Tom Gordon, a Lib Dem MP from Harrogate, has decided that what Yorkshire really needs is its own parliament. Not better rail infrastructure. Not investment in post-industrial towns. Not solutions to actual governance problems. A parliament. One that will sit somewhere — presumably arguing about whether it should be in Leeds or York for the next eight years while accomplishing nothing.
The proposal treats devolution like a vending machine: insert enough political noise, get out regional autonomy. Gordon wants to go further than elected mayors, which is the political equivalent of deciding a broken ladder needs more rungs. Mayors were supposed to solve regional problems. They mostly just got new letterhead and the same budget constraints.
Why would a new parliament fix anything that an elected mayor couldn’t? Because it would have more people in it, apparently. More people to disagree about the same unsolved problems, just with better committee rooms.
The real issue — investment, infrastructure, economic policy — lives in Westminster and the Bank of England. A Yorkshire parliament would have the symbolic authority of a student union and the actual power to debate whether the Yorkshire pudding is a side dish or a starter. Gordon’s proposal mistakes form for function so completely it almost seems intentional.
But it’ll poll well. Regional pride is a reliable political product. Actual resource reallocation is not.