Why England Needs A Parliament

Why Do English Bloggers Insist On Celt And Celtic?

2010-11-15T23:56:00.002Z

One of the biggest causes of artificial divisions between the English, Scots and Welsh is the use of the word "Celt" or "Celtic".

It has been proven that the English were and are not Anglo Saxons, and that the Scots and Welsh were and are not Celts.

It's a myth. There may be cultural influences, but we are not separate ancient tribes - and certainly not ancient WHITE tribes.

The so-called Celts have become another group oppressed and abused by the awful English in centuries past.

The term is often used in a racist sense by Welsh, Scots and Cornish writers to imply a sense of belonging to this island far more than the people of England.

So, why do so many English bloggers and web site owners seem so happy to perpetuate the myth?

Hundreds And Thousands Trifles With Life - And Clearly Doesn't Remember 1982...

2010-07-13T17:05:00.005+01:00

This is great - it's from a very "clever" blog called "Hundreds And Thousands (On The Trifle Of Life)":

In fact, for those of us old enough to remember, we seem to have been here before.

Cuts in public services…

Civil unrest in Northern Ireland…

Rising unemployment…

Military action in parts of the world that no-one in the UK really gives a fuck about…

Why, it’s 1982 again!

Cuts in public services? Began before 1982 (or indeed the 1980s, dear).

Civil unrest in Northern Ireland?

Began before 1982 (or indeed the 1980s, dear).

Rising unemployment?

Began before 1982 (or indeed the 1980s, dear).

Isn't it interesting when somebody writes a blog post that doesn't make any sense?

Not that we'd ever do it here (er...).

But then we don't pretend to remember 1982.

Far too much Stella Artois...

And Chris was concussed by a swinging deelybopper...

BBC Tucks Away England To Conceal Truth About NHS Budget Cuts

2010-06-22T22:52:00.003+01:00

We all know that the BBC is fully involved in covering up wherever possible the blatant discrimination by the UK Government against the people of England, and, in the wake of the Budget, here's another little gem:

The Department of Health says it is to make cuts of £4.35bn over three years in an "efficiency savings" drive.

It is the biggest contribution to £11bn of government savings announced in last year's pre-Budget report.

Ah, the Department of Health! So, we're still a United Kingdom, are we? All will share the pain?

But tucked away under other Budget cuts news, five paragraphs down:

The health service in England faces making the biggest cuts - £4.35bn, which it says can be achieved through procurement, savings in its national IT programme, energy efficiency, better use of property and reducing staff sick leave, something it says alone could save £555m.

Ah, so it's only the health service in ENGLAND is it, that is making cuts of £4.35bn?

Neatly tucked away by the twisted BBC.

And I bet David "Sour Little Englanders" Cameron and Nick "Hardly Anybody Voted For Me, But Look At Me Now - LOADS OF MONEY!" Clegg are well chuffed.

I really hate the BBC.

The British Bastard Corporation, bent on deceit.

Socialist Unity - Andy Newman Talks Trash About The '70s - And Turns The Comments Off!

2010-06-19T15:33:00.005+01:00

We laughed like drains when we read this by Andy Newman at Socialist Unity:

The 1970s were a dangerous time, with a widespread culture of heavy drinking and violence, and the cross-dressing and androgony of glam rock bands was unsettling to a world with stultifying heterosexual conformity. This was before such statements would be considered as ironic, and were instead slightly regarded as uncomfortable and slightly threatening.

Andy Newman, do you REMEMBER the 1970s?!!

"Widespread heavy drinking and violence"? The "cross-dressing and androgony of glam rock bands was unsettling to a world with stultifying heterosexual conformity"?!!

Oh PURLEASE!

Bands like The Sweet made it absolutely plain that they were STRAIGHT, MATE at the time, these men did not dress up to make a statement about their sexuality! And they were embraced as heroes by the gobby council estate urchins where I lived, who thought it was a "right larf".

Also, we'd been quite comfortable with the likes of Danny La Rue cross-dressing well before the 1970s.

The '70s were a time of increasing violence, it's true, but there was an embedded culture of heavy drinking before that decade on the council estate where I lived, and I'm sure amongst other classes.

Boy George in the 1980s was really the first mainstream pop star to arouse feelings of discomfort amongst certain people. And that was because he wasn't heterosexual.

But THAT was in the 1980s! Musn't mention the 1980s, eh, Andy? No possibility of any move-on in attitudes in the Thatcher era in your revisionist little world?!!

If you're going to make revisionist comments about the 1970s, please do us one favour, matey - turn the comments ON!!

But we weren't so ignorant that a bit of glitter and lippy on male pop stars was going to freak us out.

