Hannah Mitchell: an outstanding Northern working class socialist and feminist
A Radical Voice for the North!
(and about time too….)
Welcome to our website. It’s very early days and we are progressively building the site up. Comments are very welcome.
Our public launch was on Friday March 9th, 1315 in Bradford’s City Hall. Please see current news for our press release on an amazingly successful event or click on this….
Northern Campaign Launch Great Success
The following text was agreed at our founding meeting held in Sowerby Bridge on November 11th and approved at our first Annual General Meeting on January 13th 2012:
Introduction
The foundation is a forum for the development of a distinctive democratic socialism in the North, rooted in our ethical socialist traditions of mutuality, co-operation, community and internationalism. Its prime focus will be to develop the case for directly-elected regional government for the North of England – either as a whole or for the three regions which make up ‘the North’ (North East, Yorkshire & Humber and North West). Creating a devolved structure of governance for the North would be based on the key principles of democracy and subsidiarity, social equity and justice, and sustainable development in its social, environmental and economic senses. The foundation is named in memory of an outstanding Northern socialist, feminist and co-operator who was proud of her working class roots and had a cultural as well as political vision.
Objects: The Foundation will:
- Influence the political agenda in the UK, at national, regional and local level in support of elected regional government for the North
- Develop core values of a ‘northern’ centre-left politics based on (though not exclusively), the Labour and Co-operative Party traditions
- Research, present and promote the distinctive social, cultural and political heritage of the North of England and constituent parts of the North
- Research, present and promote the economic, cultural and social capital of the North within a wider UK and European context where appropriate (present and future)
- Study examples of regional government across Europe and beyond with a view to building the case for regional government for the North
- Develop outline policies for how democratic regional government could work including the exchange of ideas and information with like-minded individuals and groups elsewhere in the UK and Europe
- Investigate, expose and publicise inequality both within the North and between the North and other parts of the UK – particularly the more prosperous South of England and set out a distinct approach to the future sustainable development of the North of England which places positive social outcomes (including income equality) at its heart achieved through democratic mutual and collectivist approaches
- Build strong mutually supportive links with like-minded organisations and make effective use of research already being undertaken relevant to the Foundation’s objectives.
Keep me informed about this.
How do I join?
Hi Steve
Application forms are on our website – ‘Join Us’ – but I’ll send you one! Paul
I picked up the reference to the website in Chartist. I live in Leeds and am interested in what you are doing. Please keep me informed.
Thanks
Sounds exciting … would love to hear more and to contribute to creating a government dedicated to the North.
Thanks John
We’ll keep you posted. Our public launch is in Bradford on March 9th – City hall at 13.00
The UK parliament consistently fails all parts of England. What is required is a new English parliament dedicated to working in the English interest spending English taxes on England. England does not need bogus regional government in any form, yes power should be devolved and we have the perfect structure for English devolution in place County, City/Town & parish. Whatever happens within England should happen in accordance to the will of the English people – who have not spoken yet because the UK denies everyone in England a voice. Home rule for England.
Not our view, obviously!
An English parliament would be another costly centralist mistake and would do nothing to challenge a London-centric media and political class focused on Westminster. Only democratic and empowered regions can offer both localism and sufficient scale to tackle the problems of economic regeneration we face outside the affluent South East. The prospect of a Scottish referendum is refocusing attention on the need for devolved powers to be passed to England’s regions – many of which are bigger than Scotland in population. Good to see the North,through HMF , picking up the issue again. There are other regional devolution groups keen to join you in this campaign.
We would be happy to have a dialogue with people who are pro-English Parliament – but our very big concern is that an EP would simply consolidate the power and influence of the south-east. We’re ‘English’ and as proud of it as anyone – but we think England would be a stronger, more united and more democratic nation if power was devolved.
I believe strongly in a devolved government for Yorkshire but this should include all Yorkshire as per the pre 1974 boundary! I don’t mind if other parts of the former Kingdom of Northumbria are also included so long as no part of the old three Ridings are omitted! Are you aware of the govt. e.petition for a Yorkshire Assembly and if so do/will you promote it?
Hello Nigel
We’re not looking at the issues primarily from a historical perspective, so not sure that talk of the long lost Kingdom of Northumbria, or the ‘Yorkshire ridings’ is where we’re at. But good luck with the e-petition.
This is fantastic, thank you so much for getting it started. Have my 20 quid, and a bargain at that.
I have many many questions, but the first and simplest must be this:
are there good reasons for someone who isn’t an ethical socialist, or even on the left, to be in favour of regional or city-region devolution in England? If so, what are those reasons?
