Ruairi McCallanThere are (at the time of writing this piece) just twenty days until the UK is supposed to officially leave the European Union, with or without a withdrawal agreement.
Much like the efficiency of legislating at Stormont, however, the whole process has been agonizingly slow and plagued by party infighting, factionalism and general incompetence from both the Government and the opposition at Westminster. In fact, it’s looking more and more like there will be some delay or even a general election as opposed to a solid deal that passes through the House of Commons.
Brexit holds a lot of potentials for the North: the potential for a hard border, the potential for a border poll, the potential for the re-emergence of shadowy groups that we all thought had been left in the past. Nobody, however, is talking about the future of legislative bodies and institutions, both here and throughout the rest of the UK, post-Brexit.
And that’s a problem, particularly given that the vote to leave the EU – as flawed and self-harming as it may yet turn out to be – was one fueled not simply by xenophobia and backwardness (indeed, to tar all ‘Leavers’ with that brush would be hugely unfair), but by a feeling that the democratic, governing institutions on these islands – Westminster, Stormont – were out of touch and too distant, ignorant of the concerns of so-called ‘ordinary voters’.
Despite this being a well-documented complaint, neither Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn have advanced concrete policies that would lead to a greater devolution of powers; not simply to Stormont or Holyrood but to city councils like those in Liverpool or Manchester. Sure, there have been promises of ‘taking back control’ from Brussels and giving more power to the people, but the desire to decentralise and devolve power through the creation of a more regional or federal framework (similar to that of say, Germany) is lacking. Indeed, the Tories seem to only want to cut local/regional government spending power, whilst Labour (at least under Corbyn) continues to push for mass economic nationalisation which almost inevitably leads to further centralisation of economic and political power, alongside poorly delivered services.
Further devolution is also needed here of course. In the absence of Stormont, NI’s local
councils have been ‘running the show’ as it were, yet despite calls from the Northern Irish Local Government Association or ‘NILGA’ (which, for full disclosure, my father is the chief executive of), our so-called representatives at Westminster are either so far up the backside of the Tories that they can’t see straight or are too busy playing ‘lets pretend to be 1916 revolutionaries’ to actually turn up and argue for this further devolution of economic and political power to both the devolved assemblies and local/regional councils.
At a local level, the sectarian divide breaks down a whole lot more than at a national level. Does it still plague local politics? Sure, it seems the North is never going to (sadly) escape that any time soon. But, does it actually focus the minds of local politicians and voters on the fact there are real, tangible, easily-felt consequences for voting this way or the other? Absolutely.
A lot was made of that whole ‘taking back control’ slogan, namely that it has turned out to not really mean anything. Post-Brexit, the UK as a whole needs to decentralise, federalise and actually give power back to local communities. Theresa May’s proposal of cash packages to deprived areas means very little will actually change in the long run; they’ll end up exactly like those EU funds used to build new art galleries and theatres.
Don’t get me wrong, as someone who would probably fall into the ‘neoliberal, bourgeois intelligentsia’ bracket I love that the arts and humanities are funded through such grants, but even I’ll admit they don’t matter a hoot to individuals who feel economically left behind without any political or economic agency.
Whether Brexit happens or not this month – or even at all – one thing is certain: we need more devolution of both economic and political decision-making, both in the UK, EU, heck even globally! Without it, I very much fear that these populist revolts and demagogues – the Trumps, Brexits, Viktor Orbáns of the world – will continue to plague our political landscape for decades to come.
