The British Soap Awards

Strange logo. Do the organisers of the British Soap Awards know exactly where Britain is?

British soap awards? Only soaps produced in England are eligible.

The annual British Soap Awards are looming. And once again the only soaps eligible for votes are soaps produced in England. Which also happen to be the only soaps that are networked. The BBC allows "River City" to remain preciously Scottish.

And there are are no English/Scots/Welsh catogories to allow "River City" to be voted for - and does Wales still have its own Welsh-speaking soap? It did a few years ago.

Once again, England and the English are submerged by "Britain" and the "British" and the Scots and Welsh are left out in the cold.

This kind of outdated nonsense does nobody any favours.

But never mind, eh, celeb seekers? Why bother your heads?

Google Does St George!

When we retired to bed at around 3am, Google had its usual logo... but checking back in just now we've found the above.

Excellent. We can't reasonably apologise for doubting Google in the first place, but on this occasion we "jumped the gun" and for that we do apologise.

Once again, happy St George's Day, England. Whatever you're doing, have a good day. Where we are it's pouring with rain. England in April in the rain! LOVELY!!

Brollies up!

Channel 4 - Nations and Regions

Tonight I was taking a look at a documentary about Channel 4, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007. Predictably, I found the section on the 1980s the most interesting, and was just skimming through the 90s and 2000s when I discovered footage featuring a Scots guy called Stuart Cosgrove, apparently Channel 4's "Director of Nations And Regions" since 1997.

Now, as we all know that "nations and regions" is basically Nu Labour claptrap which aims to legitimise the abolition of England into regions and bolster up the so-called "Celtic" nations, it seems surprising that Channel 4 has apparently been using the phrase since 1997. Or was the post renamed in more recent times?

Channel 4 has a brown neck from having its head up the Labour Party's arse for so long. In the 80s, I could understand it - in fact, applaud it. But now?!!

Channel 4 seems to have the same regard for the democratic rights of the people of England as the Government. We never voted for a UK of "nations and regions".

And this was the station which recently brought us what could be construed as fascist bile about "pure Celts" and "mongrel English" in programmes like Face Of Britain and 100% English. Click on the Channel 4 label at the bottom of this post for more information on 100% English.

David Cameron Tells Lies About The EU

David Cameron irritates the hell out of me. Not quite as much as Gordon Brown, but he still does.

Cameron is the man who tells those of us in England who don't like health apartheid, the West Lothian Question and the Barnett Formula and who want parity with Scotland that we are "sour little Englanders".

Cameron is the man who speaks proudly of having ancestry who were involved in a "Scottish Empire" and brags of having "Scots blood" flowing through his veins.

Cameron is the man who tells us in England that the Union is everything. Far more important than health apartheid, etc.

Cameron is supposed to be in Opposition to the Government - but it's rarely obvious. Are the Tories SO comfortable that they simply don't want the bother of governing?

And are they, like so many other career politicians, eyeing the glittering prizes available to them through a continuation of the current undemocratic EU set-up? I mean let's face it, integration and interaction on a tiny planet is all to the good, but do we really want dictatorship?

But Mr Cameron thinks its commendable - like Gordy and co, he's willing to tell lies about what would happen if we pulled out of the EU. I'm guessing that he is telling lies. Because I don't think any leading politician could possibly be so thick as to spout the following nonsense in good faith:

Question to David Cameron: Why would you rather be in Europe rather than govern, why don't you want a landslide victory that that policy would give you?

A. The vast majority of the British people want to stay in the EU. From the very next day our businesses will flounder and be unable to export to the EU.

Utter nonsense. Read it all over at "Is There More To Life Than Shoes?"

Campaign For An English Parliament Press Release: England Excluded From Ministerial Meetings

This week there have been vitally important meetings, meetings which directly affect England and the English taxpayer but from which any English representative and English voice have been excluded. They are the regular ministerial meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee. The Committee is made up of the UK Prime Minister, the Scottish First Minister, the Welsh First Minister, the Northern Ireland First Minister, and their deputies, and the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is no one representing England. ‘It is totally weird’ said Scilla Cullen, chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament, ‘how these people still think England is the UK and the UK is England. England is just one of the four parts of the UK and both the identity of England and that of the UK itself should be respected.’

The range of inter-governmental respnsibilites the Committee considers is quite vast. They cover health, the economy, poverty and European issues of which fishing is but one, as well as financial matters and the operation of the Barnett Formula. All involve finance, and it is the English who contribute 84% of the UK tax income. This week JMC meetings have considered the dispute between Scotland and the UK over the £400 million council tax benefit Scotland receives and the £120 million the Scottish Government claims it is owed through the way the Barnett Formula works. Under the Barnett Formula Scotland is entitled to 10% of any money spent in England, in this case on England’s overcrowded prisons, which the Scottish government can then spend on any thing it thinks fit. Lord Joel Barnett himself has called for the formula to be revoked as completly out of date and unfair to England.

