Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard the Lionheart
There is also the issue of national identity. I see myself as English and not British. The Scots and Welsh see themselves as Scots and Welsh while the English have Britishness foisted upon them.
I want to see our parliament representative of the English nation with full sovereignty. The Scots and Welsh were allowed to choose their own forms of governments and are now demanding even more power to be devolved to them. Of course, Westminster will allow them to have those powers in order to keep the union intact. In the meantime the English are denied the opportunity of choosing its own system of government. This denial is not only unique to the Labour party, but runs right through the big three parties in Westminster. Our parliamentary system is a joke. Our claim of living in a democracy is a sham.
Any serious politician from Scotland and Wales, with a few notable exceptions are not going to want to build a career in Edinburgh or Cardiff. The real action is in Westminster. There are opportunities there which are not to be found in their homelands. Devolution has limited the powers they have in their own constituencies, but have not been curbed on English matters.
It is my belief to put an end to this nonsense, and start thinking about the serious issues which affect England. The overcrowding because of mass immigration, the threat from terrorism, the ever growing power of the EU, increased taxation, the breakdown of our society. A devolved English parliament will do nothing to address these issues. Successive British governments have done nothing to stop any of this, and indeed, have added to it. It is time to think about a new direction. It is time to sweep away the failures of the past and to build a new nation state of England.
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This is at the heart of the present situation. Either we have Britishness which everyone adopts or we have our own nationality.
The first has been tried for over three hundred years now rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely. With the more autocratic style of government in 1700, it worked more or less given the odd uprising. The Scots have always resented the much more numerous English. Like Wales (and the borders of Pakistan with Afghanistan), Scotland was never governed entirely from the centre until imposed by English conquest. The British political system was vastly different to what it is today.
In 1874 the first major change in the franchise was effected under Disraeli, followed by successive increases in the electorate and the payment of MPs in 1911. 1928 marked a major turning point with the 'universal franchise' of not only all women but all men of twenty one and older.
The Scots in liaison with the Welsh have contrived to 'regionalise' their respective countries, not on the basis of area or population or a combination of both but, quite simply, nationality! One rule for them, and another for England. Indeed, there is no obvious rationale or wisdom to the actions taken by Blair, Dewar, Davies, Prescott & co other than to spite England and the English. The GLA has an electorate which, at 5.4 million, is greater than the total population of Scotland. The total GLA population is therefore around 7.2 million! Given that the population of the GLA area will increase to around 10 million (perhaps even more) by 2015 and exceed that of Scotland and Wales combined, one is driven to wonder what is the point of the whole, unbalanced, arbitrary regionalisation policy if other than to destroy England as a national entity!
The bottom line (to coin a phrase) is why should England as a nation be denied devolved powers and an accompanying organisation, when the minnow nations of Scotland and Wales have been afforded theirs! UKIP please note! Note also that the genie will not be returned to the bottle!
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