http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... er-regions

I find that hard to disagree with, though I imagine he's working some party angle I'm unaware of. It might actually strengthen the Lords which is something I'd be in favour of in terms of their personal views and willingness to share them; better than the whipped party drones, and some of the Lords have had real jobs too

The party angle is fairly straight forward - reducing the number of peers (or whatever they'd be called) from London and the South of England and increasing the representation of the North of the country gives greater clout to traditionally Labour parts of the country. Although whether they remain Labour parts of the country in the face of rising support for UKIP is an interesting question.
Better representation of the views of the whole country rather than mainly those of the South East would be good for democracy. Whether it will happen is anyones guess.

Another layer of paperwork and cost.
Just stop Scots MP's voting on English matters. Job done.

Of course Ed doesn't want to lose the unfair advantage of Scots MPs voting on English matters at all.

Potentially, yes. That's why the North East voted against a devolved administration with next to no real power a while back and why Manchester voted against having an elected Mayor - a vote which the government is now ignoring and imposing an unelected mayor (!) for the next two years before an election happens which will probably make the police commissioner elections look popular.

However, if there's actual reorganisation of the chain of democracy in the UK and the regions are given actual powers it might be a god thing. Of course, pigs might fly.


And how will that help devolve power away from Westminster to the regions exactly?

from experience in France where the legislative system is as follows:
town council
group of town councils
county council
region council
MPs + Senate

adding levels really does not bring anything apart from making the system a lot more expensive.

If decisions need to be made locally rather than nationally then the powers should be given to local councils. We really don't need a middle tier of government between local and national.