Voters oppose Scottish PM

This situation comes as no great surprise:

A majority of English voters think Scottish MPs should be barred from becoming the UK's prime minister, according to a BBC survey.

This is an indication that unequal devolution has worsened people's perception of politics and democracy in general across Britain and especially across England. As the understanding of accountability and mandate by people in post devolution Britain grows we can expect to see this kind of situation get even worse. The sooner something effective is done about it the better.

Confirmed constitutional responsibilities

eGov Monitor reports on the confirmation of the line up and responsibilities at the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The MP responsible for Devolution and Regional Policy is Bridget Prentice MP (Lewisham East) who, when she's not failing to redress the devolution imbalance, enjoys stopping people from smoking, reducing parliamentary scrutiny, advocating the introduction of ID cards, charging English students fees that are not charged to other British students, imprisoning people without trial and banning fox hunting.

Anthem4England

I have a new post up on Anthem4England.

The one department.....

From Iain Dale:

I've just read in the Standard that John Reid described the Home Office recently as "the one Department which can't have a Scot in charge". For those of us living in the real world that out to be so, but in Mr Blair's parallel universe anything's possible. Next he'll be making Margaret Beckett Foreign Secretary.

Quite. Anyone notice how quiet the BBC are being over this issue? Perhaps I missed a news story somewhere from them.

Not good enough Mr. Cameron

David Cameron recently made a speech at The Power Inquiry conference. Read the text here. He quite rightly puts the boot into New Labour's regional agenda but fails completely to mention anything about the unfinished devolution project and the democratic deficit that leaves in the British Union.

Devolution Version 2 to be released

While England waits with growing impatience for it's share of the devolution cake the Scottish are already talking about devolution version 2.0:

Somehow, Labour must come to terms with this new phase – “devolution version 2.0” – and develop policies accordingly. McConnell needs to address the deficiencies in the Scottish democracy, the sections of the Scotland Act designed as a unionist fail-safe against independence. The Scottish parliament must find its own revenue base and be seen to raise more of the money it spends.

England's version of devolution isn't even in the alpha testing stage yet. Rumours have it that the programming team is full of idiots.

The Home Away From Home Office

From The Times:

Such is his aggressive manner that the much-aired West Lothian Question, which highlights the anomaly that lets Scottish MPs vote on English affairs while devolution prevents things happening the other way around, is again likely to come to the fore with Reid at the helm of the Home Office.

It looks like the Home Office has become the Home Away From Home Office.

It's offensive for some reason

From the Sun:

FIREMEN have been banned from flying England’s flag at their station during the World Cup.

Stunned crews were told the Cross of St George could offend ethnic minorities.

If anyone can work out why the national flag might be offensive to ethnic minorities please email me. If anyone can work out why banning the flag might be offensive to, oh I don't know, a whole nation please mail the London Fire Brigade.

Lance Dragon, over on the COSG forums, makes this observation:

These kinds of twats who ban the English flag are making a statement - if you belong to an ethnic minority there is no way you can ever consider yourself to be English even if you want to be.

They are certainly sending out that kind of message, or at least they are in danger of having it interpreted that way.

Scott get's on the case:

Can you think of any other nation in the entire world in which a display of the national flag would be prohibited for fear of causing offence? Is there any society as craven as this one? I am, for once, rendered almost speechless.

No Scott, I don't think that I can. Frankly it's an offensive position to want to prevent the flying of the national flag.

From the comments at Scott's place:

The problem is that the St George's Cross flag was hijacked by hooligan football supporters some years ago and respectable people began to shun it.

Yes, right, and that's the reason why they want to stop it flying. So it won't offend the moderate football supporter.........

John Reid gets the Home Office

So it looks like John Reid has the Home Office. This means he will be making policy in an area that has been partially devolved to the Scottish parliament and, therefore, his policies may not affect his own constituents in the same way that they would affect the people of England. No person eligible to vote in England can use their vote to specifically pass commentary on the performance of this minister in his brief at the Home Office.

Remember, it is not that he is Scottish that is at issue here. What is at issue is mandate and the democratic relationship that he has with the people his decisions and performance will affect.

Also note that the people in his constituency voted for him and yet they will not receive the full benefit of his time in office because they may not be subject to the outcome of some of his efforts.

