Campaign Update

                                           

We approach our campaigning with grim determination and have made considerable inroads into the British Establishment and with the referendum on Scottish independence coming up in September we need to keep the pressure on. Below is a summary of the achievements and events of the last year and hope that you will consider the CEP a worthwhile campaign to which to subscribe.

Our activities over the years have produced the following results:

·         Because of the oral and written evidence we gave the McKay Commission, the Commissioners went beyond their sole remit to propose a procedural device at Westminster. They further stated that only an ‘all-England’ solution is acceptable, agreed that England needed a voice, rejected regional assemblies or localism as English devolution and stated that the political parties must produce manifestos for England. In addition to calling for an English Parliament these were precisely the additional requirements that we made in our evidence.

·         Secondly all the articles now being written by correspondents, columnists and journalists about the Constitution not only draw heavily on the articles, leaflets, booklets and pamphlets that we have circulated and published but lift whole sentences and paragraphs from what we have been publishing over the years. The fact that they do not have the courtesy to acknowledge us is not down to any lack on our part.

·         Thirdly our Campaign Director, Eddie Bone, is now frequently invited on to the British broadcast media for his opinion on the current state of the constitution. He was interviewed alongside Plaid Cymru's Leanne Woods and the Ulster Unionist Mike Nesbit by Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News in January. This is clearly a step forward from when only the pop artist Billy Bragg was invited to comment on English matters.

Some events and activities that we have been involved in during the last year and anticipated:

We continually meet and lobby MPs. Consequently our third 'Future of England' event took place in the House of Lords last November.  Frank Field MP, Lord Maclennan, Frank Field MP, Professor Richard Wyn Jones and Eddie Bone, who had appeared on two BBC Politics programmes that day, spoke. Our annual open meeting, when we met members and discussed activities, was on the same day.  In January we demonstrated and leafletted in Portsmouth about the political decision to sacrifice jobs in the historic shipyards in favour of retaining those in Scotland and flew a banner inviting the Mayor, who described herself as Welsh and therefore not responsible for English affairs, to resign.  We have give written evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee inquiry on Scottish independence: constitutional implications for the rest of the UK.

Labour and Trades Union events we have attended are antagonistic to us and refer to ‘salami slicing’ England to divide and weaken us without the public noticing.  They intend to bribe city councils by expanding city regions but to keep this policy quiet until the next election manifesto is published.  At a London event on a UK Constitutional Convention it was clear that the speakers and organisers did not intend us in England to be treated as one nation. At a Conservative Party conference there was a debate on the UK, which comprised representatives from the devolved countries but none from England!  Currently UKIP have no policy on the governance of England although Nigel Farage has publicly supported the creation of an English Parliament and we had stalls and an oversubscribed fringe event at the September UKIP conference.

The Coalition parties appointed members of the McKay Commission whose title and remit excluded ‘England’ and addressed only the House of Commons viewpoint. The 5 man Commission was set up with a majority of members from the devolved nations and none to represent England. Their report, which redefined the West Lothian Question as the English Question, is insufficient for us. However, once we have some form of EVEOL, territorial classification of bills and English manifestos, the people of England are likely to press for further changes. Once England has a voice it will be impossible and very unwise to ignore it. Articles in the press, using the arguments we put forward ten years ago, illustrate why EVOEL will not work.  The next step is to prove that the only equitable and workable answer is an English Parliament.

We have kept our voice within the English question debate by issuing press releases constantly and writing to all political journalists and Universities’ political departments asking for a debate on the position of England in a devolved UK.  The Census, The Mckay commission, Think Tank and newspaper reports of the Coalition's attempts to answer the English Question have helped our issues move up the political agenda and gain academic acceptance.

Last year NC members have given numerous radio and TV interviews in England. Our campaign has been reported in Prospect magazine but, shamefully only with the imminence of the Scottish referendum have major British media been interested in our views.  The Huffington Post, a US news website, includes our articles but makes them difficult to find.  The editors of the New Statesman and Country Life are antagonistic to our campaign. Eddie Bone attended an academic conference in Cardiff on the effects of the Scottish referendum and was pleased with the response to our campaign.  He also attended a conference in Manchester about our changing Union and also Dundee University. 

The CEP battlewagon does turn heads, it gets a friendly honk or the thumbs up! It attends many events and gatherings. Would you like to organise a meeting near you for us to attend with it and a continuous PowerPoint presentation showing the effect devolution has had on England? To speak to the team please ring 0845 6346108 or email campaigns@thecep.org.uk.

We have a professional quality camera so we can make films and broadcast interviews; to date with Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru), Paul Salveson and Jim Hancock (campaigning for a 'Northern' Parliament) and CEP members' testimonials. We need donations to defray the cost of camera and sound equipment.  To raise some of the funds necessary to expand our campaign we have signed up to www.easyfundraising.org.uk.  When you buy online at participating stores, at the standard price, a proportion will be credited to our bank account.  Please register and use this way to help us to continue our campaign.  If every member could recruit one new member then our income would double! You could also  join the 100 club.  It costs just £10 annually to join and cash prizes (value depends on numbers of members) are drawn 5 times a year at every NC meeting, except the AGM. 

We cannot keep up this level of activity without the commitment of members so you see a regular contribution both personally and financially would be greatly appreciated.