Interesting mail from a person apparently called "McCisco"...
I reckon you lot are in a hell of state. You're being ruled by a Scottish Raj - and let's not forget the Welsh contribution - Prescott's assemblies and Hain's love of apartheid. You deserve better. 'Course you do. Here's Blair giving you another unaccountable transport minister and putting his old buddy boy John Reid in as Home Secretary... now how many top jobs are occupied by folks from my little Tartan Acre now?
Blackpool council tells its taxi drivers not to fly the national flag of England, nor even wear clothing with the word "England" or the three lions emblem on.
Yeh, you're in a state. And it's Scotland's fault. Wales' fault. You're victims. Helpless victims.
Well, I beg to differ. I'm not excusing my lot (the "jocks") from making hay and abusing the Union left right and centre since 1997. Yeh, we're undemocratic. Yeh, we stink. But the English just sit around, doing nothing about it!
What is it with your MPs that they do bog all to address the situation? Where's the Opposition? What is it with these taxi drivers that they let the local Council tell them that their national emblems are unsuitable? Unfit?
Yeh, we Scots are dictating to you. But the worst culprits in all this are your own upper and middle classes. It's the English class system which causes Blackpool council to wrinkle its nose at the wearing of England emblems by taxi drivers and dictate that they should not do so. The council would only treat forelock-tugging English peasants in this way - no other cultural group in the country would take it. Or be expected to.
From the taxi drivers comes the odd grumble, but they accept what might even be an illegal ruling.
Meanwhile, your MPs sit on their arses, riding the gravy train and not giving a sh** what it's like for you lot down there on doggy-do street.
Since John Major arrived, the electorate in your country has grown more and more indifferent to what its governments do. Insular. Meanwhile, we "Jocks" and your Polly Toynbee and sparkling-EU-career-aspiring type MPs let you fry.
Sure, I accept that Scotland takes some of the blame. But it would never have been allowed to get this far if the English ruling class gave a sh** about its underlings - you know, the people who elected them, and the English peasants kept in touch with events, questioned them and got out there and raged.
It's odd that the government denies English civic institutions and an inclusive English civic identity, as your main man at the CEP blog says. It's odd that Blackpool Council should feed the fear of racism by saying that the England flag is a bad thing, and that is what they are saying with the ban for taxi drivers. But they're only doing it because they can. Because the people won't speak up and say "NO!"
I was reading that it's (apparently) interesting how St George's flags are being flown earlier than ever this World Cup season. Is it to do with a rising sense of injustice at the democratic deficit? No. It's because the English want 1966 all over again. That's all. They don't know or don't care about what's happening politically. And don't blame the media. There's plenty about the issue on the internet if people care to look.
A lot of the fault lies with your own smug, politically correct top brass and the English peasant tendency to tug forelocks and say "aye, sir!"
I'll need to think about all this, but you make some interesting points, McCisco! Thank you.
This blog is supportive of the aims of the Campaign for an English Parliament, but is in no way connected.
