John Harris CBE DL has had four careers. He was in local government (incl as chief executive of South Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council) and then in the private sector as a company director working in the UK and overseas. He has held non-executive government and other director appointments and is a trustee of a number of Yorkshire-based arts, housing and community charities. He is a passionate European and supporter of One Yorkshire; he lives in Harrogate.
Is this the most unexpected and improbable fairytale football story of the century? Harrogate Town FC! 2010: on the last day of the Conference North season Harrogate Town FC were bottom – due to be relegated but saved because of the financial problems of others. 2011: on last day of the Conference North season Harrogate […]
On 1 October, the UK2070 Commission published its latest report, ‘Go Big Go Local; a new deal for levelling up the UK’. We can compare the ambitions of this report with the speech of the prime minister at the virtual Conservative Party conference and whether the government shares to any extent at all the idea […]
It is such sad news that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. This is obviously not going to be an obituary (there will be plenty of those for us to read); it is intended as a personal tribute by someone who never met her, never heard her speak in person, never even saw her in person; […]
The government has proposed that rather than operating as One Yorkshire Together, Yorkshire should operate as four separate areas, each with an executive mayor, alongside unitary local government councils. In North Yorkshire, each town and area will now be considering where their interests lie with the potential format of the unitary authorities. There are options […]
To recap – the government has proposed that God’s Own County of Yorkshire should not operate as One Yorkshire Together, but as four separate areas, each with an executive mayor, elected through proportional representation, to work alongside unitary local government councils. That puts the cat amongst the local government pigeons in North Yorkshire, as there are […]
Once Yorkshire had three ridings – then we had four short-lived county councils – now the government offers us four executive mayors. Those who promote the concept of One Yorkshire are going to have to persuade themselves that four mayors is a step in the right direction. In due course perhaps a more sympathetic government […]