Conservative Regional Humbug
July 8, 2007 by Ken
Filed under EU Ministry for Propaganda
The Conservatives plan to abolish Regional Assemblies if they gain power in
This is the headline news the Conservative party want to promote, but I have long become used to half arsed thinking from the leadership of this once great party, which has produced some outstandingly misleading policy beliefs
“No essential sovereignty will be lost” springs to mind, the bald statement leaving the public with the impression that “No sovereignty will be lost” but place the emphasis on the one word “essential” and you can read the statement in an entirely different light, it then becomes a matter of conjecture over what is and what is not “essential” but some sovereignty will be lost!
On several occasions I have made the point that the “Regional Assemblies” are only the body which was set up with the intention of allowing political oversight of the already existing “Regional Development Agencies” these are the agencies which were established at the insistence of the EEC to actually receive and control EEC funding onto the region, hence the supposed need for political oversight, and preferably from an elected Regional body, a development that was shelved after the debacle in the North East when the voters poured cold water on the idea of having a fully elected Regional Assembly.
The Conservative claim is they will abolish the “Regional Assemblies” leaving us with the impression that they will do away with the whole level of regional government, but they make no mention of the “Regional Development Agencies” are these unelected and unaccountable quangos to be left in place without any political oversight? or are they also to be abolished? If they are to be abolished then what about the impact on EU funding to the regions how will that be re-routed and to where.
On 29th March this year, in response to my questions on his blog John Redwood said:
“I want to see all unelected regional government abolished.
The Conservatives will not be abollishing the three elected regional governments in the UK that have been endorsed by referendum, nor the elected tier in Northern Ireland if that is in operation.
The fact that
There is no Treaty obligaiton or legal requirement to have it – and if there were it would still be necessary to change it.”
So it is clear from this that Mr Redwood wants us to belive that “all unelected regional government will be abolished”
The only problem then is does Mr Redwood speak for the Conservative leadership? If he does we could expect in the fullness of time to hear concrete proposals concerning the RDA`s from the leadership.
Thus it was with interest that I read in Birmingham Post, 2Conservative Party leader David Cameron Speaking at the Local Government Association conference at the ICC on July 5th said a Conservative Government would abolish the West Midlands Regional Assembly, (The Headline)
But and it is a very big But “The Conservatives would allow regional development agencies to continue where there was clear support from councils. However, if local councils wanted to join together to carry out the duties of RDAs, they would be able to do so.”
So Mr Redwood does not speak for the Leadership, their policy is not to abolish all levels of “unelected regional government” but to leave the unelected RDA`s in place “if there was clear support from councils” not to difficult to arrange considering most councils have very strong links with the regional level already. But in the event that they do not agree there would still be the regional Development Agency level in the guise of the councils joining together to carry out the duties of the RDA.
Perhaps we should ask what exactly are the duties of the RDA well basically they are to receive and distribute the return of our taxes from the EU, it is the EU which insists that it will only return our money by this route.
The bottom line is that the Conservatives are still at it, they are still playing with meaningless words, because they will not abolish the regional level of government; that would require the assent and agreement of the EU and that is not about to happen.
