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The chapter sets out the framework and responses to devolution since the demise of the Regional Development Agencies and Government Regional Offices in 2010 and the slow emergence of two new key Combined Authorities for the North East. It illustrates how fragmentation and austerity are impacting on local government and public services. Taking stock of the 2019 local election results, it appears that local government is becoming weaker and more diverse in terms of its leadership and it poses the question of whether in 2020, the North East will be well-equipped to develop its new economic and social and environmental strategies for the next decade. The region must respond to the challenges of involvement in the Northern Powerhouse and increased competition for investment within the UK and Europe and attend to its widening disparities. This chapter argues for closer collaboration between local government and the private and third sectors to respond to the post-Brexit challenges and calls for stronger responses to national finance and the procurement of new replacement funds for regeneration and development and Industrial Strategy.

Will the Northern Powerhouse bring a new deal for the North East region? Can the region respond to the challenges ahead now with Brexit? Can one still consider the North East as one region or does the rise of two Combined Authorities demand a rethink?

The conclusions discuss developments brought about by the replacement of European funding – the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the debates on the new Industrial Strategy Challenge and how to respond to the new Town Challenge Funds. It considers what is needed to strengthen the role of local and regional public services in the decade ahead in the region. Policies and priorities need to change, and new partnerships are needed to tackle ever growing inequalities. New interdisciplinary challenges must face demands to accelerate the low carbon economy and bring new hope to non-metropolitan communities and towns. How best to strengthen the core city role of Newcastle-Gateshead? The question remains whether the governance framework fits the Challenges which lie ahead in the post-Brexit age.

An industry of description and interpretation has developed around the growth of surveillance, accelerated by: the development of the internet; volatile international relations since the collapse of communism; demographic mobility, segregation by class and ethnicity in the rich and poor worlds, sharpening inequalities, and post 9/11 fears of terrorism. Influential narratives have emphasised the diminishing power of sovereign nation-states in a marketised and globalised world. This chapter challenges the notion that coercive, sovereign modes of rule are a monarchical survival in decline. Rather, sovereign technologies of rule, in which surveillance is central involves strategies of governance from below as well as from above. They combine coercive with rhetorical, metaphorical communication and other ‘soft’ modes of rule. These make thinkable the nation-state as a discrete, defensible entity. Political communication translates between the complex technical expertise of evolving surveillance and security technologies and language intelligible to the public. Though surveillance technologies and information can be produced by commercial and other non-state sites of governance, metaphorically, much surveillance can be viewed as the extension of the eye of the sovereign. Although we are all targets of surveillance, those seen as threatening to the majority help to constitute and reproduce the social collectivity.

In the past two decades governments in Britain have launched a series of initiatives designed to reduce the disparities between areas of affluence and deprivation. These initiatives were funded by central government and were delivered through a series of partnership boards operating at the neighbourhood level in areas with high levels of deprivation. Drawing on similar approaches in the US War on Poverty, the engagement of residents in the planning and delivery of projects was a major priority. This chapter draws on the national evaluations of three of these programmes in England: the Single Regeneration Budget, the New Deal for Communities and the Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders.

The chapter begins by identifying the common characteristics of these programmes, known as area-based initiatives because they targeted areas of concentrated deprivation with a population of about 10,000 people each. It then goes on to discuss the three national programmes and summarises the main findings in relation to how far key indicators changed for the better. The final section sets out the ways in which policy objectives changed in 2010 after the election of a coalition government. This produced a shift to what was called the ‘Big Society’ where the rhetoric favoured a transfer of power away from central government towards the local, neighbourhood, level. This approach favoured self-help and a call to volunteering rather than channelling resources to the areas in greatest need. The chapter closes by reviewing the relatively modest achievements of this centralist, big-state approach to distressed neighbourhoods of 1990–2010.

This chapter provides an analysis of the history of politics in sport, how nationalism has amplified divisions in politics and sports and how social media has impacted politics in sports.

The authors examine how the nationalism narrative is present in sports, thus further enmeshing politics in sport. A review of literature and case studies are used to provide context of how athletes have used their social media for political purposes and how political ideologies and social media can impact international sport markets.

While politics and sports being deeply intertwined is not new, social media has pushed even publicly apolitical organizations to get involved in political discussions. Social media has allowed for some to continue pushing a nationalism narrative as it relates to sport and challenge athletes who appear to threaten seemingly nationalistic values. However, social media also enables athletes to engage their fans and advocate for themselves and political issues in real time.

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The chapter looks at nationalism, politics in sport and how social media can be used to further amplify and/or divide over political ideologies. Athletes are in a unique position to use their social media platforms to speak directly to their fans and engage in politics, pushing organizations to seemingly abandon their once public apolitical stances. This chapter examines how athletes, organizations and politicians are using social media to debate matters, advocate for social justice and call attention to a myriad of political issues.

To examine the EU ‘Short Sea Shipping’ (SSS), its ‘motorways of the sea (MoS)’ and green ports, within short sea maritime logistics.

To present past research and report recent developments speculating on future trends.

The dominance of SSS over road is questioned; as road transport has expanded, hubs are expected to become larger and fewer with feeders. Road transport is not certain to follow SSS and its four motorways. This result was responsible for the relocation of industry from West to East and North–East inter-port competition.

The SSS ship size and port are undefined; specific data on these concepts are unavailable.

‘Door-to-door’ services are highly sought after in this sector, but difficult to establish.

The green element introduced here, mainly for ports, will dominate future discussions because of the high importance given to climate change.

This chapter outlines for the first time the development of the policy on EU Eco-ports, the relocation of industry, the West–East port competition, the MoS and the long-term deterioration of SSS logistics which is likely to persist in the future.

This chapter considers the impact of Brexit on devolution within England, focussing particularly on the implications for the governance of the rural North of England. It captures how Brexit adds uncertainty and complexity to the devolution deal process that has been criticised for its lack of clear principles, lack of rural focus and the creation of artificial governance boundaries. In contrast, the chapter argues that Brexit has served to allow space for devolution to take shape locally – as the centre is preoccupied by ‘high’ politics – and has reinforced the importance of taking on the interests of rural areas and small towns more seriously.

In focussing on the recent developments in devolution in Northern England, including the Borderlands Growth Deal and the new 2019 North of Tyne Combined Authority, the chapter concludes by outlining how order is emerging out of chaos in terms of the decluttering of devolution governance, how new forms of place-making can emerge in the Northern Powerhouse and how more genuine rural devolution deals are achievable in the period ahead.