Regions
At the highest level, all of England is divided into nine regions that are each made up of a number of counties and districts. The 'government office regions' were created in 1994 and since the 1999 Euro-elections have been used as England's European Parliament constituencies. The regions vary greatly in their areas covered, populations and contributions to the national economy. All have the same status, except London which has substantive devolved powers.
There was a failed attempt to create elected regional assemblies outside London in 2004 and since then the structures of regional governance—regional assemblies, regional development agencies and local authority leaders' boards— have been subject to review. Following the change of government in 2010 these have been scheduled for abolition by 2012 at the latest.
Read more about this topic: Subdivisions Of England
Famous quotes containing the word regions:
“We have wasted our spirit in the regions of the abstract and general just as the monks let it wither in the world of prayer and contemplation.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“In common with other rural regions much of the Iowa farm lore concerns the coming of company. When the rooster crows in the doorway, or the cat licks his fur, company is on the way.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)