Imposing elected mayors on cities that vote against them. That is some vision of democracy and casts doubt on Heseltine's other recommendations.
… that what Michael Heseltine has said today is the same as he’s been consistently saying since the 1980s.
Its contents may be good or may be bad*, depending on your point of view, but the one thing they most certainly are not is surprising. They are exactly what you would have expected a Heseltine report to say.
Yet the Conservatives in government seem very unkeen on his recommendations. So why did they want him to do a report in the first place if they’re not welcoming the sorts of recommendations that were inevitable once the invitation was sent to him?
* There’s quite a lot I like in the report, but also some dreadful parts – such as the idea that the way the government should respond to so many places voting against having directly elected Mayors is to go round imposting them instead.
