Published Date: 13 August 2009 IN THE SHOREHAM HERALD
By Ian Hart
I THINK the phrase goes something like "a new broom sweeps clean", and I'm indebted to Ellis Rodda for bringing my attention to the following tale.
On his first morning as mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies cut his salary from £73,000 to £30,000, and on the same morning he closed the council's in-house newspaper for "peddling politics on the rates".
Mayor Davies is now pressing ahead with plans he hopes will see the number of town councillors cut from 63 to just 21, saving local taxpayers £800,000.
Mr Davies has said: "If 100 senators can run the United States of America; I can't see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster."
He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information Unit, saving another £200,000, citing both bodies as "all talk, no action".
The subject of twinning has also come under the microscope.
"Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning.
"We are twinned with probably nine other places around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council taxpayers' expense."
The mayor's chauffeur-driven car has been axed and the driver given another job within the local authority.
Mr Davies was elected in May, under the banner of the English Democrats, a party that wants tighter immigration curbs, an English parliament and a law requiring every public building to fly the flag of St George.
He has also promised to end council funding for Doncaster's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.
He says: "Politicians have got completely out of touch with what people want.
"We need to cut costs, I want to pass on some savings I make in reduced taxes and use the rest for things we really need, like improved children's services."
So the million dollar question, the view of a right wing homophobic northerner, or the voice of reason?
Or simply someone who has said enough is enough and got in a position to make changes?
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.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
WHY WE NEED AN ENGLISH PARLIAMENT
When Tony Blair’s government decided to take the initiative and head for Europe with the introduction of the Devolution Acts of 1998, there is no doubt that it did so because his government was dominated by Ministers elected from the Scottish and Welsh constituencies who saw European policies as the means of re-establishing their own countries separate political identities and nationhood.
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, quoted Eurosceptics when it was proposed that the United Kingdom should join Europe’s superstate.
The Scots agreed but the nation they were talking about was the Scottish Nation and its position within the Multi- Nation British State, and when they moved into their new law making Scottish Parliament that boasted control over their own domestic policies they rejoiced in gaining their first move towards Scottish independence. Land of our fathers sang the Welsh; a forum for the nation they cried when Devolution 1998 gave them an assembly which recognised Wales and their Welsh Nationhood, and they dance in the streets of Northern Ireland now that the people have found peace in the resurrection of their own parliament.
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT ‘DEVOLUTION 1998 WAS DECIDED ON NATIONHOOD’
We too have a right to govern ourselves, we too have an identity separate from a British identity, and we too have a right to a parliament that will recognise England and England’s Nationhood. Why should we be the only nation not gaining anything from devolution, the claims made by the other three nations of the United Kingdom can be echoed by our claims, what applies to Scotland and Wales equally applies to England, and it is unjust and unfair that the English Nation should remain the only one subjugated entirely to British rule.
Young people for more than a millennium have been making the ultimate sacrifice in defending England’s shores for the sake of freedom and democracy, and young people are still doing so today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ask the Scotsman what he is fighting for and he can say Scotland, ask the Welshman and the Irishman what they are fighting for and they can say Wales and Ireland, but what about the English what can we say, what are we fighting for. They tell us (the English) we are fighting for Britain and fighting to stop Islamic terrorists destroying our country, yet they are openly inviting and giving these people a free passage into England, giving them all our free health and welfare benefits, houses and jobs, and when we catch them the British are refusing to kick them out. How much longer are our English mothers going to continue to let their sons fight for this British double-cross, are the British worth fighting for, and how much longer can we and they go on supporting a British Government that recognises the sacrifices made by the Scotsman, the Welshman, and the Irishman, but denies the same to the Englishman?
At the recent Olympic Games they did it again; they recognised the Scottish, Welsh and Irish medal winners with separate celebrations, while ours went unrecognised and were claimed by the British, and every government form or document denies an English identity.
Since Labours Devolution Acts of 1998 England our homeland is no longer our own, our nationality is not recognised, our country no longer has any political or constitutional existence, our culture is being denied us and our language is being infiltrated by that of every other nation on the globe. While our English soldiers fight for British interests abroad the British are trying their hardest to destroy the nation they identify with at home.
Compare this to the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales who now have a parliament and the responsibility for their own nation’s ‘Education and Training’ programs, and consider British lies when they say it is us the English not them who are trying to break up the Union and its British identity.
The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly is the political and constitutional recognition of their Scottish and Welsh National Identities.
Through the school curriculum all children in Scotland and Wales are now being reared and educated to have strong Scottish and Welsh identities and knowledge of their Scottish and Welsh history and heritage; the Welsh language is now being taught in their schools. (Britishness is only being taught in English schools)
Similar ‘Sports and Art’ programs backed up by a BBC TV Scotland and a BBC TV Wales and their own tourist boards are promoting their distinct Scottish and Welsh cultures, (There is no BBC England or English tourist board) and the Scots have honoured their St. Andrew by giving their nation a day’s holiday. (No St. George’s holiday for England)
Scottish culture is being promoted also through education and training courses that encourage students into university by not asking them to pay ‘Top up Fees’ of £3000 + a year like the British ask of the English, and their part time students earning less than £18,000 are getting a £500 grant towards their £800 a year course fees as Scotland moves from a system of loans to
grants. (English students get nothing)
The devolved nations are also allowed to promote their own separate identities through labelling, especially food items, a lot of which now promote Scotland and Wales by supporting their national flags, controversially in England the ‘Dairy Crest’ company last year re-branded their ‘English Country Life’ butter’ as ‘British Country Life’ butter amid a fanfare of adverts featuring Jonny Rotten taking the mickey out of us English. The French have a big stake in Dairy Crest, and last year 2008 when they bought the butter brand outright they did the name change with British approval. Recently we have been told that the England football Team will be re-branded with the British identity ‘Team GB’ in 2012 in time for the Olympics.
Never mind the ‘West Lothian Question’ or the ‘English Question’ which question the right of the British to rule only on England’s Domestic policies, the British have now set up their own quango type government to do it.
England is now being governed by MPs elected from Scottish constituencies which include the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and an assortment of seven peers from the House of Lords, not one of them is answerable to the English electorate and 7 of them can’t even be questioned in the House of Commons. If it wasn’t so serious the whole thing could be seen as a joke?
Why should England be the only country made to suffer the consequences of being ruled by these proven British untrustworthy, lying, cheating, corrupt fraudsters, so called Honourable MPs who despise us and treat us with contempt?
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q1) The Westminster Parliament has 529 MPs elected from England’s constituencies; don’t you think England has enough representation?
A1) MPs elected to the Westminster Parliament are British MPs not English MPs and they owe their loyalty to the British State as a whole not to the individual nations within it. MPs elected to national parliaments however like Scotland and Wales are full of members who owe their loyalty to their own nation; a nation’s interest often conflicts with that of the State.
Q2) Do we really need any more MPs surely we have got enough already?
A2) Regardless of cost England needs its own parliament in order to establish constitutionally and politically its identity and nationhood. British MPs elected from English constituencies have failed and are failing to put the interests of the people of England first, and instead are supporting the British political interests of their party.
