With the countdown to the likely end of Gordon Brown’s premiership well under way, the Campaign for an English Parliament today calls on the Prime Minister to take decisive action in order to prevent history from recording him as the most anti-English Prime Minister ever.
Having signed the Scottish Claim of Right 1988, which asserts the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to adopt the governance of their choosing, it is hypocritical of Gordon Brown to deny the people of England the same sovereign right to choose how England should be governed.
St George's Day on the 23rd April represents an opportunity for Gordon Brown to start making amends. There is massive public support for a national holiday to mark England's national day, and such a national holiday in England would put the people of England on an equal footing with Gordon Brown's own constituents in Scotland who enjoy a public holiday on St Andrew's Day.
On the 23rd April, 2008, Mr Brown declared that "As far as St. George's day is concerned, it is a matter for public debate on whether this is going to be a holiday." What has happened to that public debate and why isn't the Prime Minister leading it? Or does he only do ‘Britishness’? There is still time for Mr Brown to introduce the change this year – and it would a nice pre-election treat for an England weary of politicians who take but never give.
Gareth Young
CAMPAIGN FOR AN ENGLISH PARLIAMENT
23 January 2010
gpy1973@yahoo.co.uk
CEP Tel: 0797 3296 118
A Tribute to St. George's Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF24LZInNB0
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
Tuesday 26 January 2010
Wednesday 20 January 2010
Make them talk of England
Articles 111, 1V and V1 of the Act of Union state that the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one Parliament; that all the subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain shall have full communication of all other rights, privileges, and advantages which do or may belong to the subjects of either Kingdom and that all parts of the United Kingdom shall have the same allowances, encouragements and drawbacks.
By allowing Scotland to take back its own parliament in the Devolution Acts 1998 the British Government destabilised the United Kingdom, and in doing so violated the Articles of Union as set out some 300 years ago in 1707 that created the United Kingdom Parliament.
The people of England were never asked if they agreed to this violation and the British MPs elected by England to represent them in the United Kingdom Parliament never explained what the consequences of this action would mean for the English Nation. England’s MPs did however aid and abet the British MPs elected to represent Scotland in explaining to the people of Scotland Scotland’s benefits, and supported the call for a yes vote in a national referendum that gave Scotland a parliament.
The people of England should realise that it was the people of Scotland with their yes vote along with their British MPs who instigated the violation and devolution; the abomination and violation that has allowed the British in their United Kingdom Parliament to ignore the guarantees that were laid down in those Articles to the people of England.
England can not ignore the fact that it was the ordinary Scottish voter whether they knew it or not that has handed the political power to the United Kingdom Parliament that is being used by its British MPs to deny England its political identity, and its people their homeland and their cultural identity.
British MPs who hated England and loved the EU, many elected from Welsh and English constituencies always new what power they would have when giving Scotland a parliament, and so put Scottish MPs in the top ministerial positions to pull it off. Scotland’s MPs have been rewarded by the British in that they have been allowed to dominate most if not all of the most important ministerial positions in the British United Kingdom Parliament ever since, and these MPs have missed no opportunity with their English hating friends in using this new found power over England.
Scottish elected MPs including the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling have been orchestrating policies for the last 12 years which they knew could not apply to their own Scottish Nation that elected them, and have subjected the people of England to a campaign of discrimination bordering on cultural genocide, and have been and are acting as England’s liquidators in selling off the nation’s assets turning the country into England Plc. Even the country itself as not escaped the liquidator as the British hand it over to every Tom, Dick or Harry that wants to come here and be stamped with their British Brand.
England’s guarantee is up and while England is suffering Scotland is prospering at its expense, and its people either enjoy now or have been promised the luxuries of Free Eye Tests, Free Prescription Charges, Free Dental Check Ups and Reduced Charges, Free Personal Care in Residential Homes – even if they cross the border into England, Free School Milk and Better School Meals being provided as they receive double England’s subsidy, Seriously ill patients are able to receive drugs denied to England’s patients even if they are in an English hospital, Trainee nurses kept on an extra year after qualification, Scotland has 80% more nurses,midwives and health visitors,50% more doctors and dentists, teachers get higher pay and they have less pupils per class,No Hospital Parking Charges, No Wheel Clamping allowed anywhere in the country, Students in Universities have fees waived until they are earning over £25,000 per year and have to pay No Top Up Fees, Council tax frozen at 2007 rate and it has only risen by 40% since 1997 while England’s has risen 100% over the same period, and every young woman living in England should be aware that their life is not as important as a Scottish one as Jade Goody tragically found out to her cost, because England’s young women are not entitled to cancer cervical smear tests until they are 25, in Scotland its 20. The Scots also get a National Holiday on their St. Andrew’s Day and can fly Scotland’s flag from public buildings and use it to promote their products.
