Boris says Celebrate St Georges Day!

Yes and naturally the BBC disapprove (cue old 1970's footage of the NF on the news) but Boris, where are the St Georges Day events? - on the 23rd April?

All I could find on the Mayor's web site:

http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/events/apr-09.jsp

Are a Shakespeares Birthday event (19th April) and a concert in the square (25th April) nothing on the 23rd. Oh well, at least the Mayor is making the right noises, unlike Mr Livingstone who would not endorse anything English while there was any minority culture or religion that had not yet been celebrated.

The Guardian declares for an English Parliament

Honest, George Monbiot (for it is he...) says you don't have to be an English nationalist (BBC translation = narrow minded fascist scumbag, silly) to be for an English Parliament. Now this is important, because George's opinion matters to (self appointed) intellectual thinkers in Islington (even though he now lives in Wales and has gone native) and they may have noticed the democratic deficit that exists in England where Scottish MPs can vote on English affairs without any exposure to English votes. Now this was bloody obvious to us people who think of ourselves as English but invisible in Islington. (hope you are keeping up here, proper Islington media folk would never say they were English, yuk) so we have to be happy that George has vocalised what we already knew!

Hard to believe?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/19/letters-devolution

The promised land? Only if we keep up the pressure and demand a proper democratic solution to the English question.

Council Tax Frozen for '09 - Hooray!

If you are Scottish, but not for the English, surprisingly this story doesn't get a mention on the Labour controlled media (err, BBC..) but yes people, Scots won't be paying any more Council Tax this year.

Great if you're Scottish, shit if you're an English taxpayer exhausted from rescuing Gordon's Scottish banks with a tax burden that will last for generations.

Of course I'm making this up? Well not according to:

http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Council-tax-freeze-across-Scotland.3781358.jp

and

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-493968/Now-English-taxpayers-pay-council-tax-freeze-Scotland.html

not to mention:

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/More-transparency-could-result-from.4994828.jp

So sleep easy, you are doing your bit through the Barnett Formula to keep Scotland happy.

makes you feel good doesn't it?

Waddya mean NO!

Why does Tesco hate the English?

Given that so many of Tesco's customers are, err, English, it seems odd that Tesco is implementing a final solution to eliminate the cross of St George from their products?

I received the followng email fron Robin Tilbrook:

"FEAR AND LOATHING OF ENGLAND AT TESCO...

After an illuminating telephone conversation with some bolshy Scottish woman at Tesco Customer Care Centre, yesterday, I have received some disquieting news.
I was informed, that due to specific, constant and deafening requests by their English customers, the existing, very few own brand references to English products in Tesco stores are to be dumped – and replaced with the ‘British’ moniker.
I really do have to say that the conversation was one of the most surreal I have ever had – even by Tesco standards.

I thought I should ring them to discuss ‘CountryLife-Gate’ – and that company’s shameless rebranding of English butter to British butter. I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk (yet again) to Tesco about their branding policy.

I told the Tesco lady that I was looking for another butter to buy with ‘English’ written on the pack – and couldn’t help noticing that Tesco own brand butter did indeed say ‘English Butter’, but unfortunately, the accompanying flag was not the flag of St George but was the flag of the Union.....

I then tried to expand the discussion, sort of telling her that I would like to buy English stuff in Tesco, but there are precious few products in Tesco with the English ident on – and how I thought it was about time they expanded their English range – and as a start, they could change the flag on the Tesco English Butter pack to make it consistent.

“But we are changing it to make it more consistent”

“Well that’s bloody great!”

“Yes, in the very near future, our butter will be labelled as British butter – and of course we will keep the Union flag to make it all consistent”....

“WHAT?”...

She repeated it – and then added “In fact all the remaining products with England of English on them are to be rebranded as British”.

“WHY?”

“Because all our customers in England want their products labelled as British – while all our customers in Scotland, Wales and Ireland want their produce labelled as Scottish, Welsh and Irish”....

“Well who decided that then?”

“Our customer focus groups”

“So let me get this straight – customers in England have specifically demanded that the very few English branded products that Tesco sells must be rebranded to British – because, presumably they find it all too upsetting? “So why haven’t the Scots etc demanded that their products are to be labelled as British also?

“Well they don’t see themselves as British – they see themselves as Scottish – it’s the same with the Welsh and the Irish”...

“How very convenient..... So what you are saying is that the few remaining English products are soon to be bulldozed from the shelves in favour of British ones”....