With England controlling its own Domestic Policies on par with Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland the role of the British Parliament would be significantly changed along with its workload; there would be no need for any significant increase in MP numbers if the number of MPs to an English Parliament could be matched by a similar reduction in the number of British MPs representing England in the UK Parliament.
Q3) Will the English Parliament need to be a separate parliament or could it be a parliament within a parliament made up from existing members of the British UK Parliament?
A3) An English Parliament must be a completely separately elected parliament with its own separately elected EMPs, a national parliament, a parliament elected solely to represent the interests of the people of England like that given to our other home nations. Suggestions by all the main British political Parties that England’s Domestic Policies and interests are best served only if they are looked after by British MPs in the UK Parliament does not hold credence, if that were true it would be true also for Scottish, Welsh and N. Irish Domestic Policies and interests and there would have been no need for devolution, which clearly it wasn’t. British MPs owe their loyalty to the UK British State, and what they are asking us to believe is that this British loyalty can be switched on and off according to what time of the day or what day of the week it is instantly an English Bill arises in the UK Parliament. Try telling that to a Manchester United supporter at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon when they haven’t got a game, and ask them to switch their support to Liverpool who have.
Q (4) It is said that if England was given its own Parliament the United Kingdom would have to look at becoming a Federal State, and that being the case, the sheer geographical size of England being 4/5 of the UK’s land mass and the size of its population would make England dominant and make a federal UK unstable and lead to its break up.
A(4) While the British believe an English Parliament would see the end of the Union, the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) believes it is vital to saving the Union. The specific point on England’s dominance and size making a federal UK unstable should be seen as a red herring along with the one about millions of pounds being needed for extra MPs if England gets an EP, and can be demonstrably exposed as nonsense by referring to the examples of the USA, Canada, and India. There are 60 Californians to every Alaskan, 70 bodies in Ontario for every person in Prince Edward Island, and 111 inhabitants of Utter Pradesh for every person in Goa. In fact, England has dominated the Union for 300 years and devolving power to England would not increase its ability to dominate the Union but would have the opposite effect and reduce it; England would now only be in charge of looking after its own domestic policies and could not interfere with those of the other nations, who could not interfere in England’s or in each others.
Q5) Would a new building be required for the English Parliament and if so where would it be sited?
A5) Moving at least one of the parliaments the British or the English to central or northern England would bring about the biggest transfer of employment, political, cultural and media power and activity, in all of England’s history. Such a decision would not harm the capital, as such an event would save London and the South East from self destructing due to its success, but that decision would have to be decided by present MPs and the constitutional committee, or through a British Convention.
Q6) The present policy regarding England’s devolution from all the main political parties centres around some type of Regionalism in preference to giving England a parliament, what are your views on these regional policies?
A6) For all their supposed good intensions it is a fundamental weakness of the regionalists’ argument that they seek to deny national government and constitutional recognition of nationhood to the people of England. It is one thing to argue for regionalism, but to argue that the nation of England should be denied national government because of it is quite another. An English Parliament would be able to take over the work performed by the regions in the EU, providing England with a stronger unified voice and force than the individual regions in applying for EU structural funds, currently the English regions apply separately for funds and are therefore in direct competition with one another. With London and the South East undoubtedly able to shout the loudest the poorer regions such as those in the North are in danger of losing out; an English Parliament would therefore not only be a stronger lobbying force in the UK and the EU but it would be better placed to distribute the funds more evenly across England.
Q7) How would an English Parliament effect England’s immigrant population?
A7) An English Parliament would do for England’s immigrants what it has done for Scottish and Welsh immigrants; in the first place it would allow all immigrants living in England with a British qualification to identity themselves with England the country in which they live and the indigenous English people they live with, like it has done in Scotland and Wales. The very essence of identifying themselves with the identity of our country would unite England’s people under one banner and an English Parliament would be the centre of gravity around which we could all work together in carving out a new English identity.
Q8) Alun Michael a Welsh MP said in a recent TV interview that if there was a First Minister for England he/she would be more important and have more power than the British Prime Minister?
A8) This is another British redherring; England's First Minister would only have the powers invested in him by the British Constitution and what Alun is inferring is that a state governor in the USA has more powers and is more important than the USA President which is rediclous.
Under the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Parliament can make primary and secondary legislation in
Areas not reserved to Westminster or protected from modification
‘Devolved’ responsibilities now controlled by the Scottish Parliament
* Health * Local Government * Social Work
* Education and Training * Housing * Planning
* Tourism * Economic development and financial assistance to industry
* Some aspects of transport, inc. the Scottish road network, bus policy and ports and harbours
* Law and home affairs, inc. most aspects of criminal and civil law, the prosecution system and the courts
* The Police and Fire Services * Natural and Built Heritage * Sports and the Arts
* The Environment * Agriculture, forestry and Fishing
* Statistics, public registers and records
Other Advantages
* MPs in their own parliament and separate MPs of their own at Westminster
* A Secretary of State in the Cabinet
* A Grand Committee made up of all of their MPs
* Their own Select Committee at Westminster to deal with their own affairs
* They can speak up for their own nations in Europe and help shape UK- EU policy
* Have the benefit of Statutory Instruments (UK laws) to be studied by their own institution
* The Scottish and Welsh Development agencies deal direct with their own executives so can tailor things on a national rather than a regional basis
* Although the devolved nations MPs at Westminster have had their workload drastically reduced they have had no pay cut (99% of constituent’s problems now being dealt with by their own parliamentary MSPs)
UK Parliament controlled ‘Reserved Responsibilities’
* The Constitution * Defence and national security * Fiscal, economic and monetary system
* Trade and Industry, including competition and customer protection
* Transport (not particular to Scotland) including railways, transport safety and regulation
* Social Security * Employment * Equal opportunities
* Medical ethics: abortion; human fertilisation and embryology; genetics; xenotransplantation and vivi section
* Broadcasting * the Civil Service * Immigration and Nationality
* Foreign Affairs * Energy: electricity, coal, gas,nuclear energy
Looking at the list opposite of the powers devolved to the national parliaments of Scotland and Wales you soon realise that England does not have National power over anything; all English powers are in the hands of the British, so let’s take a look and compare the health services. While Scotland and Wales have a true NHS and can control their own policies across all of their country England can not, instead England is heading in the direction of privatisation by being subjected to a Health Service run by a British based regionalism system of Primary Care Trusts and Foundation Hospitals, forced onto it by British MPs elected from Scottish and Welsh constituencies who denied forcing it onto their own nations. Half of our hospitals are already out of Ministerial control and it is said all will be by 2012. When the call went out for a massive clean up of English hospitals because of the MRSA outbreaks recently it was pointed out that it is against the law for an elected government or the Dept of Health on behalf of that government to tell Foundation Hospitals what to do, as long as they are financially viable.
National governments like Foundation hospitals above have been given huge sums of tax payer’s money by the British to conduct their own affairs without British interference which has allowed them to adopt differing policies and priorities. Foundation Hospitals are run like businesses and are free to use the market as they see fit in order to hit their targets and remain financially viable, this is seeing huge differences of care across England as each hospital decides its own policy, we are even seeing some of these hospitals paying for and building their own hospitals in other countries, outside of the EU too.
