‘Inevitably the package will be dismissed […] as inadequate and grudging’

The New Labour Government of 1997 to 2010 oversaw considerable constitutional reforms, particularly in relation to the United Kingdom’s territorial constitution. While devolution to Scotland and Wales, and the peace process that saw the re-establishment of devolved institutions to Northern Ireland (notwithstanding their subsequent instability), will be familiar to any student of British politics since 1997, there was also an English dimension to this reform agenda. Labour’s 1997 election manifesto included a commitment to, at an appropriate time and in areas where there was sufficient demand, legislate for referendums for regional government. This commitment would play out in the 2004 referendum held in the North East of England when an overwhelming majority of those voting rejected the proposed local assembly. This article looks at the years leading up to that referendum, drawing on the latest government papers from that period which have been released, as well as contemporaneous analyses. While the ambivalence felt by many within the UK Government towards regional devolution has been discussed before, this article sheds new light on the extent, and scale, of those sentiments, as well as on the wariness and scepticism felt by those at the very heart of Downing Street regarding the Governments devolution agenda

Ambivalence · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Referendum · Sociology · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Psychology · Scottish History and National Identity · Social Psychology