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

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Anti-English Supermarkets - Tesco And Sainsbury's, The Saga Continues...

We saw a frankly potty display of meat products in Tesco's on Saturday. On the top shelf was a whole range of "Scottish" meat products, complete with Saltire on the packaging. Below them was a whole range of "British" meat products - complete with Union Flag. When you consider that Britain came about because of the Union of Scotland and England, and that the Saltire is actually featured as part of the Union Flag, this can only be seen as being absolutely potty at best and anti-English at worst.

We're afraid the latter is the case.

Today, in Sainsbury's in Sidney Street, Cambridge (this is the store we mentioned before, which celebrated St Andrew's Day with a piper and Saltires galore and ignored St George's Day), we found "British" strawberries from "Kent, UK" - complete with Union Flag - and raspberries from "Angus, Scotland". No Union Flag on the packaging - no flag at all.

There was also lots of bunting festooned around the fruit displays, featuring the Union Flag and the slogan "British And In Season".

We popped off to the local market for some good, cheap local produce - much of which was actually marked "English".

Bliss.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Uncaring David Cameron - The Union Comes Before English Lives!

David Cameron has been in Scotland again telling the Scottish Conservative Conference: "I am passionate about our Union. I do not want to be the prime minister of England. I want to be prime minister of the United Kingdom - all of it, including Scotland."

But the Scots also have a First Minister and a parliament to represent their interests. England doesn't and David Cameron seems perfectly happy for that state of affairs to continue.

"Better an imperfect Union than a broken one. Better an imperfect Union than a perfect divorce. My answer is simple. I choose the United Kingdom."

It fascinates me that David Cameron sees fit to condone an "imperfect Union" when it is only England that is disadvantaged.

It fascinates me that David Cameron has a pronounced jingoistic streak that prompts him to brag of "Scottish blood" in his veins and that certain of his ancestors "...were Scottish Empire builders - conquered all sorts of parts of India, I think."

Mr Cameron has roundly attacked those in England calling for equality as "sour little Englanders". He has told various Scots audiences that the English need to understand the Scots better and that the English are basically rather thoughtless and insensitive types - to say the least!

The truth is that the English do not have the same democratic representation as the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish. The truth is that English lives are not valued as highly as those elsewhere in the UK. The truth is that public services for the English are not funded as well as those in other parts of the UK.

The most dreadful discrimination is levelled against every citizen of England. And David Cameron plays it down. He slags off the English to the Scots. He says he favours an "imperfect Union" above no Union - and damn England. Damn you.

David Cameron plays down or ignores the absolutely horrendous facts of life in the devolved "UK". Like health apartheid:

A grandmother battling lung and brain cancer is paying £1,500 a month for the drug that is keeping her alive - even though it is free on the NHS in Scotland.

Carol Rummels, 60, was given just two months to live when doctors discovered tumours in her lungs and on her brain.

A year after her diagnosis, she is still fighting and, thanks to the £5,000 she has spent on the drug Tarceva, her tumours are shrinking.

If she had lived 285 miles north, the lifesaving drug would be free.

Read the full story here.

Mr Cameron told the Scottish Conservative Conference: "Being British is one of the most successful examples of inclusive civic nationalism in the world. We can be a shining example of what a multi-ethnic, multi-faith multi-national society can and should be."

Really? Newcomers to England are only offered a "British" option. Englishness is not on offer to them. Politicians seem to thrive on this divide and rule tactic, demonising Englishness as "exclusive" and "racist" in the process. Many Scots and Welsh people have long bitterly rejected Britishness. The English have seen their own country and their own national institutions submerged beneath a suffocating blanket of Britishness.

Wonderfully inclusive Britishness, with equality for all?

Why isn't Mr Cameron expressing outrage about health apartheid, the West Lothian Question and the Barnett Formula? Why isn't he expressing outrage on behalf of people like Mrs Rummels?

Answers please - and Mr Cameron, what have you got to say for yourself? And what do you say to the likes of Mrs Rummels?
To recap, at the conference, Mr Cameron said: "Better an imperfect Union than a broken one. Better an imperfect Union than a perfect divorce. My answer is simple. I choose the United Kingdom."

