§ 4.6 pm
§ Mr. Paddy Ashdown (Yeovil)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish regional assemblies in England; and for connected purposes.It is the spirit of the Bill rather than its detail to which I should like to draw the attention of the House. I must be one of the few hon. Members who fought to get elected specifically to reduce the influence of Parliament and to hand back to people the power to control their own destinies. Increasingly, over the past 40 years, the power has shifted from local government to central Government, and the power and influence of the Prime Minister and of the great Civil Service bureaucracies have grown at the expense of local government and a genuinely participative democracy. Increasingly, Parliament has sucked in and arrogated to itself all the processes of important decision making.
That shift has been quietly pursued by both Labour and Tory Governments alike, and has been brought to its ultimate conclusion by this Government. They promised differently, of course. The Conservative manifesto of 1983 said:
The Conservative party believes in encouraging people to take responsibility for their own decisions.However, no Government in recent times have more enthusiastically and systematically destroyed local government than this one. The final coup de grace came yesterday with the announcement of the long-expected rate-capping legislation. Insidiously, the constitution has been changed. Local government is now a hollow sham, whose duties are little more than acting as a land agent for Westminster. Meanwhile, Parliament has had to deal with everything from the issue of dog licences to the declaration of war. I remind hon. Members that not many weeks ago we did just that. At 4 pm we talked about dog nuisances and at 7 pm about cruise missiles. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy, that fourth and perhaps most powerful estate in the British constitution, has grown fatter and more powerful on the fruits of institutional centralisation.One belief forms the starting point for the political beliefs of the Liberals and SDP colleagues alike. It is that in any system of government it is the individual above all who should come first and not the state. It is that principle that forms the fountainhead of all our policies. It is a principle that differentiates the Liberal party from the Tory and Labour parties. The Tory party believes that the individual is at his best only when led, and preferably by someone who has had conferred upon him the divine right to lead. The Labour party believes that the individual is at his best only if he is incorporated in some lumpen proletariat.
§ Mr. AshdownWe hold an unshakable belief that a free society and a strong democracy can be created and maintained only if it is founded on the principle that the people have a right effectively to participate in the decisions that shape their own lives. We hold that principle in the workplace, in the operation of the ballot box and, above all, in the process of government itself. Alone among the parties in this place, we are prepared to say to 439 the people of Britain, "We trust you— not just to do what we say but to make your own decisions over your own lives."
In this sense we see ourselves as members of a liberation movement that is dedicated to breaking the crushing power of a leviathan bureaucracy. It is a movement that is dedicated to revitalising local government institutions and to handing back to the British people the power which, in a true democracy, would be and should be theirs.
My Bill is based on the principle that no decision should be taken at a higher level of government if the decision can be taken at a lower level with equal or greater effectiveness. English regional assemblies, together with Parliaments for Scotland and Wales, would take over many of Westminster's current functions, leaving the House free to concentrate on problems that must be solved nationally. The establishment of the assemblies could pave the way for the abolition of the most ineffectual tier of local government while providing democratic bodies to take on the functions of unloved quangos such as health authorities, electricity boards, regional water boards and the gas boards. The Bill would establish a welcome opportunity for a review of local government finance. It is important to ensure that the assemblies do not have to fight annual battles with Whitehall over funding. The Bill is intended to set up a coherent federal system for the government of Britain and is not designed to provide for yet another whimsical reorganisation of local government.
Those who criticise and oppose the Bill will no doubt do so on points of detail. I ask those who wish to vote against the Bill to take note of the spirit of the Bill and not points of detail. Do the opponents of the Bill believe that we politicians have run things so well that no change should be contemplated? Do they agree that the people of Britain have been excluded for far too long from the daily process of their own government? Do they have faith enough in them to allow them a full part with Parliament in making their own local decisions? Liberals have that faith and we are proud of it.
The House will recall that John Stuart Mill said:
A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands, even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can be accomplished.The Bill is the first shaking of the foundations and the first part of a great programme of reform in which we Liberals and our SDP colleagues believe so strongly. Its aim is no less than to make the powers of the British state weaker and the powers of the British people stronger. It is in that spirit that I commend the Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to.Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Paddy Ashdown, Mr. David Alton, Mr. A. J. Beith, Mr. John Cartwright, Mr. Clement Freud, Mr. Simon Hughes, Mr. Michael Meadowcroft, Mr. David Penhaligon, Mr. Stephen Ross and Mr. Richard Wainwright.