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The United Kingdom is made up of four nations: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, but they are not equal.
England alone accounts for more than 80% of the Union’s population, wealth and Members of Parliament.
Ensuring fairness between all the citizens in the UK is a permanent headache for any Westminster government.
Thanks to devolution brought in by the last Labour government, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have elected parliaments or assemblies of their own. England does not.
What is more, government spending per head of population is significantly and consistently higher outside England. In the years 2021/22 it was 18% more in Northern Ireland, 17% in Scotland and 13% in Wales.
This week [on Monday] the new Labour government is publishing the latest attempt to address the problem or, at least, to appease England’s sense of grievance. The English Devolution Bill was promised in July’s King’s Speech and now it is being published.
The word “devolution” implies that England will be getting some of what the other nations have got. That is not the case.
‘England not being offered devolution’
The government does not plan to enhance the collective identity of the English; instead, it wants to contain it by creating regional identities.
Devolution here means breaking down England by transferring some powers to some regional metro mayors and combined local councils.
In this bill “devolution” risks being a misnomer according to Colin Copus, emeritus professor of local politics at De Montfort University (DMU).
“England is not being offered devolution, rather decentralisation of tasks, functions, responsibilities and some budgets,” he explains in a paper for Leicester’s (DMU) Local Governance Research Centre.
“Devolution – the passing of primary legislative powers to another body – such as in Scotland and Wales – is not on offer to England. In the absence of an English parliament, England will remain at the back of the pack in the…
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