Even the England of Shakespeare, never mind the England of John of Gaunt, was a land of powerful counties and cities.
Such was the case until the 1980s. That is England's historical norm. That was what made England.
The counties and cities need power. They also need money. Including, but not restricted to, the power to raise their own money.
There is no desire for, nor would there even be any toleration of, a body through which the likes of John Redwood and Christopher Chope could impose their cranky economic ideology on the full cross-section of England that is made up of Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Brent, Camden, Cannock Chase, Chesterfield, Chorley, Corby, Crawley, Croydon, Cumbria, Darlington, Derbyshire, Dudley, Durham, East Staffordshire, Enfield, Gedling, Gravesham, Hackney, Halton, Haringey, Hastings, Hyndburn, Islington, Kirklees, Knowsley, Lambeth, Lancashire, Leeds, Lewisham, Luton, Manchester, Merton, Milton Keynes, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newham, North East Derbyshire, Northumberland, Norwich, Nottinghamshire, Oldham, Plymouth, Preston, Redbridge, Rossendale, Sandwell, Sefton, Southwark, St Helens, Stevenage, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, Stroud, Sunderland, Wakefield, Waltham Forest, Warrington, Wolverhampton and York.
Yes, all of those places now have Labour, or at least Labour-led, local authorities. All of them. One Nation, indeed.
But nor is there any desire for, nor would there even be any toleration of, such a body in the remaining ghettoes that are Rushcliffe, West Somerset, Swindon, Christchurch, Gloucester, Warwickshire, Poole, Canterbury, Portsmouth, Rutland, Test Valley, Worcestershire, West Devon, Essex, South Staffordshire District Council, Dales District Council, Calderdale, Wokingham (yes, Wokingham), Breckland, North Somerset, Mid Suffolk, Daventry, South Holland, Central Bedfordshire, Surrey, Boston, Oxfordshire, Arun, St Edmundsbury, West Lancashire, East Herts, Fareham, Harborough, Uttlesford, Bournemouth, North Norfolk, Swale, East Devon, Wychavon and Buckinghamshire.
Or, indeed, in Watford, North Devon, Eastleigh, Stockport, Hinckley and Bosworth, Sutton, Colchester, South Somerset, Cheltenham, Three Rivers, St Albans and Torridge.
North and South, East and West, town and country; Labour, Conservative, Lid Dem and Independent; united against the cuts, and therefore united against an English Parliament. Just look at the people who want one.
With municipalism, the national and parliamentary sovereignty of the United Kingdom is the greatest force for social democracy that the world has ever seen.
The nationwide, all-party pressure for the return of muncipalism is now unstoppable, at least in England; it will be everywhere else that will look highly centralised when that has been achieved.
Let the nationwide, all-party pressure for the return of national and parliamentary sovereignty become equally unstoppable.
Followed by the nationwide, all-party pressure, which is clearly already beginning, for the return of everything that has historically been achieved by our parliamentary and municipal democracy, which is the democracy in social democracy.
Yes, all of those places now have Labour, or at least Labour-led, local authorities. All of them. One Nation, indeed.
But nor is there any desire for, nor would there even be any toleration of, such a body in the remaining ghettoes that are Rushcliffe, West Somerset, Swindon, Christchurch, Gloucester, Warwickshire, Poole, Canterbury, Portsmouth, Rutland, Test Valley, Worcestershire, West Devon, Essex, South Staffordshire District Council, Dales District Council, Calderdale, Wokingham (yes, Wokingham), Breckland, North Somerset, Mid Suffolk, Daventry, South Holland, Central Bedfordshire, Surrey, Boston, Oxfordshire, Arun, St Edmundsbury, West Lancashire, East Herts, Fareham, Harborough, Uttlesford, Bournemouth, North Norfolk, Swale, East Devon, Wychavon and Buckinghamshire.
Or, indeed, in Watford, North Devon, Eastleigh, Stockport, Hinckley and Bosworth, Sutton, Colchester, South Somerset, Cheltenham, Three Rivers, St Albans and Torridge.
North and South, East and West, town and country; Labour, Conservative, Lid Dem and Independent; united against the cuts, and therefore united against an English Parliament. Just look at the people who want one.
With municipalism, the national and parliamentary sovereignty of the United Kingdom is the greatest force for social democracy that the world has ever seen.
The nationwide, all-party pressure for the return of muncipalism is now unstoppable, at least in England; it will be everywhere else that will look highly centralised when that has been achieved.
Let the nationwide, all-party pressure for the return of national and parliamentary sovereignty become equally unstoppable.
Followed by the nationwide, all-party pressure, which is clearly already beginning, for the return of everything that has historically been achieved by our parliamentary and municipal democracy, which is the democracy in social democracy.
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