The BBC: Andrew Neil Slips In "Scotland's Oil"

I've had a very unhappy morning. My faith has been shaken in a BBC employee whom I regarded as a shining light in the Beeb's blackness of PC dross and EastEnders. This employee was political commentator Andrew Neil, a man with a mind (and tongue) like a razor. A man willing to cut through blather from MPs and leave them gasping. A man willing to speak up for England. A Scot in the public eye firmly out to defend the rights of the majority.

But today Gareth reports an interview on This Week during which the uniquely trusty one slipped badly. At the time, another squirming unfortunate was, deservedly, getting the Neil treatment...

Over to Gareth...

I can't remember who it was, some blathering old nag, Baroness Williams I think, telling everyone that the Scots didn't get substantially more public funding than the rest of the UK.

"Not true", interrupted Neil, "They, the Scots, get over 10%, 12 or 13 percent actually".

"Oh, well, there's not much point me talking if you are just going to interrupt me", she whined.
"Well there's not much point you talking if you can't get your facts straight is there?", said Neil.

"Well", she said, "Scotland contributes oil wealth to Britain and because of that they get the Barnett Formula".

And there we had it, beans spilled, an unspoken known truth at Westminster beamed live into our living rooms. Everyone in the studio seemed perfectly happy at this explanation, but I wasn't.

Read the rest of Gareth's post here -

http://www.toque.co.uk/blog/archives/2007/04/known_truths_at.php

So, Andrew Neil has slipped in the oil.

For the record, the Barnett Formula was actually introduced in the late 70s (supposedly for one year only) to pacify nationalists. It had nothing to do with oil and was actually to do with poverty levels. In recent years, Lord Joel Barnett, the Formula's creator, has declared it unfair to England and has stated that he is ashamed his name is associated with it.

Scotland does not own the North Sea oil. Quite a lot is in English waters and the maritime boundary was tweaked by the UK Government some years ago, without consulting the English, to give "the Scottish sector" more of the oil. Fine when we are a supposedly United Kingdom, all sharing the resources, but not so if Scotland declares independence. In that case, England will require that the boundary is corrected.

The "it's oor oil" thing has whined on for years. But it's not entirely true, not true at all whilst the United Kingdom exists, and there is absolutely no excuse for Andrew Neil letting this sickening justification for the unjustifiable go unchallenged.

Shame on you, Mr Neil.

Our previous post on the subject...

The SNP once again recycles the same tired argument about North Sea Oil and gas subsidising the rest of the UK. Conveniently, they fail to mention that the maritime border was moved heavily in Scotland’s favour a couple of decades ago and that a lot of “oor oil” is actually England’s oil gifted to Scotland by a British government desperate to pacify nationalists.

International convention says that a maritime border between two countries is an extension of the land border. The land border between England and Scotland points upwards on both the east and west coast. The maritime border used to follow this convention putting a large portion of North Sea oil and gas in English waters. Should Scotland ever achieve fiscal or full independence, it would be unacceptable for the maritime border to remain where it is now.

Moving the border was nothing more than a bribe. The English weren’t consulted and their permission was not sought to donate their natural resources to another country. A lot of the North Sea oil and gas rightfully belongs to England.

Stuart Parr

Read the rest here - http://englandparliament.blogspot.com/2006/10/its-englands-oil.html

UPDATE...

Sylv from Salford

Scotland actually makes about four BILLION pounds MORE than the TOTAL oil revenue, be it English, Scottish or British, from the Barnett Formula. I worry that when it comes right down to it Andrew Neil will not speak up for truth. If I'm misjudging him, I apologise in advance. It's just that the bloke usually has a good grasp of the facts he's discussing and is not shy in presenting them.

Don't Shop At Tesco If You Value England

On this blog, we have often been curious about why Tesco marks its Scotch produce with a saltire, the Scots flag, and its English produce with the Union flag - the flag of the United Kingdom. Well, John has some important information -

http://www.theenglandproject.net/wordpress/?p=437

We've seldom seen more of an anti-English attitude than that proudly displayed by Tesco.

Avoid.

England: Fobbed Off By Google

Google has sent out a stock fob-off reply to all those that noticed its flagrant disregard for England by missing St George's Day. Google has only ever marked the day ONCE (circa 2002) but somehow St Patrick is worthy of note EVERY year!

Thank you for your note. We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google and are sorry we missed one that's special to you. As you may imagine, it's difficult for us to choose which events to celebrate on our site. We have a long list of holidays that we'd like to celebrate in the future. We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage.

Some holidays that we haven't celebrated in the past will be rotated into our holiday doodles for future years. Please remember you can visit any of our doodles at http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html

We appreciate your taking the time to write to us.

Anti-English Discrimination - Google Ignores St George's Day

Yesterday Google marked "Earth Day". Never heard of it? Neither have I.

Last year, Google marked St David's Day. St Patrick's Day and St Andrew's Day. So far this year Google has marked St Patrick's Day...

... and St David's Day (the logo was marked "St David's Day" and apparently the daff is Wales' national flower). St Andrew's Day is yet to arrive.

But what of St George? Well, here is the St George's Day logo.Totally devoid of any embellishment - the usual Google logo.

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So today is nothing to celebrate according to Google.

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And England, of all the nations of the UK, has been singled out for Google's spiteful, priggish attitude. This is discrimination, pure and simple.

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Why is England treated this way? It isn't perfect, but then neither are Wales, Scotland and Ireland. So why does Google see fit to ignore us? Are we somehow unclean? The great unwashed? Ask them -

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http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py

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Select "Other" and then "None of the above".

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Google don't exactly make it easy to contact them! We must make sure the message gets through!