The NHS of Scotland and Wales provides equality of care for all their people regardless of what part of their country people live in, and their hospitals do not have the same restraints put on them as they are all under ministerial control and subsidised by the English tax payer. Besides receiving a huge grant from the British Government to run their own affairs, National Parliaments also get additional payments every year made to them through a formula called Barnet which is based on England’s expenditure, in Scotland’s case alone this formula lets the British give Scotland an extra £12 billion per year more than they give us in England.
National Parliaments first priority is to the nation they serve and not to the British State which they are part of, and this can be seen when we look at their national achievements.
Free Prescription charges
Free Eye Tests
Free Dental Check Ups and reduced charges
Free personal Care in Residential Homes - even if they cross the border into England
Free School Milk - Better school meals being provided by doubling England’s subsidy
Seriously ill patients are able to receive drugs that are denied to English patients even if they are a patient in an English hospital
Trainee nurses kept on an extra year after qualification so that they have the necessary experience to get jobs in the private sector should there be no jobs in NHS
No Hospital Car Parking Charges
No Wheel Clamping allowed anywhere in the country
Their own Students in Universities have fees waived until they are earning over £25,000 per year and no top up fees are paid. (English Students pay £3000/year + in top up fees and leave with debts of £20,000)
Council Tax frozen 2008 and 2009 and has only risen 40% since 1997 (England’s council tax has risen 100% over the same period and increases every year)
Every young person between the ages of 20 and 25 living in England should be aware that their lives are not as important to the British establishment as those lives of the young people of Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, as Jade Goody found out to her cost. In England you do not get invited for a cervical smear test until you are 25, by then it is too late for any girl unfortunate enough to get it at a younger age as Jade did; in Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland they are allowed to test their young at 20 and also every youngster taking part in sport over 16 years of age in Scotland will also be offered screening for cardiac abnormalities, the cause of sudden death syndrome.
Continuing on the list we can see that the British recognised nations have responsibility for their own housing, planning, and environmental policies, the British can’t force the ECO Towns on Scotland or Wales, or force the extension of airports which they are able to force onto us. Then there is Agriculture and Fisheries, national governments make sure their farmers get their subsidies on time while the British keep English farmers waiting, and the Scottish Fisheries Dept has already made a cut in English fishing quotas along the East Coast. The list goes on, and in every dept the nations are able to protect their people from the sufferance of seeing their domestic policies being decided by the corrupt incompetent fraudsters in the UK British Parliament; from ID Cards, to Road Pricing to bin collections, the national parliaments decide themselves what is best for their people and do not have to accept the wishes of the British Government, and invariably do not.
The British do not wish to recognise England and Englishness because it gives them a problem with their identity, so they are trying to solve it by supplanting the name Britain for England and forcing an invented indigenous British multi-cultural identity on our nation.
The West Lothian Question
Why should MPs elected by the countries of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into the British UK Parliament be allowed to debate and vote on policies that only apply to England, when British MPs elected by England to the UK Parliament can not debate and vote on policies that only apply to their countries.
The reason they can’t is because these countries have their own parliaments and another set of MPs deciding their policies.
The result of their interference in English legislation has already resulted in England being forced down the road of NHS privatisation with Foundation Hospitals, and also forced our University students to pay Top Up fees, and most recently influenced the stopping of trials by Jury for certain offences.
The English Question
Who rules England – Why should British MPs elected in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland be allowed to be head of English only departments deciding English Domestic Policies when they can not force those same policies onto their own nations that elected them, and one as even made himself Prime Minister.
-----------------------------------------------
We must not forget that our troubles began in 1997 when a gang of Scottish conspirators and Europhiles (Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the disgraced speaker Michael Martin amongst them) who had signed an oath in 1989 vowing to put the interests of Scotland before that of every other nation (The Scottish Claim of Right) suddenly found themselves in control of a New British Labour Government. These British MPs elected by Scotland promoted themselves to all of the major ministerial posts in government and wasted little time in honouring that oath when in less than a year they complied with EU legislation and began the break up of the United Kingdom and headed for Scottish independence by bringing in the Devolution Acts of 1998.
It must also never be forgotten that although the Welsh and Irish British MPs spoke up for their countries nationhood, England’s elected British MPs elected to represent England failed to do so, and so England’s nationhood was not recognised.
From this day British MPs can not be trusted to put England’s interests before that of their party.
John Stanhope
West Midlands
tel - 01902 630110
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, quoted Eurosceptics when it was proposed that the United Kingdom should join Europe’s superstate.
The Scots agreed but the nation they were talking about was the Scottish Nation and its position within the Multi- Nation British State, and when they moved into their new law making Scottish Parliament that boasted control over their own domestic policies they rejoiced in gaining their first move towards Scottish independence. Land of our fathers sang the Welsh; a forum for the nation they cried when Devolution 1998 gave them an assembly which recognised Wales and their Welsh Nationhood, and they dance in the streets of Northern Ireland now that the people have found peace in the resurrection of their own parliament.
NO DOUBT ABOUT IT ‘DEVOLUTION 1998 WAS DECIDED ON NATIONHOOD’
We too have a right to govern ourselves, we too have an identity separate from a British identity, and we too have a right to a parliament that will recognise England and England’s Nationhood. Why should we be the only nation not gaining anything from devolution, the claims made by the other three nations of the United Kingdom can be echoed by our claims, what applies to Scotland and Wales equally applies to England, and it is unjust and unfair that the English Nation should remain the only one subjugated entirely to British rule.
Young people for more than a millennium have been making the ultimate sacrifice in defending England’s shores for the sake of freedom and democracy, and young people are still doing so today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ask the Scotsman what he is fighting for and he can say Scotland, ask the Welshman and the Irishman what they are fighting for and they can say Wales and Ireland, but what about the English what can we say, what are we fighting for. They tell us (the English) we are fighting for Britain and fighting to stop Islamic terrorists destroying our country, yet they are openly inviting and giving these people a free passage into England, giving them all our free health and welfare benefits, houses and jobs, and when we catch them the British are refusing to kick them out. How much longer are our English mothers going to continue to let their sons fight for this British double-cross, are the British worth fighting for, and how much longer can we and they go on supporting a British Government that recognises the sacrifices made by the Scotsman, the Welshman, and the Irishman, but denies the same to the Englishman?
At the recent Olympic Games they did it again; they recognised the Scottish, Welsh and Irish medal winners with separate celebrations, while ours went unrecognised and were claimed by the British, and every government form or document denies an English identity.
Since Labours Devolution Acts of 1998 England our homeland is no longer our own, our nationality is not recognised, our country no longer has any political or constitutional existence, our culture is being denied us and our language is being infiltrated by that of every other nation on the globe. While our English soldiers fight for British interests abroad the British are trying their hardest to destroy the nation they identify with at home.
Compare this to the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales who now have a parliament and the responsibility for their own nation’s ‘Education and Training’ programs, and consider British lies when they say it is us the English not them who are trying to break up the Union and its British identity.
The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly is the political and constitutional recognition of their Scottish and Welsh National Identities.
