It's fair enough. Liverpool's politics have been too parochial and corrupt for too long, and that comes at a price. Cluclas is simply stating facts, the Greater Manchester local authorities have a better tradition of joint working, although to be fair to Liverpool, this is because they had proper boundaries when they were a Metroplitan County Council (and a lot of subsequent arrangements merely perpetuate activities that took place within the remit of the Met County, as was the case in Greater London post GLC but pre-GLA), whereas Liverpool Met was always underbounded, with Halton, Skem, Ormskirk, Ellesmere Port etc excluded, let alone the larger city region. So it was bound to be harder for Liverpool.
But Liverpool politicians and senior council officials have not shown much leadership or interest in playing a leadership role in the city region. Shame on them. Henshaw was no Bernstein - the former being a bossy parochial managerialist and control freak, the latter being a natural born leader, imperialist and salesman. (It's so fantastic Henshaw has gone, this is just one of many pieces of damage that can be traced back to his office door). But, remember, there are people who post here who seemed to think it odd when someone suggested that Tony's Society should meet in Birkenhead....It would not be odd for a Greater Manchester grouping to meet in Salford or Stockport. If people here can't be arsed going on a 3 minute shuttle train from James St to Hamilton Sq, or driving along a nice 1 mile road, or taking a nice ferry - why blame local politicians?
I think losing out is fair and right and probably a good thing. Perhaps it will make people realise that there is a price to pay for parochialism, and that will be the incentive to get people to start talking and working together. My only concern with all this is Warrington, and I will be very angry indeed if there is any attempt to place it in the Manc City Region without the Liverpool City Region having had time to form. That should be the bottom line on all this, in my opinion - the Mancs can go ahead, as long as they don't grab Warrington until the people of Warrington can choose between two fully functioning and viable City Regional authorities.
These IPPR people in the North are a funny lot, and I'd be amazed if their recommendations are enacted as written, although obviously they are flying a kite for Government and not giving voice to genuinely independent and original thinking. They are New Labour not New Ideas. I wonder if there is huge and genuine enthusiasm in Government for this, aside from geography and flighty "new ideas" anoraks? It's a terrible time to think of launching any structure with tax-raising powers, given that we are in the shit on public spending and taxation in the next few years. This would have been much better if it had been the policy instead of the catastrophic regional (assembly) agenda. There are reasons why it might be good not to be a pilot.
But hopefully the civic leaders in all the Liverpool City Region local authorities will observe what happens elsewhere, in quite similar city regions, and see that it's natural, logical and beneficial to work closely with those in the sub-region, and that it brings benefits. We have been saying that here for a long time, but the political class haven't quite got the message. Once a Manchester City Region authority is seen to have the ear of Whitehall and to be throwing its weight around NW and Northern Way structures, (ie more money for Manchester Airport, opposition to expansion of LJLA) I think we will see people start to wake up on what this is all about.
I'm pretty relaxed about this - it may not happen, but even if it does that is fine as long as Warrington is kept out of the frame. Liverpool can join in in a few years time: 2008 is only 2 years away, and I think that will help the hinterland reconnect with the city.