HERE we go again. The political pygmies who run the councils on both banks of the Mersey are talking with the discredited Blair Government about forming an extra tier of local administration.
Leaders and chief executives of six local councils have met with local government minister Phil Woolas to discuss the setting up of a Liverpool City Region.
I hope it never happens. We need less local government in these parts, not more.
While many people (myself included) love Liverpool, not everybody in the surrounding area wants to be closely identified with it.
And even the most ardent fan of the city can see that the current plethora of publicly-funded bodies running tourism and regeneration in Liverpool are doing a p***poor job.
Besides which, the question of “belonging” and affinity with local areas must be brought into the equation of any proposed reform.
Just as not everyone was pleased by the creation of the Merseyside metropolitan county council (set up by the Heath government in 1974 and later dismantled) not everyone will want to part of yet another bureaucratic organisation which pretends that historic Lancashire towns such as St Helens and Widnes, and traditional Cheshire places such New Brighton, Birkenhead and Runcorn, are part of some Greater Scouserland nonsense.
What everyone is overlooking in all this politicking is that we all have a sense of identity, an idea of where we belong, and that is very important to us.
And no matter what the local government boundaries say, we ought to feel proud of coming from whichever traditional county we were born and grew up in.
You see, the local government boundaries as set up in 1974 most definitely do not reflect how people feel about where they belong and to which area they owe their loyalties.
For instance, many Wallasey people feel to this day intensely irritated that they are ruled by a “Wirral” Council.
And many thousands of Southport folk do not, and never did, feel part of the artificial construct that is “Merseyside”. Southport people are Lancastrians.
On BBC Radio Merseyside’s Breakfast show recently, Steve Foulkes, the leader of Wirral Council, made the astonishing claim that St Helens people want to be part of Liverpool and Merseyside.
Er, not really, Steve. Maybe a few thousand “Plastic Scousers” who live in the town do, but the majority of St Helens folk consider themselves to be Lancastrians. They have more in common, culturally, with neighbouring Wigan, than with Liverpool.
And – here is something that a whole generation of youngsters have been brainwashed into forgetting – Liverpool itself is a Lancashire city, just as much as Manchester is.
The fact that Lancashire was horribly reduced in terms of area governed by the county council in the stupid reforms of 1974 does not change the fact that Lancashire exists as a cultural entity and in the hearts of countless thousands.
For Scousers, as much as anyone else in the old county, Lancashire is where they belong.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »
ricky wrote...
I groaned out loud when I read how they wanted another layer of Government. That's to say another layer of stifling bureaucracy, more allowances, more action (inaction) groups, away days, more deadbeat fifth rate politicos looking to waste taxpayers money and worst of all meddle in people's lives. Remember that anti-smoking ad of a couple of years ago where they made out that ciggies were like arteries clogged with fat? Well, that's what Britain's arteries are like these days with all these jobsworths, busy bodies and desk jockeys meddling, fiddling and finding other ways to justify their existence. What really is incredible is that the desk jockeys can't see that any society that is overun with bureaucrats just grinds to a halt in the end. It's happened in every society in history. The modern day political class - the council chiefs on £250k a year etc - have really just recreated a sort of aristocratic system to serve themselves. Like old style aristos they demand their tithes - and for some older council tax payers it literally is a tithe (tenth) of all they've get - live the life of Riley, they see themselves as patrons of the arts and leisures, and they pass arbitrary pointless laws that ensure that the populace are kept in line.
Can anyone name anything new, imaginative or truly useful that is created by bureaucrats? No, hang on, let's form a working party to discuss that question!
*** Oh,well said, Ricky. I can feel the bile coming through the ether. SR.
Posted by: ricky | March 13, 2007 5:52 PM