Run by the locals

Nov 5 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

ALEX SALMOND wants a referendum to determine whether the Scots want indepen-dence, while Tory leader David Cameron calls for a ban on Scottish MPs from voting on issues that affect only England. Both moves will, some say, pave the way for a Disunited Kingdom, a break-up of a nation formed over 300 years ago.

But why should it stop at national boundaries. Is it right that councillors from the affluent leafy suburbs of Calderstones and Mossley Hill should make decisions that affect Kirkdale or Everton?

Why not break up the City of Liverpool so that local districts can enjoy true Home Rule for their communities.

Liverpool is an administrative area that has had outlying areas bolted on over the years. Could we see a new municipality with its headquarters at a restored Wavertree Town Hall, or the Township of Kirkdale making its own decisions?

It is an irony that, as the ground-swell of opinion towards a potential break-up of the UK gathers momentum, at local level there is a growing pressure to make even bigger council sprawls.

Within a few years, city regions will undoubtedly appear on the local scene, ruled by a elected mayor or an elite cabinet of select decision makers.

So, while our national borders shrink, we will see our local boundaries expanded. Maybe, in years to come, we will all live in the City of England within the country of Europe.

These mixed messages will have one sure consequence: more disengagement between the political masters and the people, and that will be bad for democracy.

A few years ago, meetings of Liverpool City Council witnessed nail-biting debates, with crucial decisions made on a show of hands by the 99 councillors. The decision-makers were locally-elected politicians, drawn from all walks of life, but each had a vote and every month they stood up to be counted. “One councillor, one vote” was the clarion call.

Now, thanks to so-called improvements to democracy, city council meetings are nothing more than a talking shop. They are boring because the seat of governance is now toothless.

Once the public gallery was crammed with people listening to the great debates. It was often pure theatre. The ceremonial mayoral macebearer started life as a bodyguard to prevent the first citizen being accosted.

Today’s cabinet system is essentially a mini-dictatorship in each town and city, with a handful of power brokers deciding everything. It makes sense, in that respect, to enlarge the city boundaries. But it also makes sense to give back to the people some real control about their own communities and neighbourhoods – the return of our own town halls.

Will there ever be a break-up of the City of Liverpool, an end to the North-South divide and a return to the local councils of old? It seems an impossible goal, but who would have thought a few years ago that the dismantling of the United Kingdom would loom large on the horizon?

In 21st-century politics, nothing can be ruled out. I wonder who will be the first mayor of Kirkdale Township.