The QT

Monday 9 December 2024
09/12/2024

Author name: Bob Hudson

How can we hold regional mayors to account? 

Whether it’s Ben Houchen pledging to build a new hospital on Teesside, Kim McGuinness looking to save jobs at Hitachi, or Andy Burnham bringing buses in the North West back under public control, regional and city mayors are now established and ambitious power brokers in English politics.   And as mentioned in my previous piece for …

What’s next for devolution?

The party’s over! The recent metro mayoral elections constitute the endpoint of a process that began back in the 1930s, if not earlier. Our devolution policy landscape is littered with decades of ill-fated initiatives — centralised post-war regional policies, the short-lived Tyne-Wear County Council, the disastrous referendum on a directly elected regional assembly, the establishment …

Are universities in trouble?

October 1963. The Beatles have been at number one for six weeks with She Loves You. Meanwhile, in 10 Downing Street, a report of huge significance lands on the desk of the new Conservative prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home — the Robbins Report on the future of higher education.  At a time when only 5% of …

A big year for devolution

The date of the next General Election might still be uncertain, but one thing we can be sure of is that this year will witness several significant mayoral elections across England. Once the preserve of constitutional scholars, English devolution is now political centrestage, and nowhere more so than here in the north east where two …

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