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		Degrading Democracy September 24 2002 I recently heard the BBC introduce an item about "The CBI's opposition to increased local democracy". Of course they didn't mean increased local democracy at all, they meant the regionalisation agenda. I was on the phone to them straight away. To assume, without debate or analysis, that regionalisation equates to increased local democracy is a typical piece of BBC bias. Democracy requires a "demos", a people who feel they have enough in common to give legitimacy to majority decisions. That works at the county level and at the national level, but not in artificial regions drawn up by bureaucrats in Whitehall or Brussels. In my own East Midlands region, we have Glossop, which is commuter country for Manchester; Hinckley, commuter country for London, and Skegness, exposed to the harsh winds from the North Sea. What do they have in common, beyond being English? Not a lot. According to the government's proposals, each assemblyman or woman in an East Midlands elected regional assembly would represent up to 200,000 people - that's nearly three times the average Westminster constituency. This would not bring decision-making and accountability closer to the people - it would move it further away. In real local government - districts, cities, counties - you have genuine local councillors, who know their area, representing a few thousand voters. With regionalisation, these local authorities would go. It is distrurbing that the government has recruited Church of England Bishops to chair constitutional conventions in the regions, to give a spurious air of legitimacy to bodies that lack popular interest or support. And of course there is the European angle. When I went to Brussels as a prospective Euro- candidate in 1998, an established Tory MEP John Corrie told me: Roger, in ten years time there will be no Westminster parliament. We shall have a Britain of regions governed from Brussels. There is some debate about who originated the regionalisation idea, which has been around for decades. But there can be no doubt that the EU is using it to drive a new model of governance. Regional government is promoted, strong links formed between regions and Brussels, and national governments sidelined. Prescott's plans play directly to this agenda. Those of us who believe in our country, and in genuinely accountable local democracy, must do all we can to stop the regionalisation band-wagon.