The next round of local elections in Northern Ireland are to be postponed for a year because of changes to local government.  The number of local authorities in Northern Ireland is being reduced from 26 to 11.

The British government has also been working to reduce the number of local authorities in England by inviting local authorities to put in proposals for converting from district and county structures to unitary authorities.  Several district and county councils – such as in Shropshire – are now disappearing to be replaced with unitary authorities, often despite massive opposition locally.

Regional Assemblies are also supposed to be abolished in 2010 and city regions are being promoted and given statutory powers in England as another form of regionalisation.

Postponing the local elections was apparently requested by the Northern Ireland Assembly but it had to first be approved by the Northern Ireland Secretary and the Privy Council, on which the Northern Ireland Secretary also sits.  The Northern Ireland Secretary is Shaun Woodward MP, a former Tory who defected to Liebour and a close ally of El Gordo.

I have said, on more than one occasion, that I wouldn’t be surprised if the next elections were postponed “in the interests of national security”.  A precedent has been set in Northern Ireland now for postponing elections just to accommodate boundary changes.  There’s a lot of local government reorganisation happening in England as well as Northern Ireland in the next year.  Could this be the reason the One Eyed Scottish Idiot needs to postpone the next election?

Technorati Tags: Northern Ireland, Elections