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Local and Regional Government

: The hon. Gentleman says regionalism, but there is a debate to be had about what is interpreted as regionalism and what is interpreted as devolution and decentralisation. I shall come to my criticism of the Government in a moment, but it relates in part to the fact that they are concerned not with regionalism, but with attempting to establish a democratic structure in Government zones. Such zones are not regions, because there is no internal integrity in many of them. I cannot comment on the north-east, but I can certainly comment on the Government zone of the south-west. It is not a region, but a Government zone, which has been created over time not only by this Labour Government but by their predecessor Governments for reasons of bureaucratic convenience. It certainly has nothing to do with regionalism, because regionalism implies that a region recognises its own internal integrity and then seeks to achieve power for itself.