Hi Andrew
many thanks for your memebrship form and cheque – greatly appreciated
yes, I’d say there were good reasons for non-lefties to be in favour of regional government – partly it’s about democracy, partly about economic development, partly about pride in your region (perhaps the most telling argument for conservatives, and a good one). happy to discuss
cheers
Paul
I think you do yourselves a disservice by trying to be ‘leftist’. Isn’t that just going to exclude many people (the majority) from getting involved? In Wessex we welcome ALL regionalists without regard to their position on the political spectrum. I couldn’t bear to be involved with anything purely ‘socialist’!!
Hi Paul, many thanks for responding. It feels as though if regional or city-region devolution is thought of as a process, rather than a product, then what you’ve already done, which is to open up a meaningful space for conversations about democracy, economics and culture that don’t defer to the centre, is devolution already happening.
I heard a great lecture by a sociologist called Richard Sennett, a self-declared democratic socialist, who described co-operation as coming from a learned skill of listening carefully to people you don’t sympathise with.
Can a conversation about, and co-operation towards achieving, devolution, begin by already knowing that the answer is ethical socialism?
That’s all quite airy sorry, so a practical question instead: although the North-South frame comes readily to hand, are there any foreseeable dangers in using it as the foundation of a campaign for devolution to places in England? Are there any different insights that come from thinking about centralisation and decentralisation or that is just another way of talking about The North?
If Scotland goes independent we will need Regional Government even more to protect us from the values of “Middle England”.
Please send membership application and any further information you have on the public launch on 9th March when you can.
Maurice
Manchester
Thanks Maurice – agreed. Info on launch will be ready soon but have you down as coming (1315 City hall, Bradford)
cheers, Paul
It’s about time the North put itself forward as a distinct region, not only within UK but within Europe. The North of England has a valuable part, culturally and economically, to play in a ‘Europe of the Regions’. 15 million people ranks favourably against the populations of Ireland, Denmark, Finland, etc. and even Hungary. That is not to say that I would be in favour of Independence from UK but we certainly deserve more of a say in the future political direction of the British Isles and Europe.
Thanks Phil – totally agree!
This is fantastic! It’s about time the true voice of Northerners was heard – we are a distinct region and we deserve our own devolved institution just like the Scots and the Welsh.
Westminster and Whitehall have failed us for decades. And now that Holyrood is getting ever more powers, the North is getting squashed in the middle.
I wish your campaign all the luck in the world. I think this will be the start of something great.
No to an English Parliament, Yes to Home Rule for the North.
Thanks James – hope you’ll join us!
best wishes
Paul Salveson, Gen. Sec.
Strongly agree with Nigel Sollitt (January 26th art 12.12am) – the Kingdom of Northumbria contains all the north east and Yorkshire (as in pre 1974) and would be a good start for autonomy based on historical independence. I share the reservations about linking the bid for regional autonomy to a particular political perspective.Surely we want to attract the support of as many northerners as possible, irrespective of their political affiliations and also the support of those who currently live outside the north?
You;ve got to start somewhere- I agree with yoiur comments since the whole of Northumbria was essentially an Anglian kingdom- but it would be one way of establishing a distinct identity – WE know we’ve got it- but it remains to convince others.
Was pleased to read about you in The Observer today and will be joining you as a small business member.
Is it too soon to comment on presenting your info so that it holds visitors attention/ helps you get your message across?
People skim internet pages and you have to make it easy for them, however serious the content is.
The landing page would benefit from short sentences that people can scan, get a feel for the site, and then move on to inner pages that contain more detail.
E.g. if “Its prime focus will be to develop the case for directly-elected regional government for the North of England – either as a whole or for the three regions which make up ‘the North’ (North East, Yorkshire & Humber and North West).” was at the top of this page, visitors know instantly whats going on and you have already grabbed their attention.
To succeed you have to communicate easily with every level of ability and education.
This is great. I’ve been thinking about my English identity for years and I felt most comfortable calling myself a Northern Englishman. I think we have a distinct identity and I agree that we need self government to fulfil our potential as a region. The continuing development of devolution in Wales, Northern Ireland and particularly Scotland makes English governmental changes essential for the future, and regional government is a much better idea than an English parliament.
Is it seriously your view that “an elected regional government in the North of England” should have powers equivalent to those now actually wielded by the Scottish Parliament (or indeed equivalent to those additional powers which are currently proposed for it)?
