Quote: “Actually it’s the 2nd; the first was the Greater London Authority (1965-1985), then they spit the powers between Westminster and the LGA’s (1985-2000) and now we have the Greater London Authority (2000- ), look there has been once change and the only reason there was a chance entirely due to cynical political strategy”
The “inexperienced college student” (your words on another thread) clearly is not studying British constitution or government and politics.
No, had mentioned the fact that there have been four versions of Greater London government because there have been four, not two:
(1) 1965-1986 Greater London Council with 100 councillors (numbers reduced over the years) plus a separate special district for education (ILEA) for part of its area with some GLC councillors sitting on it;
(2) 1986-1990 Greater London Council disbanded, but Greater London retained, with the councils powers transferred to quangos. ILEA retained with its councillors directly elected;
(3) 1990-2000 ILEA was scrapped, its education responsibilities transferred to the boroughs in its territory;
(4) 2000- directly elected mayor and a toothless, 25 member, Greater London Assembly established.
Quote: “So they haven’t “kept changing it” and the one time they have changed it has nothing to do with the fact it was not working for “London””
It’s not just Greater London, a perfectly good and stable local government system was torn up throughout the UK and since the 1960s, there have been expensive and pointless reorganisations approximately every ten years.
There are common themes: increasing remoteness; more overpaid managers, directors and functionaries; fewer elected councillors; less scutiny; higher taxes; worse services.
Quote: “Well you still need them to understand what local services they need and how things should be run when it comes to your local area, which is why NYC still has boroughs (and yes I used their local system as the basis of my idea)
The reason our “local” boroughs are “remote” is that they are too focused on doing things they are best done at a regional level, at the expense of things they are better served by them
The boroughs in New York are quite different than those in London. In New York they are co-terminous with with the counties that make up New York city: New York county is Manhatten, Kings county is Brooklyn, etc..
They each elect one “borough president” onto New York city council, and do not run local government services. These are all run by New York city council.
Boroughs in Greater London do the full range of district functions plus some that are the job of the county council in other parts of the country, such as education, social services, highways, etc.. They certainly are not “focused on doing things they are best done at a regional level“ as you wrongly state and naturally fail to supply any examples.
Quote: “We already have regional governments; Northern Ireland has had one since 1923, along with Scotland and Wales in 1999 (which have their origins in Regional Offices set up in the late 1970s) and I haven’t even got to the autonomous governments of our (now independent) colonies like Canada, Australia, South Africa and India”
Please don’t!
Quote: “Greater London (which is a region of “England”) already has a regional government as well, it called the GLA, the trouble is that it does not cover the Home Counties (where a increasing number of “Londoners” live), but you have to note that the GLA is a far smaller body (for now) than the GLC ever was
Also London (unlike the North East) has voted in favour of regional government, hence we are the only region in England to have devolved powers and it looks like it will stay that way (even after the government scrapped legacy quangos in relation to those regions)."
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are devolved government. greater London is NOT regional government, nor is it devolved government, that is why Boris is not “first minister” but “mayor” and elected separately.
The GLA is smaller than the GLC in numbers because it is a toothless assembly, the power rests with the mayor. Greater London has no devolved powers so it is wrong for you to say it is the only “region in England to have devolved powers”.
Quote: “By the way Catalonia want either a bailout OR independence, not both (the main issue they have is that they have to make hash spending cuts and yet give a lot of money to Madrid)”
Wrong, they want both, despite being one of the richest parts of Spain, and have just voted for it!
Quote: “Yes there should be a English Parliament without a doubt, it’s very much right, but it should not include London + South East (or Cornwall, but for separate reasons), there is too big a difference between the rest of England and this region, otherwise England will suffer from unfair domination from one region over the rest…”
This is bull. The “inexperienced college student” (your words) clearly is not studying geography either!
How could an English parliament NOT include Cornwall? How can an English parliament NOT include the “south east”? Serious credibility gap here!
Wasn’t it you who referred to Boris as an “idiot”?