More nails in the coffin of England

10:37am Wednesday 25th July 2007

On the face of it, it's good, very good. In reality it's bad, very bad. The North-East now has its own Government Minister. So do Yorkshire and Humberside, the South-West and the other five so-called regions of England. Unveiled as "regional champions'', their ministers can put the case for their corner of the kingdom at the highest level.

The fact that their voices might well drown each other out with their common calls for more investment in schools, roads, businesses, tourism etc, is a mere minor quibble to be directed against these loudly-trumpeted appointments.

Crucially, they are further nails in the coffin of England, almost certainly designed as such. For while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland escape the regional carve-up and remain firmly stamped on the map of Europe, England becomes harder to discern.

A phrase often used by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown was probably conceived to recognise yet mask the regional butchering of England: "the nations and regions of Britain''. Strictly, this doesn't exclude England, but since the regional divisions are confined to England, that is almost certainly its meaning.

The North-East is said to have the nation's strongest regional identity - which is why it was selected for the referendum expected to endorse regional government. As I noted last week, the 78 per cent rejection caused Tony Blair to acknowledge that: "Teesside didn't feel the necessary link with Tyneside". And while Middlesbrough might be lukewarm about its Yorkshire lineage, try telling the good folk of Redcar and Cleveland that they are not Yorkshire. On August 1, Redcar hosts this year's major events for Yorkshire Day, which is celebrated with mounting enthusiasm each year.

But Gordon Brown seems as keen as Tony Blair to divide England into regions to fit the EU's pattern. Coupled with the appointment of regional ministers, he has scrapped regional assemblies but switched their considerable planning role to the regional development agencies - up here One NorthEast and Yorkshire Forward.

Neither the regional assemblies nor the development agencies are democratically elected. Sadly, few people realise that, in recent years, their elected councils have been required to work to strategies produced or promoted by these self-important quangos. But at least the assemblies were drawn largely from local councils. Gordon Brown's transfer of their powers to the even less democratic development agencies, while undertaking to hand more power back to communities, is truly Orwellian.

Nick Brown, the Minister for the North-East, says: "I will be working closely with the development agency and the Government office in the region and having early meetings with the trade unions, the chamber of commerce, academics and health service staff.''

No mention of elected councillors, you will notice. Sidelined even as they are promised a greater role, they will be as impotent as the rest of us to halt the much bigger change - the disappearance of England.

The school curriculum is being shaken up again. Out goes Winston Churchill as an historical figure worth studying. But pupils must learn about the Second World War. And, presumably, there will be a medal for any history teacher who fulfils both goals.

While having no wish to be flippant about the disastrous floods, I'm surprised not to have seen the headline that famously concluded the most popular episode of The Likely Lads: England Flooded Out.