‘The Joint Ministerial Committee is only one out of many examples of the grotesquely unfair way in which England has been left out of and penalised by devolution’, says Scilla Cullen ‘It has no voice of its own, absolutely none. Unlike the Scots, the Northern Irish and the Welsh it has no institution with MPs specifically elected to represent its interests. The discrimination practised by the UK state against England and its people is intolerable. It is one of the issues that will be discussed at the National Conference on the future of England on Saturday April 26th from 10:30 to 4:30 at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1, which is free and open to everyone to attend.’

End of Nations - The EU Takeover And The Lisbon Treaty

Politicians no longer listen to us. We want devolution for England as a nation? Hard titty. We want a referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty? Hard titty...

It's odd, but the politicians suddenly seem to be all in it together. The Tories don't really seem to want to challenge New Labour that much - so David Cameron announces that those who want devolutionary parity in England are "sour little Englanders" and goes on to say that the Union is sacred. Health apartheid? Who cares?

Very few politicians in the mainstream parties seem to be acting for the electorate any more. Our wishes are blatantly ignored. So, what is going on? On the devolutionary front, there's definitely a racist, anti-English Scots/Welsh/"British"/PC faction at work, but why so few protests from English MPs?

Why is England so determinedly being broken up into regions, despite the 78% NO vote in the North East, the only area allowed a referendum?

What's going on? Why is democracy going to the wall?

This is essential reading and viewing:

We set out to make a video about the pros and cons of the Lisbon Treaty and found out to our horror the lies, manipulations and deceit behind the EU. From MEPs, legal experts and EU researches the true nature of the EU unfolded, how it really operates from behind closed doors and away from prying eyes. We discovered the massive power grab away from citizens and nations to the elites that is being proposed in this treaty. Most shocking of all was how our elected representatives are willingly handing us over to this emerging Totalitarian Superstate by deception , propaganda and outright lies.

This video details how the structures of the EU really operate, what the full significance of the Lisbon Treaty is and how it is the end of Nations within in the EU. MEPs describe their experience in Brussels and how they are undermined by the real power of the unelected and unaccountable Eurocrats who run the organization. How the politicians are working together for their own selfish needs while being used for a bigger agenda.

The video lasts for 1 hour and 22 minutes. I strongly recommend that you watch it all and read the associated material. It's all here.

EU Lisbon Treaty Death Penalty UPDATE

The Secret Person has been researching the full details of the EU's Lisbon Treaty reinstatement of the Death Penalty:

(a) Article 2(2) of the ECHR:
‘Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article
when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully
detained;
(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.’

(b) Article 2 of Protocol No 6 to the ECHR:
‘A State may make provision in its law for the death penalty in respect of acts
committed in time of war or of imminent threat of war; such penalty shall be applied
only in the instances laid down in the law and in accordance with its provisions…’

Read the full details and analysis at the Secret Person here.

The EU Lisbon Treaty Brings Back The Death Penalty

We're not against the concept of a European Union - we actually love the idea. But not a European Dictatorship - which abolishes nations and basically our right to any say. And that is what is happening with the current EU set up.

It's terrifying. And all our politicians are keeping rather quiet about it - even those shouting are not shouting nearly loud enough, our media is not reporting the truth of what is happening, everything is ignored, lied about or played down to the max, and we, the voters, of course, are being denied a referendum.

All sorts of incredible things are happening, and now, via Wonko, we learn that the libertarian EU, apparently so anti-death penalty, has now decided it is to be reinstated - though the fact is craftily hidden away in a footnote in the Lisbon Treaty: the death penalty is apparently abolished "except in the case of war, riots, upheaval".

We're personally against the death penalty under any circumstances, but here the EU makes it plain it will not be used against proven murderers or the likes but in the event of war or protest.

Looks like our powers to protest against our new Masters are being severely curtailed. Unless we want to pay the ultimate price.

The EU experiment must be halted.

1984 - Orwell's Version Becomes Reality

Experience the horrors of 1984 - no, not that one!

We've viewed with concern the new powers the UK Government has given itself in the name of anti-terrorism, and the pathetic eagerness of some to give up hard fought for civil liberties. And guess what? The new laws have already been used to spy on perfectly ordinary, everyday people - suspected of a highly trivial, non-criminal misdemeanour.

