Transforming Yorkshire duly held its Yorkshire Day Event at the Guildhall in York. For a small private meeting it was well attended and the room was close to capacity. It was billed as the small event to mark a big day and it lived up to expectations.
People’s Constitution for Yorkshire
It was noted that significant progress has been made with the People’s Constitution. Some amendments were suggested and were duly taken on board. The publication of the first version of the People’s Constitution is scheduled for October and Philip Hardstone, the lead on the project for Democratic Yorkshire, confirmed that the project would likely meet this target.
https://www.democraticyorkshire.org.uk/people-s-constitution
Yorkshire Pledge
The Yorkshire Pledge is a controversial subject for several reasons. Yorkshire is not a political entity so strictly speaking there is nothing to devolve any powers to. The Pledge itself is not a campaign but more of a preamble to a campaign. The wording of the Pledge is technically correct but is deemed by some to be less than inspiring. It was considered that there had been enough interest to take the Pledge forward and replace it with an actual campaign.
A team was appointed to come up with ideas to get the campaign off the ground.
Public Relations and Coordination
It was generally agreed that the devolution campaign lacked coordination and leadership. Much could be improved in this area. The lack of authority of the One Yorkshire Committee was noted. The consensus was that the successor to the Pledge should come up with objectives and ideas that everybody could get behind. This would, if successful, solve both the branding and leadership issues. There is clearly a lot of work to do before we get to that position, but the point is valid enough.
It was noted that work is ongoing to expand and coordinate social media.
Next Year
Our objectives are clear in that we would like to see a Yorkshire Parliament responsible for the whole of Yorkshire with the authority and funding to get things done. This is unlikely to happen in the short term as the government is committed to small scale token devolution in the form of mayoralties whilst for the most part retaining control of most issues and nearly all the money. This is likely to continue with mayors for North and East Yorkshire coming with the offer of very limited devolved powers and totally inadequate funding. It was agreed that we would have to participate in this political process to show it up for the totally inadequate shambles that it is and to keep our political aspirations alive.
Mayors are likely to be here for some time, but this fact should not make us lose sight of our ultimate aspirations.
Next year is also significant as there will be a general election. Plans will be put in place to ensure that all parties and candidates in Yorkshire are aware of our cause. The county cannot continue to put up with this level of neglect.
Conclusion
It was thought that the meeting had been useful and we have now also secured funding for a follow-up, as necessary.