But then of course, Mr Cameron doesn't have to depend on the English NHS, does he?

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Campaign For An English Parliament Press Release: A Display Of Staggering Hypocrisy On The Part Of Gordon Brown...

The refusal of Gordon Brown to support the demand by Wendy Alexander Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland for the SNP to call a independence referendum amounts to a staggering display of hypocrisy on his part. 'Gordon Brown made a solemn pledge specifically to the people of Scotland, and to them alone, that in his every action and deliberation he would support their right to decide the form of government best suited to their needs,' Michael Knowles, member of the National Council of the Campaign for an English Parliament has said to a meeting of CEP members in Congleton in Cheshire. 'But he is now opposing that very right of the Scottish people which he had declared he supported.'

In Edinburgh on March 30th 1989 together with 133 fellow members of the Scottish Constitutional Convention Brown put his signature to what the SCC called the Scottish Claim of Right. It read: ‘We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests will be paramount’. He signed that pledge. So did the present Speaker of the House, Michael Martin. Gordon Brown had been the driving force behind the SCC. His vision of Scotland's future was for it to remain within the United Kingdom but in the most beneficial and unique position as could be attained and maintained. He devised and promoted the policy of Scotland having its own own parliament with total power over all its internal affairs such as education and health. In 1997 on coming to power and as Chancellor of the Exchequer he put through the Scottish devolution legislation which in 1998 established the Scottish Parliament and the astonishing degree of 75% of independence for Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom, while retaining the right of Scottish MPs like himself to become UK Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers; and retaining access for Scotland for the funds, denied to England, for free university education, free personal care for the elderly, in due course free prescriptions, many other advantages such as a freeze on council tax rises, and retention of the Barnett Formula which gives £1500 expenditure more per head of population in Scotland than in England. For Brown it was essential that Scotland remained in the UK if it was to to continue to have access to UK wealth and power, 80% of which is produced by England and enable Scots like himself to become the UK Prime Minister. For that reason he has always opposed the SNP claim for total independence for Scotland.

'Gordon Brown thinks he knows what is best for Scotland,' Michael Knowles stated to the meeting. 'Though he pledged himself to support and work for the right of the Scottish people to determine for themselves the form of government best suited to thr needs, he believes he know best what that best form is. And to his mind it is not independence. It is instead,he believes, what he achieved in the 1998 devolution legislation.'

'It is a staggering display of arrogance and hypocrisy on his part, that having made the 1989 Pledge of the Scottish Claim of Right to leave it to the Scottish People to decide what form of government they wanted, for him to oppose a referendum on independence. His fear of an outcome different from what he wants for Scotland does not justify his refusal to let the Scots choose for themselves the form of government best suited to Scotland. It is illogical and it is hypocritical,; stated Mr Knowles.


for contacts:
Scilla Cullen, Chairman
Tel: 01438 833155 Email: scilla.cullen@thecep.org.uk

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

David Cameron - No Hope For The "Sour Little Englanders"...

"Sour Little Englanders!" says David Cameron...

Since the disastrous results of the local elections for Labour, there's been a sudden rise in chortling Tory types where once there were screeches of "Justice For England". Despite David Cameron's pronounced anti-English/England stance, we're supposed to vote for him and embrace a new Tory Government which does not promise anything that different from the old NuLabour one.

"If Cameron gets in, we'll end up with better!" seems to be the glib assurance. I'm not so sure. He hasn't said.

"If Cameron get in, we'll end up with an English Parliament after a while!" seems to be another glib assurance doing the rounds.

I'm not convinced about that, either.

David Cameron is unfeeling and anti-English - whilst posing as "English". He doesn't care about health apartheid in England, or the elderly selling their homes and plundering their savings for care that is free in Scotland. He doesn't care that the poor scrimp and save in England for prescriptions free to millionaires in Wales.

A parliament for England? No!

West Lothian Question resolved? Don't bother - it's not even on his "top five list" of priorities!

