mark starr

2007 is the 300th Anniversary of the Act of Union between England and Scotland which effectively brought the United Kingdom into existence. The Government has no plans to celebrate this event though , of course, the Abolition of Slavery's anniversary next year is getting money thrown at it.
Shouldnt UKIP be raising this issue????

Tom Wilde

Yes, definitely! Can you imagine the Americans letting the 300th anniversary of the founding of their nation go past without comment?

The Act of Union of 1707 was in some respects carried in rather dubious circumstances, with English pressure and in the shadow of a temporary Scottish economic crisis. But the results - the birth of the United Kingdom - was something wonderful and worth celebrating today.

Johnny Hates Jazz

Yes I think that UKIP should really get behind a 300th Anniversary Celebration, so that the public can totally understand that UKIP is a British Nationalist Party (Not an English Nationalist Party)

UKIP want to keep Scottish rule over England, and English Money paying for freebies in Scotland.

Come on UKIP show everyone your true colours !

__________________
English Democrats SAY NO To European Union

ENGLISH NOT british not EUropean
- It's time to decide at the 2009 European Elections

SGK

ED, when you use lies and spin, it's supposed to be subtle enough for most people to not notice and take it in.
Yes, the 300th anniversary should be celebrated throughout the year, but as we have a traitor government that has begun the break up of the Union and ultimately wants the regionalisation of the UK under foreign control, it will be played down.
In fact, surely the ED's are grateful to Labour for their actions in forcing a wedge between England and Scotland. No other mainstream party could have done it so well!

Andrew Constantine

While I refuse to be grateful for anything that New Labour has done, I think there is some truth in the above in that New Labour's devolution policies and the setting up of the Scottish Parliament has brought the unfair position of England into focus.

The law of unintended consequences should happily now apply to make it very difficult for New Labour ever to win a majority of the popular vote in England.

Andrew Constantine

Britannist

Blair's Lie-bour Party will do anything it can to stop the establishment of an all-England Parliament. They are still desperate to try and get at least one 'region' of England to back a local 'regional' elected assembly based on boundaries drawn up by the EU.

This Labour tactic is designed to try and block an English Parliament (which Labour fears because it knows it could hardly ever gain a majority of seats in). If the north-east of England had its own elected 'regional' assembly the pro-EU Labour Party would tell voters there (in the English north-east) not to back or support an English Parliament because it (the English Parliament)would strip their local elected assembly of money and power.

All Labour lies, of course, but that is the current Labour plan.

And if Blair/Brown's Lie-bour can't get the north-east (or any other part of England) to back a 'regional' elected assembly, they'll try and create 'regions' based on boundaries drawn up by the EU by having City 'regional' authorities (a policy they are promoting at the moment). Once the City 'region' councils were up and running Labour would simply extend the boundaries of such authorities to those of the current EU 'regions' for England.

Labour is an explicitly anti-English party like no other :evil: and it needs to be named and shamed as such with the voters of England.

Fortunately, the electors of England may be aware of Labour's anti-English treachery which is why Labour came second in England in last year's General Election in terms of votes received.

Britannist

Labour realised long ago that the 300th Anniversary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland takes places just two days after the 2007 Election to the Scottish Parliament next May.

Blair's Lie-bour Party fears being labelled as Unionist (i.e. pro-UK) during the Scottish Parliament Election campaign if it backs official celebrations of the Union (of the UK). Lie-bour is desperate for votes and needs the support of pro-nationalist Labour voters (of which there are some in Scotland). The pro-Labour nationalists don't want the UK, but do want Labour in power in preference to the anti-UK Scottish National Party (SNP). However, if Gordon Brown is down in London celebrating the UK's 300th birthday, these anti-British Labour voters could be lost to the SNP.

Consequently, the UK will be probably the only national state in the world which will not be celebrating an important birthday such as its 300th.

In the last two decades, Australia, the USA and France have all celebrated important national anniversaries (as well as a number of other countries around the world).

But, because of purely political considerations (the Scottish Parliamentary Election next May) the UK Labour regime will be virtually ignoring the historic 300th anniversary of the UK quite simply because it regards chasing the nationalist vote in Scotland (in order to hold on to minority control of a Parliament it created only a few years ago) as much more important.

Obviously Labour's desperate and increasingly panicky attempts to hold on to power in Edinburgh at the expense of holding proper celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the UK doesn't say much for that party.

But it also shows what little faith they (Labour) really have in the so-called "secure, stable and united Great Britain" they are always banging on about whenever someone dares to suggest to them that the English be given a Parliament of their own like the Scots have.

UKIP MAN

English Democrat wrote:

ED I think you are showing your true colours here. The fact that there are so many scotish labour politicians in the cabinet is because not many English people vote labour but even so if the tories were to win any seats in scotland I would welcome them in the cabinet and government.

The problem is that it wasnt thought out properly how this devolution would take place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1707

euromutiny

I thought there was going to be a celebration and a coin minted? Part of Brown's focus on being British to play down his Scottishness.

Britannist

He's got himself boxed in - promoting Britishness may be crucial to get himself accepted as UK Prime Minister by us English. But it could backfire in his own constituency where a journalist a few months ago found the Union Flag (Union Jack - UK flag) to be well hidden (i.e. no longer used).
The anti-UK europhile Scottish so-called Nationalists would use Gordon Brown's promotion of Britishness as a way to undermine him during the campaign for the Scottish Parliament elections which take place two days before the UK 300th anniversary next May.

The SNP would say he and his Labour Party are a part of the English establishment. The SNP desperately needs the votes of anti-UK Labour voters (i.e. voters who want an independent Scotland but still vote Labour) and will do anything to get them.

Even with such votes, the SNP can only hope to form a minority administration in Edinburgh after the next Scottish Election. The key to displacing Labour in Edinburgh - from the point of view of SNP strategists - is to paint Gordon Brown as an unpatriotic Scot.

Consequently, Gordon Brown is boxed into a corner - he has to either back the UK anniversary celebrations and risk criticism from the SNP but possibly gain support among English Labour voters. Or he forgets the UK 300th anniversary and plays up his Scottishness in order to stop the SNP winning the May 2007 Election.

The last thing he wants is to end up with an SNP-controlled Scotland if/when he becomes UK Prime Minister. He may think it is better to wait to promote his Britishness after the May 2007 Scottish Election is over. The problem for him is that the people of England may not be that interested in Britishness anymore. The Scottish certainly put their own Scottish identity well ahead of being British (if opinion polls are to be believed).

If the sacrifice is that the historic 300th anniversary of the UK is played down - Gordon Brown will do it in order to achieve his ambition of many decades to become Prime Minister of the UK.

Needless to say, the 300th anniversary of the UK is a far more important event than Gordon Brown's personal political ambitions.