Scotland and Wales also have been given louder voices in the UK-EU policy shaping process and can speak up for the specific interests of their nations.
The Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies deal direct with their own National Executives so they can tailor things on a national basis. England on the other hand only has poorly funded regional development agencies fighting each other for resources.
In fact, the devolved countries (Nations) have a multitude of special privileges to get their voice heard on a range of policies and laws.
They have MP’s at Westminster, They have their own parliament or assembly They each have a secretary of state in the UK cabinet They each have a grand committee made up of their Westminster MP’s. They each have a Select Committee at Westminster to deal with their national affairs.
The government is making and changing laws so often that the legislation is not fully scrutinised and more than 4000 Statutory Instruments have been issued in one year alone. Their MP’s in Westminster have had their work load drastically cut because they now have no constituents to look after, which has allowed them more time to study these laws, besides which, they also have the benefit of their own separate institutions that study them and give approval.
Although the devolved nation’s MP’s workload has been drastically reduced they have had no pay cut.
Scottish Fisheries Departments have now taken control of border fisheries and this has already led to the Scots cutting English fishing quotas along the East Coast. How long before the Welsh do the same?
The maritime border was moved to pacify the nationalists and does not now follow international convention gifting a lot of England’s oil and gas to Scotland.
Every nation has a right to govern themselves under their own laws; it is what makes a nation, and is the difference between self government and subordination, between self respect and self contempt. Scotland is now in control of all of its own domestic policies and a British and EU recognised nation. England too is a nation and we must demand that recognition.
Not one British political party wants to talk about England in their election manifestos preferring to obscure its existence in a Britain, because if they were forced to tell the people of England the truth their house would fall down, and in the meantime the entire British establishment with its social engineering and tax policies seems to be set on a course of turning the next generation of England into a nation of bastards.
Make them talk about England and bring them down - stop the rot get rid of the lot
We need our own MPs in our own English Parliament now tomorrow could be to late
By allowing Scotland to take back its own parliament in the Devolution Acts 1998 the British Government destabilised the United Kingdom, and in doing so violated the Articles of Union as set out some 300 years ago in 1707 that created the United Kingdom Parliament.
The people of England were never asked if they agreed to this violation and the British MPs elected by England to represent them in the United Kingdom Parliament never explained what the consequences of this action would mean for the English Nation. England’s MPs did however aid and abet the British MPs elected to represent Scotland in explaining to the people of Scotland Scotland’s benefits, and supported the call for a yes vote in a national referendum that gave Scotland a parliament.
The people of England should realise that it was the people of Scotland with their yes vote along with their British MPs who instigated the violation and devolution; the abomination and violation that has allowed the British in their United Kingdom Parliament to ignore the guarantees that were laid down in those Articles to the people of England.
England can not ignore the fact that it was the ordinary Scottish voter whether they knew it or not that has handed the political power to the United Kingdom Parliament that is being used by its British MPs to deny England its political identity, and its people their homeland and their cultural identity.
British MPs who hated England and loved the EU, many elected from Welsh and English constituencies always new what power they would have when giving Scotland a parliament, and so put Scottish MPs in the top ministerial positions to pull it off. Scotland’s MPs have been rewarded by the British in that they have been allowed to dominate most if not all of the most important ministerial positions in the British United Kingdom Parliament ever since, and these MPs have missed no opportunity with their English hating friends in using this new found power over England.
Scottish elected MPs including the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling have been orchestrating policies for the last 12 years which they knew could not apply to their own Scottish Nation that elected them, and have subjected the people of England to a campaign of discrimination bordering on cultural genocide, and have been and are acting as England’s liquidators in selling off the nation’s assets turning the country into England Plc. Even the country itself as not escaped the liquidator as the British hand it over to every Tom, Dick or Harry that wants to come here and be stamped with their British Brand.
England’s guarantee is up and while England is suffering Scotland is prospering at its expense, and its people either enjoy now or have been promised the luxuries of Free Eye Tests, Free Prescription Charges, Free Dental Check Ups and Reduced Charges, Free Personal Care in Residential Homes – even if they cross the border into England, Free School Milk and Better School Meals being provided as they receive double England’s subsidy, Seriously ill patients are able to receive drugs denied to England’s patients even if they are in an English hospital, Trainee nurses kept on an extra year after qualification, Scotland has 80% more nurses,midwives and health visitors,50% more doctors and dentists, teachers get higher pay and they have less pupils per class,No Hospital Parking Charges, No Wheel Clamping allowed anywhere in the country, Students in Universities have fees waived until they are earning over £25,000 per year and have to pay No Top Up Fees, Council tax frozen at 2007 rate and it has only risen by 40% since 1997 while England’s has risen 100% over the same period, and every young woman living in England should be aware that their life is not as important as a Scottish one as Jade Goody tragically found out to her cost, because England’s young women are not entitled to cancer cervical smear tests until they are 25, in Scotland its 20. The Scots also get a National Holiday on their St. Andrew’s Day and can fly Scotland’s flag from public buildings and use it to promote their products.