BBC Cornwall's Graham Smith - Encouraging The Racist "Celtic" Myth

2010-06-16T13:53:00.007+01:00

Regular readers here know that we favour recognition of Cornwall's demands to leave the UK (note - leave - not become another elitist "Celtic" nation hanger-on like Scotland and Wales - this is what some of the "Cornish" nationalists seem to be seeking), but we don't favour the Celtic myth.

This was something rather romantically applied to the Scots and Welsh in the 1700s. It's not accurate, but who cares? Well, we do because it smacks of racism (some of those charming neighbours of ours use it to assert the myth they were here first and therefore should have the right to boot the rest of us out), but however it is used it is false and racist.

The Celts were ancient WHITE tribes, and the term is frankly offensive when applied to modern day areas of the UK.

The PC crowd fawn all over it, of course, seeing an (invented) ethnicity claiming to have been treated badly by the horrid English. But that is not the truth.

Yes to us saying a fond farewell to Cornwall if its people so desire it, NO to fake and exclusive claims of "pure" ethnicity!

Worryingly, Graham Smith of BBC Radio Cornwall seems quite happy to flag up the Celtic myth.

Many thanks to my friends in the Kernow branch of the Celtic League for their press release announcing they have been granted "Roster Status" within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations.

Many thanks to his friends?!

Surely he should be impartial?!

What is wrong with the BBC?!!

Mark Easton Of The BBC: More Anti-English Nonsense...

2010-06-14T23:12:00.003+01:00

On Friday, a friend joked that he didn't realise I was a BNP supporter when he saw an England flag on my car. It was a joke but also a reminder of how our national emblem was appropriated by racists during the 1970s and '80s.

Says Mark Easton of the BBC.

Excuse me, Mark, but do you actually remember the 1970s and (ugh - for a BBC type to write) '80s?

I do.

And I never even saw a St George's Flag.

Racist groups used the Union Flag as their emblem.

The BNP still does - flanked by the flags of Scotland, England and Wales.

Proceeding into the comments, we find the usual nonsense - our post-imperialist guilt (surely it was the BRITISH Empire - why don't the Scots and Welsh feel guilty?), and the reasons why the English are so disliked - arrogant swines, aren't we?

Fortunately, there were plenty of other comments pointing out that the flag of choice of racist groups in the past was the Union Flag. And that we should be able to wave the English flag. Predictably, one commenter pointed out that newcomers to Scotland and Wales feel more inclined to call themselves "Scottish" or "Welsh", but in England the term is "British".

Of course. That's because new arrivals in England have "British" stuffed down their throats.

Scotland and Wales have their own national governing bodies and the words "Scottish" and "Welsh" are well to the fore.

I think it really is time the UK broke up.

What is happening to the people of England is criminal - the manipulation to keep us under the Union cosh.

And Mark Easton - believe me, if I had any option I would not be contributing to your salary.

But in our wonderful free country, as you work for the BBC, I HAVE to.

What Britishness Can And Does Do That Englishness Doesn't Is To Discriminate Against All Citizens Of England

2010-06-14T11:43:00.005+01:00

"What Englishness can't do that Britishness can do is appeal unambiguously to people of different ethnic origins," notes Janan Ganesh, political correspondent for The Economist.

It's the BBC reporting again.

But Janeh Ganesh is talking cobblers.

Britishness is not and was never intended to be a blanket nationality simply aimed at everybody living in England.

It was intended to be the blanket nationality of everybody living in England, Scotland and Wales.

With the will to do so, the word "English" could be substituted for the word "British" and an inclusive, civic English nationality be developed.

New arrivals in England have "Britishness" rammed down their threats.

Whilst the PC crowd waste no opportunity to demonise Englishness as a non-inclusive, racist mind set.

But the English have long been a "mongrel" nation.

And all the better for it.

What Britishness does is place every man, woman and child in England at a serious disadvantage when compared to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The West Lothian Question, the Barnett Formula and devolution have seen to that.

The same BBC article also flags up the BBC's bizarre obsession with the 1970s:

In reacting against the multi-cultural and fragmented way in which history has been taught since the 1970s, there is a danger that the pendulum could swing too far the other way.

Um, my wife and others I know will vouch for the fact that British history has been taught with an anti-English bias in English schools since well before the 1970s.

And at the same time, whilst I recall the anti-Englishness rampant in history teaching at the comphrehensive school I attended from 1976-1981, I do not recall a "multi-cultural and fragemented" method of teaching.

If that has happened, I'm sure it was more a product of the PC 1980s and 1990s.

But the BBC musn't mention the 1980s.

Unless it's negative, of course.

Jon Kelly - Racist BBC - The "Celtic Nations"

2010-06-11T20:36:00.004+01:00

Here's Jon Kelly writing for the BBC:

As the World Cup kicks off, many football fans from the UK's celtic nations say they will support ABE - Anyone But England. Why does this inflame so much passion on both sides?

