12 April 2016
There is going to be a Revolution. Yay! It is going to be a Devolution Revolution. Double yay!! We all like a bit of poetry. Although, possibly a revolution is not a proper revolution if it is planned by the government and implemented by civil servants. Hey-ho. At a conference centre in Birmingham, I am one of a few select invitees to an IPO meeting about business outreach. The ITMA Chief Eggsek is there, and also several people from Business Enterprise and Innovation Growth Chamber Acceleration Network Hubs. Or whatever they’re called these days. The reason we are here is that the government has been getting excited about its Devolution Revolution. When it is not busy, that is, offering people a choice about Europe and then publishing pamphlets saying, Actually, you know that choice we’re giving you, well, be sure not to make the wrong one, won’t you, because it would be really, really awkward if you did. As is well known, the government is strongly in favour of Devolution, which in management bollocks is referred to as Outsourcing: in other words, you make the people who elected you to govern them do their own governing, thus freeing you up to be in Parliament practising your banter. We have had Devolution before, of course, but never in the form of a Revolution, which makes this one rather exciting. Adding to the sense of anticipation is the parallel creation of a Northern Powerhouse and a Midlands Engine. Who could fail to be enthralled by such names? Images of steam trains and frock coats spring to mind, of top-hatted mill owners with throaty northern accents and bellicose Luddites. The Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine compete fiercely with one another to be recognised as the most economically significant part of the UK. In time, if they succeed in being powerful and engineful, at least one of them will seek independence. (So far as I know, they have yet to consider Devolution in the Wess Curntry. I have not heard talk of a South-West Economic Boom Harvester, for example.) I do not contribute much to the meeting, because everyone is talking in acronyms and I don’t know what they mean. It is possible that some of them don’t mean anything at all. But what do I know? I’m not an engine or a powerhouse and I haven’t been devolved. Although there are many at CIPA who would have preferred to have me devolved some time ago. After the meeting, I head back through the building sites of the Midlands Engine, pick up a BLT, catch a train to BPW and return home ASAP for some R&R. I feel thoroughly revolved.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
July 2019
Categories |