Scotland and Wales also have been given louder voices in the UK-EU policy shaping process and can speak up for the specific interests of their nations.
The Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies deal direct with their own National Executives so they can tailor things on a national basis. England on the other hand only has poorly funded regional development agencies fighting each other for resources.
In fact, the devolved countries (Nations) have a multitude of special privileges to get their voice heard on a range of policies and laws.
They have MP’s at Westminster, They have their own parliament or assembly They each have a secretary of state in the UK cabinet They each have a grand committee made up of their Westminster MP’s. They each have a Select Committee at Westminster to deal with their national affairs.
The government is making and changing laws so often that the legislation is not fully scrutinised and more than 4000 Statutory Instruments have been issued in one year alone. Their MP’s in Westminster have had their work load drastically cut because they now have no constituents to look after, which has allowed them more time to study these laws, besides which, they also have the benefit of their own separate institutions that study them and give approval.
Although the devolved nation’s MP’s workload has been drastically reduced they have had no pay cut.
Scottish Fisheries Departments have now taken control of border fisheries and this has already led to the Scots cutting English fishing quotas along the East Coast. How long before the Welsh do the same?
The maritime border was moved to pacify the nationalists and does not now follow international convention gifting a lot of England’s oil and gas to Scotland.
Every nation has a right to govern themselves under their own laws; it is what makes a nation, and is the difference between self government and subordination, between self respect and self contempt. Scotland is now in control of all of its own domestic policies and a British and EU recognised nation. England too is a nation and we must demand that recognition.
Not one British political party wants to talk about England in their election manifestos preferring to obscure its existence in a Britain, because if they were forced to tell the people of England the truth their house would fall down, and in the meantime the entire British establishment with its social engineering and tax policies seems to be set on a course of turning the next generation of England into a nation of bastards.
Make them talk about England and bring them down - stop the rot get rid of the lot
We need our own MPs in our own English Parliament now tomorrow could be to late
Thursday 14 January 2010
I’M DYING FOR AN ENGLISH EDUCATION
Even before all the British political parties have finalised their manifestos for the forthcoming General Election, they are not disguising the fact that they are going to continue treating the people of England as second class citizens. Not once have we heard the word ‘England’ mentioned by any British political party, even though the parties have spoken about policies on the Health Service and education, which they know could only apply to England. If this is the new political policy for regaining the trust of the English people after all the shenanigans of the present corrupt government, then we should have a lot to fear from the next one.
England will continue to suffer at the expense of the devolved nations. Depending on which party is elected to form the next government, England’s children could face ‘slavery’ or the orphanage with the prospect of their parents becoming heroes, England’s elderly face the prospect of having to sell their homes to get care, England’s sick will be allowed to go blind or will have to be terminally ill in order to get free prescription drugs, England’s council tax will continue to rise; yet not one of these policies will apply to the Scots, the Welsh or the Irish, because they have their own parliaments that stop such policies being forced on them.
Gordon Brown, the leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and England’s unelected ‘First Minister’, said that his clear expectation is that all the young people of England will be made to do community service (the like of which is now reserved for criminals) which would be linked to a ‘clear system of accreditation’, meaning that children who refuse to take part in this ‘slave labour’ scheme would be marked down or fail their Citizenship exams.
Because of costs, Nick Clegg’s Liberal-Democrats party has now dropped its worthwhile policies for the English Health Service and for education (without mentioning ‘England’) that would have gone a long way to right the wrongs against England. This party, like all the British parties, obviously considers the quality of an English life to be less than that of a Scottish, Welsh or Irish one.
It is hard to find out what is likely to be in David Cameron’s Conservative party manifesto but what we do know is that the Conservatives have gone one step further than any of the other British parties on England’s higher education policy. This party’s policy on English education shows the contempt all the British political parties have for our nation; at a time when it is being reported that one in five of our troops are not fit to fight in Afghanistan, partly because of mental illness, this party’s education policy tells England’s servicemen and women that if they get themselves killed the British will fund their children’s university education, which is tantamount to asking them to commit suicide in order for their children to get the same provision of the free education the British already provide for Scotland’s children.
These British policies do nothing to bring the Union together, but go a long way in breaking it apart and shows once again that it is no longer possible since devolution for any British political party or government to deliver a set of social and domestic policies that would have to apply to the whole of the United Kingdom and the people this government is supposed to be elected to represent.
