WITH its latest, tortuous twist, the saga of how to hold the heads of powerful Merseyside quangos to account is resembling the row over the Iraq War inquiry.
OK, no-one has died in the creation of a North West “select committee” and “grand committee” – but there is the same government secrecy and refusal to consult. Last week, the controversy came to a head in furious Commons rows over dates and venues and allegations of “dirty tricks” thrown at ministers.
It was claimed that – when the committee does finally meet – the topics will be hand-picked by the “Minister for the North West”. Now that's a scenario worthy of Saddam.
To recap, Gordon Brown promised to set up “regional committees” in his first few days in No.10, but progress has been slow. The idea would compensate for the failure of elected regional assemblies, by creating a forum to grill the agencies that together spend billions of pounds.
Finally, a North West “select committee” was set up and held its first meeting in Manchester a fortnight ago, examining the impact of the recession and the Government's response.
But a Conservative and a Liberal Democrat boycott triggered accusations that it was simply a “Labour talking shop”. It has just five members – including West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper.
However, there was cross-party agreement over the need for a “standing committee”, at which all MPs – and members of the public – could quiz the regional minister, Phil Woolas. So that could be set up easily, right?
Er, wrong. Last week, the opposition parties suddenly discovered that the dates, times and topics had already been decided in secret.
Worse, in some regions – although not our own – the meetings were timetabled for the weeks of the Tory and Liberal Democrat conferences, when MPs from those parties would be elsewhere.
As Lib-Dem spokesman David Heath put it: “It is typical of this government to take a good idea – and foul it up with their cloth-eared intransigence.”
Embarrassingly, ministers then lost a vote to stage the first East Midlands meeting on September 9 and were sent away to think again.
The North West “grand committee” will meet, in Liverpool, on October 22 – but, two years on, the Prime Minister's big idea for the regions is an unholy mess.
TRYING to escape one of his many scandals, Peter Mandelson was given a bolt-hole by Shaun Woodward – but any gratitude appears to have run out. Asked whether he agreed with the St Helens South MP's now-frequent advice to Gordon Brown, he replied: “I don't know. What is the advice being dispensed by Mr Woodward?”