Holy Grail: Scene 3

I'm thinking about this to support my other T shirt design.

Law, huuuu, what is it good for.......

Via IDD:

Automatic deportation for EU nationals convicted of criminal offences in the UK are specifically prohibited by EU Directive 2004/38, which states that ‘Expulsion orders may not be issued by the host Member State as a penalty or legal consequence of a custodial penalty’. "Article 33 of the directive prevents the automatic removal of those convicted of offences, and whilst it does allow for deportation as a sanction, the blanket use of deportation orders is prohibited by the Directive, which specifically states: 'Justifications that are isolated from the particulars of the case or that rely on considerations of general prevention shall not be accepted'. The Directive entered into force on the 30th April 2006.

This may mean that we will have to treat foreign criminals from the EU differently from foreign criminals from any other country with respect to deportation. Surely if the argument about deportation of foreign nationals holds any water at all it must be true for all foreign nationalities, regardless of whether their home country is part of an expansionist federal political project or not.

In response to this issue, the wider version of which all party politicians seem to be falling over themselves to say how important it is to your average British citizen, Labour councillor Bob Piper says:

I do think you should credit your loony wing in UKIP when you nick pieces from their website Iain.

Yup, I can see the average man in the street nodding his head in approval at that contribution.

Home Office mandate - England's affairs

The Green Ribbon raises an interesting point on the inheritance of the Home Office in any future reshuffle. Remember that home affairs is partially devolved. If the position goes to an MP that does not represent an English constituency it will be a measure of the importance that mandate commands in New Labour.

Let's hope that such a situation doesn't come to pass. It will just raise the temperature within a Union that is already heated by the friction of unequal devolution. Then again, if it does happen it will indicate that the issue is very far below the radar of the British government so maybe a little heating is what they either deserve or require to shame them into some kind of action.

England is in crisis - Christine Constable (EDP) visits the USA

Christine Constable (EDP) tells it like it is to our friends over the pond:

"England is in crisis and America needs to know what’s going on to their good friend across the pond..."

She's just come back from a week long flying tour of the states, lecturing in Universities, speaking on the radio, writing in the papers:

The openness of the press was a refreshing change. OK the quality and the adverts was a pain, but in terms of providing opportunities to speak I found the Americans open, interested and not shy of letting me use the media

The reaction she received was from a public shocked at what is happening:

Members of the public who phoned in were equally shocked about what they heard, and there was a real feeling of pain and sadness that England might, in the not too distant future pass into history. The most poignant aspect was America's disbelief that we could let this happen without even a vote - but this is modern day democracy in England - it does not exist.

Her visit report is available in full on the CoSG forums.

Tesco EIBO branding

Another case of Tesco's English in, British Out branding, garnished with a little St. George's day relish:

Louder

Simon Heffer in the Telegraph:

Realising it was losing this argument, Labour tried to palm us off with regional assemblies. As an intelligent people, we did not fall for that. What we want, and deserve, is an English parliament at Westminster, where English matters are decided solely by representatives of the English people.

Louder

Tommy has the news. Read it here.

Louder

From the Guardian Comment is Free resource, talk about England and devolution:

This position is sustainable only for as long as the English do not know, or care, much about it. My sense is that this is now, slowly but surely, beginning to change. The fact that there is no easy answer to the English Question - or even that some answers may be more troublesome than the question - will not stop it being increasingly asked. Just saying that it is one of life's little anomalies, as Lord Falconer suggested recently, will no longer be enough.

Yes, it is beginning to change. More people are asking what about England?, a question that the government is attempting to answer with a regional agenda. Like I've said before, that's an answer to a completely different question that the awakened have not asked and that's why it will never be accepted as a suitable solution.

Real News Online

This web site looks interesting. Lots of good stuff about the English question.

England, an emerging political force in Europe

Via the COSG forums comes this article:

Tracing through the impacts of Europe within the United Kingdom the European regions neatly classified under the EU NUTS regions are being perceived under the New Labour government’s clumsy efforts at devolution to be dismembering England as a country.

