Cameron backs Cornish LEP to replace Regional Development Agency

Later than I would have liked, here is my blog about David Cameron's visit to Cornwall on 9th July. The video is from the 10 Downing Street YouTube channel and I've done my best to indicate timecodes for the bits I'm talking about.

The Prime Minister's enthusiasm for Cornwall to go-it-alone with a Local Enterprise Partnership can be seen in his answer to a question at 04:35. "There should be one right here in Cornwall," he says. "I hope a Cornish scheme will come forward. We can set you free."

Hmmm. LEPs are supposed to hold the ring between local businesses, local councils, central government and any international organisations (such as the European Union) which might have money to spare. They are supposed to co-ordinate planning strategy and make sure that, for example, if Cornwall ever builds its own rail network, the rails are all the same width apart. I'm not sure that there when it comes to strategic co-ordination, "small is beautiful" is always true. I shall blog more about this in future.

Cameron's only tough question came from a gent (29:53) who wanted to know why the government was scrapping the schools' rebuilding programme rather than cracking down on tax dodgers and bankers. His answer was that there was no money for schools, and that cracking down on tax dodgers and bankers was rather difficult. At least, that's what it sounded like to me. Play the clip and judge for yourself.

Cornwall councillor Steve Double asked a good question (34:10) about the funding formula for local government, which - during the election campaign - Cameron acknowledged was unfair to Cornwall. But Cameron's 9th July answer failed to match his earlier promise of a review. Instead, he spoke about abolishing specific grants to local councils and then letting them decide for themselves what to spend the money on.

Again, the "we can set you free" answer - but whose freedom? I can remember the days, not that long ago, when the old Independent-controlled Cornwall County Council routinely over-spent on highways and under-spent on education. Cornwall's agricultural sector was even more strongly represented on the council in those days than it is today. I wonder what that council would have made of such freedom?

Cameron even implied that one reason Cornwall had lost out on Building Schools for the Future was that it did not move quickly enough to spend the cash. Cornwall "did not have enough projects in the pipeline that were ready for completion." Really? If this is true, who's to blame?

Best question by far (46:35) came from the Looe Monkey Sanctuary who wanted to know the Prime Minister's views about primates as pets. "I've no idea," he said.

If you watch the whole movie you might think that most of the questions were rather gentle and not really very political. You might think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

One of the reasons it's taken a while to update this blog is that Downing Street "gave" the Prime Minister's visit to another radio station (one with adverts,) leaving the BBC to play catch-up all day. If I had been allowed in to the question-and-answer session I would have blogged about it sooner. But instead I went to Spain and avoided a week of steady Cornish drizzle.