John Stanhope
Campaign for an English Parliament
14 January 2010
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
England will continue to suffer at the expense of the devolved nations. Depending on which party is elected to form the next government, England’s children could face ‘slavery’ or the orphanage with the prospect of their parents becoming heroes, England’s elderly face the prospect of having to sell their homes to get care, England’s sick will be allowed to go blind or will have to be terminally ill in order to get free prescription drugs, England’s council tax will continue to rise; yet not one of these policies will apply to the Scots, the Welsh or the Irish, because they have their own parliaments that stop such policies being forced on them.
Gordon Brown, the leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister, and England’s unelected ‘First Minister’, said that his clear expectation is that all the young people of England will be made to do community service (the like of which is now reserved for criminals) which would be linked to a ‘clear system of accreditation’, meaning that children who refuse to take part in this ‘slave labour’ scheme would be marked down or fail their Citizenship exams.
Because of costs, Nick Clegg’s Liberal-Democrats party has now dropped its worthwhile policies for the English Health Service and for education (without mentioning ‘England’) that would have gone a long way to right the wrongs against England. This party, like all the British parties, obviously considers the quality of an English life to be less than that of a Scottish, Welsh or Irish one.
It is hard to find out what is likely to be in David Cameron’s Conservative party manifesto but what we do know is that the Conservatives have gone one step further than any of the other British parties on England’s higher education policy. This party’s policy on English education shows the contempt all the British political parties have for our nation; at a time when it is being reported that one in five of our troops are not fit to fight in Afghanistan, partly because of mental illness, this party’s education policy tells England’s servicemen and women that if they get themselves killed the British will fund their children’s university education, which is tantamount to asking them to commit suicide in order for their children to get the same provision of the free education the British already provide for Scotland’s children.
These British policies do nothing to bring the Union together, but go a long way in breaking it apart and shows once again that it is no longer possible since devolution for any British political party or government to deliver a set of social and domestic policies that would have to apply to the whole of the United Kingdom and the people this government is supposed to be elected to represent.
John Stanhope
Campaign for an English Parliament
14 January 2010
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
Tuesday 5 January 2010
What’s the point of an English Parliament in the first place? Why bother?
Well. Try putting that same question to the Scots, the Welsh, the Northern Irish, the people of Eire, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney, to the Germans, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish, the Chinese, the Kazachs, the Americans, the Indians, the Palestinians, and any and every other people you can think of. They would all say that having their own parliament is definitely in their interest. For all sorts of solid reasons. But we English are the Kurds of Europe, the only nation in Europe which does not have its own parliament. Even the people of tiny Sark has its own parliament! And why? Because a national parliament or assembly means something, something very significant. First, it is the most positive statement going of being a distinct nation, which is also precisely what the people of England are. In fact, England was the first unified nation in the whole of Europe. And now the only one without its own parliament! Second, it means self rule. And that is a basic human right for any people. Then third, a parliament is the way to protect and improve the welfare of the people it represents.
What’s more, it is fascinating to think a moment about the people in the United Kingdom Parliament who oppose England having its own parliament. Let’s just take one such person. Gordon Brown. He was the keenest supporter going for Scotland having its own parliament, he was the engine behind the Scottish Constitutional Convention which formulated all the legislation which in 1998 got Scotland its parliament, he was one of the many Scottish MPs and MEPs who signed the Scottish Claim of Right stating that they would put the interests of Scotland first and foremost in everything they did. Brown’s calculation is that Scotland is best served if it has its own parliament and with it the astonishing degree of self-rule within the Union he and his Scottish colleagues achieved for his country while keeping their power to legislate for England in every single one of England’s internal affairs. It is the gross unfairness of the power of Scottish MPs like Brown to legislate on England’s internal affairs that blocks the possibility of England having its own parliament. Well, what’s ok for Scotland is also ok for England. And what everyone expects for their own people we can rightly expect for ours.
In spite of having their own Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, Scottish and Welsh MPs still attend the Westminster Parliament as of right and vote on all matters coming before the House, even on those which concern only English affairs, such as health and education provision in England and English transport matters etc. However, English MPs are not entitled to vote on any matters internal to Scotland or Wales or NI. Furthermore, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer just to mention two in the British Parliament, are Scots representing Scottish constituencies. The whole situation is now grossly unfair and discriminatory.
Constitutionally and politically England does not exist.
Constitutionally there are four sorts of people in the United Kingdom. There are those who are Scottish and British, those who are Welsh and British, those who are Northern Irish and British and those who are just British. No prizes for guessing who this last group is. Constitutionally and politically the English just do not exist, while the Scots, the Northern Irish and the Welsh do. Now do you see why England must have its own Parliament? England and the people of England are non-entities as far as the British state is concerned. The English should get the same national recognition.