The article goes on to discuss the English Democrats in the main and delivers us the following conclusion:

The difference between the EDP and other British political parties, including the UKIP, is that it is focused on the English who make up majority of the population of the UK. It addresses the evolving and real issues which face the English in particular, without being distracted by Irish, Welsh or Scottish questions. The Conservatives, a Unionist party, has its hands tied by its own dogma, the Labour Party has done most damage to the English and the Liberal democrats have not understood the full significance of the emerging sense of injustice felt by the English. Observers and commentators expect the EDP to gain strength rapidly.

Then he tripped up and fell on his face, my how we laughed

Via Paul Linford I note that Robert Hazell has written the following in the Guardian:

Regional government in England is the only solution that offers an answer to both versions of the English question. It could help give England a louder voice within the union, and help decentralise the government of England. But defeat in the North East referendum in 2004 has raised the bar…

Raised the bar? Like a mediocre hurdler at an Olympic pole vault competition Mr. Hazell responds to the issue with the wrong tools, the wrong approach and a complete inability to grasp how high the bar actually is.

How can multiple regional assemblies address any of the major constitutional issues that devolution has laid bare in the Union? How can, for instance, any regional assembly or group of assemblies contrive to address the advantages in student funding that are enjoyed by Scotland on an English national level?

How can any assembly realistically reduce prescription fees for the English on a national level? I doubt they’d manage it on a local level and even if they did how would they prevent people outside of their region enjoying the benefit via tourism? Would trying to do so even be acceptable? I don’t think so.

There are many, many other issues that imply that Hazell misses the point completely. It’ll be fun watching him trying to jump that raised bar but, when it comes to equality in the Union, we all know that he doesn’t have what it takes.

The English have no loyalty to their own produce – Tesco official

I’ve finally received a response from Tescos regarding their use of Scottish and Welsh flags on Scottish and Welsh produce and the British flag on English produce. Their web site says:

We have dedicated buying teams in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whose task it is to seek out and develop relationships with suppliers. In the UK, Tesco stocks over 7,000 local products. All products are labelled with the country of origin and, where appropriate, with national flags.

They responded to my question about labelling English produce with the same courtesy with this:

We do not place the English flag on "English" products because we have what we term generic core lines. As Tesco view Scotland & Wales as "Regions" for the purposes of merchandising and to ensure we give the customers in these areas exactly what they expect and want (i.e. Welsh& Scottish people have loyalty to their own products), we like them to know that the products they are purchasing are from their own areas /countries hence the reason for the flag. As I am sure customers can appreciate,it is more difficult to do this because of the sheer size and complexity of areas in England.

Laura Pollock
Tesco Customer Service

Get that. The English do not have loyalty to their own products. One has to assume that the English do have loyalty to British products otherwise why would Tesco bother using the British flag on English produce? Laura also deals in a little trickery with her response by defining Scotland and Wales as regions, the implication being that any food labelling on English products would have to be region based, hence there would be no need of the English flag if Tesco took this approach. This culminates in her statement that it is more difficult to do this because of the sheer size and complexity of areas in England.

And there we were thinking that it was just a matter of putting the English flag on products that were produced in England.

So, in short, you have no loyalty to the produce of your own country so there is no English flag on our products. You do have loyalty to British produce which is why we label our English food as British. The Scots and the Welsh have more loyalty to their national produce than they do to British produce which is why we use their national flags. Oh, and England is big.

I've fired off this to customer.service@tesco.co.uk:

Laura,
I wonder how your English customers feel about your implication that the English have no loyalty to their own products but they do to British products and that England is somehow too big and too complex to be treated with the same courtesy that you afford other British nations?

The cat has been out of the bag for some time now and the English are beginning to notice how politicians and organisations such as yours treat England. We are growing tired of the various excuses we are being given.

Shame! Shame!

From the Times, a disgraceful attempt by the British government to get Welsh and Scottish MPs to interfere in matters which have been significantly devolved to national bodies outside of England:

The scale of government concern was shown when it emerged that Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, had met Scottish and Welsh nationalists to try to persuade them to back the timetable motion.

Gareth writes to Lord Falconer of Neptune about this issue.

Hurricane English Backlash

Alfie gets a phone call.

Falconer's interview transcribed

Murky has transcribed Lord Falconer's 'English Parliament' Interview. A difficult task but one that will serve us all well as a reference of eternal embarrasement to the Lord.

