Witan Blog Roundup No. 2

The ealdormen and thegns were gathered in the twilight. Much had been discussed. What was a warming fire had given itself up to dying embers and ash which were eager to signal their inexorable triumph. The mead and the wenching had taken their toll on the gathered group which had been brought together not by the usual joy, such as the harvest, but because they were among the first to notice the darkening skies above.

The evil was drawing closer and wickedness prevailed across the land.

And so, and at the last hour, it was decided that The England Project should carry the proud burden of the Witan Blog Roundup No. 2.

Hello there, is this thing on? Ok. Firstly I’d like to make my apologies for not following the blogosphere as closely as I should have been this past week. I’ve been busy indulging myself in some photography and digital darkroom work and have also been sniffing around the edges of a new blogging project which may or may not come to something. I have been caught slightly off guard so will certainly have missed various items of interest and the arrival of many new Witanagemot club members. Ooops.

Firstly I notice a couple of brave heads just above the parapets. The Yellow Swordfish and CARPE DIEM, TOMORROW!. Watch it chaps, the slings and arrows of the enemy are poison dipped and pointy but, thankfully, not true.

I also notice that Albion's Alchemist has answered an unsolicited email invitation and has joined the club. He gives us a lesson in Old English:

Lo, we find that the original Old English would have us spell an advisor as ‘wita’, but the plural is ‘witena’, not ‘witana’. Alas, it seems that even our language suffers corruption just as England herself. It is to be hoped the new Witanagemot (for so we shall spell it) might help, in some small way to slow the decline of our land.

Or have it recognised as a land in the first place by those who would define such things by their own political machinations.

Welcome to the club.

Talking about the non-existence of England as a nation, Steve of Village Hampden places his standard on the field:

"Those nations may have lost their independence when they joined the Union, but they did not cease to be nations. In spite of what the Government compels me to state on my passport application, my nationality is English, not British. British nationality is a political and legal artifice; English nationality is the real thing, though the Government does not recognise it."

His standard stands close to mine. In the political sense England does not exist but that is exactly why we are here. We know that it does.

Moving on we have Kev from the truthfully named Blog of Kev who spots Neil Kinnock worrying over the crumbling foundations of British Union. But Kinnock is a politician of sorts so can’t be trusted. The real story here, as Kev points out, is the reality challenged trip that the reporter, one Elaine C. Smith of the Sunday Mail, is on. You see, us Witans (check spelling and usage please Mr. Alchemist) have managed to collectively miss a recent referendum on an English Parliament:

When the English were asked if they want their own Parliament, they seemed to have no desire for it - because they have always seen Westminster as THEIR Parliament.

Wrong on ALL counts.

Wonko has reached the pinnacle of his prowess. You can tell when this particular blessing is visited upon you because the MP sitting in the UK parliament, and who should be helping to get your voice heard, decides that you should be ignored completely. Wonko, without permission from his MP, goes to the press and gets a letter published:

From recent stories in the Shropshire Star and information on David Wright's website I see that be is busy trying to sort out the mess at the PRH.

As Mr Wright appears to now be so interested in our health, perhaps he would like to comment on the Government's new plans to make NHS dental treatment fairer?

The Health Minister recently announced plans to make the system fairer by increasing the cost of a check-up on the NHS to £15 while the cost of a check-up in Scotland will go down to zero from 2007.

I would ask Mr Wright myself but he appears to be too busy posing for the Shropshire Star photographer to answer correspondence from his constituents.

He has a point. What he doesn’t have is political representation for the nation upon which this disgrace is being visited. Who talks for England? Silence.

Except for the little people. We whisper and talk and shout and sometimes the din gets so loud that we get noticed. Take the folks over at the Campaign for an English Parliament for instance. They’ve been on the radio. Well done Scilla.

Those scoundrels that organise sport in England and Britain have been rumbled. Alfie at Waking Hereward spots a slip of the pen or some such which has resulted in the alarming omission of one particular nationality from the list of riders who will be competing in the Tour of Britain cycle race. Apparently everyone should be labelled GBR which is their true nationality according to, wait for it, the world governing body. The worst of it is not the clerical error if you ask me but the request from British Cycling for Alfie to declare his motivation behind his line of questioning:

Thanks for your email - please can you identify your motivation behind asking the question - in particular, do you represent any political grouping and what is your current involvement in cycling.

I suppose responding with the truth to enquiries does depend entirely upon ones political grouping.

Moving on we come to postings of note by non-Witan members. This one from Tom Griffin is on that lad Neil Kinnock for his machinations on the state of the Union (as first pointed out by Kev):

"What continues to concern me is not decentralisation of effective administrative and executive power but the fear, and the fear still exists, of the fragmentation of the United Kingdom and the possibility of enmity growing out of it."

Lord Kinnock added, "Unless there is a general pattern of decentralisation throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, the possibility of tensions, misunderstandings, even antagonisms between the different parts of the United Kingdom, continues."

The wicked bit of the MSM article however is right at the beginning. Get a load of this:

The former Labour leader said the devolution of powers at different paces across Britain would lead to misunderstandings and enmity between the nations and the regions.

Guess who falls into the land mass known inside each and every Parliament and Assembly in the UK as the regions. Yup, each and every person in England. Also the rabbits, squirrels and any other animal you care to mention. And stones, and grass.

Now, like the dying embers of our metaphorical fire, we move away from the strict essence of what is the Witanagemot club remit and move to an issue that, whilst still a danger to an endangered land, is not limited to just us poor old regionalistas but even to those blessed with the might of their own representative parliament.

Raised by Chaffinches reminds us that if you give the EU an inch it will take away all your miles:

Britain has been reminded by the European commission of its legal requirement to set a deadline for converting all road signs into metric measures in line with the rest of Europe. BRUSSELS bureaucrats have been in talks with British officials about abolishing the mile, pint and acre in favour of kilometres, litres and hectares.

Well, that’s it for now. Much to do, much to do.

Posted by John at August 30, 2005 11:47 AM | TrackBack