England doesn’t need such bureaucracies as regional assemblies to reflect its diversity. It has been unified in its diversity and diverse in its unity for 1500 years. It has its counties and its great cities. It has its own six ancient geographical regions rooted in the language, familiar to all English men and women: the North of England, East Anglia, the Midlands, London and the Home Counties, the South and the West Country. And how strange that this was only being said about England. The UK Government, and the Scottish ministers in it, and the Scottish MPs and MSPs have never said it about Scotland. Scotland is far more diverse politically, economically and culturally than England. The Western Isles and the Highlands are Celtic in language and culture, quite distinct from the Anglo-Saxon regions of the Central Belt and the Lowlands. Edinburgh is much closer in every form of culture to London and Manchester than it is to Argyll, Skye or Lewis. Orkney and Shetland are Norse in their history and culture, not Scottish at all. Yet a single Scottish Parliament is seen fit to preside over all this diversity which comprises Scotland. No one suggests that Scotland should be balkanised into regions. Why just England? England is the oldest unified nation in the whole of Europe, its unity and self of identity has been the source of its amazing cultural, political, economic and scientific contribution to both European and world civilisation, admired and acknowledged everywhere. One wonders why members of the Union government would even contemplate its balkanisation into ‘regions’ which have no roots whatsoever in its history or in the sense of identity the English people have always had of themselves. When Mr Blair, who was born and educated in Scotland, gave his reasons for a Scottish Parliament in 1998 in his Preface to the Scottish Devolution White Paper, he wrote: ‘Scotland is a proud historic nation’. So is England. Very much so. Regrettably –and curiously- he never made that statement about England. England is indeed a proud historic nation, distinct from the rest, and should therefore for that reason have its own parliament.
England is a most beautiful country, a green and pleasant land, loved intensely by its people, its poets, its artists and its writers. But for too long the Union Kingdom government has regarded and treated England as nothing more than a trading estate, a shopping mall. an employment park. The English countryside is shrinking rapidly, and much of it could disappear within 80 years unless there are curbs on new developments. Alarm over the loss of undisturbed areas of the landscape is being raised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Almost 50 per cent of England is now disturbed by roads, industrial developments, out-of-town retail and business parks and new housing estates. Motorways and roads, power stations, airports, railway lines, power lines, wind farms, mines, and quarries have adversely affected the countryside. According to the CPRE, only 26 per cent of England’s land area had been disturbed by urban intrusion before the 1960s. This grew to 41 per cent by the early 1990s, and this year to almost 50 per cent, 25,614 square miles; and the calculation of the incursion would be even greater if the impact of aircraft noise were taken into account. The Union Government in recent years has shown no concern for the English countryside, has never shown any understanding of the close relationship between environmental tranquillity and beauty on the one hand and the mental and cultural welfare of people on the other and has only ever regarded England as a business. Unless and until England is governed by its own people in their own parliament, who love it and feel for it as theirs, just as Scotland and Wales are, its destruction will get worse.
An NOP opinion poll in April 2002 showed that in England 47% wanted an English Parliament, whereas only 28% said they wanted Regional Assemblies (25% don’t knows). Tellingly, the strongest support came from the 15 to 24 age group and from women voters. On St. George's Day that year BBC Radio 2 invited listeners to ring in whether or not they supported an English Parliament. 94% (14,556 people) rang in with a Yes, a mere 6% (930 people) voted No.
The next decisive milestone was the referendum on regional assemblies in England’s North East two years later November 4th 2004. The Union government spent millions of pounds on propaganda and dispatched every Cabinet member to argue for the policy. It knew England was becoming more and more bitter at the way it had been completely left out of the devolution programme and at the huge immense advantages Scotland and Wales were getting from having their own parliaments and home rule, 80% of which was being paid for by the English taxpayer. But the government was completely opposed to England getting its own parliament, it was pushing the division of England into regions instead, each with their own assembly. The people of the North East rejected that proposal overwhelmingly by 78% to 22%. That was an historic moment in England’s history. The Union government’s attempt to abolish England and replace it with regions competing against each other had been stopped dead in its tracks.
Two more polls more than confirmed the trend. The ICM poll November 2006 recorded 68% in support of ‘England having its own parliament with similar powers to those of the Scottish Parliament’, and the BBC poll January 16th 2007, the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, found 61% of people in England supporting an English Parliament.
