Assisting The Electorate To Wake Up To The UK Government's Discrimination Against The People Of England.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Comments Now Open

When Drew started CEP Cambridgeshire some years ago, he had a severe problem with a bizarre and long-winded commenter (not "Alba" - as far as I know!) and, as Blogger was not then so sophisticated, decided that all CEP Cambs comments should be sent to a dedicated e-mail address for scrutiny before publication. I adopted this system when beginning WENAP, partly because WENAP was origionally a kind of CEP Cambs follow-on, and partly because I'm not very good with Blogger or anything else internet-wise.

This situation has continued up to now, but from this weekend I have finally found the time to explore the Blogger comments system, found it gloriously straight-forward, and now happily declare COMMENTS OPEN!

I hope that those who have contributed here on a regular basis via e-mail will continue to contribute, and that others will take advantage of the new easier-to-make-your-views-heard system.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

A Wild Goose Chase? In Search Of British Values...

Prospects has been asking fifty of the great and the good about their definitions of British values. Our PM, Mr Brown, has adopted "British" and "Britain" as two words to be repeated repeatedly - to keep the West Lothian Question and his own lack-of-mandatedness at bay. Britishness, he proclaims, is lovely and inclusive - it's the biz...
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So, what do Prospects contributors have to say? The first tome to leap out at me was by a formerly anti-British Muslim, recently converted to being an anti-English Muslim, who ignores that Scottish and Welsh devolution has happened and seems to feel that the English are an exclusive ethnicity, amongst many exclusive ethnicities present in the UK. No need for an English Parliament or inclusive English civic identity:
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This is what Ed Husain, Writer, has to say:
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I was born and raised in Britain, but never felt British. In fact, I actively rejected any notion of Britishness. At the age of 25, I went to live in the middle east for three years and it was there, while living among Arabs, that I discovered that, despite being Muslim, I was distinctly different in many ways.
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Back in Britain, I am concerned that the need to develop a British statement of values is taking place under the dark clouds of home-grown extremism and terrorism. Britishness is an emotion, an experience, a flavour that does not lend itself to empirical definition. But if we must draw up a British statement of values, it should mention the following. The English language, with its inherent modes of thought, culture and expression, binds us together as a nation; it roots us to British culture. And Britain has an exceptional history. The Magna Carta set in motion our heritage as a nation ruled by constitutional law, committed to justice for all. As a country, we want other nations to enjoy the same honour. Britain is a secular, Christian nation with a commitment to religious freedom. Britishness is not Englishness: it is many identities merged to form one nationality.
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The Magna Carta was English, not British. But not to Mr Husain. The goal posts have moved. He used to "actively reject" Britishness. Now he actively rejects Englishness, it seems. Illogical? I fear so. Motivated by some kind of bigoted chip-on-shoulder? I think so.
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Next, we find Rodric Braithwaite pointing out:
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Though I never expected to find myself saying so, the Union Jack is still a symbol of unity. If you are a Bangladeshi whose family is from the subcontinent, you may feel a connection with that flag that you could hardly feel for the red cross of England’s national saint.
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I can only speak from personal experience, but I know of two Muslims who have happily flown the Cross of St George for football and have happily joined pals for a bevy on St George's Day, and there is a Muslim schoolgirl in my village who happily carries a Cross of St George sports bag to and from school. Of course, it is not a Muslim flag. But Muslims know it is the flag of England before they move here and that it forms a large part of the Union flag. It is nonsensical to move to another country and expect it to change its national flag. I have never encountered a Muslim who would expect such a thing - and I live in Cambridgeshire where there is a large Muslim community.
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Stephen Chan meanwhile says:
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What brought me to Britishness was that I didn’t have to swear allegiance to anything. Not a goddamned thing. This was meant to be the most tolerant society on earth and, even now, when I return from escapades in dictatorships, I always walk to Westminster and pay my respect to the Houses of Parliament for letting me live as a different person.
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In this nation of health apartheid and non-representative rule?!! Mr Chan is also quite happy to trample all over English sensibilities:
