A little local difficulty for the Tories

One habit I can't seem to shake after nearly 40 years is listening to the Today programme. For ten years I'd go on it speaking for the governement. The strangest thing when I left government was I kept waking up in the morning thinking I had to respond as a minister. I then realised it wasn't my responsibility anymore.

But I still like starting the day with the show and I always listen to Yesterday in Parliament. This morning I caught the debate on regional select committees and I found myself shouting at the radio. You can listen to it here - it's 43 minutes in. (I had hoped to be in the chamber to listen to the debate in person but I'm still finishing off my major report on how we can use sport to increase community cohesion and improve health in East Hull - more of that in the next few days.)

Anyway, I have always been passionate about regionalism and devolution, going back to 1981 when I became Labour's first regional minister and set out the case for decentralisation in my policy document Alternative Regional Strategy.

This led to the Regional Development Agencies, devolution to Wales and Scotland and would ideally have ended in elected Regional Assemblies. My former colleague Mike Craven wrote about my work in the New Statesman if you want to find out more.

So when I heard the Tories had come out against eight regional select committees and with the Lib Dems, were going to boycott them, I was angry but not surprised.

These select committees would provide far more effective scrutiny of the RDAs and the money spent on them. They would also make them more accountable to the public - I had hoped elected Regional Assemblies would provide this function, but this is a good alternative.

The Conservatives opposed the RDAs, they opposed elected mayors, they opposed Regional Assemblies, they opposed the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the London Assembly and axed the GLC so it could be run from Whitehall. Centralisation is in their DNA.

But now they claim to believe in localism - and are now in favour of elected mayors. In fact they want to see 12 new Boris Johnsons - part-time politicians who fit in running an authority around their £250,000 contracts with the Daily Telegraph, no doubt. (By the way, there's a very good blog that highlights Boris Johnson's antics at City Hall called Tory Troll.)

What really annoyed me was hearing the Tories speaking out against these select committees and the nine regional ministers. Chief amongst them was John Redwood - that passionate defender of local accountability who couldn't even learn the Welsh anthem when he was Welsh minister.

But I had to laugh when I heard the Shadow Leader of the House Alan Duncan proclaim:

"We cannot have a select committee system like this enjoying a budget and going off on jollies when their efficacy is serioiusly being challenged."

That's the same Alan Duncan who was given the boot (or should that be a hush puppy kick) as Shadow Business Secretary after refusing to join the Shadow Cabinet going round Britain talking to businesses about the recession because he was on a 'skiing jolly' with a Parliamentary Group to Davos in Switzerland.

Like Swiss cheese, the Tories commitment to localism and the regions is full of holes!

And just in case you didn't see it at the time, here's a little film of Duncan doing what he does best - going on the piste!