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And happy St George's Day anyway.

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Don't let the bastards grind you down!

UPDATE...

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Sylv from Salford...

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Google, like most politically correct organisations, sees fit to dictate what is or what is not acceptable.

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England, a country discriminated against by the UK Government (you can die in England for want of medication available on the NHS in Scotland and prescriptions are free in Wales, but have just risen in price in England) is not to be allowed to celebrate itself or even to recognise its own existence.

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Yes, other UK MPs can dictate policy in England. Yes, England can be scapegoated for all the perceived ills of the past (where as, in fact, many "crimes" should be placed at the Scots or Welsh peoples' doors - Ireland was partitioned by a Welsh PM, with a Cabinet stuffed FULL of Scots; the Scots were disproportionately involved in the old British Empire).

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But England must be blamed for everything. And kept down. Its people denied equality. Apparently a "mongrel" nation. Most, if not, all nationalities are "mongrel" and the efforts of various PC groups to disect Englishness and then declare it non-existent because of a lack of racial purity smack of fascism. Politically correct non-fascist fascists are everywhere.

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This is the face of Political Correctness in 21st Century Britain. A priggish, uncaring dictatorship, dedicated to distorting the truth, encouraging racist elitism in Scotland and Wales, and standing by as people in England die for want of care. Our government continues to pour outrageous subsidies into Scotland and Wales via the Barnett Formula. And before anybody mentions "Scotland's oil", remember that the maritime boundary was altered in favour of Scotland by the UK Government, with NO consultation with the electorate in England.

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Here's to England's day. We'll win through in the end.
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UPDATE - Greg from Cumbria

Google could have had a picture of a rose, England's national flower, if they'd wanted to avoid St George for some pathetic reason. I'm not using Google in future.

67% Favour English Parliament - Poll

The Campaign for an English Parliament has new poll findings which reveal that 67% want an English Parliament. Tremendous news for the approaching St George's Day.

More - http://www.thecep.org.uk/news/ViewItem.asp?Entry=1550

The BBC Cuts References To The Origins Of The English Language From Terry & June DVD?!

An e-mail from Sylv from Salford!

I've just been watching an official BBC DVD release of the 1980s comedy series "Terry & June" - series 6, from 1983. In one episode of this series, the characters visit France. I am convinced that in the original episode, repeated a few years ago on UK Gold, the character of Terry commented on English being "our" language, eg, created in England, but in the BBC DVD version I can find no trace of this comment. Is the BBC editing it out as it cites England as the source of the English language? Sorry if it all sound trivial and silly, but I am closely studying the BBC's treatment of England, as opposed to Scotland and Wales, and would appreciate it if you could put my query to your readers.

Don't know, Sylv - it's been years since I watched Terry & June (1979-1987, RIP). But if anybody does know if Auntie has been in the knife box, splicing out anything that might give people in England a small flush of pride/sense of history, then please let me know...

Memories! Nice Terry & June blurb - http://80sactual.blogspot.com/2005/05/terry-and-june-un-alternative-comedy.html

Vote England 2007

Please take a look - http://www.toque.co.uk/blog/archives/2007/04/vote_england_20.php

If You Live In England, You Can Go Blind. But If You Live In Scotland...

85-year-old war veteran Jack Strange has spent his savings on medication that is available on the NHS in Scotland...

From the Daily Mail...

Mr Strange, from North Walsham, Norfolk, has age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a condition which leads to the loss of central vision and, if left untreated, can lead to total blindness.

He has spent the money in the past year on the drug Avastin, which is available privately to those who can afford it, as are two other treatments for blindness, Lucentis and Macugen.
In England, the drugs watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has not yet given the go-ahead for either Lucentis or Macugen, both of which could have helped Mr Strange. However Macugen is already available in Scotland.

It is one of several examples of the postcode lottery in services, with a number of drugs available in Scotland but not south of the border.

More on health apartheid - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=448028&in_page_id=1774


This blog is supportive of the aims of the Campaign for an English Parliament, but is in no way connected.

Google - The Prigs Have Taken Over The Asylum...

To those enlightened folks at Google, Easter doesn't exist. That curious mix of the pagan and the Christian which sees us eating hot cross buns, painting egg shells and exchanging chocolate eggs, whilst enjoying two bank holidays, is simply non-existent.

So far we've noted that in the Google universe...

Christmas is "Holidays" - if you're not on holiday, there's nothing to celebrate.

New Year is OK.

St Valentine's Day is fine.

The Welsh national day, St David's Day, is fine.

St Patrick's Day, the Irish national day, is fine.

Easter simply does not exist.

And what about St George's Day, England's national day?

Watch this space...


This blog is supportive of the aims of the Campaign for an English Parliament, but is in no way connected.

Our First Celtgelt!

We came across our first "CELTGELT" £20.00 note today - the small scrawl appears to say "All for Scotland".

Excellent.

Remember...

Adam Smith's achievements regarding the division of labour in pin manufacturing were not English achievements and neither he nor any other Scot belongs on English bank notes. Scotland has its own bank notes and celebrates its own luminaries.

Remember that England subsidises Scotland via the Barnett Formula.

Remember that you can die in England for want of medication available on the NHS in Scotland.

Remember that unaccountable Scots MPs are in a position to dictate to the people of England - and have on several occasions, overturning the votes of our own MPs to impose Top Up Fees and Foundation Hospitals on us, whilst Scotland will be having neither.

It is time for a people's protest in England. We cannot continue to be dominated and dictated to by Scotland.

Remember "CELTGELT" - you know it makes sense!

This blog is supportive of the aims of the Campaign for an English Parliament, but is in no way connected.