Jenkins on Falconer

It's not the guts of the Jenkins article but it's worth quoting I think:

On Friday Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, blithely announced as if by ukase that the English people would not get equal rights to the Welsh and Scots within the British parliament. Who says? He implied that even to ask was impertinent.

Are they simply very poor at the job?

Get a load of this article from the beeb and ask yourself, in the context of the article, what the by line of the picture of the Angel of the North means:

The North East rejected devolution.

No mention that the rejection was about regional devolution and not devolution for the whole of England, a completely different question.

English in, British out

It’s all about sensitivities you know. Caring, sharing, trying not to offend.

Black sheep are transformed into beautiful rainbows. Rag dolls are arrested for being in possession of certain racial traits. Manufacturers are thrown onto the altar of correctness for refusing to sponsor football teams from nations outside of their own. There’s no need to go on.

The defenders of equality and their allies, the soldiers of sensibility, seem to be doing a grand job of ensuring that they do not waste a single opportunity to point and cry shame at each and every offender and offending remark that even approaches the realm of an individual or a group identity.

Except that there is a flaw running through them. A subtle imperfection which has taken years to notice but now that it has been noticed, ruins what could and should have been something really rather nice.

The flaw is that they are deaf and blind to the English.

It’s as if someone has installed filters over their ears and over their eyes that cut out all ability to recognise the English spectrum. It’s a simple process that goes something like this.

English in … (oo) … British out

“Hello”, you might say. “My name’s George and I’m English”.
“Oh, how simply wonderful”, they might respond, “I’m British too”.

That’s English in, British out and it can be found all over the place. If it’s a new concept to you I urge you to try a small experiment at your convenience just so that you can experience it for yourself. Go into a local Sainsbury's supermarket, walk up to the fruit and veg. section and examine the packaging. You will soon discover two processes at work. The first is the straight through process and goes something like this:

Scottish turnips … [sensibility filters] … For sale, Scottish turnips.

The second process is the one we have already described, EiBo for short:

English apples … [EiBo filters] … For sale, British apples.

The problem for the sensibility brigade is that the EiBo issue actually becomes rather hurtful after a while. Like a splinter that causes an infection. First it’s not there, then you feel a little prick, then it starts to irritate, gets infected and eventually it really, really hurts. You look around but there’s no one there to help. The sensibility brigade don’t even know you exist. They are not tuned into your particular wavelength.

Let me give you another example of how deeply this issue runs. The government is keen on national identity it would seem. So keen in fact that they have decided to find out a little more about it during the national census due in 2011. They will flat out ask you about it but are, unfortunately, suffering deeply from EiBo:

The national Census is to include a question on national identity so people can say if they consider themselves Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.

Amazing isn’t it. No English. Of course, the reason why this is the case is revealed by this letter:

…there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of Parliament and accession. Persons born in the United Kingdom are citizens of the United Kingdom and are therefore British/English.

And yet the 2011 census will include Welsh, Scottish and Irish, all UK nations.

It’s a disgrace and somewhat confusing given that under the Race Relations Act being English means that you form part of a 'racial group' as defined by 'national origin' (one of the terms used in the Act) [Carine Bakken, CRE]. But you can bet your last £1000 that if you were to try and assert your racial group as defined by your national origin on the census you will be severely punished.

There are no two ways about it. If find it deeply hurtful and ultimately discriminatory. It would be different for me, as a British Unionist (fading as that now is), if the census form was about Britishness. If all constituent nations were treated as being part of the same melting pot. But it is not and it’s all tied up with devolution and the re-birth of the political structures of Wales and Scotland, the same structures that are being denied to England and all who live here.

There is a pledge available on the Internet here. Those brave people who sign it declare:

"I will refuse to fill out the 2011 UK census unless 'English' is included as a nationality but only if 1,000 other English people will too."

I’m not sure that I can sign it for two simple reasons. Firstly I cannot afford the fine that the state will impose upon me. Secondly the state will likely further punish me by removing my privilege to hold a shotgun certificate because I will be showing myself to be a person of questionable standing when it comes to being law abiding. I will be seen to be breaking the law.

There are, however, two things that I can do.

