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!

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.

Gordon Brown promotes English Regions (again)

Apparently Gordon Brown is planning a campaign to save the union - he must like flogging dead horses, naturally this is bad news for England:

From The Sunday TimesMarch 30, 2008

Gordon Brown to launch Save the Union campaign

Britain's prime minister is preparing to marshall the great and good to fight the threat of Scottish independence

Jason Allardyce and Jonathan Oliver

GORDON Brown is to launch an unprecedented “Save the Union” campaign because he fears the march of Scottish nationalism is becoming unstoppable.

The prime minister told a strategy meeting of ministers at Downing Street that the United Kingdom could only be held together if pro-Union business leaders, academics and civic bodies acted now.

He also proposes to create a network of London-style mayors in English regions to appease mounting resentment against devolution south of the border.

So Gordon thinks that what we really, really need in England, to counter "mounting resentment" about devolution is more Mayors in the "English regions"?

No thanks Gordon, what we really, really need is democratic parity with Scotland and Wales - that means an English parliament where England's MPs can make English laws without influence from Scottish and Welsh MPs who are not elected by English voters. This is called democratic accountability - and we don't have it here in England.

Mayors in the regions do not address England's "mounting resentment" - and can't while England is ruled according to unelected MP's whims and the Barnett formula's inequitable distribution of England's taxes.

The article is here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article3647158.ece

There is a comments page that makes interesting reading - you know what to do.

Stephen.

It's a Miracle! - no council tax increase in Scotland!

Many of you have just had your English council tax demand - mine was an increase of 3.5% (ish). Whisper it quietly, there is a part of our sceptered isle where there is no increase in council tax at all.

Can you guess?

Scotland (for it is she) has no council tax increase, this is due to the largesse of the Barnett formula that allows English taxpayers to subsidise Scotland. Truly a miracle, if you're a Scot.

Of course this stinks to high heaven, which is why you won't be hearing about it on the BBC or C4 or the other organs of our 'free' democracy.

The Scotsman is quite happy to tell the story here:

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

I'll be asking my MP why this injustice is allowed to happen - not sure I'll get a meaningful answer though, he's a Lib Dem, never a a party to lose too much sleep over justice for their English voters.

Make sure you write to your MP - it does make a difference.

Stephen

The Cost Of Being English.

The CEP have often raised the issue about the extra cost of being English in a Britain where England has no democratic control of its own affairs - unlike Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The mainstream media usually ignore this story (not rocking the establishment boat - as with the Euro referendum) but today the Sunday Times has an article setting out the real cost of being English in England.

You can read the full article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3511864.ece

But this section sums it up:

The latest figures on public spending per head show that in 2006-7 it was reckoned at £8,623 in Scotland; £8,139 in Wales; and just £7,121 in England. (The figures may seem modest, but they are for “identifiable spending” that differs between regions and do not include items such as defence that are deemed to be national.)

The Scots, with £1,500 more to spend per person, are lavishing services on their 5m population. Free care (up to £210 a week) for the elderly, free eye tests, dental checks and, in future, free prescriptions. Yet in England, it was announced last week that the prescription charge will rise to £7.10.

In Wales, which has £1,000 per person more to spend than England, the authorities last week announced plans for free hospital car parking. It infuriated taxpayers in England.
“It seems that in the UK, the poor relation is England,” said John Cherrett, a campaigner for pensioners in Dorset, where some hospitals charge £7 a day for parking. “Whatever way we look at it, public transport, drugs, pensions, whatever, England is a poor relation. We are the wealth-maker of the four parts of the UK and we lose out all along.”

In total the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group calculates that the “cost of being English” could amount to more than £7,000 a year – from £3,000 for university tuition fees to thousands more for care of the elderly, £25 for an eye test and £15 for each dental check-up.

What is the reason for this? Is it what it looks suspiciously like? - Labour looking after its heartlands in Scotland and Wales at the expense of the English? and is this why England's people are denied their own parliament - unlike Scotland and Wales?

Expect Labour to announce some headlining plan now that the issue is becoming mainstream but nothing less than a restoration of democracy to England will fix this one -an English parliament dealing with England's taxes and spending.


Stephen

England excluded (no change there then) from UK devolution

Please follow the link below to see who is deciding the future direction of the UK's devolution process, here's a clue, they're all Scots.......and England is not on the agenda.

http://thecep.org.uk/news/?p=371

You could ask your MP why this is so?

2008 - the end of the Union?

According to Iain McWhirter in The Guardian it is.

His article is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2238275,00.html

This is a Comment is Free article so you can air your views.


Stephen.

The Union with Scotland is dead

Says Simon Heffer in the Telegraph, recognising the fact that seems obvious to all but our current government and opposition parties. The tide of opinion is definitely turning but we still need to demand an English Parliament loud and clear.

The Telegraph article is here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IMDRARH0SGDBVQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQUIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/11/14/do1401.xml&posted=true&_requestid=1055704

Stephen

Alex Salmond's game plan

To play the English question for all it is worth - to the SNP.

Another article from the Observer.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2200679,00.html

Warms your heart to see we English are so useful to ambitious Scottish politicians, of all parties.

Stephen.

Scottish Independence?

Alex Salmond has launched his plans and various Scottish newspapers have comment pieces. You can join the lively debate in Scotland On Sunday here:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=51&id=1286982007#new

Or in The Herald here:

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/holyrood/display.var.1617903.0.0.php

Always good fun to read the comments!

Stephen.