Um, so the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are Celts, are they? Descendants of ancient white tribes?

Given that they weren't even called that until the 1700s, and we live in a modern day, multi-ethnic UK, I find the "Celtic" thing hard to believe.

After all, if the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish are all of common (white) stock, why was Shirley Bassey so proud to be Welsh? If they look after each other as some kind of "brotherhood", why was Ireland partitioned by Lloyd George, a Welsh Prime Minister? Why aren't the Scots screaming that their "Celtic" cousins in Wales deserve parity with Scotland - equal spending and a parliament?

When will the BBC stop perpetrating the myth that the English are racists, unfit to lick any body's boots, whilst boosting up the populist, racist "Celtic" myth of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

And why do the English HAVE to pay for this dreadful organisation, so intent on doing them down?

Gary Younge - Don't Mention The '80s! - "Wally Of The Week"!

2010-06-08T17:19:00.003+01:00

Gary Younge wrote in the New Statesman:

When I was growing up in Stevenage in Hertfordshire during the 1970s, the question of who to support in the World Cup never posed much of a dilemma for my family. We backed Brazil. Nearby Hitchin may have been where I was born and, with the exception of a six-week family trip to Barbados to see relatives, England may have been the only country I knew. But when it came to my footballing allegiance, I got my kicks from a country I knew nothing about and with which I had absolutely no connection. At the time, this seemed entirely logical.

Ah, so he grew up - or did a lot of his growing-up in the 1970s, did he?

A quick check revealed he was born in 1969. So he turned ten in 1979.

How hilarious!

I am not the person I was in the 1970s

writes Gary.

No, dear, you're not a tiny little boy any more, are you?

Honestly, the lengths some people will go to to avoid mentioning the 1980s - which is also where Mr Younge did rather a lot of growing up as well, is it not?

What is it with the young PC crowd that mention of the '80s should be avoided at all costs, and claims made on the previous decade which, in reality, they can barely remember - and if they do probably found downright miserable?

Mr Younge and the rest of the enlightened PC crowd are obviously STILL in need of growing up!

In the dreaded 1980s, TV columnist Nina Myskow used to award a media personality the title "Wally Of The Week".

And just for this week we're reviving that title - Gary Younge, you are our Wally Of The Week!

Take a bow.

Power 2010 - Home Rule For England

2010-04-26T04:13:00.003+01:00

Power 2010 projected the image of the Cross of St George and the slogan "Home Rule" onto the Houses of Parliament...

And were quickly ordered to remove it.

The act served two useful purposes:

1) To highlight the democratic deficit in England.

2) To highlight the fact that we are now living in a police state.

Oh, for the good old days of freedom.

About fifteen years ago.

Why we shouldn't support Cornwall's independence movement...

2010-04-26T03:31:00.004+01:00

A Cornish nationalist has told us point blank that we "should support Cornish independence". We disagree. We've been bombarded by tales of the area's "Celticness", the awful past actions of the English, and other things.

But as the "Celtic" thing is actually quite recent, and the true impact of Celtic genetic material in the UK is thought to be very scant indeed, we don't think that this is grounds for supporting independence for Cornwall.

Nope, we don't need to encourage such myths about ancient white tribes.

And the "we have more right here than anybody else - we've been here much longer than you," ethos.

We've read quite a lot from "Celtic" nationalists which smacks of anti-English - and other - bigotry.

We don't want to bolster that.

What we should be doing, in our very humble opinion, is to support those in Cornwall who would like a referendum on the matter.

It's up to the people there to decide. Nobody else.

And it should be their RIGHT to decide if they wish to become a free standing country.

Anything else on the part of the rest of England is sticky beaking - and supporting something which contains elements many of us don't fully understand.

And which also contains elements some of us find disturbing - and appears to be relentlessly hostile and uncaring regarding our efforts to get a fairer deal for England as a nation.

Pam Giddy: Nations and Regions

2010-02-25T16:59:00.003Z

Here's Pam Giddy, Director of Power 2010:

Power 2010 has full-time organisers in every nation and region of the UK .

Nations and regions, Ms Giddy? Surely the UK is a union of nations and the province of Northern Ireland, often referred to as a nation? The only area of England allowed a referendum on regionalisation - effectively the break-up of England by the Imperialist UK Government - voted over 70% NO.

So, where is your respect for the democratic will of the people?

Or were you, in fact, referring to Scotland or Wales as a region?

I suspect not.

Peter Facey And Unlock Democracy - When It Comes To England, Lock-Up Democracy...

2010-02-17T20:04:00.006Z

EWe're puzzled as to why Unlock Democracy sent out a rallying call to its supporters to deny England the chance of English Votes On English Laws being included in the Power 2010 top five. But it did.

