[Sanctaria]

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[floatleft]VOL. C .. Num. 36,326[/floatleft]THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2018[floatright]1 SANCTARIAN POUND[/floatright]

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"GREAT DEVOLUTION BILL" SENT TO CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM COMMITTEE
by GWEN COPLEY, Political Correspondent

Sanctus - Almost a month after the government first unveiled their white-paper on devolution and decentralisation of power, Secretary of State for Devolution Ben Jackson today formally submitted a bill to the Joint Committee on Constitutional Reform, the bill now formally beginning a long and arduous journey through committee stages, report stages, and debates and scrutiny in both houses. However despite only a month having passed since the plans were first unveiled, there have been many significant changes made, which may upset even sympathetic deputies on the Opposition benches.

Despite being called the "Great Devolution Bill" by proponents in Government, Jackson's overhauls "prima facie fundamentally change Sanctaria" according to SCP spokesperson on Devolution and Governmental Affairs, Andrew Silk. Not longer intending to simply devolve power, Jackson's bill would actually completely federalise the Divine Republic, and some of the "significant constitutional reform" first heralded in the white-paper include even more reform of the Senate (the Senate was last reformed only 5 years ago), changes to how central government and the House of Deputies are composed and work, giving the President more power, and changing the title of the Prime Minister to Federal Chancellor. A further change includes changing the description of the country from "Divine Republic" to "Divine Federation".

Jackson defended his proposed bill at the Joint Committee today by saying "if we're going to fundamentally change the way government is devolved in this country, then we need to do it right, and we need to do it thoroughly. People deserve autonomy, not whatever scraps of power any given government may feel like throwing to them". He went on to explain that "deep and thought-provoking discussions with people around the country, with the Attorney General, and looking to international best practice has convinced me that a country of Sanctaria's size and influence needs to properly decentralise power and federalise power to further improve and grow as a nation".

Also confirmed today was the number of federal states - six will be created, and not seven as the government had originally planned. Three will be the largest cities - becoming city-states; Sanctus, Corpus, and Haven will all take in surrounding towns and administrative counties to become enlarged enough to operate independently federally. The other three will be Aquitanium, Glorionis, and Novum Aeternum. While Aquitanium's boundaries have already been proposed by the government - everything west of the River Sonder, excluding that given to Corpus, plus the Isles - the proposed boundary between Glorionis and Novum Aeternum have yet to be decided.

Jackson has said that he hopes the Great Devolution Bill will be passed by the autumn, with a referendum before Christmas likely. He said if passed, he would expect the first state elections to be conducted for 2020 and that the government would, over its lifetime, continue to devolve power and upon dissolution of parliament in 2023, full constitutional and legislative effect would be given - Sanctaria would be fully federalised.

When asked if the government would dissolve early to allow this to happen, Jackson said this was unlikely, but state elections would probably be held the same day as the Senate elections in 2020, which is why they were aiming for that date.