There is an extra factor which reveals the special significance of this degree of support and which cannot be ignored. It has been achieved without much more than a penny being spent in promotion of an English Parliament, without adverts being placed in newspapers, without a single Government minister or Shadow minister campaigning for it, indeed with the Government and all three main parties actively opposing it, without any celebrity being involved, with very few leaflets and brochures being distributed, let alone pushed through the letter boxes of households, without any publicity on English TV and radio and in newspapers. It has been achieved despite the public opposition of all three major political parties, all backing alternatives if anything at all, and despite the opposition of the BBC, which is hostile to any political recognition of England qua England. The BBC operates a BBC Scotland, a BBC Wales, a BBC Northern Ireland and a British Asian Network but despite all our requests adamantly refuses to have a BBC England. When pressed by us for its reason it stated that ‘England is too big’ which of course is nonsense. There is a BBC World Service. The prejudice against England within the British cultural and political Establishment runs very deep indeed.
A union between partners is always stronger when each one is treated equally and fairly. At present the English are showing more and more resentment at the financial and political injustice they are suffering from the UK government. A glance at the website page "England Disadvantaged' illustrates it pretty adequately. It is this resentment that might prove to be the greatest threat to the Union. After all, economically, financially, politically and culturally England does not need union with Scotland or Wales or Northern Ireland. England in fact subsidises them. It provides them with a huge job market. The fact is, it is in the best interests of the Union that the UK government acts quickly to restore fairness and justice within the United Kingdom and gives to England what it has so happily given to Scotland. The fact is that Scotland, undoubtedly because of the positions held by Scottish MPs in the Labour government since 1997 to the present day, has received a degree of self-rule and advantage much greater than that received by Wales and Northern Ireland, while of course England has received none at all. Nothing threatens the continuation of the Union more than unfairness like that. The Union will only survive if each partaking nation stands in the same relationship to the Union government and to each other. Nothing destroys a union more than unfairness.
At present there is no relationship at all between England and the EU. There is however between the UK and the EU, between Scotland and the EU, between Wales and the EU and between Northern Ireland and the EU. All four are represented in different ways at the EU. All four are recognised officially by the EU. The EU however, does not recognise England at all. The EU, which showed Scotland, Wales and the UK on its map of Europe, did not show England on it at all but nine EU ‘regions’ instead. Only when pressed by members of the CEP with letter after letter did the EU map-makers change their map and put England on it.
In the event that England gets its own parliament, the relationship between it and the EU will then be the same as that between Scotland and the EU. That relationship is to have official recognition within the EU, to have an office in the EU, to be able to make representation on behalf of the people of England as distinct from the rest of the UK and to receive and distribute EU subsidies and grants pertaining to England directly exactly as Scotland does. England qua England, after all, is and will remain with France and Germany one of the three biggest contributors to the EU budget.
The Campaign for an English Parliament is a single-issue political campaign. We have members from all major political parties and none. Our members are pro-EU and anti-EU, pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy, for absolute free-trade and for regulated markets. We do not tolerate extremist views or illegal activity, but otherwise if you agree that there should be a parliament for England, please join the CEP now.
What’s more, it is fascinating to think a moment about the people in the United Kingdom Parliament who oppose England having its own parliament. Let’s just take one such person. Gordon Brown. He was the keenest supporter going for Scotland having its own parliament, he was the engine behind the Scottish Constitutional Convention which formulated all the legislation which in 1998 got Scotland its parliament, he was one of the many Scottish MPs and MEPs who signed the Scottish Claim of Right stating that they would put the interests of Scotland first and foremost in everything they did. Brown’s calculation is that Scotland is best served if it has its own parliament and with it the astonishing degree of self-rule within the Union he and his Scottish colleagues achieved for his country while keeping their power to legislate for England in every single one of England’s internal affairs. It is the gross unfairness of the power of Scottish MPs like Brown to legislate on England’s internal affairs that blocks the possibility of England having its own parliament. Well, what’s ok for Scotland is also ok for England. And what everyone expects for their own people we can rightly expect for ours.
In spite of having their own Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, Scottish and Welsh MPs still attend the Westminster Parliament as of right and vote on all matters coming before the House, even on those which concern only English affairs, such as health and education provision in England and English transport matters etc. However, English MPs are not entitled to vote on any matters internal to Scotland or Wales or NI. Furthermore, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer just to mention two in the British Parliament, are Scots representing Scottish constituencies. The whole situation is now grossly unfair and discriminatory.
Constitutionally and politically England does not exist.
Constitutionally there are four sorts of people in the United Kingdom. There are those who are Scottish and British, those who are Welsh and British, those who are Northern Irish and British and those who are just British. No prizes for guessing who this last group is. Constitutionally and politically the English just do not exist, while the Scots, the Northern Irish and the Welsh do. Now do you see why England must have its own Parliament? England and the people of England are non-entities as far as the British state is concerned. The English should get the same national recognition.