She did indeed confirm that rogue products like Tesco own brand English Butter and Mild Cheshire Cheese are to be axed for a more apparently palatable British version.

She then read out a communiqué from Head Office –

“Regarding product branding, this is what our Customer Forum has asked us to do”
‘As most English inhabitants look on themselves as being British first – therefore, a Union flag is used to identify the region. NOTE: Regional information is printed on the pack to indicate which area within the region it comes from’.

There then followed a deep and meaningful discussion. The Scots lady said that every time she came south of the border she couldn’t move for union flags – because apparently, all English people are revelling in their British ident... While in her own country she and all her fellow compatriots were Scots first, second and third.

The whole conversation ended in a vexatious row. She just couldn’t grasp how insulted I felt to have my country rebranded as both a ‘region’ and as default Britain’. There is now a definite shift in strategy. They are now quoting ‘Focus Groups’ from the region of England as justification to rebrand to a British ident – and it’s all coming to a Tesco near you."

Well you know I'm a big customer of Tesco and I say bypass the Scottish Mafia and go straight to the top, by writing to:

Sir Terence Leahy
Chief Executive of Tesco
P.O. Box 44
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Herts
England EN8 9SL

and mention how you are insulted by the assertion that all English people are British first and point out that English customers might be worth a tad more on the bottom line than the his Scots and Welsh customers. you might also add some reference to the opinion polls:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6264823.stm

And generally threaten to withdraw your custom.

Please copy me in on anything you send.

Thanks

Stephen.

Panorama - shhh, don't mention the English...

Many who watched the Panorama programme, True Brits, this week, may have been struck by the disparity of the treatment of Scotland and England. In Edinburgh the presenter proclaimed that Scotland had once been an independent country with its own parliament - yet no mention was made of the fact that England had once been an independent country, with its own parliament. Although Scottish devolution was discussed as a possible, though unintended, driver for the dissolution of the UK no mention was made that the current unequal devolution settlement will only further the alienation of England's people - who are always second best within the UK while subject to the whim of a UK parliament full of MPs not elected in England. It is about time the BBC actually addressed the democratic deficit in England - they didn't hesitate to talk up Kosovan independence recently, why not democracy for England too?

A long time coming....

But now the mainstream media are predicting both the end of the union and of the Labour party.

In both cases this is being blamed on the flawed devolution that was forced through by NuLabour in Scotland and Wales. At the time, Nu Labour claimed that devolution would kill nationalism and separitism stone-dead in Scotland. The Tories, who argued that unequal devolution would fuel Scottish separitism and revive English nationalism, were dismissed as right wing nutters by the BBC and Guardian front. As for the other media, I recall Minette Marin writing an article in The Times about how benign a constitutional reform devolution had been, I emailed her at he time saying that, far from being benign, Scottish devolution would revive the SNP as the opposition to Labour in Scotland - and it did, now the SNP are in power.

The whole sorry devolution mess left England ruled by a Labour party with Scottish interests at heart and England's role being the cashpoint for the whole UK, but without any democratic body solely representing England's people.

In the Sunday Times, Simon Jenkins reads the Glasgow East election result as the end of the union:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_jenkins/article4407171.ece

And in the Daily Telegraph, Iain Martin sees the end of the union and the Labour party in a double whammy from the SNP, in Scotland, and the revitalised Tories in England.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/07/30/do3001.xml

At some point the Tories will have to grasp that they will never be able to rule in Scotland again, as the SNP are the party of choice for voters abandoning Labour in Scotland. In the event of a Tory UK government in 2010 (or before 2010?) The SNP will then play the foreign-rule from England card on every issue. When the Tories do get it, perhaps we'll finally see some recognition that England needs it's own parliament and that then, and only then, will some post-devolution UK federal settlement be possible.

In the meantime I can't see how Labour can get out of the mess of their own making - unequal devolution will be on Labour's headstone.

Labour's fortunes depend on the union.

That's the argument in The Guardian today. Not surprisngly, The Guardian's writer is more concerned about the fate of 39 Labour MPs who are sent to Westminster by Scottish voters than the need for some proper democracy in England - though the position of England as Europe's only country without it's own parliament these days is recognised.

Tristram Hunt's CIF article is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/23/glasgoweast.labour

Being CIF you can add your own comment to the debate.

PS, sorry for not posting for so long - been busy at this making a living thing.