Through the school curriculum all children in Scotland and Wales are now being reared and educated to have strong Scottish and Welsh identities and knowledge of their Scottish and Welsh history and heritage; the Welsh language is now being taught in their schools. (Britishness is only being taught in English schools)
Similar ‘Sports and Art’ programs backed up by a BBC TV Scotland and a BBC TV Wales and their own tourist boards are promoting their distinct Scottish and Welsh cultures, (There is no BBC England or English tourist board) and the Scots have honoured their St. Andrew by giving their nation a day’s holiday. (No St. George’s holiday for England)
Scottish culture is being promoted also through education and training courses that encourage students into university by not asking them to pay ‘Top up Fees’ of £3000 + a year like the British ask of the English, and their part time students earning less than £18,000 are getting a £500 grant towards their £800 a year course fees as Scotland moves from a system of loans to
grants. (English students get nothing)
The devolved nations are also allowed to promote their own separate identities through labelling, especially food items, a lot of which now promote Scotland and Wales by supporting their national flags, controversially in England the ‘Dairy Crest’ company last year re-branded their ‘English Country Life’ butter’ as ‘British Country Life’ butter amid a fanfare of adverts featuring Jonny Rotten taking the mickey out of us English. The French have a big stake in Dairy Crest, and last year 2008 when they bought the butter brand outright they did the name change with British approval. Recently we have been told that the England football Team will be re-branded with the British identity ‘Team GB’ in 2012 in time for the Olympics.
Never mind the ‘West Lothian Question’ or the ‘English Question’ which question the right of the British to rule only on England’s Domestic policies, the British have now set up their own quango type government to do it.
England is now being governed by MPs elected from Scottish constituencies which include the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and an assortment of seven peers from the House of Lords, not one of them is answerable to the English electorate and 7 of them can’t even be questioned in the House of Commons. If it wasn’t so serious the whole thing could be seen as a joke?
Why should England be the only country made to suffer the consequences of being ruled by these proven British untrustworthy, lying, cheating, corrupt fraudsters, so called Honourable MPs who despise us and treat us with contempt?
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q1) The Westminster Parliament has 529 MPs elected from England’s constituencies; don’t you think England has enough representation?
A1) MPs elected to the Westminster Parliament are British MPs not English MPs and they owe their loyalty to the British State as a whole not to the individual nations within it. MPs elected to national parliaments however like Scotland and Wales are full of members who owe their loyalty to their own nation; a nation’s interest often conflicts with that of the State.
Q2) Do we really need any more MPs surely we have got enough already?
A2) Regardless of cost England needs its own parliament in order to establish constitutionally and politically its identity and nationhood. British MPs elected from English constituencies have failed and are failing to put the interests of the people of England first, and instead are supporting the British political interests of their party.
With England controlling its own Domestic Policies on par with Scotland, Wales, and N. Ireland the role of the British Parliament would be significantly changed along with its workload; there would be no need for any significant increase in MP numbers if the number of MPs to an English Parliament could be matched by a similar reduction in the number of British MPs representing England in the UK Parliament.
Q3) Will the English Parliament need to be a separate parliament or could it be a parliament within a parliament made up from existing members of the British UK Parliament?
A3) An English Parliament must be a completely separately elected parliament with its own separately elected EMPs, a national parliament, a parliament elected solely to represent the interests of the people of England like that given to our other home nations. Suggestions by all the main British political Parties that England’s Domestic Policies and interests are best served only if they are looked after by British MPs in the UK Parliament does not hold credence, if that were true it would be true also for Scottish, Welsh and N. Irish Domestic Policies and interests and there would have been no need for devolution, which clearly it wasn’t. British MPs owe their loyalty to the UK British State, and what they are asking us to believe is that this British loyalty can be switched on and off according to what time of the day or what day of the week it is instantly an English Bill arises in the UK Parliament. Try telling that to a Manchester United supporter at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon when they haven’t got a game, and ask them to switch their support to Liverpool who have.
Q (4) It is said that if England was given its own Parliament the United Kingdom would have to look at becoming a Federal State, and that being the case, the sheer geographical size of England being 4/5 of the UK’s land mass and the size of its population would make England dominant and make a federal UK unstable and lead to its break up.
A(4) While the British believe an English Parliament would see the end of the Union, the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) believes it is vital to saving the Union. The specific point on England’s dominance and size making a federal UK unstable should be seen as a red herring along with the one about millions of pounds being needed for extra MPs if England gets an EP, and can be demonstrably exposed as nonsense by referring to the examples of the USA, Canada, and India. There are 60 Californians to every Alaskan, 70 bodies in Ontario for every person in Prince Edward Island, and 111 inhabitants of Utter Pradesh for every person in Goa. In fact, England has dominated the Union for 300 years and devolving power to England would not increase its ability to dominate the Union but would have the opposite effect and reduce it; England would now only be in charge of looking after its own domestic policies and could not interfere with those of the other nations, who could not interfere in England’s or in each others.
Q5) Would a new building be required for the English Parliament and if so where would it be sited?
A5) Moving at least one of the parliaments the British or the English to central or northern England would bring about the biggest transfer of employment, political, cultural and media power and activity, in all of England’s history. Such a decision would not harm the capital, as such an event would save London and the South East from self destructing due to its success, but that decision would have to be decided by present MPs and the constitutional committee, or through a British Convention.
Q6) The present policy regarding England’s devolution from all the main political parties centres around some type of Regionalism in preference to giving England a parliament, what are your views on these regional policies?
A6) For all their supposed good intensions it is a fundamental weakness of the regionalists’ argument that they seek to deny national government and constitutional recognition of nationhood to the people of England. It is one thing to argue for regionalism, but to argue that the nation of England should be denied national government because of it is quite another. An English Parliament would be able to take over the work performed by the regions in the EU, providing England with a stronger unified voice and force than the individual regions in applying for EU structural funds, currently the English regions apply separately for funds and are therefore in direct competition with one another. With London and the South East undoubtedly able to shout the loudest the poorer regions such as those in the North are in danger of losing out; an English Parliament would therefore not only be a stronger lobbying force in the UK and the EU but it would be better placed to distribute the funds more evenly across England.
Q7) How would an English Parliament effect England’s immigrant population?
A7) An English Parliament would do for England’s immigrants what it has done for Scottish and Welsh immigrants; in the first place it would allow all immigrants living in England with a British qualification to identity themselves with England the country in which they live and the indigenous English people they live with, like it has done in Scotland and Wales. The very essence of identifying themselves with the identity of our country would unite England’s people under one banner and an English Parliament would be the centre of gravity around which we could all work together in carving out a new English identity.
Q8) Alun Michael a Welsh MP said in a recent TV interview that if there was a First Minister for England he/she would be more important and have more power than the British Prime Minister?
A8) This is another British redherring; England's First Minister would only have the powers invested in him by the British Constitution and what Alun is inferring is that a state governor in the USA has more powers and is more important than the USA President which is rediclous.
