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In 1972 the Foreign office reported on the likely implications for British Sovereignty of entry into the European Communities

The report noted the publics concern for this diminution of Britain’s perceived role on the world stage and to combat this, suggested redirecting our attention from national politics to a strengthened local and regional democratic processes. In other words, by reducing our interests down to local a level we should be more interested in our local politics, leaving the way open for national and international politics to be decided by those who understood them.

“SOVEREIGNTY AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES” (FCO 30/1048 – 1971)
“The transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential”.

This notion of course fell neatly into line with the Unions own intentions to promote a regional policy of its own, which was in the preamble to the Treaty of Rome 1957.

Oddly enough the EU Regional policy seems to be built on ideas of “cohesion” to break apart and then reunite under the patronage of the EU. So whilst we are busily concentrating on our local politics, the EU is busily working at removing the glue that binds us as one nation, and directing our attention to the EU as the main body of authority.

For some reason we in Britain did not get too far down the road of directing our attention away from national politics to local scene, that is until New Labour won the election. Since then we have seen the regionalisation of Scotland and Wales, the break up of England into nine regions and the elected assembly in London. The eight remaining regions were to have elected assemblies but the debacle in the North East referendum, has put a lid on that for the time being, but those assemblies are still in existence waiting for a more favourable chance to return to the forefront and another bite at the cherry, by a government and an EU that is intent on destroying Britain as one unit and rebuilding the regions into an EU of the Regions by passing parliament in the process.

Of course it could be and probably will be argued that although this may have been the aim of the intergrationalist in the early years of the Union it has since been dropped this of course is nonsense as we see in the Telegraph today

Blair’s pet idea for elected mayors revived

“Renewed pressure will be put on towns and cities to elect mayors under plans announced yesterday aimed at reviving local democracy. John Prescott said he wanted to find a new way of encouraging cities to elect mayors because the present system had often led to voters rejecting the idea.
Publishing a five-year plan in a series of documents, he said he wanted to give people “more of a say in the way places are run”.
The Deputy Prime Minister also proposed changes to the way councils were organised, with more decisions being taken at a neighbourhood level. One idea suggests that neighbourhoods - sub-divisions within a council - could even be given their own tax-raising powers. Mr Prescott provided few detailed recommendations in the documents, which are intended to provide ideas for consultation with local authorities.
But he made it clear that Labour had not lost its appetite for local government reform, despite the fact that its elected mayor programme had had only mixed success.
He Government also suggested that the system of electing councils should change, with authorities being forced to hold all-council elections every four years instead of electing a proportion of seats year by year, as many do now.

“Additional revenue-raising powers, perhaps through neighbourhood improvement districts, would allow local areas to vote to raise additional money on local priorities,” the five-year plan said.
“neighbourhoods charter” that would spell out what services voters were entitled to expect. That would involve devolving budgets and giving communities “ownership” of assets such as playgrounds. It could even involve new local taxes.

He also proposed that the Government should put more power into the hands of communities by having councils take more decisions at a neighbourhood level”.

The EU regional policy is alive and well and beating in the heart of our own prime minister.

If we take a look at the EU plans, we not only find that they have in place systems to divide the countries into regions but those regions are then combined across national borders, one can only wonder at the reasons they might have to try building close relationships that break the national defined areas of the sovereign nation states that are members of the EU.

There is such a thing as Interreg III which is a Community initiative which aims to stimulate interregional cooperation in the EU between 2000-06. It is financed under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

”This new phase of the Interreg initiative is designed to strengthen economic and social cohesion throughout the EU, by fostering the balanced development of the continent through cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation. Special emphasis has been placed on integrating remote regions and those which share external borders with the candidate countries.
Interregional cooperation aims to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments through large-scale information exchange and sharing of experience (networks). Strand C particularly focuses on underdeveloped regions and those undergoing structural adjustment. Interregional cooperation covers the RECITE and ECOS-Ouverture programmes, two innovative pilot project programmes ran under the former Article 10 of the ERDF regulation for 1994-1999”.

Britain is involved with three such cross border regions or in EU speak “Strengthening cross-border co-operation in the service of the citizen”
“The European Commission has decided to contribute actively to the development of cross-border cooperation between Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.”
“The European Commission has decided to contribute actively to the development of cross-border cooperation between France and the United Kingdom”

“The European Commission has decided to take an active part in the development of the cross-border region between Ireland and Wales by part-financing the Interreg III program in favor of the Dublin, Mid East and South East regions in Ireland and Gwynedd, the Isle of Anglesey, South West Wales and parts of Conwy in Wales. The cross-border region is centered on the main sea routes between Ireland and Wales”.

“The European Commission has decided to contribute actively to the development of cross-border cooperation between Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

It is not a matter of concern if the British people feel they are not properly represented in their local areas, which of course is the governments fault in the first place, because they have been removing the powers of local government. However when the EU is in the background of these moves, it is a concern because until there is a settled outcome to the EU question, we are in a limbo of uncertainty as to the reasons behind anything government proposes. This leads to resentment of the politicians, who do not seem to be listening, and will do all they can to keep their pet ideas alive, going against the people in the process to achieve their ends.

I do not think that the people could have been clearer in their condemnation of the idea of elected mayors when they elected as mayor a man who dresses up as a monkey, nor the total rejection of elected assemblies by the largest margin ever recorded. Yet John Prescott is back with another five year plan to force regional government on an unwilling and unreceptive population, they then shake their head in wonder at the disinterest shown by voters in elections.