THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT SPENT A MERE £166 ON CELEBRATING ST GEORGE’S DAY. THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT SPENT £1 MILLION ON ST ANDREW’S DAY.

‘What is it with the Labour Government and party that it has such a mean and niggardly attitude towards England?’ the National Council of the CEP has asked its membership in its St George’s Day message ‘All it could bring itself to spend on the St George’s Day celebration 2009 was a miserly £116 for a flag to fly over the Department of Culture building in Whitehall. ‘Mrs Barbara Follett, Culture Minister, MP for Stevenage in Hertfordshire and the designated ‘Minister’ for the East of England whose responsibilities take in matters like national celebrations,when challenged in the Commons, simply refused to spend a penny more
‘Compare Scotland and Wales . About £440,000 was spent by the Scottish Government on last November's St Andrew’s Day celebrations, which included a series of concerts and ceilidhs across the country, while 7,500 Scottish Executive staff were given the day off, adding up to almost one million pounds in all. In Wales , the Welsh Assembly Government organised a packed programme of events last month for St David's Day, including a reception in Brussels , a food market in London , and free admission to national monuments.
‘But there is a lot more to it than just meanness towards England on the part of the Labour Government and the UK establishment in general,’ said Veronica |Newman the campaign secretary and its organiser in Wiltshire in the same message to members. ‘That meanness is an aspect of a much bigger issue, namely the hostility of the bulk of the British Establishment political, academic and cultural, to England and Englishness. The BBC is culturally the most influential embodiement of anti-Englishness. The overwhelming majority of MPs in the House of Commons are English and all three parties have the bulk of their support in England . You would think that they would demand, and by reason of their numbers get, equality for English people with the Scots and the Welsh. But they don’t. With a mere handful of exceptions they show no pride in being English, they do not stand up for England , they assert they are British rather than English.; and perversely they regard the rise of Englishness, the re-discovery of English identity and the omni-presence of the English flag as a threat to the Union. The English people they belong to is the oldest unified nation in Europe, it has a political and cultural history which is admired the world over, its language is now the world’s language, what it has achieved in industrial and technological invention is second to none, but they act as if they are ashamed to belong.
The Prime Minister and the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, both Scottish MPs, ensure Scotland enjoys immense benefits from devolution and the Barnett Formula, and no one regards their generosity to their fellow countrymen and women as a threat to the Union. Our English MPs could well learn a lesson from them both.
Contacts:

Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit