I think since we've established that elected mayors are a success, we should simply integrate their roles into county government, i.e. give every county council an elected mayor.

And really, we should bring back metropolitan counties. They were only ever abolished because Thatcher had a vendetta.

Yeah I get you, I'm not critiquing the paper, I'm just disagreeing with the government policy. I really don't see the use, for example, in drawing council areas to have roughly equal population as if they were electoral districts.

I personally think we're through with finding creative new ways to come up with large sub-county local government divisions. We should just have counties and municipalities.

A few more thoughts:

Well, he's got a gun now

People can call it what they want as far as I'm concerned. I prefer the term "nation", since Scots are a defined people with a homeland and a common identity. The reason I don't personally call it a country is because "country" is synonymous with "sovereign state" everywhere else on Earth.

Also the EU could do with an extra member.

They just spent 14 years being governed by a party as out of touch with their views as they come, and now they have a government they actually voted for, and they continue to be ignored.

That's what the Fat Hog Mammystate of gynoZOG wants you to think

I'd say Inner London (although not strictly defined) is probably better since Middlesex is more of a quadrant of what is now Greater London than a nucleus.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_L...

Yeah I get what you're saying, it just reminds me of so many people I've talked to, especially non-Americans, who say that the 2024 election was about gender, and exhibit a very 2008-esque understanding of US politics.

I feel like at this point being a woman isn't an electoral hindrance anymore, but there are a few very out of touch people who still make a big deal out of it like they did in the 2010s, and it's basically just internalised misogyny at this point

That feels like something I would do if I had a dog. I love how you nailed the ears.

Did you arrange the fur that way intentionally or is it just coming together naturally to form a new dog?