should the British government devolve some of its power and allow the counties to control themselves more?

Answer 1

Definitely yes.
But my idea is that we should devolve to smaller than a county.

The present method of governing Britain is out of date

My idea is that we need a complete revamp in government. Not just change the people, but completely change the way we think about government.
When the current system of democracy was created the population of England was about a sixth of what it is now. So there were 659 MPs for about 10 million people, being a representation ratio of about 15000 to 1.

Now, we have 646 MPs, and about 60 million people giving a representation factor of about 93,000 to one.

So each person's representation has reduced by around 600%.
In other words, you now get about one sixth of the representation that a citizen in 1801 got. Another way of looking at this is to say that, in order to have the same level of representation that we had in 1801, we would need 3876 MPs.
This is obviously ludicrous. and is absolute evidence of a need for a change.

As the population has increased so dramatically, then the effectiveness and fairness of a central government has reduced.
What we now need is an increase in the power of local government, and a reduction in the power of central government.
I propose that we should bring back something akin to the parish councils. We should have constituencies of a maximum of 500 families. These constituencies should have total control over the lives of its constituents, with no interference from outside, They must provide all of their own facilities such as school, health care, pensions, police, ar anything which they feel that they need.
If they feel that they are too small for a particular project or service, then they negotiate with nearby constituencies to make suitable arrangements. There would be no higher level arbitrator. Full responsibility would rest at the local level.

The benefits of this are enormous. Firstly, everybody would know everybody else within a constituency, so when a problem arises it would be easy to get to the source, because it would be to everyone's benefit to do so. This alone would reduce terrorism and serious crime to a minimum. A sort of neighbourhood watch scheme in which everybody takes full part, and makes the decisions. The money presently spent on taxes, most of which disappears in red tape, civil servants' and MPs' salaries, waging war, and hundreds of other expenses from which the average citizen receives no benefit whatsoever, would be spent on directly benefiting the community, on projects voted for by the community.
It is most likely that taxes could be reduced to a fraction of what is presently paid, because all wastage would be readily identified. Everybody would participate in their own government, because they would be able to understand it, and would have a real voice.
There would be no need for secret services, or secrets of any kind, saving another fortune, and removing another load of confusion.

I'm sure you can identify many other benefits, and I'm also sure that any disadvantages could quickly be overcome.

Answer 2

Up here in Scotland we've had devolution for over 5 years and it doesn't seem to be any different than before so no, devolving government seems to be an expensive waste of time.

Answer 3

Yes. The fear of this and previous governments is losing control by ceding power. Delegation of power away from the centre has been seen to work very well. Look no further than the Mayor of London.

Answer 4

No. We need to make the Government smaller, not bigger.

Take Scotland as a case in point.
30 years ago, Tam Dalyell asks the West Lothian question - New Labour's take on that?

Folyrood!

Answer 5

Doesn't matter what they do, we live under a totalitarian dictatorship that uses the media and fear to control the masses...

Ooops, wrong meeting!

Before anything else we should get a box on the voting slips saying 'NONE OF THE ABOVE' until then NOTHING will change...

Answer 6

sheer excellence my chum! our nanny state must be unique. its in basic terms when we shuttle do we word how we are percieved by employing our authorities to be morons that can not make a effortless experience decision on a thanks to stay. I easily have said this in each day existence, if something out of the traditional occurs or something fairly petty brits haven't any clue on a thanks to react its as if they are waiting for a set of educating to handbook them with each and every of the guidelines and rules we are dropping our characters and souls. iam confident we will be robots in many years. i might want to bypass on all day about this yet i trust you recognize the position iam coming from!

Answer 7

Not the way some counties are looking.?

Answer 8

Its already happening to a certain extent.

Both Scotland and Wales have their own parliment and can create new "local" laws.

Answer 9

I think every gouvernment anywhere should let local decisions be taken by the local people.

Answer 10

NO
We should all do what Tony and Gordon say. No question