Thus far and no further - it's too late for that. Symetry in the Union and fairness requires the gaining of lost ground

This is good (Via the EDP):

By Garry Bushell – June 2005

England is in trouble. We can’t trust our politicians. Our democratic rights are being steadily eroded. Our culture and heritage are neglected and sneered at. Even the fundamental concept of England as a nation is under threat.

That’s why I am standing for the English Democrats in the Staffordshire South Delayed Parliamentary Election.

I want to highlight the problems facing the English people and offer a viable alternative.

First of all, we need an English parliament.

Why English as opposed to British? Because devolution has already changed the nature of our democracy and under the current set-up English tax-payers are being stiffed.

New Labour gave the Scots their own expensive parliament (and set up assemblies for the Welsh and Northern Ireland), but they’ve neglected the needs and interests of English voters.

Scottish MPs at Westminster can now vote on purely English affairs and force policies on English voters against our wishes, and yet English MPs have no say on purely Scottish affairs.

The UK parliament is heavily weighted in favour of the Scots because of something called the Barnett Formula.

Devised by Lord Barnett and introduced in 1978, this effectively means English tax-payers bankroll the rest of the UK. For example, the Barnett formula diverts about £8 billion of extra public expenditure to Scotland each year.

So the Scots enjoy a subsidy averaging £30 per person per week.

This has meant smaller class sizes in Scotland, higher pay for teachers, no top-up fees for students, shorter hospital waiting lists, and the availability of prescription drugs and surgical procedures which are unavailable in England on grounds of cost.

In 1999, government spending was £1,089 per head more in Scotland than England. Now, despite devolution, the gap will be £1,368.

Look at the differences in expenditure per head on essential services between England and Scotland. General public services, England: £90; Scotland: £175. Transport, England £297, Scotland £386. Agriculture, fisheries and forestry, England: £78, Scotland: £144. Housing and community amenities, England: £114, Scotland: £169. And so it goes on.

Even Lord Barnett has disowned the set-up, saying: “It is a great embarrassment to have my name attached to so unfair a system.”

New Labour’s answer came from John Prescott, a Welshman, who wanted to break England up into nine regions.

The North East referendum told Two Jags decisively where to go. The English don’t want to be split up into artificial regions. We have our own nation with a real historic identity and most of us have no wish to be robbed of it, no matter how convenient that would be for those Quisling politicians eager to feed us more quickly into the Euro-mincer.

Secondly, there is the question of Englishness.

Our political masters seem to think there is something wrong about being English. While Scottish patriotism is encouraged and rewarded, English patriotism is frowned at. Look at the last census. You could tick a box marked 'Scottish', there was also one for 'Irish' but you looked in vain for ‘English.’

Our pub landlords can’t even get extensions for St George’s Day.

As a people the English aren’t given to chest beating. Reserve and restraint are as much English qualities as inventiveness and enterprise. But most of us resent the way our heritage is sneered at by the chattering classes. Why shouldn’t we have one day a year when we can celebrate all that’s great about our culture?

English patriotism doesn’t mean hating other countries and other peoples. It’s about loving our own. OK, not many of us know more than the first two lines of There'll Always Be An England, but we do know that our country gave the world Shakespeare, Kipling, football, cricket, rugby, tennis, the Beatles, Elgar, Joe Strummer and Dickens.

As Ian Dury once sang: "There are jewels in the crown of England's glory, too numerous to mention, but a few."

For left-wing intellectuals though, the Cross of St George is tainted by memories of empire (even though the Royal Navy smashed the slave trade). It has been like this for decades. More than 50 years ago, George Orwell wrote that "England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their nationality."

These out-of-touch fools don't even know the roots of their own radicalism. For every Francis Drake in English history there was a Wat Tyler. For every Wellington there was a Captain Swing.

Military achievement understandably shaped our self image. The stout Yeomen of England have been beating off invaders for centuries. We saw off Bonaparte and smashed the Spanish Armada. But England gave the world parliamentary democracy and the trade unions too.

And it’s the rights our fore-fathers fought for, that they paid for with their blood and sweat and sacrifice that are now at threat from this ‘Labour’ government and its Brussels masters.

The English are strong-willed people, rightly proud of our traditions of free speech and tolerance. Keith Waterhouse, one of the greatest living Englishmen, defined our national characteristic as "constructive bloody-mindedness", illustrated by the phrase "thus far and no further.”

I believe it is time to say that now, to draw a line in the sand and make a stand for the country we love.

I’m not European. I was born English and I will die English. And I am standing in this election to draw attention to the urgent need to reform the way England is governed.

I believe absolutely in the rights of the English people to rule ourselves and to celebrate our culture, history, and traditions including free speech, free assembly, habeas corpus and the right to trial by jury.

There’ll always be an England? I used to think that. But only the English people can ensure it.

We have to act now to safeguard our heritage and our democratic rights and carve out an independent English future.

END