Firstly I will finally join the Campaign for an English Parliament and I will endeavour to do it today. I have been remiss in this and there is no real excuse except that I am not a big joiner of things, usually preferring to take my own path. I hope what I have been doing on this blog has made up for that oversight in some small way.

Secondly I will write to my MP specifically on the subject of the 2011 census form and I will do so in terms of how I feel right now. I feel hurt through prejudice and I have no interest at all if prejudicial hurt was the intent or not or whether the census in the stated form is perfectly legal. It’s the way that I feel and I will make that known to my representative in parliament.

As for the census form I honestly don’t know what I am to do when the time comes for me to fill it in. Like I have said I am not wealthy enough to refuse and am more exposed than most. Perhaps I should look for a new hobby.

News is coming in of a reporting error by the BBC. Story unfolding....

BBC story has been changed to:

The national Census is to include a national ID question so people can say if they consider themselves English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish or British.

ie it now includes English.

Those crazy Beeb reporters.

In other news this story has just been released by Civitas.

Rock, meet hard place, turn the lights off when you are done

Well, it looks like this morning is a quote the Gareth morning. This time it's this astonishing example of clear thinking:

Dear Mr Heald,

The Conservative policy of English Votes on English Matters does not include any provision to stop Scottish MPs being given ministerial portfolios such as health, education, transport and culture media and sport.

Would you explain to me why a Scottish MP should be barred from voting on education bills but should be allowed to head up the Department of Education?

Many thanks,

Gareth Young

I'm a little nervous to be honest. Nervous that we are missing something here and that there is a perfectly good and obvious reason why a policy of EVoEM is compatible with allowing those that cannot vote on their own policies to hold such an office.

Further, if such a minister is barred from voting on such an issue because, basically, it is not within his remit to do so then what does this say about the ministers mandate to affect policy in the specific area at all?

I suspect the answer to Gareth's gloryously impertinent question lies in the reason why the minister should not be allowed to vote on English matters. There is ruination ahead if that answer has anything to do with not having a mandate from the people in areas that have been devolved to other nations in the Union. In fact, the whold notion of having a minister crafting policy and pushing through changes in an area where the Tory party framework recognises that he is not equal to other MP's on the issue is incredible.

(G)ordon (B)rown

Click

Neil says...

...vote (for or against metric road signs), so I did, but only because I care.

He will probably rule with less authority

This is a cracking article from Brian Monteith in the Scotsman:

"How can there be a prime minister who is not accountable to the English electorate yet can choose a Cabinet, introduce legislation and then vote on it when he has no ability to so influence the same matters in his own seat in Scotland?"

This line of attack plays to the growing sense of injustice in England fed by the Conservatives receiving the largest share of the English popular vote but resulting in a majority of Labour MPs being returned, together with the perception that the 25 per cent higher public spending in Scotland is paid for by the English taxpayer.

Should Gordon Brown be Prime Minister?

The excellent preamble to this poll is provided by Gareth:

Gordon Brown seeks to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, but since devolution to Scotland and Wales the Kingdom is not quite as united as it once was. Opposition parties and constitutionalists have begun to ask whether it is right for an MP elected in a Scottish constituency to become prime minister and form a government to draft and administer legislation concerning only England.

In Scotland the people elect a minister to the Scottish Parliament (MSP) to represent them on matters devolved to Scotland (health, education, transport, culture and sport). They also elect a Minister of Parliament (MP) to represent them at Westminster on 'reserved matters'. The people of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath elected Gordon Brown on these reserved matters. No UK voter, whether they be English, Scottish, Irish or Welsh, elected Gordon Brown to represent them on health, education, transport, culture, sport, or any of the other policy areas that are delvoved to the Scottish Parliament.

Yet should Gordon Brown succeed Tony Blair to become prime minister, he will hand pick a UK cabinet government to govern England and run English domestic policy. He will select which MPs become ministers of English departments - ministers with English portfolios, to run, for example, the English NHS, or the Department of Health to give it its correct name. He will have no such power over the Scottish government that affects his own constituents in Scotland, the people to whom he is democratically accountable. This is the so called West Lothian Question writ large. The majority of people in Scotland and England believe that it is wrong for Scottish MPs to vote on English matters, and whether or not it is acceptable for a Scottish MP to become prime minister is related to this. Please let us know what you think.

