Letters: How to really revitalise the North

Devolved or decentralised?

Sir: Paul Collier (‘Northern lights’, 22 February) conflates what devolution has come to mean, in UK terms, with decentralisation of authority. Thus it is adrift to imply that Edinburgh has benefited from a conscious decentralising of powers from central government. It was simply that Scotland as a whole got devolution and Edinburgh is its capital city, whereby it administers the devolved responsibilities. Until such time as commentators and politicians distinguish properly between devolution and decentralisation, they will continue to prompt fears that England could be balkanised rather than treated as a national entity on a par with Scotland. Situate its devolved English parliament and government in a more northerly latitude of England, with London becoming UK federal territory, and that will do more for the North and elsewhere than granting crumbs of local power to a few other cities.

Ken Stevens

Sonning Common, Oxfordshire

Sustaining networks

Sir: Douglas Murray believes that the BBC should be allowed to die if it fails to cater to his taste in high culture (‘How low can the BBC go?’, 22 February).