Should Labour Abolish Those Pointless Metro Mayors If They Win The General Election ?

[Gromit]

They were the brainchild of David Cameron and have always been utterly pointless. They were always a miscalculation for the Tories. Scrapping them should be a priority. Then get rid of those Police and Crime Commissioners while they are at it.

[davebro3]

too right

[ToraToraTora]

Yes, and the London "mayor" and the police commisioners and the Welsh and Scottish "parliaments".

[Rosetta]

I agree with you, they just add an expensive extra layer of bureaucracy

[jno]

Simon Jenkins (who played a part in introducing them) agrees with you

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/06/england-metro-mayors-local-democracy-local-politics-keir-starmer

But they go back to Labour; Ken Livingstone was voted in in 2000, with a  promise to introduce a new tax, which took courage and was rewarded.

[ToraToraTora]

Cameron was continuing with Noo Layba's work when really he should have been reversing it.

[Peter Pedant]

No Andy Burnham is doing a good job

Police commissioners may not be a wild  success however they replaced who ever was doiing it ( police watch  committees) who failed over Stalker and Anderton, west mids serious crime squad

and the usual  British disease of - whoever is overseeing seems to be sleeping on the job

[jno]

Ken declogged London's streets (until Thames Water clogged them up again) and Sadiq is trying to declog the air. Nobody in Westminister would ever have the guts to do either, so the mayors have my full support, except when spaffing £50m on non-existent bridges.

[Old_Geezer]

Chances are that next to no one knows enough to make a reasoned decision regarding who is best for the job; and it's too tedious to try to get all the information; that would be too soul destroying. The best most can find time for is to appraise the candidates for a GE by reading the bumf that comes through the letterbox.

 

The best system removes all excess management and simply leaves sensible levels, such as national government and local government. Beyond that it's jobs for the boys & girls, paid for by taxes forced on us all.

[jno]

yeah, as long as you get to decide what's "sensible" and what's "excess". What happens when others disagree with you on such purely nebulous definitions?

[Old_Geezer]

It's a democracy. Ask the public if there's any doubt.

[jno]

what we have now, then.

[ichkeria]

Weren't they the idea of Michael Heseltine? A rare example of a great, visionary politician. And they are IMO a good thing. Britain has some of the most centralised government in Europe. It's also great to see people like Andys Burnham and Street standing up for their areas independently of their parties. And I suspect Street's successor Richard Parker will be the same 

[youngmafbog]

With you 100% there Gromit.

Just more snouts in the trough for the tax payer to fund.

[Old_Geezer]

No, not what we have now. No one was asked whether they wanted to fund whole extra layers of government which adds nothing but just allows the control freaks to push their agendas. In fact the opposite of what we have now.

[ToraToraTora]

what do you think gromit?

[jno]

there was a referendum on setting up a London mayor in 1998.

And from Wiki:

Devolution for England was proposed in 1912 by the Member of Parliament for Dundee, Winston Churchill,  as part of the debate on Home Rule for Ireland. In a speech in Dundee on 12 September, Churchill proposed that the government of England should be divided up among regional parliaments, with power devolved to areas such as Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands and London as part of a federal system of government

[ToraToraTora]

20:06 no one is right about everything me old china.

[Togo]

//what do you think gromit?//

He thinks that getting rid of City Mayors and Police Commisonerrs and replacing them all with muftis is the way to go. 

[jno]

no one is right about everything

wot, Thatcher did something wrong? It must have been about the legendary ice cream...🍦

[ToraToraTora]

Yes even TGL wasn't right about everything.