Sheffield City Region Devolution - The Brexit Impact

On Monday 27th June 2016 I attended the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority (SCRCA) to hear the answer to a series of questions I put to them about the impact of the Referendum result.

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The reason I was putting questions at this early stage was to see what the impact of the decision would be on current City Region projects and on the whole 'devolution' process for the region.

These are the questions I asked.

Urgent Questions to the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority Meeting 27th June 2016
Q1 How much of the SCRCA and LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) funding is directly related to EU membership? (value & percentage please)
Q2 What will be the impact of the referendum result on the SCRCA's Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)?
Q3 What will happen to the EU funded business support services?
Q4 What will be the impact on 14-19 year olds on the Employment Support Fund (ESF) support programmes?
Q5 Does the SCRCA expect agreed funding to now be frozen during exit negotiations?
Q6 Does the SCRCA expect 2014-2020 funding already spent to be clawed back?
Q7 How does the referendum result affect the draft scheme papers being considered by this meeting and should these proposals be delayed until the impact is fully appreciated?
Q8 Where does this leave the whole devolution process if the SCRCA are to be underfunded and unable to meet their growth commitments?
Q9 Was any of this discussed with Government ministers before the referendum and if so what was their response?

I admit my questions were given at short notice, over the weekend, but I was hoping that some of the matters in the questions would have been considered before the referendum took place. It certainly was by some as Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) held a series of round table discussions on the subject, one of which was in Sheffield and at which City Council and City region leaders were allegedly present.

I was therefore somewhat surprised to be informed by the Chair of the SCRCA, Sir Steve Houghton, (Leader of Barnsley Council) that none of this information was immediately available and some of the impacts would only come out over several months. I understand the comments on the impacts being slow to emerge but am more than somewhat shocked that they were unable to give a figure on the amount of EU investment we receive in the region. Surely this was information they used in their campaigning during the referendum.

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At that point I suggested that I thought they would be able to at least answer question 9. The Chair had to check what that question was, (had he not read them before the non-answer I was given?) and then responded that, since the result they'd had discussions with Civil Servants about the devolution process and were advised by them to assume everything would carry on.

That was that. The meeting went on to rubber stamp the rest of the agenda items, setting the stage for the new devolution and the City Region Mayor, with barely a comment from any of the political leadership in attendance.

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The responses or lack of them indicate to me a level of complacency within the City Region leadership about the referendum itself, the potential for a 'Leave' result and an almost negligent approach to their forward planning. What sort of organisation fails to consider all the potential outcomes of such an historical vote?

The Region and it would seem the Authority meant to be in charge of it are now floundering in the dark and for who knows how long? To carry on putting time and money into a project with such an uncertain future would seem to me to be the height of folly.

Time for a Reboot !

I am reflecting on the dreadful week that we have had. This piece is therefore emotional, for which I do not apologise. I am purposefully not naming names or pointing fingers and am therefore not supplying links to the news stories involved.

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Yet another mass murder in the States, surrounded by a plethora of hatefilled politicians pretending to care and to grieve whilst doing nothing to address the issue of US gun laws. Then we have the awful and apparently frenzied murder of a Yorkshire MP by someone allegedly calling out “Britain First”.

These are both events driven by hate and fuelled by the adversarial politics of divisiveness, emnity and, again, hate. This has brought me to an inevitable conclusion. Politics, to quote my techy friends, needs a reboot. I saw a post yesterday from a Canadian friend which put some of my thoughts into that useful format of the Facebook meme.

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“Have we tried turning the USA off and back on again?”

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Unfortunately this toxic politicing not only applies to the hate filled rhetoric of the US Presidential race but to almost every aspect of US politics in the current climate of fear, prejudice and despair that they preach on a daily basis. Don't even get me started on the so called Christian clergy over there.

It also applies to the way our own politics is starting to drift more and more quickly towards the politics of division, destitution and here's that word again, hate. More and more UK politicians are drawn into words or actions that incite or inflame the actions of others. They create 'Others' for us to denigarate, blame and despise. Be that immigrants, benefit 'scroungers' or the workshy disabled. In this they are supported by much of the media and so called journalists who repeat politician's lies as if they were the truth and peddle and profit from the same hate that brought us to this violence.

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We may like to reassure ourselves that this is only some oddball far right approach to politics and that most politicians are above it. I wish this was the case but, it starts in little ways that we allow as acceptable in our adversarial system. It escalates as we move up the greasy ladder of politics in minor ways and ways we talk about as 'policy' direction and 'regulation' and the inevitable route takes us to conflict and killing.

It starts in the adversarial, dismissive and disrespectful actions of Councillors in formal meetings, the casual berating, jeering at and abusing of their fellow councillors just for a different political view. It continues in the rhetoric of hate used by small minded politicians, from the right and the left, promoting division in our communities and alleging they wish to save us from some bogey man or other. It's ultimate expression in the UK is the deliberate policy decisions of Governments to do down sections of the British public for their difference, their origins, their frailties or just because they cannot function well in this manic globalised economy where no level of performance is ever quite good enough.

All the while politicians of every hue will claim to care and to be working for the best resolution to the problems besetting this world. I am sure that in some cases this is true but, many fall into the trap of promoting despair, division and hate through their words and sometimes their actions.

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Evidence from the US is that the terrible events of Orlando will not change their politics, I can only hope that we have not yet become so debased and that we can see that the murder of an MP in such a manner is a reflection of our politics and it is our politicians that must address this toxic promotion of hate and must address it now.

It is time for politicians to stand up and be counted, reject hostility and hate in politics, promote respect and hope, before it is too late!