If so, we will clearly need similarly powerful regional bodies for the rest of England. To many that will look like a recipe for rivalry, infighting, and ultimately political and fiscal disintegration. Some people might welcome that. Does the Hannah Mitchell Foundation?
If, on the other hand, you envisage rather less powerful bodies, they are no substitute for an English Parliament because they will address an entirely different issue, though they may have merits as a reform of local government within England.
I do not intend these questions to be rhetorical. I would like you and/or the foundation to clarify the role it intends for this government and whether it accepts that the government’s functions and structure should be mirrored in other parts of England.
We’re working on it – early days – we would welcome other regions going down a similar road
Fine, but I trust you are going to clarify the level of power you intend quickly. It is not an issue that can or should be fudged, because on that will determine whether many of us regard this this initiative is at all acceptable, or see it is a malign attempt to split the English as a nation and prevent us from having a forum for the expression of the political will of the peoples of England (and only the peoples of England) as a whole.
I am afraid that at the moment my suspicion is that this is just another attempt to divide and rule.
Personally, I don’t care about having a ‘forum for the expression of the political will of the peoples of England’
The whole point is that the North gets a rough ride and needs to be able to set its own priorities. An English Parliament would just entrench southern economic and political dominance.
Good idea!
Despite now living on the Moray Firth coast, I was born and bred a Yorkshire woman and all my long life I’ve valued the north’s dedication to the rights of all, its sense of fair play, forthrightness, and above all its respect for quality hard work and craftsmanship that I grew up with.
Distance from the Westminster government threatens citizen involvement, and responsibility. Regional government seems to me to be a way of motivating and involving people more directly in their future.
All the best; please keep me informed
Pauline
This sounds like another attempt to break up England into regions. Don’t get me wrong, I live just a few miles from the England-Scotland border and see first hand how Scotland has benefits we in England are denied.
However, the post-devolution UK has exposed just how much the British hate the English and England. So, I don’t believe that England should be regionalised unless and until England has a parliament with powers equal to Scotland’s. This is because if England is regionalised then Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales opt for independence then the English will be left without a country and powerless.
The first step would be to restore the old counties like Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland and Durham, for example. This is what people actually want, as evidenced by the return of Rutland. People identify closest with their county and/or city. However, they all stand together as the English.
Imposing regions on the English simply has not worked. They remain the most unpopular option for government in England, never getting above 9% in polls.
The only way to achieve regions is by getting an English parliament, for stability, re-establishing the old counties, then letting people decide how regions should develop from them.
But what if most Northerners don’t want an English parliament?
I certainly don’t and I don’t know many people who do.
It would be ridiculous to force an English Parliament with a even-more dominant Tory party on a North which doesn’t want it.
England is too big and too varied to have one parliament. Why have a one-size-fits all institution that rules from Cornwall to Northumberland when we could devolve to a much lower level than that?
The North has a clear political identity and is a lot more left-leaning and progressive compared to the neo-liberal South East. I don’t see why we shouldn’t have a political set-up that reflects the views of the Northern people. That’s democracy, surely.
I think that’s the view of most of us in the Foundation
James, Manchester
Our disgruntlement with how the South (or the government) dictates and implements it’s manifesto is felt harder in the North because, as you rightly say, we are more left leaning or Socialist. Yet, isn’t this one of the primary downfalls of Democracy? The man that came up with the skeletal idea of this form of governance was, as I’m sure you know, an ancient Greek named Solon. Before he implemented his ‘Democratic’ ideas, everyone loved him. After he’d brought his policies to bear, he had, not surprisingly, divided the people. Some loved him and some disliked him. This is the primary downfall of what I would term as ‘ruled democracy’. The Adversarial System doesn’t work and whilst slightly away from the subject, that’s a point I’d like to make because I feel that it’s important. Democracy will always divide a nation by it’s very nature and whilst I appreciate it’s tenets of equality I am suspicious of it because of how readily it can be twisted and abused. Me? Anarcho- Syndicalism/Socialism. The divide between the North and South is legendary (two countries). I sincerely hope that the vision of this organisation can find a foothold but at the same time, I must say, that division will always be a casualty of Democracy
But then, who is to say that a northern parliament/assembly is arbitrary and an English one is not?
A northern parliament certainly makes far more social, economic and political sense. The only advantage of an English parliament is that it has a well established flag – not really my primary concern.
I agree
This looks to me like a defensive attempt to make the North of England ‘safe for socialism’. Maybe the possible secession of Scotland and the disappearance of 40 Labour MPs from Westminster has ignited the fear that the ‘rest of the UK’ would always be Tory-governed. The electoral results of the last 50 years show that this would not be the case.