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I would be happier if those British “core values” were also seen as influenced by Islam, Hinduism, African philosophy, Chinese polyglot mixtures of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism—and that Nasir Khusraw’s defence of intellectual freedom is seen as important as Milton’s defence of free expression.
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We're simply a multi-cultural mish mash. The English are just a minority amongst minorities. We are fragmented. I do believe that Mr Chan has a point, but I also believe that his attitude is crashingly insensitive and dismissive of England and its many years of existence.
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And once again devolution issues do not exist. They are mentioned a couple of times during the whole feature. Many of those expressing their views seem intent on impressing the fact that minorities have apparently contributed every bit as much as the majority; that Britishness is inclusive, Englishness is not; that despite devolution most favour a continuation of the Union (thank you, Mr Linklater!) and so on.
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The fact that you can die in England for want of medications freely available on the NHS in Scotland, or scrimp and save for prescriptions in England free to millionaires in Wales; the fact that Gordon Brown represents a Scots constituency and the majority of legislation passed by his government will not affect his constituents, seems to have passed these worthy observers by. The fact that school classes in England are now averaging over thirty pupils, whilst Scotland is aiming for eighteen, all courtesy of the outrageous Barnett Formula, matters not. How many of these folk send their kids to state run schools?
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It all points to class. Those up there in their ivory towers. Us down here. And of course the Chinese have played just as important a part in England's history as the... er... British (whoops - nearly said "English" there!!). To use an Australian phrase, it's all about people "big noting" themselves and their countries of origin. The ethnicities of those waffling away may have changed over the years, but they ensure that the class system continues to be a major mover and shaker in England today and that those working class peasants who term themselves "English" continue to be demonised, whilst attempts to exorcise the term continue.
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I recall a St George's Day programme on BBC local radio a few years ago: a guy phoned in, said that he was black and English, and the nice middle class, white presenter then spent ages convincing him that he wasn't English. English, it was inferred, wasn't nice. British was the thing to be - everybody was British, including the programme presenter. I was glad that the guy stuck to his guns - at the end of the call he was still proclaming his Englishness.
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Let's move on to the attitudes of Ed Husain - first "actively rejecting" Britishness (although it was his nation of birth) as a youth and now turning his attentions to Englishness. Mr Husain confirms my fears that bigotedness is not confined to those who fancy themselves as being of pure white "Anglo Saxon" or "Celtic" origin.
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We now need an English dimension to British politics - devolution has made it necessary. The great and the good must stop scapegoating the English for all the past sins of Britain - the Welsh, Irish and Scots were just as involved in the old British Empire as the English (in fact, proportionately, the Scots were even more so).
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It's time for the great and the good to stop the waffle, stop their barely suppressed anti-English bile, and face the fact that England must be reborn as a component of the 21st Century UK, bringing with it hopefully a greater spirit of understanding between the UK nations, equality for the electorate in England, and a new sense of Englishness, not so very different from Britishness, which has for far too long smothered and held England hostage and stolen its history, traditions and attitudes for use as its own.


Friday, September 21, 2007

England - Part of the Union?



Health apartheid, the Barnett Formula, discrimination against English students... the evil that Gordon Brown, his Scottish Raj, the "UK" Government, and the Scottish "Government" do against the people of England, whilst English MPs stand by and let them...


Sunday, September 02, 2007

Unmasking The English - More Anti-English Hatred From The BBC and "Proud Scot" Andrew Marr...

From the Daily Mail, WEEKEND magazine:

MONDAY - 3rd September - Unmasking the English, Radio 4, 9am repeated 9.30pm.

'Scotsman Andrew Marr and a panel of 'experts' trot out the usual cliches, in this first of a four part series on Englishness.

They soon draw the conclusion that the English are cold, calculating and much given to self-deprecation. He'd be pretty cross, and rightly so if Radio 4 dealt with the Scots in so cavalier a fashion'....

More anti-English racist stereotyping from the BBC at the behest of a Scot. Can you imagine Auntie making a programme portraying the Scots as tight-fisted, violent, anti-English drunkards?