Under the Scotland Act 1998, the Scottish Parliament can make primary and secondary legislation in
Areas not reserved to Westminster or protected from modification
‘Devolved’ responsibilities now controlled by the Scottish Parliament
* Health * Local Government * Social Work
* Education and Training * Housing * Planning
* Tourism * Economic development and financial assistance to industry
* Some aspects of transport, inc. the Scottish road network, bus policy and ports and harbours
* Law and home affairs, inc. most aspects of criminal and civil law, the prosecution system and the courts
* The Police and Fire Services * Natural and Built Heritage * Sports and the Arts
* The Environment * Agriculture, forestry and Fishing
* Statistics, public registers and records
Other Advantages
* MPs in their own parliament and separate MPs of their own at Westminster
* A Secretary of State in the Cabinet
* A Grand Committee made up of all of their MPs
* Their own Select Committee at Westminster to deal with their own affairs
* They can speak up for their own nations in Europe and help shape UK- EU policy
* Have the benefit of Statutory Instruments (UK laws) to be studied by their own institution
* The Scottish and Welsh Development agencies deal direct with their own executives so can tailor things on a national rather than a regional basis
* Although the devolved nations MPs at Westminster have had their workload drastically reduced they have had no pay cut (99% of constituent’s problems now being dealt with by their own parliamentary MSPs)
UK Parliament controlled ‘Reserved Responsibilities’
* The Constitution * Defence and national security * Fiscal, economic and monetary system
* Trade and Industry, including competition and customer protection
* Transport (not particular to Scotland) including railways, transport safety and regulation
* Social Security * Employment * Equal opportunities
* Medical ethics: abortion; human fertilisation and embryology; genetics; xenotransplantation and vivi section
* Broadcasting * the Civil Service * Immigration and Nationality
* Foreign Affairs * Energy: electricity, coal, gas,nuclear energy
Looking at the list opposite of the powers devolved to the national parliaments of Scotland and Wales you soon realise that England does not have National power over anything; all English powers are in the hands of the British, so let’s take a look and compare the health services. While Scotland and Wales have a true NHS and can control their own policies across all of their country England can not, instead England is heading in the direction of privatisation by being subjected to a Health Service run by a British based regionalism system of Primary Care Trusts and Foundation Hospitals, forced onto it by British MPs elected from Scottish and Welsh constituencies who denied forcing it onto their own nations. Half of our hospitals are already out of Ministerial control and it is said all will be by 2012. When the call went out for a massive clean up of English hospitals because of the MRSA outbreaks recently it was pointed out that it is against the law for an elected government or the Dept of Health on behalf of that government to tell Foundation Hospitals what to do, as long as they are financially viable.
National governments like Foundation hospitals above have been given huge sums of tax payer’s money by the British to conduct their own affairs without British interference which has allowed them to adopt differing policies and priorities. Foundation Hospitals are run like businesses and are free to use the market as they see fit in order to hit their targets and remain financially viable, this is seeing huge differences of care across England as each hospital decides its own policy, we are even seeing some of these hospitals paying for and building their own hospitals in other countries, outside of the EU too.
The NHS of Scotland and Wales provides equality of care for all their people regardless of what part of their country people live in, and their hospitals do not have the same restraints put on them as they are all under ministerial control and subsidised by the English tax payer. Besides receiving a huge grant from the British Government to run their own affairs, National Parliaments also get additional payments every year made to them through a formula called Barnet which is based on England’s expenditure, in Scotland’s case alone this formula lets the British give Scotland an extra £12 billion per year more than they give us in England.
National Parliaments first priority is to the nation they serve and not to the British State which they are part of, and this can be seen when we look at their national achievements.
Free Prescription charges
Free Eye Tests
Free Dental Check Ups and reduced charges
Free personal Care in Residential Homes - even if they cross the border into England
Free School Milk - Better school meals being provided by doubling England’s subsidy
Seriously ill patients are able to receive drugs that are denied to English patients even if they are a patient in an English hospital
Trainee nurses kept on an extra year after qualification so that they have the necessary experience to get jobs in the private sector should there be no jobs in NHS
No Hospital Car Parking Charges
No Wheel Clamping allowed anywhere in the country
Their own Students in Universities have fees waived until they are earning over £25,000 per year and no top up fees are paid. (English Students pay £3000/year + in top up fees and leave with debts of £20,000)
Council Tax frozen 2008 and 2009 and has only risen 40% since 1997 (England’s council tax has risen 100% over the same period and increases every year)
Every young person between the ages of 20 and 25 living in England should be aware that their lives are not as important to the British establishment as those lives of the young people of Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, as Jade Goody found out to her cost. In England you do not get invited for a cervical smear test until you are 25, by then it is too late for any girl unfortunate enough to get it at a younger age as Jade did; in Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland they are allowed to test their young at 20 and also every youngster taking part in sport over 16 years of age in Scotland will also be offered screening for cardiac abnormalities, the cause of sudden death syndrome.
Continuing on the list we can see that the British recognised nations have responsibility for their own housing, planning, and environmental policies, the British can’t force the ECO Towns on Scotland or Wales, or force the extension of airports which they are able to force onto us. Then there is Agriculture and Fisheries, national governments make sure their farmers get their subsidies on time while the British keep English farmers waiting, and the Scottish Fisheries Dept has already made a cut in English fishing quotas along the East Coast. The list goes on, and in every dept the nations are able to protect their people from the sufferance of seeing their domestic policies being decided by the corrupt incompetent fraudsters in the UK British Parliament; from ID Cards, to Road Pricing to bin collections, the national parliaments decide themselves what is best for their people and do not have to accept the wishes of the British Government, and invariably do not.
The British do not wish to recognise England and Englishness because it gives them a problem with their identity, so they are trying to solve it by supplanting the name Britain for England and forcing an invented indigenous British multi-cultural identity on our nation.
The West Lothian Question
Why should MPs elected by the countries of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into the British UK Parliament be allowed to debate and vote on policies that only apply to England, when British MPs elected by England to the UK Parliament can not debate and vote on policies that only apply to their countries.
The reason they can’t is because these countries have their own parliaments and another set of MPs deciding their policies.
The result of their interference in English legislation has already resulted in England being forced down the road of NHS privatisation with Foundation Hospitals, and also forced our University students to pay Top Up fees, and most recently influenced the stopping of trials by Jury for certain offences.
The English Question
Who rules England – Why should British MPs elected in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland be allowed to be head of English only departments deciding English Domestic Policies when they can not force those same policies onto their own nations that elected them, and one as even made himself Prime Minister.
-----------------------------------------------
We must not forget that our troubles began in 1997 when a gang of Scottish conspirators and Europhiles (Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the disgraced speaker Michael Martin amongst them) who had signed an oath in 1989 vowing to put the interests of Scotland before that of every other nation (The Scottish Claim of Right) suddenly found themselves in control of a New British Labour Government. These British MPs elected by Scotland promoted themselves to all of the major ministerial posts in government and wasted little time in honouring that oath when in less than a year they complied with EU legislation and began the break up of the United Kingdom and headed for Scottish independence by bringing in the Devolution Acts of 1998.
It must also never be forgotten that although the Welsh and Irish British MPs spoke up for their countries nationhood, England’s elected British MPs elected to represent England failed to do so, and so England’s nationhood was not recognised.
From this day British MPs can not be trusted to put England’s interests before that of their party.
John Stanhope
West Midlands
tel - 01902 630110
Monday, 27 July 2009
Carved-up, stitched-up ... Labour's plan for England
WORTH RECALLING
Published: 10 May 2002
IT’S difficult to take seriously a promise of “joined-up” government from a man who can’t manage joined-up sentences.
By getting Two Jags to announce plans for regional assemblies in England, Blair obviously thought he was making us an offer we couldn’t understand.
Because, for all the nonsense about extending democracy and accountability, the new bureaucracies are not what they seem.
As I pointed out on Tuesday, they are specifically designed to break up England into administrative units in preparation for our absorption into a federal Europe.
The regional assemblies correspond exactly with a map drawn up by Brussels for the government of a fully integrated European Union.
Stage One was devolution in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
This is Stage Two.
Stage Three is the abolition of the English counties.
Stage Four is the abolition of England.
To draw parallels with what has happened in Scotland and Wales is deliberately misleading.
These were countries with their own cultures and own identities being handed back limited powers.
If Labour was sincere it would have established an English parliament at the same time.
But Labour hates England and the English. While pandering to Scottish nationalism, Welsh nationalism and blood-stained Irish nationalism, Labour has ruthlessly set about eradicating English identity and undermining our institutions and traditions.
The English are caricatured as a bunch of wicked, backward racists in speeches by ministers and supporting editorials in the fascist Left press.
Instead of bringing communities together, multi-culturalism has been used as battering ram to drive wedges between us.
null
Pledge ... Blunkett
When David Blunkett sensibly suggested making all immigrants learn to speak English and floated the idea of an American-style pledge of allegiance for new citizens he was howled down by the Guardianistas as if he had made the Nuremberg Address.
But then, Blunkett is a rare animal among Labour politicians in that he is prepared to challenge the orthodoxy.
Most of them are careerists prepared to go along with the whole agenda.
Top of that agenda is a policy of divide and rule intended to fragment widespread English resistance to the ultimate goal of full European integration and scrapping the Pound in favour of the euro.
Published: 10 May 2002
IT’S difficult to take seriously a promise of “joined-up” government from a man who can’t manage joined-up sentences.
By getting Two Jags to announce plans for regional assemblies in England, Blair obviously thought he was making us an offer we couldn’t understand.
Because, for all the nonsense about extending democracy and accountability, the new bureaucracies are not what they seem.
As I pointed out on Tuesday, they are specifically designed to break up England into administrative units in preparation for our absorption into a federal Europe.
The regional assemblies correspond exactly with a map drawn up by Brussels for the government of a fully integrated European Union.
Stage One was devolution in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
This is Stage Two.
Stage Three is the abolition of the English counties.
Stage Four is the abolition of England.
To draw parallels with what has happened in Scotland and Wales is deliberately misleading.
These were countries with their own cultures and own identities being handed back limited powers.
If Labour was sincere it would have established an English parliament at the same time.
But Labour hates England and the English. While pandering to Scottish nationalism, Welsh nationalism and blood-stained Irish nationalism, Labour has ruthlessly set about eradicating English identity and undermining our institutions and traditions.
The English are caricatured as a bunch of wicked, backward racists in speeches by ministers and supporting editorials in the fascist Left press.
Instead of bringing communities together, multi-culturalism has been used as battering ram to drive wedges between us.
null
Pledge ... Blunkett
When David Blunkett sensibly suggested making all immigrants learn to speak English and floated the idea of an American-style pledge of allegiance for new citizens he was howled down by the Guardianistas as if he had made the Nuremberg Address.
But then, Blunkett is a rare animal among Labour politicians in that he is prepared to challenge the orthodoxy.
Most of them are careerists prepared to go along with the whole agenda.
Top of that agenda is a policy of divide and rule intended to fragment widespread English resistance to the ultimate goal of full European integration and scrapping the Pound in favour of the euro.
Thursday, 2 July 2009
Devolution – The making of Scotland – The destruction of England
Under present European legislation all national governments are required to transfer power down from their own national central government to a lower level – usually the choice is between regional or local government.
This legislation is the basis of any nation’s acceptance of entry into the European Union and it is legislation that our British Government agreed to on behalf of the United Kingdom. (The British State)
While this has not generally been seen to be a major stumbling block for all other nation states across Europe, who already had some form of regional or provincial government, it is however a problem of seismatic proportions for the British here in the United Kingdom because the UK is a multi-nation state and it meant devolving power down to the nations within it, so entry was never certain and a cause of much debate.
In 1997 a gang of Scottish conspirators and Europhiles (Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the disgraced speaker Michael Martin amongst them) who had signed an oath in 1989 vowing to put the interests of Scotland before that of any other nation (The Scottish Claim of Right) suddenly found themselves in control of a New British Labour Government, and they then wasted no time in honouring that oath when in less than a year they had complied with the EU and brought in devolution legislation that gave their own Scottish Nation political recognition and control over its own domestic policies with a parliament. (Devolution Acts 1998)
Devolution has been good for Scotland is the cry 10 years on, how could it not have been when Scotland for all of those 10 years has had two governments working in its best interests, one of their own in Scotland and one in Westminster, and Scotland now commands 188 MPs and MSPs, a UK Prime Minister and a Chancellor of the Exchequer all putting their interests first, while we the people of England have no separate representation at all, and are having to watch as these Scottish conspirators steal England’s money, deny England and our nation its English identity, break our country apart, sell off our assets, and declare our country England a British European Nation state open to the world for colonisation.
Question - Why do the British say there is no English Nation?
Answer - If they admit to an English Nation the British do not exist
The EU devolution legislation has created two major problems for the British -
The Question of Sovereignty – The Question of Identity
The United Kingdom in its pre 1998 form as the British State could not meet the entry requirements of the European Union, yet the survival of the British and British sovereignty revolves around the continuing existence of a British State.
The United Kingdom had a choice, to devolve power and then fight for sovereignty from inside the EU or come out of the EU altogether, and the Scottish led New Labour Government of 1997 chose the first option, and proceeded to devolve power in a way that gave the most benefit to their own Scottish Nation. But their 1998 Devolution Act did give enough power to the other minor nations for them to establish their own separate political identities.
When it came to devolving power to England and the English Nation the British had a problem with their identity, if England became English they had nowhere to go? So they came to the conclusion that if they wanted to stay in the EU their best chance of survival was to supplant the name Britain for England and force onto England and the English Nation an indigenous British identity.
In this they are having varying degrees of success because they are controlling the media.
It has taken a long time for the English to realise this, but at last there appears to be major signs of an English revival, and the British know it. The English are seeing through the British futile attempts to disguise their demise under offers of English votes on English Matters and their new English pauses for English causes to answer the West Lothian and English Questions and the tide is turning against them.
David Cameron is not calling for a withdrawal from the EU or promising a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is agreed before a general election. Watch the British voters start jumping ship if the Irish say yes to Lisbon later in the year and it is realised that the Scots are freed from the power that the British are using to hold them in the Union,and watch the Tory lead decline as the English move to the parties that offer them recognition with a parliament when they realise they have been betrayed yet again.
The question then will become which of England’s main British political parties is going to gain the initiative and be the first to abandon the sinking British ship and return to England before being put out of existence by the rising English National parties like has happened in Scotland.
Was it and is it right that the reserved powers kept by the UK British Government from Scotland and Wales should have been and are being put in the hands of MPs whose constituencies are in Scotland and Wales while England has no separate parliament?