Very strange.

Of course, EVoEL is not absolutely what we want - far from it - but its inclusion in the top five Power 2010 votes would help to keep the question of how England is governed - and the unfair deal all its citizens are receiving - on the political agenda.

We urge readers to go to Power 2010 and vote for EVoEL. If you live in England, it makes sense.

You can do it here.

Campaign For An English Parliament - '70s Music Was Better Than '60s!

2010-01-13T20:00:00.004Z

Here at WENAP we are big fans of the CEP. But this made us smile:

We are seeing an orchestrated attempt to destroy our English Rock music heritage (which in the 1970s was the best in the world) through the continued dumbing down and sabotage of our culture.

So glad that the CEP recognises how great was the music scene of the 1970s.

The '60s with the Beatles and the Stones and the emergence of Led Zep and Deep Purple? Pooh, we are impervious to that vapid decade's charms - give us Little Willy Won't Go Home and Disco Duck any day!

And we musn't forget that future greats like Duran Duran were formed in the 1970s (1978). OK, Simon Le Bon didn't join till 1980, but still...

LOL!

Of course at the end of the day when it comes to music it's all down to personal opinion, but passing off personal opinion as fact (the 1970s saw English rock music as being the best in the world) strikes us as a little bit sad.

Stick to the point - and stick to the verifiable facts, CEP, please - don't alienate readers with the off-topic (and frankly rather dubious) opinions of your writers!

CEP Press Release: No smoke without fire: secrecy over devolution (The Jack Straw Veto)

2009-12-12T16:42:00.000Z

Yesterday (10 December), Jack Straw vetoed releasing the minutes of a 1997 Cabinet Ministerial Committee Meeting on Devolution to Scotland and Wales and the English Regions. He stated that releasing the information would be against the public interest, citing the doctrine of collective responsibility, although the disclosure had previously been approved by the Information Commissioner on June 23rd 2009.

According to the Ministry of Justice, this is only the second time since the Freedom of Information Act was introduced in 2005 that a request granted by an Information Tribunal has been vetoed � out of 160,000 requests. The previous occasion on which the veto was imposed was in February 2009 in respect of the disclosure of the minutes of two cabinet meetings leading up to the Iraq war.

What are Jack Straw and the Ministry of Justice so concerned with concealing? What was said in a meeting about devolution that was so dangerous that it can‘t be made public? What deals were done to break up England and preserve the dominance of Scottish politicians? The English public deserves to know.

This meeting, twelve years ago, led to an asymmetric devolution settlement which is to the great disadvantage of England. The Campaign for an English Parliament believes that action must be taken to deliver a fair and democratic constitutional settlement for England. Lift the veto, Jack, and let us in on the decisions you made.

Unison Union - More Interested In Implementing New Labour Supporting People Policy Than Representing Members' Interests...

2009-12-12T12:47:00.006Z

From Scotland comes this fascinating article about the in-the-Government's-pocket trade union Unison:

"...corrupt union full-timers more interested in implementing New Labour policy than defending the pay and conditions of their members."

This seems particularly relevant to me at the moment as, under the auspices of the odious Supporting People quango, another round of horrendous cutbacks and redundancies is being carried out in the social care sector. Under orders from and "in cahoots" with Supporting People, the giant axe is swinging again.

A dear friend of mine, who has a front-line job in the care sector which brings in a very meagre salary, faces redundancy, or, possibly, a large drop in salary. No fat cat this. In fact, my friend would have difficulty in affording to keep a domestic cat!

Others are similarly affected and, as usual, the vulnerable adults who are the service users have not been consulted.

And Unison simply waves it all through.

Not a word.

Not a murmur.

Think how they would have behaved if such things had happened in the 1980s!

Hypocrites.

Unison is useless. If you are a member, I think you'd be better off spending your monthly membership fee on chocolate teapots.

Climategate - Boring - Exactly How To Disengage Interest...

2009-12-04T23:46:00.004Z

God I'm sick of "Gates"! After Sharongate in EastEnders I thought people might drop it at last, but here we are again - "Climategate". I spoke to my sixteen-year-old nephew about it tonight.

"What IS Climategate?" he asked.

"Have you seen the headlines?" I asked.

"Yeah - sounds boring," he said.

"Well, do you know about Watergate?" I asked.

"No," he said.

Surely it would engage far more interest if headlines were a little more descriptive, and did not depend so much on what the younger generation regard as ancient history? I mean, for God's sake - I'm in my forties and I was only eight at the time of Watergate!