Should Gordon Brown be Prime Minister?
	Yes
	No
Free polls from Pollhost.com

No national voice, no national interest

University applications have fallen in England for the first time in six years. It’s no coincidence that this comes at the same time as higher fees are introduced across one country in the Union but not across the others:

Official figures from the University and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) show all applications to English universities are down by 3.7%, while applications to Scottish universities are up by 1.6% and to Welsh universities by 0.5%.
The biggest fall - of 4.5% - is amongst English students applying to English universities. By contrast the figure for English students applying to Scotland is up by 1.9%.

Meanwhile drugs available in some Union countries are being denied to patients in others.

Oh no, not that card again

Is Paul Linford really nearly equating the Campaign for and English parliament campaign with saloon-bar racism?:

Although I support the CEP's overall aims I think there is a rather unpleasant and personal overtone to this campaign. It doesn't seem so very far away from the sort of "send the buggers home" saloon-bar racism which still exists in some inner-city areas where racial tensions are high.

I think Paul must be seeing something in the campaign that I have failed to see myself. Unless Paul is referring to the use of the Scottish tae in the image he uses in his posting or, perhaps, the homeward word neither of which I view as hitting anywhere near the mark on the racist barometer.

Granted, there has been the odd sporadic comment made by visitors which I haven't personally liked very much but I do not see that as the campaign. That's just someone commenting upon it.

I have yet to see anyone manage to argue a point against the campaign that actually holds up to close scrutiny by the supporters of equality within the Union. Supporters such as Gareth, one of the authors of the CEP blog.

Paul continues:

Gareth's argument is that until we have an English Parliament, we can't have a Scottish Prime Minister of the whole of the UK, but this seems a bizarre point of view to take if Gordon is the best candidate for PM in all other respects.

Clearly that is not Gareth's argument. We clearly can have Gordon Brown as a PM. Gareth's position is that we shouldn't and it is a position that I agree with.

Let's blow this whole racism issue out of the water. Ask Gareth his opinion of Gordon Brown as a PM if he had been elected to represent a constituency in England. Same old Brown, same place of Birth, same ideas, same everything. Just a different mandate. He would be a prime minister that could represent his constituents on issues such as education and health instead of one that could affect the constituents of every other English MP on those issues but not his own.

You will find his answer enlightening.

It's nothing to do with racism and everything to do with equality.

Apparently commenting upon and trying to answer accusations of near saloon-bar racism is hostile. And dishing out such accusation of near racism isn't?

Now would be a good time to re-visit my 404 - English Parliament not Found page:

The racist card may have been played. Try reinstalling reality.

Two words Brown

Do you remember that old game of hang man where getting the words just right was all that stood between you and an uncomfortable end?

               +------+
               |/     O
               |     /|\
               |      /\
               |
              -+-

Gordon Brown clearly does. Here are another two words that Brown might want to contemplate as he walks up to the scaffold. Devolution. Asymmetrical.

It's that voting time again

Iain Dale is running a poll on the establishment of an English Parliament. Why not pop over and cast a vote.

The End of England solution

Gareth notes and responds to a paper by Robert Hazell of the The Constitution Unit, University College London. Mr. Hazell’s paper effectively suggests that an English Parliament would not be a viable solution to the current constitutional mess in the UK caused by New Labour’s prejudicial devolution settlement where the English are the only people without political representation for their nation as a nation.

Mr. Hazell suggests that this is the case because there are too many people in England for their own parliament and because some other federal nations in history failed to pull off what Hazell considers similar settlements. ”No federation has operated successfully where one of the units is so dominant”, he says.

He is effectively saying that there are so many English people that they should not expect to be treated in the same way as a nation with fewer people. He is also asking the English to look back into history and learn a lesson, that lesson being that these other nations have failed and, consequently, so will you. Don’t even go there. You’re not that good.

His logic is that if we are to accept this history lesson on the terms mentioned we should break England up into smaller units, that way the problems with the unequal devolution settlement will be solvable. Of course the very thing that campaigners for proper political representation for the English want, their own parliament for England as a nation on a par with those given to other nations in the Union, will not be afforded to them. It is a solution that instead of solving the English question makes it a question that is impossible to ask because a united England will no longer in reality exist. Nice solution Mr. Hazell.