Yes, the boundary to your north, as you say, would be very distinct but you are less clear about the southern boundary. If you are successful in setting up a Northern government, you may eventually find that you need to build a clear dividing wall.
The problem is that the South of England does not like being governed by the UK Government either. UK MPs do not speak for England and do not consider English interests. They would much prefer that the word England is never mentioned. So autonomy for the North would have be to be matched with autonomy for the South, with perhaps a devolved assembly in Cornwall and a referendum in Monmouthshire as to where it wants to belong.
So this seems to me a regressive step, that would weaken all parts of England and possibly the UK as well.
The north gets a poor deal out of the current arrangement. Devolution would help address that.
I don’t agree that ‘English interests’ aren’t represented at the moment. Southern English interests are. Northern English interests are an after thought at best.
I’m Yorkshire born and bred, and still live in Yorkshire. My brother has moved to Lincolnshire. I don’t want to be living under a different legal system than other members of my family, when we all live in England.
Mike Harding (born in Lancashire and brought up in Yorkshire) always joked that the whole Yorkshire/Lancashire split was “a southern plot to keep the North divided”.
This just looks like a “Celtic/European” plot to divide England.
The 1974 local government reorganisation was a disaster for smaller towns that were amalgamated into bigger neighbours who then concentrated on their own issues first and foremost. This looks like a repeat of that. We need to bring governance back down to a local level, not some amorphous and ill-defined “North”.
We need to go back to the stronger local councils we had before 1974, with an English Parliament to give us a common legal system and keep us united.
A decentralised England would in all likelihood make it stronger as awhole (as it did for Germany after the war). Most of us would agre that local government needs strengthening- regional government should be abut taking power from the centre, not from the local level.
We should aim to get power down as close to people as possible – realistically that is at the level of local councils which is a recipe for a truly decentralised England.
I doubt very much that these powers would be taken solely from central government, in fact these proposals seem to me to be at completely the wrong level. We need strong local representation to encourage participation and a sense of belonging. This will strengthen democracy, something that declining voter turnouts show to be extremely important. But at the same time there are matters such as the legal system that affect us all. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have Parliaments to decide the laws they live under – and so must we.
Vaguely defined regions seem to me to be at the wrong level altogether. Too small to properly cover national matters such as the legal system, and too large and too remote to give people a sense of local control over local matters.
Paul, in comparing England with Germany you are not comparing like with like. Yes, Germany has strong regional governments but it also has a national government. England does not. It is governed by the UK government. If there is no English national government, your Foundation’s proposals mean the break up of England. If power is to be devolved to regions in England, whether to a Northern Region or to the nine regions proposed by the Labour government, England will still need its own national focus. What you propose to abolish England completely. You may be quite happy about that but as an Anglo-Scot I am not. England is just as entitled to its political existence as Scotland is.
The aims appear broadly those of the Campaign for the North, with which I was associated for many lean years. CfN was launched in 1977, with Michael Steed and Paul Temperton as key players. If the North wants to get off the hamster wheel, it really needs to rally around definitive answers to questions like one region or more, what it should be called and what powers it should have. Ultimately, the only hope lies in a Northumbrian Regionalist Party to pile on the pressure for parity with Scotland: a Northumbrian Parliament with law-making and tax-varying powers. Down here in Wessex we want the same for our part of the world and are organised to bring it about. Good to see you were with Northern Rail, Paul. We still miss our Wessex Trains.
Thanks David, Wessex Trains was a good outfit. Our focus is on the North as a whole, as it is now not how it was centuries ago. To have real strengh we need to be f sufficient size to balance the power of south-east England (whom we have no quarrel with as such)
Couldn’t agree more. I’d hoped that was clear!
Sounds interesting. I’d like to be added to the mailing list, and also see whether we can cooperate with you in any way. I’m the founder of the Democratic Reform Party, a founding member of the Democratic Reform Movement, and I’m also involved in the design of a new democratic online policy formulation process designed to empower people everywhere. I’m interested in the Hannah Mitchell Foundation primarily because I believe that we could work together on organising events in the north.
Good to see this getting off the ground again. Though firmly a Southerner, I was involved from a distance ten years ago, and there are a few things that need to be got right this time:
1. Taking the case to the people. The 2002-4 campaigns were driven by regional elites and Labour activists with time on their hands. No attempt was made to explain to people what the point of any regional devolution would be.
2. Substantial powers for an assembly. One feature of the 2002-4 campaign was the sheer difficulty people had in understanding what the whole thing was about, because of the mess of ‘strategic’ powers that were on offer. Strategies and planning are not worth having. The only way to have an assembly that gets things done is to give it power and money – on the model of the Welsh Assembly without law-making powers, at a minimum.
