Our new First Lord of the Treasury, Andy Burnham, became the latest in a rapidly growing line of Prime Ministers which, these days, they are coming and going more frequently than the 39 bus service! He was voted into power by just 24,927 voters in the Makerfield constituency who represent just a tiny fraction of the total electorate for the whole of the UK, thanks to those few he is now the P.M. without any say from the millions of the electorate other than that tiny minority. To paraphrase Winston Churchill: never have so few done such much to impose a usurper on the many. Our new Prime Minister has no mandate from the people other than a handful of voters in a Parliamentary constituency not many had heard of before Andy arrived as the great socialist Messiah.
He has stormed into number 10 Downing Street within a short period without even a single vote for him by his own MPs and party members. So far the only good thing which can be seen from this coup, of which the rest of the electorate never had a say in regarding Mr Burnham's sudden rise to the highest office in the land, is in the fact he has ousted one of the most boring and useless Prime Ministers in history.
Like all entering that great office of state he has made all sorts of declarations with little or nothing mentioned about the 2024 Labour manifesto which his Government was elected on. However, he has made some initial declarations which some of those on the right of politics will like, such as scrapping plans for police state I.D. cards and the reopening of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields. But what about his other plans which are neither fully costed or will change the governing of the country greatly? One of which is his plans for greater devolution.
It seems due to the fact he was the Metro Mayor for the Greater Manchester area five minutes before he was crowned Prime Minister, our Andy has decided he wants to introduce "Manchesterism", whatever that is, and have a Number 10 in the north which prompts the question - why? For the average person it makes little difference where the plethora of laws, rules regulations and swathes of taxes are created which blight and frustrate our lives are made, so for the great majority devolution will be of no benefit. Most will see this nonsense as a pointless and costly exorcise. How much will transporting Ministers and a small army of civil servants from London to the north and putting them in hotels cost? This is not to forget the substantial cost for the extra policing and the construction of a new base for the PM in Manchester that will not be ready until 2032, which by then Burnham and his shambolic Labour Government will have been gone three years previously after the 2029 general election. All this lavish expense is being done for nothing more than a gimmick. However, it has to be asked if there is a somewhat sinister side of removing power from our democratically elected Parliament and giving even more powers to an increased number of Mayors under what is nothing more than a jobs for the political boys and girls, at great cost to the taxpaying public.
To see all that is wrong with devolution just take a look at the legacy left by Prime Minister Blair during his years in office, he was the one who forced the break up of Britain upon the country, not for the good of the people but for the good of the EU. At that time Britain had not had the chance to vote for the common sense option of escaping the EU's bureaucratic clutches, as a rabid pro-EU fanatic Blair was breaking the UK up into what he obviously hoped would be fully integrated regions of the European Union, this move was not for the good of the nation but that of the EU. Now Burnham, anther foaming at the mouth EU fanatic who wants us trapped back in its all encompassing and stifling embrace, has to be asked if devolution is part of his 'ten year' plan for the UK and in readiness when he can connive for Britain's return to the continental club with the destruction of UK democracy and sovereignty?
When you take a look at where devolution has had the most impact since Blair began the break up of a once United Kingdom, i.e. Scotland, Wales and London, it has not been good, it has created division and has not benefitted the people of those places. The Scots and Welsh have been separated from the rest of the UK and now have multiple layers of governance making them over governed. They have imposed upon them differing laws to those in England, which begs the question, if we are a United Kingdom why not have the same laws which are equal to all? Why have the Scots got a lower drink drive law than the English and why have the poor old Welsh got a plethora of 20 MPH limits on their roads? Far more than anyone else. Added to which, not to forget what our latest Peer of the Realm, Mayor of London and now a Lord, comrade Khan who has done to poor old Londoners. His terms in office have done immense harm to the City and wrecked the lives of many with his vindictive ULEZ and low traffic zones. None of this has had any beneficial effect on the lives of Londoners, especially those in the outer London suburbs who drive older cars and are now bullied by his Lordship into paying £12 every time they need to drive to work or the local shops. If his office was gone tomorrow no one would miss it and many would probably cheer at the prospect.
The region we have to feel sorry for is that of Northern Ireland, which is one of the most patriotic parts of the UK. Due to Theresa May, when she was the Prime Minister, organising a terrible Brexit deal, these loyal subjects were abandoned and are now being ruled by the EU when the rest of us have escaped, which is so unfair.
Sadly, like many, I have no trust in our new, unelected, Prime Minister and his gimmicks. During all general elections it is the whole country that votes for its Members of Parliament and by doing so they will loaning power to a newly elected Government for the following five years to govern the whole of the UK, not just a tiny minority in the north. Devolution will do nothing to improve what has been and, no doubt will also be, a failing Government no matter where it is. With the unelected Any Burnham in charge we are now facing the devolution destruction of the nation.