I think the fear is that an English First Minister would be an over mighty subject who would sooner or later do to the UK Prime Minister what Russian President Yeltsin did to Soviet President Gorbachev.
One thing that puzzles me is that the West Lothian question never posed itself in Spain, despite the fact that the plan that the framers of the Constitution of 1978 had in mind was basically for the peripheral regions (Galicia, Basque Country, Catalonia, and maybe Navarra, Andalucia and the islands) to get regional assemblies and having the rest under the National Parliament. In actuality, it took less than 10 years for the entire country to get carved up into 17 regional governments (plus Ceuta and Melilla).
Why was it that all of "Greater Castille" didn't just constitute itself into a single autonomous unit (like the putative English parliament) and instead organised itself into 10 regions? Is it because the mechanism was explicitly bottom-up? Also, the existing Regional organisation from Franco's time greatly influenced (but differs in significant ways) from the current subdivisions.
Also note that, just like the Spanish Autonomy Statutes are organic laws of the National Parliament (second only to the Constitution in rank) so the UK's regional assemblies have been created by act of the Westminster Parliament.
After quoting the Spanish Constitution's devolution procedure twice (here and here) I asked the following question in a recent diary, but I didn't get a satisfactory reply:
Suppose for a minute that the devolution provisions of the Spanish constitution were applied to the UK:Section 143 1. In the exercise of the right to self-government recognized in section 2 of the Constitution, bordering provinces with common historic, cultural and economic characteristics, insular territories and provinces with a historic regional status may accede to self-government and form Self-governing Communities (Comunidades Autónomas) in conformity with the provisions contained in this Part and in the respective Statutes. 2. The right to initiate the process towards self-government lies with all the Provincial Councils concerned or with the corresponding inter-island body and with two thirds of the municipalities whose population represents at least the majority of the electorate of each province or island. These requirements must be met within six months from the initial agreement reached to this aim by any of the local Corporations concerned. 3. If this initiative is not successful, it may be repeated only after five years have elapsed.(Where it says "province" read "county") What would be the result?
Section 143 1. In the exercise of the right to self-government recognized in section 2 of the Constitution, bordering provinces with common historic, cultural and economic characteristics, insular territories and provinces with a historic regional status may accede to self-government and form Self-governing Communities (Comunidades Autónomas) in conformity with the provisions contained in this Part and in the respective Statutes. 2. The right to initiate the process towards self-government lies with all the Provincial Councils concerned or with the corresponding inter-island body and with two thirds of the municipalities whose population represents at least the majority of the electorate of each province or island. These requirements must be met within six months from the initial agreement reached to this aim by any of the local Corporations concerned. 3. If this initiative is not successful, it may be repeated only after five years have elapsed.
What would be the result?
English local patriotism focuses on the counties (and probably more the historic counties than the administrative areas we have had since 1974). The only one of the 'new' counties which seems to have worked is Cumbria - isolated off in the north west corner of England.
Many counties would probably prefer to go it alone, although a few areas (like the three counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) have traditional links.
Most English counties have the same population as one of the smaller US states. Idiosyncratic smaller counties like the Isle of Wight and Rutland might upset tidy minded bureaucrats, who want units they consider the right size, but the Swiss cantons seem to manage.
Devolution to the counties (or voluntary groupings of counties) might be the most popular approach, which is no doubt why no political party has suggested it.
There were 39 historic counties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Counties_of_England
Almost all of Middlesex and part of several other counties now forms Greater London. I do not see that region being unscrambled.
Cumberland, Westmorland and the northern part of Lancashire were combined into Cumbria. That arrangement seems likely to continue.
The Isle of Wight probably should be regarded as a distinct county. Grouping it with Hampshire makes little sense.
No doubt some counties would form groups, but not all. Cornwall for example has asked to become a region on its own. At a guess a bottom up arrangement might produce about 15 to 25 units, which does not seem too excessive for a country with the population of England.
To know for sure we would have to allow the councils to choose.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/radindex.shtml
There's 40 there, but some obvious potential mergers for the purposes of this discussion.
Some areas are relatively simple, but there is a large part of England where there are no obvious natural subdivisions and for historical ones you have to go back to the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the Heptarchy, before the tenth century.
The problems can be seen in the attempts by Wessex regionalists to define a Wessex region they can all agree on. Between the shifting boundaries of the historic Kingdom of Wessex, the Wessex of Thomas Hardy and the attempts of Cornwall and some in Devon to assert a non Wessex celtic heritage; the south west and south central portions of the map are problematic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex
Region (including)
There is absolutely no problem for a large island such as the Isle of Wight to be its own region.
Regarding Wessex, since the process is bottom-up, as long as the existing Cornwall county council refuses to join the rest of the Wessex councils in applying for region status, it would stay separated. Similarly for Cumbria. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