England doesn’t need such bureaucracies as regional assemblies to reflect its diversity. It has been unified in its diversity and diverse in its unity for 1500 years. It has its counties and its great cities. It has its own six ancient geographical regions rooted in the language, familiar to all English men and women: the North of England, East Anglia, the Midlands, London and the Home Counties, the South and the West Country. And how strange that this was only being said about England. The UK Government, and the Scottish ministers in it, and the Scottish MPs and MSPs have never said it about Scotland. Scotland is far more diverse politically, economically and culturally than England. The Western Isles and the Highlands are Celtic in language and culture, quite distinct from the Anglo-Saxon regions of the Central Belt and the Lowlands. Edinburgh is much closer in every form of culture to London and Manchester than it is to Argyll, Skye or Lewis. Orkney and Shetland are Norse in their history and culture, not Scottish at all. Yet a single Scottish Parliament is seen fit to preside over all this diversity which comprises Scotland. No one suggests that Scotland should be balkanised into regions. Why just England? England is the oldest unified nation in the whole of Europe, its unity and self of identity has been the source of its amazing cultural, political, economic and scientific contribution to both European and world civilisation, admired and acknowledged everywhere. One wonders why members of the Union government would even contemplate its balkanisation into ‘regions’ which have no roots whatsoever in its history or in the sense of identity the English people have always had of themselves. When Mr Blair, who was born and educated in Scotland, gave his reasons for a Scottish Parliament in 1998 in his Preface to the Scottish Devolution White Paper, he wrote: ‘Scotland is a proud historic nation’. So is England. Very much so. Regrettably –and curiously- he never made that statement about England. England is indeed a proud historic nation, distinct from the rest, and should therefore for that reason have its own parliament.
England is a most beautiful country, a green and pleasant land, loved intensely by its people, its poets, its artists and its writers. But for too long the Union Kingdom government has regarded and treated England as nothing more than a trading estate, a shopping mall. an employment park. The English countryside is shrinking rapidly, and much of it could disappear within 80 years unless there are curbs on new developments. Alarm over the loss of undisturbed areas of the landscape is being raised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Almost 50 per cent of England is now disturbed by roads, industrial developments, out-of-town retail and business parks and new housing estates. Motorways and roads, power stations, airports, railway lines, power lines, wind farms, mines, and quarries have adversely affected the countryside. According to the CPRE, only 26 per cent of England’s land area had been disturbed by urban intrusion before the 1960s. This grew to 41 per cent by the early 1990s, and this year to almost 50 per cent, 25,614 square miles; and the calculation of the incursion would be even greater if the impact of aircraft noise were taken into account. The Union Government in recent years has shown no concern for the English countryside, has never shown any understanding of the close relationship between environmental tranquillity and beauty on the one hand and the mental and cultural welfare of people on the other and has only ever regarded England as a business. Unless and until England is governed by its own people in their own parliament, who love it and feel for it as theirs, just as Scotland and Wales are, its destruction will get worse.
An NOP opinion poll in April 2002 showed that in England 47% wanted an English Parliament, whereas only 28% said they wanted Regional Assemblies (25% don’t knows). Tellingly, the strongest support came from the 15 to 24 age group and from women voters. On St. George's Day that year BBC Radio 2 invited listeners to ring in whether or not they supported an English Parliament. 94% (14,556 people) rang in with a Yes, a mere 6% (930 people) voted No.
The next decisive milestone was the referendum on regional assemblies in England’s North East two years later November 4th 2004. The Union government spent millions of pounds on propaganda and dispatched every Cabinet member to argue for the policy. It knew England was becoming more and more bitter at the way it had been completely left out of the devolution programme and at the huge immense advantages Scotland and Wales were getting from having their own parliaments and home rule, 80% of which was being paid for by the English taxpayer. But the government was completely opposed to England getting its own parliament, it was pushing the division of England into regions instead, each with their own assembly. The people of the North East rejected that proposal overwhelmingly by 78% to 22%. That was an historic moment in England’s history. The Union government’s attempt to abolish England and replace it with regions competing against each other had been stopped dead in its tracks.
Two more polls more than confirmed the trend. The ICM poll November 2006 recorded 68% in support of ‘England having its own parliament with similar powers to those of the Scottish Parliament’, and the BBC poll January 16th 2007, the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union, found 61% of people in England supporting an English Parliament.
There is an extra factor which reveals the special significance of this degree of support and which cannot be ignored. It has been achieved without much more than a penny being spent in promotion of an English Parliament, without adverts being placed in newspapers, without a single Government minister or Shadow minister campaigning for it, indeed with the Government and all three main parties actively opposing it, without any celebrity being involved, with very few leaflets and brochures being distributed, let alone pushed through the letter boxes of households, without any publicity on English TV and radio and in newspapers. It has been achieved despite the public opposition of all three major political parties, all backing alternatives if anything at all, and despite the opposition of the BBC, which is hostile to any political recognition of England qua England. The BBC operates a BBC Scotland, a BBC Wales, a BBC Northern Ireland and a British Asian Network but despite all our requests adamantly refuses to have a BBC England. When pressed by us for its reason it stated that ‘England is too big’ which of course is nonsense. There is a BBC World Service. The prejudice against England within the British cultural and political Establishment runs very deep indeed.
