way to go. The different UK nations have different needs and resources and should be best placed to manage their own affairs. 
As it stands, devolution may have its faults, but independence would be a real disaster.
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Jacqueline

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #3 on: Nov 17, 2020, 02:14:07 PM »
I live in Wales we are all part of the UK, I (and many more like me) don't want the Welsh Assembley, it costs a fortune to run and is useless.  This was all done to break up the UK into regions ready for the United States of Europe.

xetog

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #4 on: Nov 17, 2020, 03:01:56 PM »
Whilst I do not doubt that Blair was happy to hive off parts of the UK for the sake of Europe (he also tried it with parts of England but the canny northerners knew a dud when they saw it). The devolution of some powers to Scotland recognised that already areas like law and education were different from the rest of the UK, but if Scots could have their own nation in all but name, why not the Welsh and Irish as they had nationalists too?  The only unfairness was to the English as they were not to share in the political and organisational freedoms enjoyed by the other three 'nations'.


It worked too.  For a while, the various nationalist parties were kept busy wrecking their economies and institutions demanding more freedom and bigger budgets, but that has now slithered to a halt with the main UK Government refusing to hand over things like budgets repatriated from Europe.  Particularly badly effected are health provision and education.  According to my sources, although free university tuition and free prescriptions have led to benefits for some, others have seen to a drop in standards and shortages that definitely make life worse than before.  Of course to nationalists, this just leads to demands for more money which can be tipped down the drain of poor governance. Of course, to the nationalist, it's all the fault of the 'English' Government, which does not exist.


Mike.X
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Raven

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #5 on: Nov 17, 2020, 03:21:34 PM »
It is one thing - and, of course, legitimate - for political rivals to criticise each other. But to suggest the way that Scotland has been run for more than a decade is a "disaster" is quite another.

crabbyob

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #6 on: Nov 17, 2020, 07:22:23 PM »
i think the large counties deserve devoloution
Yorks...Lancs, cumbria,...Londoninium.... ;D
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klondike

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #7 on: Nov 17, 2020, 08:41:00 PM »
I don't want the incompetents that run my council to get any more powers thank you very much.
So long and thanks for all the fish

Michael Rolls

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #8 on: Nov 17, 2020, 08:54:50 PM »
To my mind, Tony Blair’s biggest mistake was being born
Mike
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Cee Gee

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #9 on: Nov 17, 2020, 08:59:59 PM »
A resounding YES. Total disaster.

Ashy

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #10 on: Nov 17, 2020, 10:20:33 PM »
There are of course different ways of looking at devolution. Has it benefited the people of Scotland and Wales? Do the assemblies fulfil any peculiar function? Are they good value for money? My guess, as I live in England, is it is a bit of a curate's egg. People aren't all that different in these countries.

zoony

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #11 on: Nov 17, 2020, 10:55:47 PM »
True enough though there are national characteristics that are hard to deny..We're all much the same but perhaps our hearts and minds aren't..
"Listen to the wind, it cleans the mind."

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Jacqueline

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #12 on: Nov 17, 2020, 11:21:26 PM »
To my mind, Tony Blair’s biggest mistake was being born
Mike


His parents have a lot to answer for, has anyone seen the film Rosemary's Baby? do you reckon thats how he was conceaved?

Alex22

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Re: Was Boris right on devolution?
« Reply #13 on: Nov 18, 2020, 03:08:33 PM »
I saw that film many years ago, at the time I thought it was really scary  😮
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