Really, Mr. Redwood?

John Redwood posts on "The Death of Britain - revisiting old fears", a post in which he repeats the basic question I raised yesterday which was why have a government if it can't govern - but I digress. In his post Redwood writes:

"Some things I feared we prevented. We stopped the UK joining the single currency, despite Mr Blair’s enthusiasm. We stopped changes to the voting system for Westminster, though we have them for other layers of government.  We have checked regional government in England, defeating elected regional government and now starting to cut  back the unelected because it is a needless and unaccountable layer." (Emphasis mine)

So John Redwood believes that regional government in England has been checked? Perhaps, as with HS2, he believes all that he is told? Has he never heard of the Committee of the Regions? It would be worth his while to read this post from Ian Parker-Joseph (PJC Journal-IanPJ on Politics).


Regional government has not been checked; elected regional government may have been defeated but it still remains, being carried out by unelected regional government; and quangos may be being 'cut' (at questionable cost) but that too is a charade as it is just an exercise in moving 'remits'. From that BBC report:

"The NAO said departments had underestimated the cost of transferring functions from the axed public bodies to other parts of Whitehall."

Still, nothing like a little bit of spin is there - even from such a self-proclaimed eurosceptic such as John Redwood.


Just saying..................