Are we seeing a re-emergence of Little Britisher Tory types? I think we are. But for those of us who are genuinely concerned about the situation in England, remember that David Cameron is not committed to what is best for you, he values the Union above and beyond your lives if you happen to live in England, and his spitefulness towards the English often spills out on his visits to Scotland. Remember this is the man who declared those of us calling for parity: "Sour Little Englanders!"

For calling for equality in medical provision?

For calling for equality in social care provision?

For calling for democratic equality?

For calling for public spending equality?

Mr Cameron also tends to bang on about his forebears and the "Scottish Empire".

It's all very well to welcome the deserved drubbing of NuLabour at the recent polls, it's all very well to welcome the idea of a change, but fawning all over David Cameron and forgetting his hateful attitude towards England is not something I can manage.

Monday, May 05, 2008

"You WILL Be Regionalised!" Says The BBC

Remember John Prescott's regionalisation campaign in England and how it failed? The North East voted 78% NO in a referendum, and Nu Labour decided not to give anybody else a say and continue the regionalisation process without a mandate from the electorate?

Well, it's jobs for the boys (sorry - I mean "persons") and the usual sterling Government arse licking from the thoroughly "impartial" BBC, who are now advertising for a "Brand Executive, English Regions".

Keep up the brainwashing, Auntie - you undemocratic old bitch, you!

Hat tips to For England and Waking Hereward.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Is It Good News For England That The Tories Have Done Well?


The local election results show that the Conservatives have given New Labour a well-deserved drubbing, but is that good news for England?

England lacks a First Minister, but hear David Cameron:

"I want to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, not England".

So, is Mr Cameron proposing an English Parliament complete with English First Minister? No, actually - he most definitely isn't.

England is severely disadvantaged by devolution - Scots lives are valued higher than English ones and prescriptions are free to millionaires in Wales, but hear David Cameron:

"I would rather have an imperfect Union rather than some perfect constitutional construct that would threaten the Union."

Roughly translated, this means that discrimination against the English is fine, so long as the Union is preserved.

And the West Lothian Question, which allows non-accountable MPs to vote on English legislation? It's not one of David Cameron's "top five issues"

The democratic deficit levelled against England as a nation is attracting increasing attention, but hear David Cameron:

"Sour Little Englanders".

David poses as being English, but let's face it national loyalties are all in the mind and Mr Cameron has bragged about "Scots blood" in his veins (whatever's that?!) and made bizarre jingoistic comments that some of his forebears:

"...were Scottish Empire builders - conquered all sorts of parts of India, I think."

Mr Cameron has been very happy to nip up to Scotland to diss the English on many occasions.

And as for the EU? Oh dear, whilst many want more say and doubt the benefits of the EU, Mr Cameron says:

"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."

The vast majority of the British people want to stay in the EU, Mr Cameron? When was the referendum? And the stuff about our businesses floundering and not being able to export to the EU is pure hogwash.

The Tories did well in the local elections only because New Labour has been so unbelievably awful. But the Tories could wipe the floor with the opposition if they would simply make democratic parity for England their priority.

But with David Cameron at the helm, that isn't likely.

And dissention in the ranks is not noticeable.

Perhaps being an Opposition MP is simply too comfortable these days, and the glittering rewards offered to gravy train riders from an EU future far too glittering to resist simply for the sake of democracy.

Whatever the reason, Cameron and Co are not in politics for the benefit of the people of England.

Paul Points The Finger...

The election of two British National Party councillors in the town of Heanor (a "fairly unremarkable little place", according to Paul Linford), East Derbyshire, has Mr Linford proclaming "The Shame Of Derbyshire". Very worrying indeed, but surely the shame must rest mostly with our mainstream political parties?

New Labour which broke its promise over the EU referendum?

New Labour, which thinks mass immigration and payment of slave wages is great for the economy?

New Labour with its skewed system of devolution bringing us health apartheid, the West Lothian Question, etc. (one could perhaps call it a racist government - racist against every man, woman and child in England!).

The Tories - with David Cameron prattling on about "Scots blood" in his veins, the "Scottish Empire" and how the Union is more important than parity for the electorate in England?

