devolution essay Flashcards
There is an imbalance of devolved powers given to mayors of English cities.
The London mayor holds greater powers than metropolitan mayors. Such as how the mayor of london holds control over the met police whereas in other cities policing is controlled by commissioners.
The lack of powers mean metropolitan mayors have less ability to solve their local issues which creates unaddressed problems for its citizens and slows down city activity.
Another substantial aspect of this argument is the problem of funding, the london mayor can generate wealth by levying taxes whereas metropolitan mayors have to rely on westminster.
This often poses a problem when westminster fails to understand the needs of a city and does not allocate fund correctly
Northern Ireland devolution has been implemented poorly (their parliament is often suspended)
From 2002 to 2007 the Northern Irish assembly was suspended after members of Sinn Fein staff were suspected of intelligence gathering on behalf of the IRA.
The assembly is suspended so frequently and for such long periods of time that it’s difficult to actually pass any meaningful legislation to address their nations’ issues.
Scotland is still limited in their powers over legislation, they cant pass all of their proposed legislation.
2023 Westminster blocked the Scottish Parliament’s Gender Reform Bill intended to provide greater rights for trans people in Scotland.
Devolution still limits the Scottish parliament from addressing its national issues.
Particularly significant considering that BBC polls found in 2022 that 57% of Scottish citizens were in support of the bill.
Devolution brought peace and greater stability to Ireland by ending the troubles
The 1998 Good Friday agreement established an assembly which was to be elected using proportional representation (PR) so that all of Northern Ireland’s society would be represented.
The violent 30 year conflict began over discrimination against the Catholic-nationalist minority and claimed over 3500 lives. Therefore the introduction of a PR system ended the conflict by bringing a more balanced representation of the Irish people in politics.
