UK Parliament / Open data

Devolution and the Union

Proceeding contribution from Graham Allen (Labour) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 20 November 2014. It occurred during Backbench debate on Devolution and the Union.

I suspect that the hon. Gentleman, as someone who tried to leave the family of nations, does not speak with quite the authority he may think he has.

What about the positive things we need to address in terms of devolution? It is key—we often say this in the Chamber—that we address the sclerotic over-centralisation of the United Kingdom, particularly with regard to Whitehall. In the big family of nations, we are probably the third most over-centralised nation of the western democracies. Albania is worse than us—that is an obvious example—and, of course, the SNP’s Scotland is also massively over-centralised, sucking up powers on a daily basis. We can hear that slurping sound of local autonomy being sucked into Holyrood, which makes it a highly centralised nation.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
588 c490 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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