Devolution – or did someone say ‘fight!’

A return to the bad old days or democracy at work? Gloucestershire County Council’s leader stepped up to tackle devolution and the county began trading political body blows. Is unity possible?

Dear readers,

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Raikes Journal.

Today we take a step away from our usual focus of business, education, training and the third sector and look at a public spat that’s erupted over devolution - a process set to impact all of us living and working in the county.

The end result is being billed as a lifetime opportunity to try to grab back from London some of that which has drained away from Gloucestershire and the regions for years - power - and with it, more money in a time when it seems thin on the ground.

But no sooner have we begun the process to show how we can better manage our county than a gloves-off, public and political battle began with the leaders of at least two of its local authorities attacking the county council leadership and its plans.

The leader of one local authority has accused the leader of the county council as acting like Donald Trump, no less!

At very best there is general disagreement on the way forward.

Whether you see this as democracy at work or politics getting in the way of progress will depend on your view. Here at Raikes we think how it all looks from the outside matters.

If you are looking to invest here, move here, work here, a sense of unity works wonders. Early signs are there is a lot of work to do before that happens. Whether it escalates and gets in the way of the prize, we’ll have to wait and see.

A lot will depend on whether Downing Street allows the postponement of this year’s local elections, as you’ll when you read the piece. But we doubt that’ll settle things for good, somehow!

As regular readers will know we often paywall our Thursday editions to help make this community interest company and what it does sustainable, but we’ve kept this edition open ahead of tomorrow’s full-members’ edition.

We’ve also opened up the comments too. Please feel free. Just keep it civil please!

Andrew Merrell (editor).

NB: Raikes publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire, readership is growing, 2025 looks good (apart from the devolution bit!).

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

---

* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable.

You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!

---

Devolution – or did someone say ‘fight!’

A return to the bad old days or democracy at work? No sooner had Gloucestershire County Council’s leader stepped up to lead on devolution the county is doing a good impression of fragmenting.

The irony is there for all to see – no sooner has the county begun to speak about becoming a unitary authority, with all its local authorities in harmony under one roof, political leaders are trading blows in public.

Whether this is a sign of things to come - politics before progress, democracy fighting to survive, the Conservative administration at Shire Hall fighting for its life, or a Conservative team that has delivered a local authority on budget for years showing strong leadership - it’s all a matter of opinion.

Perhaps its all of the above and more?