In a column for Local Government magazine, Josie makes the case for devolving responsibility for more public services.

In a cosy basement bar in Copenhagen, my Danish friend and I were entertaining ourselves after a couple of beers, listing things that are ‘right wing’, and things that are ‘left wing.’

In the ‘right’ column: roads, pick-up trucks, mullet haircuts (I had to explain that), white bread, reality TV, meat, talk-back radio, fireplaces, the regions, and anything big. In the ‘left’ column: public transport, central government, public servants, beards, brown bread, all vegetables except potatoes (definitely right wing), publicly-funded radio, solar panels, cities and most small things.

Of course, in nearly all these cases, there is, nothing intrinsically left or right about them. They are cultural symbols.

Somehow, we have added devolution of service delivery to this list, perhaps because criticism of centralisation has often been promoted by advocates of user pays and privatisation, and for a long time the Big State delivered social progress like the welfare state.

Read the whole thing here.