A FOOL returns to his folly as does a dog to its vomit.Thus it was that George Osborne used the first speech of the new parliament yesterday to yet again \u2013 very sketchily \u2013 outline his plans for \u201cradical devolution\u201d for regions of England.<\/p>\n
Plans under the Cities Devolution Bill will help to implement the so-called \u201cnorthern powerhouse\u201d \u2013 or should that be \u201cpoorhouse\u201d \u2013 announcement he made last time round.<\/p>\n
Cities would be given power over local transport, housing, planning, policing and public health \u2013 all the things the Tories have already wrecked.As usual with Osborne, the devil is in the detail, of which there was characteristically none.<\/p>\n
Instead he chuntered: \u201cThe old model of trying to run everything in our country from the centre of London is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation: \u201cWe\u2019ve had enough of you uppity bloody northerners.\u201dAnd he continued: \u201cIt\u2019s led to an unbalanced economy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s made people feel remote from the decisions that affect their lives. It\u2019s not good for our prosperity or our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translation: \u201cWe\u2019ve tried hounding and starving you to death and frankly we\u2019ve run out of ideas, so it\u2019s your turn to mess things up.\u201d<\/p>\n