Well, the interesting thing about the resounding 4:1 no vote is that a lot of people voted no on the grounds that it would have no real power, and was just creating more pointless politicians. A sentiment which has probably only increased today.
I think it is all a non-issue. With the decline of the welfare state and its centralised nature, combined with bottom-up regionalism through the expansion of power of government offices. Heck check the budgets for the regional development agencies since 1999.
All this nonse about demanding representation for your region/city/street/backyard is, well... just that, nonsense. A strong local government is much more useful than populist demands for autonomy for arbitrary regions just because people got upset that their party of choice isn't sitting in Westminster.
Ugh... that is a major issue here, with people talking about a boost for independence of the Tories win. *gah*
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