Britons shall be ruled.

Discusses the framework of local and national government in the series 'Human geography of contemporary Britain'. Despite electoral changes, government continues though it is increasingly being challenged by illegal riots, civil disobedience and marches and lobbies. Even territorial integrity has been threatened in Northern Ireland. Political cohesion has been threatened by the devolution movements in Scotland and Wales so in terms of resources positive discrimination in favour of the regions occurs. 'Standard regions' have been in use since 1946 but can be traced back further although there is a degree of overlap with other boundaries. The state today provides a large number of services without which the average citizen would not survive - water, sewage, power and transport which gives governments another hold over people. Political support for the two major parties has become increasingly geographically polarized and consequently when a Labour government is in power its regional policies tend to bolster areas of its traditional support - Scotland, Northern England - whereas when a Conservative government is in power these areas suffer correspondingly. -E.Turner