The Lib Dems - who have been backing the creation of elite electorates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for a very long time?

Charges of racism CAN be brought on the grounds of nationality, so we could say that the mainstream parties are all inherently RACIST against the people of England. Remember, a Scots' life is worth more than one in England.

I am very concerned at the rise of the BNP, to anybody considering voting for this party I would say reconsider a thousand times, but I also believe that the BNP's rise is more than a little due to the mainstream parties ignoring the concerns of the electorate, becoming increasingly withdrawn and autocratic. The current EU set-up is not helping. We want a Union, not a dictatorship.

And Mr Linford seemed very happy when Gordon Brown was appointed PM., despite the fact that he was unelected and a great deal of his government's legislation would not have any effect on his own constituents.

The success of the BNP worries me. But so does the attitude of Mr Linford, writing about "Shame" without bothering to think about "Cause". The attitudes of the mainstream parties, including Mr Linford's own beloved New Labour, can hardly be called non-racist or democratic, either.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Canon Kenyon Wright - The Same Old Lie About The Poll Tax

Distributed in Cambridge, England, in late 1988 - this was an anti-Poll Tax campaign leaflet. It reveals that the Tax was very much a definite for England from the beginning. Public campaign meetings began on January 2, 1989.

Canon Kenyon Wright is a Scotsman and the Campaign for an English Parliament have huddled around him in recent years because he was first Chairman of the Executive Council of the Scottish Constitutional Convention. All very good, but when the man starts spouting the usual nonsense about why Scotland became quite so disaffected with the old Union, it makes my stomach turn.

No Tory me, quite the reverse, but this sort of nonsense from Canon Kenyon Wright still annoys me intensely:

We in our turn, pointed out that, while the votes of Scottish MPs would have made a difference only for two or three years since the war, the votes of English MPs imposed policies on Scotland for some 50 years. This came to a head when the Thatcher Government not only made us guinea pigs for the Poll Tax, but imposed on us measure after measure which the Scottish people and their Representatives had manifestly and massively rejected.

The Scots had a Secretary of State and it was this Secretary of State, George Younger, who in 1989 requested Scotland have the Poll Tax a year early. And no, Scotland was not a "guinea pig". The Tax was an absolute definite in England as early as 1988. I was part of a campaign (please click on illustration at top of post) which was formed to try and prevent the implementation of the Tax in Cambridge, England. We laid our plans in late 1988 and began meeting in January 1989.

Here's Malcolm Rifkind (in a letter to the Scotsman (22/9/2006),on the subject:

It has sometimes been suggested that the decision to introduce the poll tax in Scotland a year earlier than in England was to enable it to be tested. This is untrue, as those active in Scottish politics at the time will confirm.

The background is well known. Scotland, which had suffered a rates revaluation, was in uproar about the unfairness of the domestic rates system. Rates were also unpopular in England and the government decided to abolish them and replace them with the community charge or poll tax throughout Britain.

For various technical reasons it was going to take much longer for the legislation to be prepared in England than in Scotland. George Younger, who was then Scottish secretary, persuaded the Cabinet that the legislation should be introduced as soon as possible in Scotland and should not have to wait until the English were ready. His Cabinet colleagues accepted this request.

At no time was its timing pressed on Scottish Office ministers by Margaret Thatcher or English colleagues.


Canon Kenyon Wright speaks a great deal of sense and I urge you to read his speech (here) but this constant nonsense from Scots about the Poll Tax really hacks me off.

Whatever the justification for setting up a Scottish Constitutional Convention, Scotland being used as a "guinea pig" for the Poll Tax is one that holds water with only the most deluded of people.

I find Canon Kenyon Wright's lie downright offensive. There are many of us in England who were beginning the fight back against the Poll Tax in 1988 - and those of us that were there KNOW that it was a definite for England. It's not our fault that George Younger, Scottish Secretary of State, requested it a year early for Scotland.

And in this case, Maggie T, who was as popular with me as rabies, was not to blame.

For more on the Poll Tax, please click on the label below.