Department For Children, Schools And Families: Anti-England Bias Seeps Out - Even Though It Is Supposed To SERVE England

2009-11-18T13:40:00.002Z

Gareth has received a reply in answer to his freedom of information request regarding the Department of Children, Schools And Families (which covers England only) and its sudden removal of the name of the country it covers from its mission statement.

Remember? From this (emphasis is mine):

"The purpose of the Department for Children, Schools and Families is to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up."

To this (emphasis is mine):

"The purpose of the Department for Children, Schools and Families is to make this the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up."

Extract from Gareth's reply:

Mr Young

Thank you for your email of 11 November asking why the word 'England'
has been replaced with the word 'this' on the Department's website.

You made your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. As you
are not seeking access to recorded information I have not dealt with
your request as a Freedom of Information request.

The Department's overall purpose was set out in the Children's Plan,
published in December 2007. In that document the Secretary of State made
clear that 'our aim is to make this the best place in the world for our
children and young people to grow up.' The words set out on the home
page of our website are intended as a close match to the original
expression, and were adjusted as part of routine editing of the website.

This doesn't make sense at all. The extent of the territory covered should be explicit somewhere on the Department's home page. And where better than in the mission statement?

And that territory is England.

A very strange reply indeed.

Looks like awful Ed Balls might be involved... Read Gareth's latest here.

Department For Children, Schools And Families Erases England - We Are Now Called "This"!

2009-11-11T14:46:00.004Z

Gareth Young has discovered political and racist goings-on at the Department for Children, Schools And Families.

This "department" covers England only, and its mission statement used to read (emphasis is mine):

"The purpose of the Department for Children, Schools and Families is to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up."

Nice and clear, eh? A nice, clear statement with a commendable goal.

But now the statement reads (emphasis is mine):

"The purpose of the Department for Children, Schools and Families is to make this the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up."

This is worrying on two fronts:

1) It makes the area covered by the department unclear. Where on earth is "this"?

2) It opens up a whole can of worms about the New Labour project - including devolution, the West Lothian Question, anti-England/English racism and the Barnett Formula. The mission statement of the Department for Children, Schools And Families is now unclear. Somebody has been in there, muddying the waters, simply by "cleansing" out the word "England". And that also would seem to be a prime concern of "our" Government in its attempts to delude the people of England.

Gareth has sent a Freedom Of Information request -

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/why_has_the_word_england_been_re

Read Gareth's report here:

http://toque.co.uk/blog/?p=2548

Supporting People - "Floating Support" - More Care Cutbacks In England...

2009-10-31T16:34:00.003Z

"Floating Support" - the notion is based on an American model and is one the odious Supporting People UK Government agency is now enforcing in England. It basically means withdrawing on-site staff support for vulnerable adults in the community - the elderly, the mentally ill, etc.

There has always been a level of "floating support" - think of the home help/community care assistants/district nurses. But now Supporting People has decided that most people in the community require nothing more than floating support - often against the advice of mental health professionals - and so many of those people who are more physically and/or mentally vulnerable will now see their on-site support go. This is not about encouraging independence. It is about cruelly cutting back. It is often about flying in the face of the views of consultants, doctors and other professionals.

THINK ABOUT THE DOSH! that's all Supporting People care about. Well, we won't see any of it. Where the fuck does it go?

Sooner or later these cuts, this withdrawal of essential suppport, is going to bite the public. You simply can't leave vulnerable people to fend for themselves in this way.

And, as usual, the service users themselves are not truly consulted. They are given several options, but never the status quo.

CEP Press Release: England To Dance To Scotland's Tune, Says Salmond

2009-10-21T23:29:00.003+01:00

England to dance to Scotland's tune, predicts Alex Salmond at his SNP conference in Inverness, and Westminster will dangle from a Scottish rope, Well. we will see, replies the Campaign for an English Parliament.

Giving a battle-rousing Leader's speech at the conclusion of the SNP conference in Inverness last Saturday, October 17th, Alex Salmond gleefully rattled off the prizes he would be looking for from the next UK government in the event of a General Election result in May, which handed the SNP enough MPs to hold the balance of power. He spoke of Westminster dangling from a Scottish rope. He described how he and his party's MPs would influence legislation and financial measures to Scotland's advantage. To Sky News he shamelessly stated that he would use his and his members' voting power exclusively in Scotland interests.

Well, we will see, says Scilla Cullen chairman of the CEP in an email to the Campaign membership. What Mr Salmond fails to realise is that there should be in all human relationships, both individual and collective, a thing called justice. All talk of England dancing to Scotland's tune and dangling from a Scottish rope is not just silly but unwise and unjust. It is silly because England with ten times the population of Scotland is just too big to push around. His is the language and the posturing of the petty bully who really does not know what he is dealing with, who only sees a little part of the playground, and will only learn the facts of life when he has made a complete fool of himself.

