The regions of England should have their own school curriculum for history, as part of the devolution of more power from London, according to a plan being published by the Fabian think tank.
The proposal is for English regions to follow Scotland and Wales by having their own regional select committees in the House of Commons. They could even have grand committees, made up of all the MPs from each region.
This is another sign that momentum is building for a new stage in devolution, and another look by the Labour government at how it can push power and control down to regional level within England, as well as commissions to boost powers devolved to Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The reforms have been put forward by Ian Lucas, Labour MP for Wrexham, on the England-Wales border, who suggested last month the union flag should be adapted to include the Welsh dragon.
Writing for the January edition of the magazine of the Fabian Society, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, he is calling on his party to look again at devolution in a way that tackles English concerns as well as responding to nationalist calls for independence in Scotland and Wales.
His contribution points out there are cultural and historic differences that could be reflected within England's school curriculum: "Regions, particularly those with a strong cultural identity, have their own stories to tell."
Coming from Newcastle, he said his own schooling included none of Northumberland's rich history, yet his children's schooling in Wrexham is strong on the history of Wales. And he said the different experience of the industrial revolution around England could be reflected in what children are taught.
"There's little focus in history on regional identity within the UK as a whole, but also within England," he said.
Mr Lucas admits Labour has failed to agree on the aims of devolution, and 10 years after starting it down "a road with an unknown destination", the party now needs to "forge a constitutional settlement which will last for more than just one generation".
He complains the devolution that exists in England was put in place by the previous Conservative government and is administrative without democratic control.
These "executive regional offices", he says, are powerful but little known.
Gordon Brown's ministerial reshuffle in the summer began a new effort to highlight regional politics, with named ministers given specific responsibility for the different parts of England. Mr Lucas now says there should be select committees to monitor what these ministers do.
"Regional select committees, ministers and even regional grand committees in Westminster would bring government closer to the people - heralding a less centralised, more accountable method of governance in England," the proposal says.
"A member of an English regional select committee could scrutinise significantly the numerous agencies that exist. Regional media would be very interested in what such an MP and such a committee had to say. This would be a significant move against English metropolitan bias."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article