There is only one way to save the Union and that means pulling out of Europe
contact -
John Stanhope
01902 630110
This legislation is the basis of any nation’s acceptance of entry into the European Union and it is legislation that our British Government agreed to on behalf of the United Kingdom. (The British State)
While this has not generally been seen to be a major stumbling block for all other nation states across Europe, who already had some form of regional or provincial government, it is however a problem of seismatic proportions for the British here in the United Kingdom because the UK is a multi-nation state and it meant devolving power down to the nations within it, so entry was never certain and a cause of much debate.
In 1997 a gang of Scottish conspirators and Europhiles (Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the disgraced speaker Michael Martin amongst them) who had signed an oath in 1989 vowing to put the interests of Scotland before that of any other nation (The Scottish Claim of Right) suddenly found themselves in control of a New British Labour Government, and they then wasted no time in honouring that oath when in less than a year they had complied with the EU and brought in devolution legislation that gave their own Scottish Nation political recognition and control over its own domestic policies with a parliament. (Devolution Acts 1998)
Devolution has been good for Scotland is the cry 10 years on, how could it not have been when Scotland for all of those 10 years has had two governments working in its best interests, one of their own in Scotland and one in Westminster, and Scotland now commands 188 MPs and MSPs, a UK Prime Minister and a Chancellor of the Exchequer all putting their interests first, while we the people of England have no separate representation at all, and are having to watch as these Scottish conspirators steal England’s money, deny England and our nation its English identity, break our country apart, sell off our assets, and declare our country England a British European Nation state open to the world for colonisation.
Question - Why do the British say there is no English Nation?
Answer - If they admit to an English Nation the British do not exist
The EU devolution legislation has created two major problems for the British -
The Question of Sovereignty – The Question of Identity
The United Kingdom in its pre 1998 form as the British State could not meet the entry requirements of the European Union, yet the survival of the British and British sovereignty revolves around the continuing existence of a British State.
The United Kingdom had a choice, to devolve power and then fight for sovereignty from inside the EU or come out of the EU altogether, and the Scottish led New Labour Government of 1997 chose the first option, and proceeded to devolve power in a way that gave the most benefit to their own Scottish Nation. But their 1998 Devolution Act did give enough power to the other minor nations for them to establish their own separate political identities.
When it came to devolving power to England and the English Nation the British had a problem with their identity, if England became English they had nowhere to go? So they came to the conclusion that if they wanted to stay in the EU their best chance of survival was to supplant the name Britain for England and force onto England and the English Nation an indigenous British identity.
In this they are having varying degrees of success because they are controlling the media.
It has taken a long time for the English to realise this, but at last there appears to be major signs of an English revival, and the British know it. The English are seeing through the British futile attempts to disguise their demise under offers of English votes on English Matters and their new English pauses for English causes to answer the West Lothian and English Questions and the tide is turning against them.
David Cameron is not calling for a withdrawal from the EU or promising a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is agreed before a general election. Watch the British voters start jumping ship if the Irish say yes to Lisbon later in the year and it is realised that the Scots are freed from the power that the British are using to hold them in the Union,and watch the Tory lead decline as the English move to the parties that offer them recognition with a parliament when they realise they have been betrayed yet again.
The question then will become which of England’s main British political parties is going to gain the initiative and be the first to abandon the sinking British ship and return to England before being put out of existence by the rising English National parties like has happened in Scotland.
Was it and is it right that the reserved powers kept by the UK British Government from Scotland and Wales should have been and are being put in the hands of MPs whose constituencies are in Scotland and Wales while England has no separate parliament?
There is only one way to save the Union and that means pulling out of Europe
contact -
John Stanhope
01902 630110
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
GORDON BROWN’S ‘PROGRAMME FOR ‘BRITAIN’ DEFIES AND DENIES THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF THE ENGLISH NOTION OF DEMOCRACY.
English democracy is representative democracy. The people who make the laws that govern a country must represent the people they govern and be answerable to them. On that basic principle England’s Parliament was founded almost 800 years ago in 1253. Tha
t same principle lies at the heart of English Common Law and the jury system. When Scotland united with England with the Act of Union in 1707, it accepted the English way of democratic government.
‘But the ‘Programme for ‘Britain’ announced yesterday by Gordon Brown in England’s ancient House of Commons is nothing less than outright repudiation of England’s way of democracy’. That is the declaration of the Campaign for an English Parliament. The main proposals of the Programme cover housing, health and education. Not one of them will apply to Scotland because Scotland through its parliament is self-ruling in all matters of housing, health and education. In these three important areas of government Brown is proposing legislation for England only.
Yet Brown is MP for the Scottish constituency of Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire. He does not represent one inch of England’s territory and not one single English voter. And he is not answerable in any election to any English man or woman. He is the principal legislator for England, yet he does not represent England in any of these very important matters and he is not accountable to any English person.
What is more, when at next year’s General Election he stands for re-election in Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath, because he is not a member of the Scottish Parliament, he is not answerable even to his own electorate for any matter concerning housing, health and education. Our system of government has become twisted and deformed.
In terms of what is most basic to the very meaning of English democracy, to have an MP representing a Scottish constituency making legislation for England in matters on which he was not elected by and is not accountable to any electorate is not just wrong, it is politically and constitutionally perverse.
In the statement of the ‘Constitution Unit’ to the House of Commons Justice Committee in November 2007, what is ‘closest to a complete answer’ to this situation created by the nature of the 1998 devolution legislation ‘is an English Parliament?’
Contact:
Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit
Tel: 01260 271139 Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk
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.
t same principle lies at the heart of English Common Law and the jury system. When Scotland united with England with the Act of Union in 1707, it accepted the English way of democratic government.
‘But the ‘Programme for ‘Britain’ announced yesterday by Gordon Brown in England’s ancient House of Commons is nothing less than outright repudiation of England’s way of democracy’. That is the declaration of the Campaign for an English Parliament. The main proposals of the Programme cover housing, health and education. Not one of them will apply to Scotland because Scotland through its parliament is self-ruling in all matters of housing, health and education. In these three important areas of government Brown is proposing legislation for England only.
Yet Brown is MP for the Scottish constituency of Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire. He does not represent one inch of England’s territory and not one single English voter. And he is not answerable in any election to any English man or woman. He is the principal legislator for England, yet he does not represent England in any of these very important matters and he is not accountable to any English person.
What is more, when at next year’s General Election he stands for re-election in Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath, because he is not a member of the Scottish Parliament, he is not answerable even to his own electorate for any matter concerning housing, health and education. Our system of government has become twisted and deformed.
In terms of what is most basic to the very meaning of English democracy, to have an MP representing a Scottish constituency making legislation for England in matters on which he was not elected by and is not accountable to any electorate is not just wrong, it is politically and constitutionally perverse.
In the statement of the ‘Constitution Unit’ to the House of Commons Justice Committee in November 2007, what is ‘closest to a complete answer’ to this situation created by the nature of the 1998 devolution legislation ‘is an English Parliament?’
Contact:
Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit
Tel: 01260 271139 Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk
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.
Friday, 26 June 2009
The Campaign for an English Parliament welcomes the result of the Times Populus poll
A special Populus poll for The Times, to mark the tenth anniversary of the first elections to the Scottish Parliament indicated that in England and Wales 41 per cent support the idea of an English parliament.
However, Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP), addressing a meeting of CEP members, asked why people in Wales were consulted about whether they supported an English Parliament 'The people of England were never consulted whether they wanted an Assembly for Wales or a Parliament for Scotland. Surely it is the people of England, not the Welsh, who should to be consulted if they want an English Parliament?'
