October 19, 2004

Wake up!

Tim Worstall has a post up on the issue of self rule for the English. He identifies three ways forward:

  • An English parliament
  • An English grand committee within the UK parliament
  • Dividing England into regions

Tim thinks, perhaps, that the committee is the right way to go which I have to admit is not my favoured option. I would go for the English Parliament every time, though having said that better the committee than regional assemblies. If regional assemblies are ever allowed to happen there will never be a time when the whole of England is represented by a single parliament. Self interest and billions in infrastructure will ensure that an England of regions will never be stuck back together again.

Tim includes the following very interesting commentary:

Behind all of this seemingly recondite constitutional manouvering are some hard political facts: The Labour Party would find it very difficult to get a majority (they would have one today, but not in more normal times) in an English Parliament, just as the Tories will never get one in the Scottish. An English Parliament would not allow the Barnett Formula to continue, the system by which 30 billion a year of tax money is sucked out of England and spent in Scotland. And, of course, all those Scots, people like Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, John Reid, would never be able to be Ministers with authority for England.
Which just goes to show that the current state of affairs remains in place at the disadvantage of the English.

Whenever I think of this issue, and how the English are allowing it to remain and further develop to their disadvantage, some rather fine lyrics from a song I quite like by Rage Against the Machine go through my head.

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

UPDATE

I misread Tim's posting. He writes to put me straight:

...one teeny correction if I may? I actually say I would prefer an English Parliament, but would compromise for a Grand Committee if that's all we could get.

Posted by John at October 19, 2004 03:43 PM | TrackBack