Crossofstgeorge Debate

[Hotspur]

MPs want more power to tackle regional affairs Nov 10 2004




By The Journal


North-East MPs should be given the right to hold their own special parliamentary investigations into regional affairs following last week's rejection of elected regional assemblies, it was claimed yesterday.

As the result of the referendum begins to sink in, two Labour former ministers called on the Government to back plans for regional committees where MPs would have the power to hold public bodies and civil servants to account - as well as grill North businesses over their role in the area.

Frank Field and Kate Hoey put forward the idea of an England-only Parliament yesterday, saying MPs should be allowed to hold specialist committees "thereby making government offices, quangos and other bodies to which the government has devolved power accountable to the Commons".

Select committees already exist to oversee the work of Government departments, such as transport, environment and foreign affairs, many producing critical reports on the spending of taxpayers' money.

Although there are political party groups representing the North-East, there are few channels for regional MPs to stand up and be counted as one voice. With Mr Prescott's decision to focus primarily on his unelected regional bodies such as the existing North-East regional assembly and regional development agency, One North-East, critics fear there is a growing democratic deficit in the area.

There are now seeds of a growing campaign to correct the matter - with Mr Field and Ms Hoey's Commons motion urging action.

The pair, former social security minister and sports minister respectively, said in their motion it was essential to make organisations more accountable to the public - but it's an idea not shared by all regional MPs with Durham's Kevan Jones saying the call "fundamentally misses the point voters were making in the referendum. The North-East doesn't want more committees, more sub-committees or structures - what people want is action."

Hexham's Peter Atkinson also warned there were more pressing matters to deal with, such as the reorganisation of local government.

Zoe Hughes
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Lord Hugh Cecil 1918



"the truth is that colouring federalism with nationalism is like painting a rat red: it kills the animal.

Federalism and Nationalism are contradictory and mutually Fatal".

[Longshanks]

Frank Field and Kate Hoey!

Hardly representitive of NL, they are as popular as a pork scratchings at a Bar-Mitzvah within Govt circles.
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Molon Labe!