Purple Orange
On Moderation
The traditional counties only work where they currently exist. You would not have Middlesex and Surrey would not be controlling land up to the south bank.Or why not
Just get rid of Cheshire and have Lancashire instead of a Northwest. It has the same population as Yorkshire.
People should be (geographically) loyal to their town, county, and nation, not compass directions
What would be the harm is just using the 39 ("traditional") counties for England, all with equal powers then?
The extremes of past re-organisations of councils have often failed, Humberside, Leicestershire-with-Rutland, Hereford and Worcester, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne and Wear, all crossed county lines and all had to be split up again. Mass grouping on regional levels may work for crayon drawers in government, but in reality regional government doesn't work in England, and it can't until we get a proper national government first. Italy was unified, England is currently run by the UK is an un-equal system that favours the other nations, the first bit of devolution needed for England is for the whole nation to have it's own parliament like Scotland with the same status in funding arrangements. No one in Scotland is saying it should have it's 9 official regions with devolved governments afterall.
Further north Greater Manchester, Tyne & Wear and Merseyside all still exist, yet in the case of the north east it might be better to have a Tyne-Tees region. Greater Manchester is operating as a strong unit in itself and Burnham has done a fantastic job.