I believe that the British national conciousness is dying. The Scots in particular seem headed for at least partial separation. The unionist parties attempt to maintain the union in face of this opposition by putting England at a democratic, governmental and financial disadvantage. No other party seems to prepared to stand up and be counted on this issue.
With the Britishness itself dying it seems illogical and backward-looking to be constantly defending Britain against the EU as UKIP tries to. I believe passionately that the EU is bad thing for Europe if nothing else but that if you cannot paint a picture of a strong free nation independent of the EU, the withdrawal is the best answer message is hard to sell.
England in political terms is becoming fundamentally different to Scotland and Wales and having a single union government skews our politics away from true representation. I think we are on the whole in favour of smaller government than the Scots or the Welsh and have a more entrepreneurial spirit. We also have to face issues like immigration and overcrowding (not necessarily linked!) which they do not. In some ways I also believe that being smaller economically might get rid of the expensive and ridiculous notion that politicians have that we must be a 'big player' on the international scale and get involved in every war or treaty, whether its in our national interest or not.
An English parliament with strong powers could be used to send all of these messages to national government and might actually help to keep the union together via a federal system. If the union does not survive it enables us to step into the world as a free, prosperous nation not the rump of a dying idea.
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