You would imagine that proposals to devolve politically the area where you live would be big news, especially in the area where you live. But the first I knew about this was when I saw a sticker with a QR code at a bus stop in Hull. We were exhorted to “have our say” on the proposals which were published on November 23rd 2023 for a Hull and East Yorkshire Devolution Deal. I don’t recall a letter to my house, amidst the deluge of letters from the local council every time the collection times for the bins changes. As I have not heard my friends, family or neighbours talking about this, my guess is that no such letter was ever delivered.
In outline, the proposals are for a unitary authority covering the present East Riding of Yorkshire Council area including Hull, which presently has its own city council. A consultation has just taken place on three possible levels of authority: one which barely differs from the present set up; one which is a hybrid; and one which goes for the full Monty, thereby abolishing the two existing councils and creating a new one to cover the whole region.
Potential nightmayor
According to two of the models it is envisaged they will be under the leadership of an elected mayor. Think London and Manchester and other areas of the country unfortunate enough to suffer under some political maverick who sees mayoralty as a stepping stone to world domination. Locally, we have a series of reasonably high-profile politicians such as David Davies MP, former MP turned author Alan Johnson (very popular), and Dame Diana Johnson (God save us). It is unlikely that Lord Prescott, now in poor health, will put his Jag in the ring. Would Michelle Dewberry take a shot or comedian Lucy Beaumont? There is always Hullensian Maureen Lipman who is very popular, but who chooses to reside in York rather than Hull.
Referring to East Yorkshire’s role in the Battle of Stamford Bridge (the final defeat of the Vikings, not the Chelsea vs Arsenal Derby), Hull’s defiance of King Charles I during the First English Civil War and, of course, our very own William Wilberforce, the authors of the devolution deal make the case for this new load of nonsense.
Train of thought
The rhetoric continues as platitude piles upon platitude. There is much talk of “levelling up” and “leverage” of “sectoral strengths”. A cracking series of oxymorons is expressed thus in the proposed “transition to a more productive, low carbon economy whilst improving the living standards and economic opportunities for their most deprived communities”. Much is made of the “low carbon economy”, the Zero Carbon Humber Partnership and “carbon capture, usage and storage clusters” – whatever they may be – and ultra bollocks such as the desire to “support inclusive economic growth in towns, cities and rural areas whilst tackling climate change”.
There is absolutely nothing that will not be fantastic once the new overlords are elected. Everything from adult education through housing to investment in enterprise, all things that both existing councils have spouted about for decades and where they have achieved next to nothing. It would have been no surprise to see “and world peace” as one of the goals of a unitary authority.
The green agenda runs throughout meaning that, in the lemming like leap to ‘decarbonisation’, we will have an ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure’. Clearly, the authors of the devolution deal are not readers of the Daily Sceptic as there is a lack of concomitant planning to increase the local fire and rescue services they will need to rescue people from exploding Teslas.
Of course, we will have ‘consolidated’ local transport and electrification of the rail line to Hull which will slash the travel times to places such as York and Sheffield by several minutes. The long suffering train commuters of Hull were promised electrification of our rail system before we hosted the Year of Culture in 2017. In the intervening period not one amp has been pushed past a single ohm by a single volt between Doncaster and Hull. Quite how a mayoral authority will achieve this, where existing structures have failed, is hard to fathom. Those long suffering train commuters will just be happy to see trains arriving and departing at Hull Paragon station regularly and on time, by whatever means they’re propelled.
Carbon copy
Still on the transport agenda, we’re promised ‘Active Travel’ policies which will “ensure walking and cycling schemes are designed and delivered to high standards”. Presumably, they’re not referring to the “high standards” already achieved in the profusion of cycle lanes around Hull. Our cycle lanes are already the butt of many a joke and, prior to their creation, a city-wide consultation revealed what Hull folks – not prone to mincing their words – thought about them: “some of the most popular responses calling the new scheme ‘ridiculous’ and a ‘waste of money’”. Of course, the City Council installed them anyway. They are universally useless; they begin and end at arbitrary places and, where the road is too narrow, they simply stop. Some lead cyclists away from the inside lane at points, across the traffic, into the middle of the road and then stop, leaving cyclists puzzled as to where to go and motorists considering whether it is legal to mow them down. Most Hull cyclists vote with their handlebars and cycle on the pavement, with impunity.
Cyclists can use the bus lanes and there is nothing more comical than watching a slow stroppy cyclist being followed by a bus which cannot overtake, proceeding to its destination at the same speed as the cyclist. Actually, one thing is more comical and that is being on the bus listening to the stream of expletives from the driver’s cab. An educational experience. And don’t get me started on bus lanes, another aspect of the green agenda, which clog up Hull’s roads. In a remarkable example of people power, having excluded cars completely during the day, they were recently returned only to excluding cars at peak times. But not bicycles.
Green with ennui
We are promised green jobs and, to prove that the green agenda can lead to jobs, the Green Jobs Delivery Group will oversee progress ensuring that local workers and businesses “are supported through the Net Zero transition”. Those employed in the delivery group will be the only people to benefit from this and, no doubt, will be advising the hordes of unemployed created in the wake of the Net Zero transition to cycle to the dole office, thereby remaining active and contributing to the very agenda that has led to their enforced indolence. The authors of the devolution deal clearly operate in an evidence-free zone. We already know, thanks to Chris Morrison (of this parish) that most jobs now referred to as ‘green’ are simply existing jobs that have been relabelled to align with the green agenda, including “dustmen, mechanics, teachers and bureaucrats”. We also know that “each job in the wind and solar power sectors is being subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of over £250,000 per job, every year”.
And so the devolution deal document goes on, blowing hard about offshore wind, another of the expensive green agenda scams which delivers little except damage to marine wildlife, environment and climate change adaptation and flooding and water management. In fact, this last one is a serious issue for Hull and some parts of the Humber estuary which lie below the water level. However, we have a very effective tidal barrier at the mouth of the River Hull which keeps us safe. There were devastating floods in Hull in 2007 when one person died and millions of pounds of damage was caused but the problem was not so much the torrential rain for many days as the fact that our drainage system was inadequate and, as any Hull resident will tell you, the local council had been neglecting to clean the drains for years.
Chilling prospect
The most chilling aspect (probably literally) of the report is the proposal to comply with the Government’s intention to establish heat network zones. There are already a staggering 1,400 heat networks in the U.K. Hull does not yet have any but plans are well underway to develop the infrastructure by installing a series of pipes which will be “used to transport heated water to buildings connected to the network”. According to the devolution deal local authorities “will have powers to require certain buildings to connect to heat networks within the zones” and thus will enable Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority to “assume the role of heat network Zoning Coordinator for its locality if they wish to play this role in the delivery of heat decarbonisation infrastructure”. Essentially, the local arbiters of the nanny state could be given the controls to the heating in thousands of people’s homes. You’ll be able to turn the heat off if it is too warm but unable to turn it up – beyond a predetermined maximum temperature – if you’re too cold.
Finally, I leave you with another of the many word salads from the devolution deal which comes under the heading of ‘Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)’. Apparently, Hull and East Yorkshire are “missing the evidence on how they can include carbon sequestration and sequestration carbon values of BNG/flood interventions, to develop innovative approaches and incentivising greater private sector investment”. Perhaps the problem is that, on the one hand, nobody knows what that means and, on the other hand, nobody cares.
Dr. Roger Watson is Academic Dean of Nursing at Southwest Medical University, China. He has a PhD in biochemistry. He writes in a personal capacity.
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