The image says it all. A picture is worth a thousand words. It shows seven of the North of England’s combined authority mayors, including Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen who frankly no respectable politician should touch with a bargepole (see Private Eye numerous editions on Mayor Ben). But now we are in a post political era when all can unite around a Great North and with Sir Brendan Foster, the creator of the Great North Run during his time at Nike (not a North Eastern industrial giant). Kim is front right but prominent. Her message includes something I agree with:
“We cannot afford to slow down the pace of devolution, a Great North deserves a greater say over its own future. That means handing mayors single settlements and an end to the days of bidding into Whitehall for permissions to spend, and changes to legislation to free up the north to contribute more to the Government’s missions.”
Except of course for the part about contributing to the government’s missions. No notion of any autonomy to confront a government which in effect, despite recent moves by Reeves to permit borrowing to invest, of a coherent industrial policy but we have not had one of those since Tony Benn was at the Dept of Industry and doing what Eric Heffer and Jack Jones told him to. Benn’s only real virtue was that he was biddable when telt by people who knew what they were doing.
Otherwise as with the combined authority interim plan what we have is a lot of blather. To quote:
Kim said: “The Great North Run has for decades shown what’s great about our North, and now it’s time we spread that message. We’re doing our bit to build on our Great North identity and uniting under that northern pride that defines us. We’re delighted to be working with Sir Brendan on a new era of northern collaboration, with a brand recognisable across the world.
I was never a runner – long distance walker and a swimmer with a couple of 5,000 metre swims back in the long ago day. Nothing wrong with a half marathon although those of us who avoided pounding the pavements probably have less need of new knees in our old age.
However, yet again we have PR twaddle instead of an honest confrontation with the reality of the post-industrial North and especially the North East. It is this lack of engagement with reality which explains why Reform now controls Durham County Council because of course the main political choice of voters in local elections, including the one which gifted us Kim, is NONE OF THE ABOVE and no MP was elected in this region with more votes than the non voters in their constituency. (Tynemouth with 50% of a 66% turnout might have just squeaked it on a check but otherwise no)
I will continue to keep an eye on the Combined Authority but it continues to be NOT A PRETTY SIGHT.
Site Title 