In a letter which first appeared in The Times Professor Vernon Bogdanor appears to support the balkanisation of England as a way of saving The Union. It seems he is among those who believe in suppressing any political entity which exclusively represents English nationhood.
I reproduce below his letter to The Times which I came across in The Week (24 October). I find it a disappointing read from someone so distinguished. He gives powerful ammunition to those who argue against the establishment of an English parliament in order to discourage Scottish separatism and preserve the 1707 Union.
To The Times.
John
Kampfner is right to call for further decentralisation “to the localities”, but
an English parliament would not achieve this.
Whether situated in Manchester, Liverpool or York, it would appear just
as remote to most as Westminster which would be reduced to a debating chamber
for the discussion of foreign and defence policy and macro-economic management,
while the quasi-federal UK which resulted would be so dominated by England as
to be unbalanced, and an encouragement to Scottish separatism. There is no democratic federation in the
world in which one of the units represents more than 80% of the
population.
The
right course is to build on the combined authorities with directly elected
mayors by strengthening their powers, and by devolving on a similar basis to
those areas of England outside the city regions. That entails a unitary system of local
government in those areas, as recommended more than 50 years ago by the Royal
Commission on Local Government, in place of the present two-tier system. That is the path that I hope the Government
will follow in its forthcoming white paper.
Vernon Bogdanor, professor of
government, KCL
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