Under the New Labour fright regime, spying on innocent people is a functioning aspect of our lives. The council in Poole, Dorset have taken advantage of the anti-terror laws brought in by the Blair part of this disgraceful government. Poole Borough Council has disclosed that it had legitimately used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy on a family. This family had been "shopped" to the council by an unknown person. For two weeks the middle-class family was followed by council officials who wanted to establish whether they had given a false address within the catchment area of an oversubscribed school to secure a place for their three-year-old.

Read the full, startling and infuriating tale over at A View From Middle England - here.

The Truth About The Unfair Barnett Formula - By Its Creator...

We've known it for years, Lord Joel Barnett, devisor of the Barnett Formula in the late 1970s, has admitted his shame over his name being associated with the Barnett Formula, and now he is speaking up again after Gordon Brown has once more told a bared faced lie in the House of Commons, trotting out that hoary old chestnut that the formula is "needs based".

Says Lord Barnett:

"All I did was put together, almost on the back of an envelope, a mechanism for allocating public expenditure between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on the basis of population - even that was on approximate numbers.

"There was nothing scientific about this but I naively thought it made life easier for me because I didn't need to then have detailed and individual debates with the individual Secretaries of State for the various areas of the UK."

He added: "I don't think I even put it to Cabinet because it was simply a system of expenditure allocation, making life a little easier for me."

Lord Barnett said he thought it would only last a year or two before being replaced by a system based on need.

"The current Prime Minister has frequently said in recent years that the formula is based on need but it isn't.

"It is based on a per-capita basis although varied slightly over the years - a very simple system, very simple but very wrong."

Read the full story here.

Meanwhile, Toque has news of Gordon Brown's latest wheeze - selling off English NHS hospital land and buildings. Read it here.

But, of course, this is only in England - it's only the best for Gordon's own constituents up in Scotland - and for the elites in the two other so-called "Celtic nations"...

Thanks to the Barnett Formula and Gordon's incredibly pronounced anti-English/England stance.

The CEP stands up for English university students while the NUS lets them down

Press Release: CEP stands up for English university students while the NUS lets them down

The CEP carries on with its opposition to the Government’s policy of discrimination against English university students.

The Campaign for an English Parliament has deplored the decision of the National Union of Students last week to end its opposition to the tuition and top-up fees which are being imposed upon English university students.

‘We want every English student to know’, stated Mrs Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the CEP, ‘that the Campaign for an English Parliament will not stop campaigning against the fees New Labour has inflicted on English students while sparing Scottish and Welsh students. English students are being hit with immense debts while Scottish students are not.

In England university students have to pay £3145 each year of their university life. Students loans then have to be repaid at 4.8% interest rates after graduation.

Welsh students don’t have anything like the fee burden English students have. Their fees are only £1255 pa.’

However, in Scotland university students have no fees to pay. What’s more, the Scottish parliament has also made grants up to £2510 available to Scottish students coming from families on low incomes, which are not available in England. To make the discrimination even worse English students at Scottish universities have to pay their fees, while EU students do not; and Scottish students, and indeed Isle of Man students, at English unviersities pay no fees. What is quite grotesque about the whole situation is that, at the same time as the Scottish Parliament was legislatiing to relieve its students of fees, the vote in the UK Parliament to impose top-up fees on English students was carried only by the Scottish MPs in Westminister voting for them to give New Labour its majority in the vote in the House.The majority of English MPs voted against them.

‘The only way forward out of this discrimination’ says Mrs Cullen, ‘is for England to have its own parliament just as Scotland has. The UK government is just seeing England, which provides 85% of its whole tax revenue, as a milch cow from which Scotland and Wales benefit at the expense of the people of England. All the MPs who have imposed these fees upon English students got their university education completely free. The injustice to England is grotesque; and it is time that of the 660 Westminster MPs the 550 who are English start to stand up for their country. England should matter as much to them as Scotland does to the Scottish MPs both at Westminster and Edinburgh. They should stand up for their constituents. I can assure English students that is what an English Parliament will do.’

All students are invited to the CEP National Conference taking place at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn London on Saturday April 26th from 10:30 to 4:30. It is free and open to everyone.

Campaign For An English Parliament: Gordon Brown's Statement Reeks Of Hypocrisy

GORDON BROWN SLAMMED FOR HYPOCRISY AND DOUBLE STANDARDS.

CEP Press Release, Wednesday, 26 March, 2008.

On the eve of announcing a review of devolution in Scotland for the purpose of extending the powers of the Scottish Parliament Gordon Brown denounced nationalism in the UK, saying it was a threat to the stability and the health of the Union.

