WHEN the suggestion that the former Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia should separate from the UK raises its head again, there's no doubt that a demand for power to be moved away from Westminster is in the air.
Thursday's vote on whether Scotland should get its independence has raised a lot of questions over why other parts of the United Kingdom should not get more powers too.
And the claims from the Acting Witan of Mercia that the area – which includes the East Midlands – should become independent is just one of the more improbable answers.
Assuming that chopping out the centre of the country to rectify the perceived injustice of the Norman invasion isn't a real option, what sort of devolved powers can we expect for the regions over the next few years?
And how could it affect Derbyshire?
Certainly there have already been Government moves towards devolving power to local people – free schools and elected police and crime commissioners among them.
Councils are also, along with businesses, part of Local Economic Partnerships, or LEPs, which have been given the power to, for the first time, decide where millions of pounds of cash for infrastructure improvements is spent.
In Derby that has meant a funding allocation of £38.7 million, which will be spent over six years from 2015, with congestion-busting work on the roads to and from Pride Park along the A52 among projects benefiting.
In Derbyshire, more millions have been devolved for work to improve things like the economy and transport in Chesterfield.
There is also a deep-seated feel that city councils should be working more in partnership to lobby Government for change.
This had already begun with Core Cities group – nine cities, including Nottingham.
And Derby is now one of 23 in the "Key Cities group" which, among other things, is lobbying the Government for more devolution, as well as working out where the best pilot areas are for new Westminster projects.
Like anything else at the moment to do with greater power for the regions, it is not work that has fallen on deaf ears.
The Government has already recognised that the Key Cities project is worthwhile and has invited them to send representatives to help with decision making, just as the Core Cities do.
Now, according to Derbyshire County Council leader Anne Western, is the time to press the issue of more regional power.
She said: "The way the Government has been working is to tell us 'this is what you are going to do, this is how much money you are going get'.
"But one-size fits all doesn't work for a lot of the country. How things work and what is needed in places like London and Manchester, is very different to Derbyshire."
Just as with Derby City Council, the county is Labour-led and therefore have been particularly buoyed by a recent pledge from the party nationally to devolve another £30 billion of funding to the regions if it wins next year's General Election.
This cash would be for "combined authorities" – one of which the city and county councils are already in the process of setting up.
Following in the footsteps of those in the Manchester and Sheffield areas, it will get millions devolved directly to it to spend how it chooses on things like transport and improving the local economy.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is already speaking with the Government about how it can get even more devolved powers.
And Mrs Western said she was hopeful greater decision-making powers on things like early years and health and social care policies could also be devolved to Derbyshire.
Councillor Martin Rawson, deputy leader of the city council and cabinet member for planning, environment and regeneration, said a combined authority "would allow for more effective strategic planning on issues like transport and economic development".
He said: "Welfare-to-work programmes and benefits administration are cases where local authorities are already finding innovative ways to support residents.
"Centralised approaches from Westminster do not reflect the diversity of our cities, towns, and communities."
There are some who would go further, in terms of
how important combined authorities could become.
Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has endorsed a report by the IPPR North think tank proposing a new wave of combined local authorities headed by directly elected "metro mayors".
He said: "If ever there was a time to push for action on decentralisation, it's right now.
"You only need to look at how the Scottish referendum debate has re-energised people's interest and engagement in politics over the last few weeks to see that this is an idea whose time has come."
The IPPR North report, entitled Decentralisation Decade, says all but one of the biggest and most economically important English cities outside London – Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester – have lagged behind the national average GDP per capita.
The think tank's 10-year plan identifies 40 different functions of government – currently controlled by 13 different Whitehall departments – that it says should be devolved to the combined authorities.
It says all local authorities should have full control over setting council tax bills – with the power to introduce new bands – and full control over the setting of business rates.
Further devolution is clearly something she backs, but Mrs Western warned against taking too much power away from local councils.
She said: "There's a huge upswelling of people and councils feeling disenfranchised, in not feeling part of the decision making processes that affect peoples' lives.
"It leaves people feeling powerless. By creating things like a metro mayor I think you'd only be doing the same thing again by putting power in the hands of someone who is remote from someone's local area."
Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said the Coalition Government had already "delivered significant devolution of power and finance to local communities and there is real scope to go further in England".
He added: "However, localism in England should be about devolving power to the lowest appropriate level – down to councils, to neighbourhoods and to individuals.
"There may be some role for combined authorities on a strategic level to promote economic development and transport, but there is a real risk they will suck power upwards away from local councils and local taxpayers.
"Nor should localism be a fig leaf for hitting hard-working people with a new range of municipal stealth taxes. Creating new taxes, more politicians and new tiers of local administration is not the answer – the starting point should be increasing local democracy and local accountability."
And the plans for the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia?
Well, they already have 2,000 "registered citizens of Mercia" – signed up using a form on the Acting Witan of Mercia's website.
And its convener, Jeff Kent, has written to the Queen and the Prime Minister calling for a referendum into that area's independence as well.
Certainly change is in the air.
