Part of the Union ?

The Stupid English and their Scottish Masters
(or - the government we deserve)



And ...... Gordon Brown tells us he intends to make Health and Education his priorities. Both are devolved matters and thus the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament in Scotland. So any legislation on these, his "areas of priority", will NOT apply to his own constituents. How's that for democracy ?

The Union? Stuff the Union.

England in the minority again

Alice Thomson in today's Telegraph provides another illustration the bizarre effects of disproportionate Scottish representation in the Cabinet:

"Does it matter that the Cabinet has a disproportionate number of Scottish ministers and that the next prime minister is almost certain to be a Scot? It shouldn't. Most of the English want to continue to live in a united island and are prepared for the moment to accept the £1,400 per Scot per year financial subsidy that runs from south to north. But this week the English were given a graphic demonstration of how Scotland is using its increasing influence. Angry at the two US military planes that touched down at Prestwick on their way to carrying munitions to Israel, the Scottish complained. So the Secretary of State for Scotland (Douglas Alexander, Paisley) rang the English Foreign Secretary (Margaret Beckett, Derby South), who spoke to the Scottish Defence Secretary (Des Browne, Kilmarnock). The result was that future flights will be diverted to English airfields. They may not be forcing everyone to wear kilts yet, but it's one law for the Scots and another for the increasingly powerless majority south of the border."

Tags: England, English Nationalism, Scottish ministers, Scotland, Devolution

Rifkind -"A Constitutional Abortion"

The FT reports : Conservative MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind as labelling Ken Clarkes proposal to address the 'West Lothian Question' a "Constitutional Abortion".

"This proposal risks creating two classes of MP. It would be a constitutional abortion. Either you are a member of parliament or you are not. If you go ahead with this, you will have 100 MPs - including those from Wales and Northern Ireland - who are second-class legislators."

This is the Scotsman who lost his Edinbugh Pentlands seat during the Scottish Tory wipe-out in 1997. Following the abolition of that seat in the Scottish boundary changes he was provided with the safe ENGLISH seat of Kensington and Chelsea in the 2005 election.

So here we have another Scotsman, representing an English constituency and apparently quite happy with the "Constitutional Abortion" that is the present devolution settlement. He complains that the proposal will create "100 MP's who are 2nd class legislators". Can he not see that is EXECTLY what the present settlement has already done, except that it is over 500 English MP's who are the 'second class legislators'. Their remit is confined to England only, whereas the 100 MP's he is so concerned about - representing Scottish, Welsh and Irish constituencies - can not only vote on, but take full ministerial responsibility for English only matters, but NOT for those same matters in their own constituencies. They therefore need have no worries about being held democratically accountable on those matters at all.

Now if that is not a "Constitutional Abortion", I don't know what is.

Tags: West Lothian Question, English Parliament

Brown tries to teach us an English lesson

Simon Lee in the Yorkshire Post

"ENGLAND is a strange country, politically speaking.

If it was an independent nation-state, England's population of 50 million and national income of £861bn in 2004 would make it both one of the largest member-states of the European Union and a prospective G8 member. Paradoxically, as the New Encyclopaedia Britannica acknowledges: 'Constitutionally, England does not exist.' England and its political identity have been subsumed within and conflated with the institutions of the British state, symbolised by the playing of the British national anthem at England's World Cup matches."

Read the rest here

Murray in damage limitation mode

During press interviews earlier this month, Andy Murray said he would be supporting "anyone but England" in the World Cup finals. He now appears to have entered damage limitation mode

In a statement posted on his Blogg yesterday, he said: "I Want to say that I'm not anti-English!" . Funny thing is that bit of his post has now been removed although most of the comments referred to in a BBC report about it are still there, including one from a droll Scot suggesting he get himself a tee-shirt with the slogan "Anyone but me" on it.

The BBC report is on their Scotland pages. Pity they couldn't post it on their England ones too.

See you, Murray - at Wimbledon

Tempted to cheer for Andy Murray at Wimbledon this year?

Thought so. We're such softees, we English aren't we?

But just remember that young Andy seems to belong to that chippy, resentful category of Scots - all too common now they have their own Parliament and rule much of England too - the "ANYONEBUTENGLAND" category.

As Richard Littlejohn in the Mail on Sunday puts it "I do hope Murray won't be too disappointed if English tennis fans decide to support whichever foreign star he comes up against at Wimbledon."

What should they know of England who only England know?

Charles Moore writes in the Telegraph about the resurgence of 'Englishness' on the occasion of the annual review of the Chelsea Pensioners. Some stirring thoughts as in:

"There is a sense in our culture that such English character is under threat, through a collective educational, social and governmental scorning of our identity. So, although I am not interested in football, I am glad that so many people want to fly the flag of St George, and I share the pleasure in doing so that comes from sensing that puritans, bureaucrats and schoolteachers rather disapprove of it.

The rediscovery of Englishness is beginning, and it derives from its persecution - in an unfair devolution settlement, in a global "anti-racist" culture that makes Englishmen the only people allowed by Hollywood to be villains, in immigration which is out of control, a broken education system and a Labour Government that is more hostile to our English past than any of its predecessors".

Unfortunately he goes on to spoil it with a long and convoluted warning of alleged potential dangers by comparing it with resurgant German nationalism under Hitler. And further claiming 'Britishness' to be the allegiance which will save us from this danger.

Oh dear.

Boris Johnson on England, 'The Flag' and Old sour-face Broon

An entertaining, 'on-the-button' article by Boris Johnson in The Telegraph with lots of comments attached.

Much of the entertainment comes from the accute embarassment and discomfiture of the likes of Blair, Broon and the PC/Labour apparatchiks over support for the England football team with the consequent dilemas and bans over flying the Cross of St George flag.

Oh how sweet it is to watch them squirm