There is no better way in the to create greater potential for political obscurity and conflict than by introducing devolution in the United Kingdom. Although the delegation of powers from Westminster has been a plausible way to simmer emerging patriotism threatening the unitary nature of the British political system, the effectiveness of this solution has shown itself to last only in the short term. Today, devolution is proving to be a waste of unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy that undermines the unity of the UK.
Lets have a look at where devolution already exists in the UK, in Wales for example. The Welsh Parliament was created during the Blair administration by the Government of Wales Act 1998 upon the result of the 1997 referendum. However the result of the referendum for the creation of the Welsh parliament only resulted in a 1% difference between the 'yes' and the 'no' vote on a 50% voter turnout. This means that hardly a quarter of the Welsh electorate were actively in favour of a devolved assembly to govern, leaving a major question mark over the mandate of the Welsh government and indeed the Parliament itself. Considering the building of the devolved Welsh Parliament (Senedd) was a total cost of £69.6 million, it is apparent that there is many unwilling citizens in Wales paying taxes for an unnecessary bureaucracy that they did not even vote for!
The same principle can be applied to the London Assembly. The referendum that enabled the the establishment of the London Assembly was blemished with a 34% voter turnout. Similarly to the Welsh Parliament, a significant proportion of Londoners are funding a devolved body that they did not vote for.
The Welsh parliament and the London Assembly are both salient examples of unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy where it already exists. There is certainly no need for more devolution to Devon, Cornwall or Yorkshire!
It is also clear that devolution greatly undermines the unity of the UK, the very dilemma that Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron hoped to solve by devolving powers in the first place. One of the major reasons this has happened is because the devolved bodies have given a platform for nationalist and patriotic parties to gain widespread support. In fact, there is a general pattern that each of the devolved bodies is usually dominated by parties with the exclusive goal of gaining independence and splitting from the UK, such as the Scottish National Party, Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru. The very existence and prominence of these parties in their national governments are indicative of increasing nationalist feeling.
The first stepping stones of the breakup of the UK are already apparent by the clear policy diversion between the devolved bodies and English legislation. In Wales, medical prescriptions are free until the age of 25, whilst in England prescriptions must be payed after the age of 18. Although many see this as a trivial matter that simply reflects local democracy and identity, it actually creates disparity on arguably important issues within a supposedly united political Union.
Furthermore, each devolved government enjoys different levels of administrative, legislative and budgetary autonomy. For example, both Scotland and Northern Ireland have exclusive powers over justice, police, prisons and civil law, Wales does not have any autonomy over any of these policy areas. This creates the potential to cause divisions between governments who will soon come to the realisation that such disparity is unfair and undemocratic.
Devolution will only bring tensions between the component nations of the UK to a forefront. Delegating differing levels of autonomy to each political body is inefficient and ineffective. Instead, a federal system in the UK is needed, this will create an equal and fair distribution of sovereignty between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, granting each nation a high degree of self determination, something that the asymmetrical network of devolution has not provided. This will satisfy nationalist causes, particularly in Scotland, and will place each four nations on an equal level of autonomy within the UK.
Written by Conleth Gallagher - Instagram @conlethgallagher_
If you would like to write your very own political blog to be published on our website, send an email to politicsbloguk@gmail.com
Comments