A union between partners is always stronger when each one is treated equally and fairly. At present the English are showing more and more resentment at the financial and political injustice they are suffering from the UK government. A glance at the website page "England Disadvantaged' illustrates it pretty adequately. It is this resentment that might prove to be the greatest threat to the Union. After all, economically, financially, politically and culturally England does not need union with Scotland or Wales or Northern Ireland. England in fact subsidises them. It provides them with a huge job market. The fact is, it is in the best interests of the Union that the UK government acts quickly to restore fairness and justice within the United Kingdom and gives to England what it has so happily given to Scotland. The fact is that Scotland, undoubtedly because of the positions held by Scottish MPs in the Labour government since 1997 to the present day, has received a degree of self-rule and advantage much greater than that received by Wales and Northern Ireland, while of course England has received none at all. Nothing threatens the continuation of the Union more than unfairness like that. The Union will only survive if each partaking nation stands in the same relationship to the Union government and to each other. Nothing destroys a union more than unfairness.
At present there is no relationship at all between England and the EU. There is however between the UK and the EU, between Scotland and the EU, between Wales and the EU and between Northern Ireland and the EU. All four are represented in different ways at the EU. All four are recognised officially by the EU. The EU however, does not recognise England at all. The EU, which showed Scotland, Wales and the UK on its map of Europe, did not show England on it at all but nine EU ‘regions’ instead. Only when pressed by members of the CEP with letter after letter did the EU map-makers change their map and put England on it.
In the event that England gets its own parliament, the relationship between it and the EU will then be the same as that between Scotland and the EU. That relationship is to have official recognition within the EU, to have an office in the EU, to be able to make representation on behalf of the people of England as distinct from the rest of the UK and to receive and distribute EU subsidies and grants pertaining to England directly exactly as Scotland does. England qua England, after all, is and will remain with France and Germany one of the three biggest contributors to the EU budget.
The Campaign for an English Parliament is a single-issue political campaign. We have members from all major political parties and none. Our members are pro-EU and anti-EU, pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy, for absolute free-trade and for regulated markets. We do not tolerate extremist views or illegal activity, but otherwise if you agree that there should be a parliament for England, please join the CEP now.
Where's England's Dave
The leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, has outlined his draft manifesto for this year's general election and knowing that elections are won and lost in England, has sensibly opted to base his election campaign on the English health service.
You would, however, be forgiven for thinking that the manifesto announced today applied to the whole of the UK as David Cameron failed to mention the country he was talking about once.
David Cameron's draft manifesto mentions "Britain" and "the UK" once, "our country" twice and "this country" three times despite the fact he was talking about England. The word England doesn't appear once in his manifesto.
This can mean one of two things: either David Cameron is trying to deliberately mislead voters into thinking that if they voted for the Conservatives he would be in charge of the NHS in the whole of the UK or he simply doesn't understand what he would and wouldn't be able to do as British Prime Minister. Whichever if these is the case, it really doesn't say a lot about his ability to govern the country.
The Campaign for an English Parliament is urging all voters in England to give their vote to the candidate that will give equal rights to English people. David Cameron can't even bring himself to mention our country, how can he be trusted to do what is right for by the 50 million English people who have been discriminated against for over a decade by this anti-English British government?
Stuart Parr
Campaign for an English Parliament
stuart.parr@thecep.org.uk
07973296118
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
You would, however, be forgiven for thinking that the manifesto announced today applied to the whole of the UK as David Cameron failed to mention the country he was talking about once.
David Cameron's draft manifesto mentions "Britain" and "the UK" once, "our country" twice and "this country" three times despite the fact he was talking about England. The word England doesn't appear once in his manifesto.
This can mean one of two things: either David Cameron is trying to deliberately mislead voters into thinking that if they voted for the Conservatives he would be in charge of the NHS in the whole of the UK or he simply doesn't understand what he would and wouldn't be able to do as British Prime Minister. Whichever if these is the case, it really doesn't say a lot about his ability to govern the country.
The Campaign for an English Parliament is urging all voters in England to give their vote to the candidate that will give equal rights to English people. David Cameron can't even bring himself to mention our country, how can he be trusted to do what is right for by the 50 million English people who have been discriminated against for over a decade by this anti-English British government?
Stuart Parr
Campaign for an English Parliament
stuart.parr@thecep.org.uk
07973296118
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
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