Regional Grand Committees

In his rush to 'devolve' power to the people, Gordon Brown has put forward the idea of 'Regional Grand Committees' for the regions into which this country has been divided by the European Union.

The result of these committees would be yet another layer of regional government bureaucracy and supervision between parliament and the people - which can hardly be termed 'devolving power'. And I won't even raise the subject of cost and the bureaucracy involved in setting up and maintaining such bodies, which will obviously mean yet more public expense.

On John Redwood's blog he provides the voting figures for each regional committee and it would seem that only about 200 MPs, out of 646, were present for each vote - which, whilst allowing for 'paired' absence and possible select committee sittings, does beg the question of where were the remainder, especially when MPs in general have been 'prattling on' about 'looking after their constituents interests'.