Editing West Lothian question (section)

====Regional assemblies====
The Labour government of [[Tony Blair]] attempted to address part of the West Lothian question by introducing English [[Regional assembly (England)|regional assemblies]] with no legislative powers. Originally, it was planned that these would be directly elected. The [[London Assembly]] was the first of these, established following a [[1998 London referendum|referendum]] in 1998, in which public and media attention was focused principally on the post of [[Mayor of London]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/london_referendum/89327.stm 'Overwhelming vote for Mayor'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730030039/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/london_referendum/89327.stm |date=30 July 2017 }}, [[BBC News Online]], 8 May 1998</ref> [[Ken Livingstone]] was the first directly elected mayor of London. He started his victory speech with "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago", making it clear he saw the London Assembly as a recreation of a similar London wide authority to that of the [[Greater London Council]], which he had led before it was abolished in the 1980s.<ref>Paul Waugh and Andrew Grice. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090423142122/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ken-reclaims-the-capital-718744.html Ken reclaims the capital], [[The Independent]] 6 May 2000</ref>

Further progress was thwarted when a [[2004 Northern England devolution referendums|referendum]] in the [[North East England|North East]] rejected the proposal for an elected assembly in November 2004<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3984387.stm North East votes 'no' to assembly] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121041029/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3984387.stm |date=21 January 2007 }}, [[BBC News Online]], 5 November 2004</ref> leading to the shelving of similar proposals for other English regions. The Regional Development Agencies were all scrapped by March 2012 with their powers and functions being transferred either to local government or in the case of London, the Greater London Authority.