The BBC have carried out a poll in the North East euroregion on devolution and concluded that there is support for regional government because 69% want local control on issues such as transport. The people questioned said they didn’t like unelected regional assemblies and only 20% of people think they do a worthwhile job.
The results of the survey do not indicate support for regional government. The results say that the people of the North East want more control of local affairs. The BBC doesn’t suggest that perhaps the desire to have more local control over transport is down to the fact that an MP elected in Scotland has control of England’s transport, something the people in the North East are particularly aware of and increasingly vocal about.
The answer to unaccountable central government is not regionalisation. Regional government is not accountable, nor is it popular. The British government is highly centralised as far as England is concerned but what people do not want is centralised regional government. The euroregions, city regions and the new transnational regions aren’t local, they’re regional. The West Midlands euroregion is a perfect example of how a single regional policy can’t be suitable for the whole region – it contains one of the largest urban sprawls in England at one extreme and the most rural county in England at the other.
It is clear that there is no real support for regional government in the North East or elsewhere in England which only leaves the question of why the BBC would choose to spin this story so outrageously to suggest that there is. Could it be anything to do with the funding that the European Federation – the architects and chief supporters of the regions - give to the BBC to fund varied programming including news an education?
