Missing out on devolution is far worse for England than being left out of the union flag is for Wales

CEP Press Release: 29 Nov 2007

The Welsh MP Ian Lucas has called for the Union Jack to be changed to incorporate a Welsh symbol. He wants the flag to reflect all the four nations of the UK and not just England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. And Margaret Hodge Minister of State at the Dept. of Culture, Media and Sport, has come out in support of the suggestion.

‘If MPs and members of the Government want to bring about equality and fairness in the Union,’ the Campaign for an English Parliament has retorted, ‘then it’s about time it concerned itself with getting rid of far worse inequalities and injustices between the four nations than just what’s on a flag’

‘This government’s Devolution legislation gave self-rule to Scotland, to Wales and to Northern Ireland. Absolutely none whatsoever to England. England is the only nation in the Union without any home rule at all, the only one without its own parliament or assembly. In fact it is the only nation in the EU without its own parliament or assembly.

‘And that is not the only injustice being done to England. Under the now infamous Barnett formula each person in Scotland, Wales and NI has £1500 more spent on them every year than what is spent on any man or woman in England –be it in education or the health service or social services. In addition people of England have to pay for prescriptions, they don’t in Wales and shortly won’t in Scotland either. Students in Scotland get free university, but in England they have tuition fees and top up fees, causing them to leave university with debts up to £20,000.

‘Union MPs should get their priorities right,’ is the demand of the Campaign. ‘What’s on the Union Jack is a very secondary issue. Welsh MPs and UK ministers should regard Justice for England, a Parliament for England, as their first necessity if they want to make the Union a fair and equal partnership of nations’.