'And why,' Mrs Cullen queried further, 'were we not given the figures for England? Clearly if the Times had cared to separate out the figures for England in this matter, the percentage in England supporting an English Parliament was most likely to be higher and in line with other recent polls that return figures of between 60 and 70%.
'We hear ad nauseam,' she said, 'Establishment pundits and the British government telling us that there is “no demand” for an English Parliament, yet again and again when asked, the people of England do want parity with the other countries of Britain. In the three most recent opinion polls their support ranged from 61% to 68%. Clearly the demand in England is at least as high at that in the referendum for the Scottish Parliament, namely 44%, characterised by those same pundits as “the settled will of the Scottish people”, and much higher than the 25% of the Welsh electorate that voted for devolution, and what irony that the present government was elected by just 21.59% of the electorate.
'Nevertheless, the will of the people of England continues to be studiously ignored by the British Political Class. Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties have set their faces against an English Parliament. They see it as a threat to their power and their whole life-style. We hear that David Cameron has said he will treat the people of Scotland with respect if the Conservative Party is returned to power at the next general election. Will that respect be extended to the wishes of the people of England? The Conservatives tell us that the UK cannot afford an English Parliament. The CEP says that we cannot afford the dubious, excessive, immoral practices and expenses of the members of the British Parliament. An English Parliament will be the golden opportunity to bring in root and branch reform of the corrupt way in which the Union Parliament operates.'
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
No written constitution or any other major constitutional changes should be seriously discussed until the people of the United Kingdom have been given a chance by referendum to decide whether they want to stay in or come out of the European Union because that is fundamental to any decisions we have to make, and it effects the very existence of the nation state.
However, Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP), addressing a meeting of CEP members, asked why people in Wales were consulted about whether they supported an English Parliament 'The people of England were never consulted whether they wanted an Assembly for Wales or a Parliament for Scotland. Surely it is the people of England, not the Welsh, who should to be consulted if they want an English Parliament?'
'And why,' Mrs Cullen queried further, 'were we not given the figures for England? Clearly if the Times had cared to separate out the figures for England in this matter, the percentage in England supporting an English Parliament was most likely to be higher and in line with other recent polls that return figures of between 60 and 70%.
'We hear ad nauseam,' she said, 'Establishment pundits and the British government telling us that there is “no demand” for an English Parliament, yet again and again when asked, the people of England do want parity with the other countries of Britain. In the three most recent opinion polls their support ranged from 61% to 68%. Clearly the demand in England is at least as high at that in the referendum for the Scottish Parliament, namely 44%, characterised by those same pundits as “the settled will of the Scottish people”, and much higher than the 25% of the Welsh electorate that voted for devolution, and what irony that the present government was elected by just 21.59% of the electorate.
'Nevertheless, the will of the people of England continues to be studiously ignored by the British Political Class. Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties have set their faces against an English Parliament. They see it as a threat to their power and their whole life-style. We hear that David Cameron has said he will treat the people of Scotland with respect if the Conservative Party is returned to power at the next general election. Will that respect be extended to the wishes of the people of England? The Conservatives tell us that the UK cannot afford an English Parliament. The CEP says that we cannot afford the dubious, excessive, immoral practices and expenses of the members of the British Parliament. An English Parliament will be the golden opportunity to bring in root and branch reform of the corrupt way in which the Union Parliament operates.'
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
No written constitution or any other major constitutional changes should be seriously discussed until the people of the United Kingdom have been given a chance by referendum to decide whether they want to stay in or come out of the European Union because that is fundamental to any decisions we have to make, and it effects the very existence of the nation state.
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Rumours say Gordon Brown contemplated putting his head in the gas oven on reading the ‘Calman Report’
LORD CALMAN REPUDIATES THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE LABOUR & LIB-DEM PERSPECTIVE ON ENGLAND.
“ England is a nation with a single political identity”. With those words Sir Kenneth Calman in his Commission report has undermined and rejected the way both the Labour Party and the Lib-Dem Party have regarded England since the devolution legislation of 1998. Both parties have always opposed any constitutional and political measures which would treat England as what it has been for well over a thousand years: a distinct nation. Both parties have supported the balkanization of England into regions. But, says Calman, England must be recognized for what it is, a nation, “with a political identity at least as old as Scotland’s”.
He goes even further. ‘The regions of England do not have the same sort of political identity as Scotland. This fundamental aspect of the Union will always remain, and must not be ignored in its territorial constitution’. The Union set up in 1707 was a union of nations, nothing else. That is in every line of the 1707 declaration and Calman has reiterated that basic fact about it.
These assertions of the Calman Commission are the very last thing Gordon Brown wanted to hear it make. He set up the commission to undermine Alec Salmon’s ‘conversation for Scotland ’. Brown has constantly described the UK as “a union of nations and regions’, with Wales and his own Scotland as the nations and the regions being the very artificial ‘regions’ of England constructed by Brussels. Brown being that sort of Scot has no feeling for England’s distinct history and culture
The CEP has warmly welcomed this statement of the Commission. As the devolution debate takes the Union into new constitutional territory, it is pleased that a Government Commission has formally acknowledged the distinct national identity of England. “A single political identity” is the first and most essential requirement for one's own institution of government.
Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit
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.
No written constitution or any other major constitutional changes should be seriously discussed until the people of the United Kingdom have been given a chance by referendum to decide whether they want to stay in or come out of the European Union because that is fundamental to any decisions we have to make, and it effects the very existence of the nation state.
“ England is a nation with a single political identity”. With those words Sir Kenneth Calman in his Commission report has undermined and rejected the way both the Labour Party and the Lib-Dem Party have regarded England since the devolution legislation of 1998. Both parties have always opposed any constitutional and political measures which would treat England as what it has been for well over a thousand years: a distinct nation. Both parties have supported the balkanization of England into regions. But, says Calman, England must be recognized for what it is, a nation, “with a political identity at least as old as Scotland’s”.
He goes even further. ‘The regions of England do not have the same sort of political identity as Scotland. This fundamental aspect of the Union will always remain, and must not be ignored in its territorial constitution’. The Union set up in 1707 was a union of nations, nothing else. That is in every line of the 1707 declaration and Calman has reiterated that basic fact about it.
These assertions of the Calman Commission are the very last thing Gordon Brown wanted to hear it make. He set up the commission to undermine Alec Salmon’s ‘conversation for Scotland ’. Brown has constantly described the UK as “a union of nations and regions’, with Wales and his own Scotland as the nations and the regions being the very artificial ‘regions’ of England constructed by Brussels. Brown being that sort of Scot has no feeling for England’s distinct history and culture
The CEP has warmly welcomed this statement of the Commission. As the devolution debate takes the Union into new constitutional territory, it is pleased that a Government Commission has formally acknowledged the distinct national identity of England. “A single political identity” is the first and most essential requirement for one's own institution of government.
Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit
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.
No written constitution or any other major constitutional changes should be seriously discussed until the people of the United Kingdom have been given a chance by referendum to decide whether they want to stay in or come out of the European Union because that is fundamental to any decisions we have to make, and it effects the very existence of the nation state.
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