Hazell’s suggestion that the English consider history as a reasoned argument against equality is extraordinary. Extraordinary because he fails to do the very same thing when suggesting the End of England solution. I wonder how many lessons lie littered throughout the battlefield of history for Mr. Hazell to pick through. I mean this is not the first time that a nation’s people have been treated unequally in comparison with others. What lessons can history teach us about that? This is not the first time that balkanisation has been suggested or carried through. What lessons can history teach us about that? This is not the first time the demonstrated wishes of a nation have been ignored. There are skeletons everywhere in histories closet.

There is also one premise behind the paper that needs to be outed so we know where everyone stands. That premise is that if we had to choose between the Union and England the Union must take priority even if that means the transformation of England into a collection of regions. That’s what we are talking about and it is a choice that has come about entirely because of New Labour’s handiness with the parliamentary pink slip.

Fascinating really. The UK parliament has devolved issues to the Scottish parliament. It also represents a dominant force in Britain when compared to that very same Scottish parliament. They tell us it’s marvellous and, apparently, completely workable. Yet if the English were to have a parliament it would be too dominant. There’s a word Mr. Hazell ignores. Devolution. Some issues have been devolved to the Scottish parliament. How does Mr. Hazell expect the English to dominate the Scots on properly devolved issues when the UK parliament cannot?

Though it pains me to say this I cannot in all faith resist doing so. There are people who are intent on taking bites out of England and there is a Hazell nut in every one.

The twelve parts of the UK

Honestly, it makes me mad. Furious in fact. Is there no one in our political elite that will refer to England as an actual country or even a single entity? Do they not realise what kind of seeds they are sowing?

I think a period of reflection is in order. I have always considered myself a British nationalist but I am finding it increasingly difficult to affiliate myself with a concept that seems to take so much without giving back anything in the form of recognition for the country that I owe so much to. It's a difficult decision because I make enemies hard. Once set upon a route that I believe is justifiable there is no going back, no reconciliation and it has always proven to end in sadness and bitterness.

I have had a drink and tomorrow is another day but I have to say now, the clear morning head has never made a difference in the past.

Louder and louder

The Social Affairs Unit reports upon the importance of the unfair devolution settlement in Britain citing it as possibly the key issue of the next general election

The West Lothian Question is in part a dummy run for the next election. The very real possibility that Labour may only hold onto power because of Scottish votes is one that has not yet received sufficiently public attention.

Not through want of trying I can tell you that. It will be interesting to see how the BBC copes with ignoring the issue during the next election if it does play a key part as many of us expect.

The new class divide

Ahhh, the privileged few get another opportunity to improve their lot.

The Union Flag in Brown's back yard

Too sweet not to mention:

“I don’t care what Brown says, it is an English flag and I would refuse point blank to put one in my garden — it wouldn’t be long before someone put my windows in.”

Via doctorvee.

There are no brakes on this train

Gareth has a little roundup of some press coverage on the issue of the devolution settlement in the Union. It does seem that the issue that some bloggers have been saying will not go away and will be a major issue of our times are not as crazy or as dangerous to the Union as some might think.

The longer I have been involved in this movement the more English separatist chatter I have heard.

It is a situation that was completely predictable.

People who are not offered equality and who do not feel empowered or listened to in any meaningful way will always tend to loose faith in whatever system they think is failing them. I've always said that the greatest threat to the Union comes not from their ranks but from the ranks of those that refuse to accept that something needs to be done and that something must put the nation of England on the same footing as all the other Union nations.

Gareth is quite right when he says:

We been predicting and warning of this for ages of course, but our leaders failed to listen. The massed ranks of Parliament are always the last to notice the public mood. Well, they're listening now. We've passed being ignored, passed being labelled extremists, passed being labelled dangerous.

We are rapidly getting to the point (and it is astonishing to me how quickly this is happening) where the accelerating gravy train of English nationalism (or British equalitarianism) will become too much for some politicians to resist and too loud for the others to ignore.

That will be the BBC singularity. A point where the issue is so acute that not even the BBC can ignore it.

From then on it will only be a matter of time.

Regional government in East Anglia

Vote, vote, vote.

Via England Expects.

No mandate

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