The Council of Nations and Regions Debacle

The CNR is derisory to Scotland, equating English city Mayor’s – the combined budget of which is just over £2b with Scotland’s elected FM with a budget of £60b. But it’s not really about numbers is it? It’s comparing apples and pears and deliberately equating a region with a nation which is insulting. As Dr WE Bulmer puts it:

"The ‘Council of Nations and Regions’ has one Scottish and one Welsh representative out of 18. This shows the ridiculousness of any scheme that treats the nations of Scotland and Wales on a par, not with England, but with individual English city-regions.”

But it’s worse than that. Because Labour are on the one hand undermining the devolution settlement they themselves created, while on the other hand presenting the bogus version of devolution they have created in England.

The CNR has no real powers, no legal basis and no autonomy.