The Republic of Yorkshire?

Did you know that there is an entity called Yorkshireurope and that they have an embassy in Brussels?

Avenue de Cortenbergh 118-1000 Brussels to be precise.

Even more curiously they refer to themselves as an “intelligence agency”.

They are funded by Yorkshire Forward , who’s logo is curiously close to being a swastika.

One wonders, who exactly has voted for any of this?

The head of Yorkshire Forward is this guy, where his biography page declares that “He is currently Chair of Magna Holdings Ltd., a property development and investment company”

hmmm… do a smell a conflict of interest?

He of course completely unelected and yet in charge of EU regional policy in Yorkshire.
Also from his bio:

“He believes that continuous learning is critical to success in a fast-changing world.”
Common Purpose?

But I disgress. Yorkshire Forward’s accounts are available from here. On page 40 we learn of an body called the “Yorkshire and Humber Assembly” - is that the Yorkshire regional parliament? A parliament that nobody voted for?

We learn on page of the (very glossy and very expensive to produce) report that :

Yorkshire Forward has 431 staff
It’s budget in 2006/07 was £354 million
It’s work is scrutinised by the Yorkshire Regional Assembly
note how it isn’t the House of Commons doing the scrutiny

Total staffing costs for Yorkshire Forward amount to just under £18 million (page 85).

Then on page 97 we get acknowledgement that from 1st October 2007 Yorkshire Forward received “delegated authority” from the DCLG.

Common Purpose appear on page 104, under the register of board members interests

Mr Riordan is the chief executive of Yorkshire Forward. On his bio it’s mentioned that he represented “the UK in United Nations negotiations on climate change and endangered species” despite having no qualifications in environmental science. He’s got a modern history degree from Oxford.

He has never been elected to any political office.

Getting back to the regional assembly, it’s website is over here. On their assembly structures page it’s mentioned that they are overseen by a “scrutiny board”.

“The Scrutiny Board is made up of full Assembly members and is chaired by the Deputy Chair of the Assembly. If a review requires specialist knowledge there is the facility to co-opt two additional members.”

So this regional assembley scrutinises itself. How convienient…

The assembly membership is available over here. Members are not elected - they are “nominated”.

And

Wherever possible members make decisions on the basis of consensus. The membership is made up of 60% Local Authorities and 40% Social, Economic and Environmental Partners.

consensus = common purpose?

The assembly will cost £2.89 million to run.

From the regional assembly meeting minutes some curious aspects are mentioned:

2010 appears to be a deadline of sorts. And the mention of “Regional Ministers” is interesting. I wonder who’ll they’ll be reporting to.

http://johntrenchard.blogspot.com/2007/12/republic-of-yorkshire.html

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