But the issue really is much more one of justice. England got nothing out of devolution. Gordon Brown, Salmond's fellow Scot, who navigated the 1998 devolution through the UK Parliament, saw to that. England got nothing except to pay for it all. Each English taxpayer pays an extra £281 per annum towards keeping Scotland solvent. Scotland does not pay its way. Its tax revenue is routinely short of its expenditure by £11billion per annum. Its land-owning and merchant class came cap in hand in 1707 to Westminster to ask England to bail it out when it was bankrupt. Thanks to devolution and both the block grant and Barnett Formula every single Scottish man, woman and child now receives £1600 more per annum than anyone in England on social expenditure. The Scottish Parliament is able thanks to English largesse -because it is England that provides 90% of the UK revenue- to fund Scottish university students who do not play tuition fees, which our students have to, to provide free personal care for the elderly, to put a freeze on water rates and council tax, and to be planning for free prescriptions and an end to hospital parting charges.

Salmond might well be hoping to goad the English to anger by his demands if his party holds the balance of power come the General Election. He might well be hoping we will then be glad to see the back of Scotland. That is as may be. But the deeper issues are justice and fairness. As long as we have a United Kingdom, the population of each member nation should be treated equally. None should get preferential treatment. And any talk like that of Salmond to use his party's voting power exclusively in the interests of Scotland is morally indefensible. Interestingly, that was however precisely what Gordon Brown himself committed himself to when in March 1989 he signed the Scottish Claim of Right -to make the interests of the people of Scotland paramount in everything we say and do.

David Cameron: FUCK England!

2009-10-12T19:27:00.003+01:00

This makes me heave:

Family, community, country. In recent years we’ve been hearing things about our country we haven’t heard for a long time. People saying they don’t know what it is to be British, what this country stands for.

People in Scotland who want to leave the United Kingdom and people in England who say let them go.

I am passionate about our Union and I will never do anything to put it at risk. And because of the new political force we have created with the Ulster Unionists, I’m proud that at the next election we will be the only party fielding candidates in every part of the United Kingdom.

Firstly, I always thought that the UK was a union of countries? Secondly, I thoroughly dislike David some of my ancesters were "...were Scottish Empire builders - conquered all sorts of parts of India, I think" Cameron. Hateful, swine of a man - who happily ignores issues like the West Lothian Question.

Carry on dying in England for want of medication available on the higher-funded NHS in Scotland..

The incoming upper class brat at Number 10 doesn't give a shit.

Must be the "Scots blood" in his veins, as he puts it.

I'm going to dislike the probable new anti-English/anti-England PM just as much as I do the present one.

Smug, biased and uncaring git that he is.

Tesco - "Enjoy The Taste Of Scotland" And Ignore England...

2009-10-12T18:41:00.005+01:00

Another lovely view of Tesco enjoying the "Taste of Scotland" in Scotland.

Remember, as Tesco says on its own website:

Tesco is committed to ensuring that Scottish consumers have access to Scottish produce. Currently, over 100 Scottish companies supply more than 1,000 product lines to our stores. This amounts to around £800m of goods being sourced from Scottish companies – directly into the Scottish economy.

Consulting with our suppliers, we have worked to raise awareness of Scottish food and drink companies. As well as co-ordinating a number of events for Scottish suppliers and consumers, we have created new signage to be rolled out across our Scottish stores promoting Scottish products.

Another view of Tesco absolutely ignoring England and English produce in England.

"Celebrating Great British Food" - England Hating Tesco Continues To Suck Up To Scotland And Rams "British" Down English Throats...

2009-10-10T01:54:00.008+01:00

In Scotland - Tesco's "Enjoy The Taste Of Scotland"...

In England - Tesco Says You Don't Exist!

Saw the placard above today in our local Tesco.

Yuck.

And what about the white lettering on the blue background?

And, as usual, Scottish saltires (white on a blue background, of course) glared at us from many other displays.

And this is interesting:

Tesco is committed to ensuring that Scottish consumers have access to Scottish produce. Currently, over 100 Scottish companies supply more than 1,000 product lines to our stores. This amounts to around £800m of goods being sourced from Scottish companies – directly into the Scottish economy.

Consulting with our suppliers, we have worked to raise awareness of Scottish food and drink companies. As well as co-ordinating a number of events for Scottish suppliers and consumers, we have created new signage to be rolled out across our Scottish stores promoting Scottish products.

Earlier this year Tesco hosted "Enjoy the Taste of Scotland", a three-day event run in conjunction with the Scottish Executive to promote Scottish suppliers. This pioneering event featured over 60 Scottish food and drink producers and offered attendees the opportunity to sample products from across the country including household names, such as Baxter’s, Tunnock’s and Mackie’s, and small speciality producers, such as Rannoch Smokery, Tilly Confectionery and Castle MacLellan.