3. The identity thing. The 2002-4 campaign avoided this entirely in favour of talk of democratic renewal. I think this was a mistake – people do think about and through identity, and it can’t be ignored. In my opinion that is more important to the success of the thing than democratic socialism – which I also support, but which does have the power to alienate.
this is a really helpful set of observations I think. The failed referendum is potentially the most valuable resource for any future campaigning – why didn’t that work and what could be done differently?
One of the biggest arguments against regions being established before an English parliament is what happens if Scotland and Wales go independent? Where does that leave the regions? Are they to form fresh unions with each other, or become satellites of Scotland ruled from Edinburgh? Or are they to be a collection of Belgiums ruled from Brussels?
What Paul Salveson and other regionalists think is that an English parliament and regions are mutually exclusive. They are not, unless regions are brought in first.
A more honest approach to regionalisation would have been to make them cross the intra-UK national borders, but the Scots and Welsh would have none of that. This is why regionalists like the Scot Gordon Brown and Welshman Paul Murphy keep banging on about the “nations and regions of Britain”. The nations are the intact Scotland and Wales, the regions are the fragmented country formerly called England.
So, where would this new region of the north fit, should Scotland and Wales become independent?
What a wonderful development!
Having been condescendingly relegated to being “The Regions” for decades, that appalling territory beyond the Pale of the Home Counties, it is time the North asserts itself.
It always seems strange to me that while the Tory Party, in their Home Counties’ enclaves, love to witter on about Empire etc. They overlook the fact that it was built on Northern trade products and weaponry, and disturbing proportion of the Imperial forces seem to come from the North, Scotland & Wales.
Hope you’ll sign up as a member!
As someone who was heavly inviolved in the Campaign for a North-Eastern Assembly and the Campaign for the English Reigons, /I welcome your attempt to reopen the debate about regional government for the North. I think we will only have a real chance when it becomes apparent to the general population of the North that the present Conservative-led Government is treating the North unfairly.
I think the issue of an English Parliament should be kept separate. Such a body would be heavil;y Conservative dominated and might well be a reactionary rather than a progressive force.
I do think we spent too much time talking to one another and not enough listening to the people of the North-East before and during the referendum campaign. Next time we must be sure that the people are with us!
This is a promising initiative. I think the main point to realise is that the North does have an identity, although to refer to it as ‘regional’ demeans it. However, if you are Scottish or Welsh your identity is accepted by outsiders; whatever ignominies you may have suffered as a result of being identified with the UK, the fact that you have a recognisable nationality is some compensation, I imagine. Not so with the North. There are people in the Home Counties – I know some – who regard the North as an irrelevant backwater.
Count me in!
Congratulations and good wishes from Glasgow.
All this talk of democracy and the problems of lack of representation and northern detachment from Westminster becomes superficiality and hot air if you also propose continued membership of the EU – a stunningly undemocratic organisation that can, does and will interfere in the lives of nations without the slightest concern for local diversities. A northern region thumbs its nose at the south – but is a mere serf to the EU.
Does this campaign recognise it will always be subject to the EU’s over-aching power? How will it resist the EU?
These – and other – questions will require answers. Either they’ll be faced head-on with honesty and courage or, as seems so frustratingly common these days, the gaping holes will be filled with some feel-good sound-bites, a slogan or two, and a sincere hope that the anomalies will just go away.
Well, we don’t thumb our noses at the south – and as far EU mmebership, we are at the moment neutral on it, though I suspect most members are pro-European
Can anyone join, even if not living in the north?
Yes of course! and we don’t have differential rates for southerners!
Seriously – we have a lot of support across the UK. One of our patrons is Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and Rainham. We welcome support from everyone, anywhere
For me the debate is less about the constitutionalism per se and more about the need to develop a popular perspective on how the North of England with its industrial past, its radical roots and its own local cultures can play a productive, positive role in a socially just , sustainable world. There are no easy answers to that question, but if there is no debate, the UK’s economic, political and cultural life will continue to shift with the market towards the south east corner. And all the ‘smart northerners’ (e.g. my kids) will continue to follow it.
I’m a southerner living up north (16 years) but very much interested in this — can I join you?!
you’d be very welcome – you can download a form from the site
Methinks the the lady (in absentia doth protest too much or even protest at all) filth is afoot.
Brussels will exploit the United kingdoms inherent differences and is anxious to exploit the South North divide.
t6