Salmond's strategy unveiled

In view of the increasingly likely prospect of a Conservative government in 2010, the SNP look to play-off Scotland against Tory policies as leverage to their Independence referendum.

There is more here in the Sunday Herald:

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2295788.0.salmond_promises_to_fight_a_future_tory_government.php

As for us English, none of the major parties give England's unequal position in the union much importance. Bet this will change though, when a future Tory government has to face up to the SNP?

Stephen.

Ho hum, another wrong answer to the English question?

Is proposed by Phillip Johnson in the Daily Telegraph. When you read it though, it is just another parliamentary procedural muddle that would still allow Scotland's MPs at Wesminster to vote on issues affecting England only. Remember top-up fees that discriminate against English students anyone?

Rather than addressing the issue - democratic equality for England - Philip addresses a secondary issue, the union, well that is the wrong way round in my view.

You can read more here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/21/do2104.xml

There is a lively comments section to which I've added my tuppenny worth demanding an English parliament - good enough for Kosovo but not good enough for England?

Preserving an English identity

As St Georges day approaches, it is good to see the importance of preserving our unique identity in a globalised world being discussed - at least in some of the less PC media.

Paul Kingsnorth makes the case for the link between our local landscapes and our idenity in this article in The Daily Telegraph here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2008/04/19/ftengland19.xml

Though I fear his list of reasons why our identity is being lost does not mention the main culprits - the EU and our political classes who do their bidding in imposing the Europe of the Regions - but a step in the right direction anyway.

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.

CEP Conference 2008 - 26th April

The CEP web site seems to have disappeared but the CEP's 2008 Conference is still going ahead - on Saturday 26th April.

Details are here:

http://www.thecep.org.uk/wordpress/


Look forward to seeing you there.

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