Vincent Cable MP and his English dream

Vincent Cable MP is funny. I mean peculiar funny. In a response to a legitimate complaint about his own abusive language he wrote ”We have argued for elected regional government in England”.Fair enough and perfectly in line with Liberal Democrat views. These regional assemblies by their very nature (or so we are told) will work with the local community and make policy in areas devolved to them that will affect the region they represent. There is no surprise there other than the politicians complete ignorance of the fact that the one and only public referendum on the issue showed without a shadow of a doubt that people don’t like the idea thank you very much. Pffft, since when did an MP take notice of such things.

Anyhow, back on track. These devolved regions are seen by Cable as good and as no threat to England or the Great British Union even though they have devolved powers.

Enter Cable’s second statement. ”Nationalism calls for independence, which is not something that I support for England.”

So there we see once again a manifestation of Cable’s peculiar notion of nationalism. He believes it is a black and white area with no room for anything between one extreme of no nationalism and the other of nationalism with an agenda for total independence from, presumable, the Union.

On the one hand we have regional assemblies with devolved powers that are no threat to anything (according to Cable) and on the other hand we have an English Parliament that is a Nationalistic threat to the very foundations of all that is good in Cable’s world. Both these sides of the issue involve devolved powers. Both these sides involve representation of a group of people by a drawn boundary on which they can organise their needs and their politics. Both these sides are touted to be democratic. Yet one will be the cause of independence from the Union and the other will involve no independence from anything whatsoever. How can this be so?

It can be so on one condition and that is that regional assemblies are not given devolved power to make decisions and implement them independently of any other regional assembly or of central government. If they can make independent decisions then that is a form of independence. It is a form of independence that allows one area of England to make decisions that are different from another. This independently working England is all that is good and Holy in Cable’s mind.

And yet…and yet a form of independence that allows one area of Great Britain to make decisions that are different from another area is a Nationalistic menace. A danger. Something to be avoided and something deserving of Cable’s language in which he groups people with such desires along side white supremacists and Islamic fundamentalists.

Of course he his pedalling his regional views for England only. Scottish devolution is fine. Welsh devolution is dandy. You English!

The true story is one that Cable will not admit and that is that Regional Assemblies will not afford the people they represent the level of devolution that is offered to the Scots. It’s devolution light. It is his answer to a question that no one is asking. The one thing it will do is create a framework of obstacles that will make proper English devolution even harder to achieve than it is at present. It will do this by breaking up England into pseudo political areas. That, he thinks, is how to deal with the problem of England.

So there the English will be. With Scotland and Wales employing their political machinery to do what is best for their respective populations. Prescription charges, availability of life saving drugs, funding for education, national sports funding, legislation, policing, crime and crime prevention. You name it, eventually they’ll get it.

And there will be the various regional assemblies in England. Discussing bus routes.