'His hypocrisy is incredible' Mrs Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign has retorred. 'Simply incredible. It's time he began to have a serious debate with himself. It was Brown who with other prominent Scottish MPs such as Alistair Darling who signed the Scottish 'Claim of Right' in Edinburgh in 1989 declaring that under the UN Charter of the Rights of Nations Scotland had 'the right to govern itself'. It was he, together with Alistair Darling and his fellow Scottish MPs, who then put their signatures to the solemn promise 'to make the interests of Scotland paramount in everything they did'. It was Brown who was the engine behind the Scottish Constitutional Convention and steamrolled the legislation setting up a Scottish Parliament through Westminster in 1998. If the Union is now under threat, it is Gordon Brown who more than anyone else has wounded it.'

'What is even more hypocritical', Mrs Cullen has stated,' is the way he is now denouncing English nationalism after he spent the 80s and most of the 90s fomenting Scottish nationalism and making Scotland some 75% independent of the United Kingdom and self-ruling in all its internal affairs. He is trying to represent the rise in English patriotism as a threat to the Union when all we want is what he got for his own Scotland. He let the genie of Scottish nationalism out of the bottle, it was who unscrewed the lid. Now we want the chance to speak our minds in a referendum like his people did. We want the same opportunity to consider and debate our future just like Scotland has had. To achieve that the Campaign is organising a major national conference open to everyone to take place Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London on April 26th. Speakers include Frank Field MP, Canon Kenyon Wright OBE, Simon Lee of Hull University and Hugo de Burgh Professor of Journalism at Westminster University'


for contacts:

Michael Knowles Head of Media Unit, Campaign for an English Parliament
Tel: 01260 271139. Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk

Scilla Cullen, Chairman
Tel: 01439 833155 Email: scilla.cullen@thecep.org.uk

CEP: Prescription Charges Blow A Huge Hole In The Very Idea Of A United Kingdom

Campaign For An English Parliament Press Release.

What sort of Union has the United Kingdom become?

With the announcement from the Scottish Parliament that prescription charges will be reduced to £5 in Scotland and abolished altogether in 2011; and from the Union Parliament that they will be increased to £7.10p in England; while in Wales its Assembly has already made them free to all its population, the question has been asked yet again: What sort of Union is the United Kingdom?

'It is a Union in which the people of England are discriminated against at every turn when they look at what is happening in Scotland and Wales,' said Mrs Veronica Newman, Secretary of the Campaign for an English Parliament. 'And this is only one of an ever-increasing list of differences between the three countries which has come about since Scotland and Wales got devolution and we in England did not. What makes in unbelievably worse is the fact that the Union government makes it all possible for Scotland and Wales through taxation upon English tax payers. Every English tax payer pays £281 more tax per year to subsidise Scotland which does not collect in enough tax to pay its way. The unfairness and the discrimination is getting beyond belief'.'

Mrs Newman, who is also the organiser of the Campaign in the county of Wiltshire, raised the whole issue at a meeting of her branch members. 'Where are the 550 MPs who out of the 650 in the Union Parliament represent English constituencies?' she asked. 'Why don't they show concern for their English constituents who are being treated so unfairly? What are they elected by their English constituents for if not to stand up for them? Why do they keep silent and let this happen? All five ministers in the Department of Health: Alan Johnson, Dawn Primarolo, Ben Bradshaw, Ann Keen and Ivan Lewis are English MPs. Yet not one of them shows the slightest concern at this gross injustice. What are they in office as MPs and as ministers for? '

The Head of the CEP Media Unit has circulated a statement to all the membership in which he asks the question which everyone is now beginning to think about. 'Could it be the case that with a Scottish Prime Minister and a Scottish Chancellor of the Exchequer the Union finances are being used to benefit Scotland over England? After all,' he said, 'in 1989 both men signed the Scottish Claim of Right which expressly committed them to making the interests of Scotland paramount in everything they did as MPs. Only if England has its own parliament like Scotland has, can it stand up for just and fair treatment by the Union of the English people'

The Campaign is holding an Open Conference on 'The Future of England' at which these and related issues will be debated. It takes place in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London on Saturday April 26th from 10:30 to 4:30. Principle speakers are Frank Field MP, Simon Lee Department of Politics Hull University, Canon Kenyon Wright of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and Professor Hugo de Burgh of Westminster University. The conference is free to attend and open to the public.

End of press release.

for contacts:

Michael Knowles Head of Media Unit, Campaign for an English Parliament

Tel: 01260 271139. Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk

Scilla Cullen, Chairman

Tel: 01439 833155

Email: scilla.cullen@thecep.org.uk