Figures across the political spectrum (or at least that severely circumscribed section of it which finds expression in Westminster) have internalised the assumption that most people would rather see the business of government geographically relocated to their own local areas. Farage, in particular, is fond of proclaiming that the ‘ordinary people’ of the nation are clamouring for the downfall of Brussels’ evil empire, and that only the ‘chattering classes’ have contrived (or conspired) to ignore the will of the people. It would be easy to assume, in this context, that political devolution is the settled and heartfelt desire of the public. Moreover, established parties are increasingly fixated on making promises of ever-greater devolution even nationwide policies such as NHS reform and the free schools programme are constantly branded as measures to hand influence to ‘local people’. Both of the great insurgencies in modern Britain – the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party (Ukip) – are entities whose raison d’etre is the relocation of political powers. From Scottish independence and regional inequality to the question of the European Union, a surprising number of the United Kingdom’s most-discussed issues are, in some way, matters of the division of power along geographical lines. The notion of decentralisation is central to current political discourse.
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