As well as promoting Scottish produce to members of the public, Tesco also looks to build good working relationships with current suppliers and aims to provide opportunities for new suppliers to come on board. To this end, for the past two years we have run a Scottish supplier day, a practical day open to all our Scottish suppliers to help them gain a better understanding of retail operations and to assist them with technical issues.

We have also launched new Scottish lines, including a range of items which are produced and supplied locally to one or two of our stores, by businesses such as J & I Smith Bakers based in Huntly. This can lead to locally-supplied products then being rolled out across the UK, and brands such as Border Biscuits are testament to this. The success of this programme means we are now exporting some of these products to our stores abroad – further growth for Scottish companies.

At Tesco we take our commitment to Scottish producers and the communities they operate in very seriously, actively engaging with local and national stakeholders to this end. In February this year Tesco representatives gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Affairs Committee's Food Chain Supply Inquiry and Tesco is a current member of the Agricultural Strategy Group, run by Ross Finnie MSP, Scottish Minister for Environment and Rural Development.

So, if it's good enough for Scotland, why not for England?

And, of course, Tesco is not alone. Check out Asda, the Co-op, and Sainsburys. All screeching "SCOTTISH!" all ignoring "ENGLISH".

We are second class customers.

The supermarkets wilfully discriminate against England.

And Tesco's is just about the worst of the lot.

CEP Press Release: Conservative Party Conference agenda

2009-10-02T23:40:00.001+01:00

England ignored and taken for granted. As always. It is 60% of the Union landmass, 85% of the Union population, it produces 90% of its wealth, its subsidies the three other countries and keeps them solvent. But anyone looking at the agenda for discussion on the Union at the 2009 Conservative Party conference in Manchester this coming week would think the Union consists solely of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England isn't even mentioned, let alone discussed.

This is the list of speakers for the discussion on The Union at the conference:

Cheryl Gillan - Shadow Secretary of State for Wales

David Mundell - Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland

Owen Paterson - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Nick Bourne - Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the National Assembly

Sir Reg Empey - Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

Not one single speaker for England. Its affairs not mentioned, its identity not recognised, its existence totally ignored.

That, states Veronica Newman addressing a meeting of Hampshire CEP members, well sums up the attitude of the UK Establishment towards England. It just refuses to give to England its rightful recognition. We are a distinct nation within the United Kingdom. We have a very ancient identity, we are the first unified nation in Europe, we have a distinct national culture which doesn't only go back centuries and includes some of the great cultural names in world history, and the greatest writer in the person of Shakespeare, but which is also vibrant and exciting to this very day.

It is time to ask why the party which might well be the UK government within nine months treats England with such injustice and bias. Love and respect for England could be a huge force for a revitalised Union. It is time the Conservative Party started to ask itself why it can be so generous towards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, yet so negative towards England.

Scotland The Brave - Jingoistic Scottish Session On BBC Radio 1...

2009-09-30T18:21:00.003+01:00

It is my grave misfortune to hear BBC Radio 1 once a week. Not my choice. During my weekly "treats", I've heard Edith Bowman twittering on about Scotland and the "bagpipes" - whilst never once referring to England. I've heard brain-dead DJs twittering on about the thrill of having jelly beans in the studio. I've heard many re-hashes of 1980s songs, and (post) modern songs that sound like they're straight from the 1960s and even, occasionally (God help us) the 1970s.

And today I heard Scotland The Brave played on the bagpipes.

With all its current biased Scots content, the BBC needs to drop the first "B" and replace it with an "S".

It could stand for "Scottish" or it could stand for "Shit".

Either would be appropriate.

CEP: 2000 Labour Party delegates to applaud the negation of the English Democratic Tradition

2009-09-30T18:20:00.000+01:00

2000 labour party delegates got to their feet in Brighton in the county of Sussex to applaud the repudiation by Gordon Brown of the very fundamentals of England's democratic tradition.

Yesterday afternoon the delegates to the Labour Party Conference -Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Peers, Party officials and 2000 delegates from across the United Kingdom got up and clapped and shouted their approval as Gordon Brown, MP for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire in Scotland, announced measure after measure of new legislation for England, and only for England, in defiance of the very fundamentals of what the people of England founded their parliament for 800 years ago.

The CEP National Council has circulated its membership with a statement on this matter.

'Gordon Brown announced new legislation to place new teenage mothers in hostels rather than council houses; to provide free personal care for the very elderly in their homes, to limit pub opening hours, to control broken familes unable to control their children, to bring in additional controls on wild disruptive youngsters, to provide 250,000 free childcare places and to delay the introduction of ID cards. Very many people will indeed agree with these measures. That is not an issue that the CEP as such involves itself with. The CEP is concerned with democracy for England. When England gets its own parlament, its parliament will concern itself wholeheartedly with the welfare of the people of England.

