TV Debates

The BBC reported yesterday that the Scottish Nationalist party and Plaid Cymru (the party of Wales) have threatened legal action over their exclusion from the TV debates agreed between the leaders of the unionist parties, that is Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative. We understand that instead they will be offered their own debates within Scotland and Wales respectively. If so, should not one or more of the main debates be reserved for England? But unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland there is no-one elected by the people of England who has the authority to speak for them because there is no English national Assembly or Parliament

The Westminster Parliament - in which MPs from all the British countries and the Province of Northern Ireland sit- is not only responsible for UK reserved matters but also for English domestic matters. If the UK debates are to be on reserved matters rather than English domestic matters, there is nothing left to be debated separately in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since their devolved assemblies/Parliament deal with their domestic matters.
The Conservative leader, David Cameron, is reported to have said: "I have always believed in live television debates. I think they can help enliven our democracy, I think they will help answer people's questions, I think they will crystallise the debate about the change this country needs." Which country, Mr Cameron? Britain is a state consisting of three countries. Is he going to debate UK matters only or English matters as well?
The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, told the Daily Mirror: "I relish the opportunity provided by these debates to discuss the big choices the country faces. Choices like whether we lock in the recovery or whether we choke it off; whether we protect the NHS, schools and police or whether we put them at risk to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy few." Again, we might ask: which country please? From Mr. Brown’s statement, we must assume that he intends to debate English domestic matters, such as the English health service, English schools and police since the Westminster parliament has control over those matters only in England.
It will be important to discover from the debates whether the LibLabCon 'unionist' parties will be presenting different policies on domestic matters for their Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament members to pursue in the devolved territories. We need to know whether those policies would be more advantageous than those proposed for England.
The Campaign for an English Parliament will be monitoring what these so-called unionist parties propose and will note any comparative disadvantage proposed for the people of England.
Contact:
Scilla Cullen CEP Chairman Tel: 01438

We must not forget that it is the British that are denying England its political recognition, the British MPs we have sent to parliament to represent England, it is these who are to blame. Until we have our own English MPs not British MPs representing England nothing is going to change.
Fight against British Racism – Fight against racism directed against England and the English