'These measures concern matters which affect England only. The fundamental nature of English democracy as founded with the English Parliament in the 13th century and developed by the people of England over the past 800 years is that it is representative democracy. Law makers are accountable to the people who elect them. They are elected to be their representatives in their parliament. But Brown is not elected by any English voters. He is not accountable to any English voter for any of these specific measures. His action, and the conference applause for it, is a repudiation of this most fundamental aspect of the English democratic tradition.

Contact:

Michael Knowles

CEP Media Unit. Tel: 01260 271139

Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk

Cancer Research UK - Sexist And Uncaring When It Comes To Men...

2009-09-18T16:45:00.004+01:00

Chris has just fired off an e-mail to Cancer Research UK:

I am writing to inform you that as male, I will no longer be supporting Cancer Research UK as I believe that it is a sexist, perhaps even misandrist, organisation.

As breast cancer numbers continue to fall, Cancer Research chooses to display highly sexist posters on buses in England. The one I saw today was apparently about "joining the fight for women's survival", and displayed a picture of two women hitting a man with boxing gloves. Was the man supposed to represent cancer?

What has happened to men's health issues? A small minority of men also contract breast cancer. But that highly relevant piece of information is well tucked away on your site. Surely, trumpeting breast cancer as a purely female health issue is failing in your duty of care?

Meanwhile, prostate cancer is on the rise, but there are no similar "men's survival" campaigns within Cancer Research.

WHY?

Your campaign is horrifically skewed and biased, the imagery of the two women hitting the man on the poster displayed on the bus was pathetic and I cannot make any further donations to such a sexist and uncaring organisation.

I will keep my eyes and ears open for any non-sexist cancer research campaigns, and in the meantime will be directing any further donations I may have made to your organisation to the British Heart Foundation.

Cancer Research UK joins such luminaries as that highly renowned misandrist Harriet Harman by winning our Sexist Slime Of The Month Award.

Richly deserved for an organisation which goes all out to cater for the health of the female gender, and wilfully short-changes the male - even promoting anti-male imagery as part of its feminine health awareness campaigns.

Vince Cable - Lazy-Minded MP, Repeats Old Claptrap About The Poll Tax...

2009-09-15T21:40:00.009+01:00

Vince Cable - Liberal Democrat MP

It always galls us to stand up for Margaret Thatcher on this blog. But when lazy-minded politicians like Vince Cable roll out old untruths, word for word, well, we really have to say something!

Momentum built up in the Eighties, especially when Mrs Thatcher made Scots the guinea pigs for the Poll Tax

Poll Tax "Guinea pigs"? Not again?! Thatcher didn't make Scots "guinea pigs" for the Tax. George Younger, Scottish Secretary of State, asked for the Tax a year early in Scotland because he didn't think the Scots should have to wait for the English!

Read more here.

Several of us involved with this blog were actually members of English "STOP THE POLL TAX" campaigns from 1988 onwards - and costly preparations were well underway for the planned introduction of the Tax in England and Wales in 1990.

Now, surely, if the Scots were to be used as "guinea pigs" for the Poll Tax, the preparations in England and Wales would have been put on hold, and surely it would take rather more than one year to prove the Tax's worth or otherwise? Wouldn't there be various wrinkles to be ironed out? Wouldn't introducing the Tax in Scotland in 1989 and holding off on any decision regarding England and Wales until around 1992 have been more logical if the "guinea pig" scenario was true?

Vince Cable's Daily Mail article is a very shoddy piece of writing. Simply recycling old claptrap is a bore.

And England comes nowhere in Mr Cable's deliberations, as usual.

Indeed, at the end of the article, there is a list of relevant people and places:

People:
Alex Salmond,
Gordon Brown,
Vince Cable,
David Cameron,
Fred Goodwin
Places:
Edinburgh,
London,
Glasgow,
Wales,
Canada,
Germany,
Libya,
Scotland,
Northern Ireland,
United Kingdom
Organisations:
Scottish Parliament

But no sign of England.

Of course.

CEP: England? No. Scotland? Yes. BBC bias strikes again

2009-09-07T23:24:00.000+01:00

A season of programmes on Scotland's history and culture tells of the delight the BBC takes in the celebration of Scotland. It would never do the same for England.

'The default position for the BBC when it comes to anything to do with England is not to mention it, and certainly it is not to celebrate anything English if the BBC can possibly avoid it. Its default position with Scotland on the other hand is precisely the opposite. The BBC celebrates Scotland and everything Scottish at every opportunity.' That is the CEP's considered comment on the BBC's TV series of programmes 'This is Scotland' which starts this weekend.' in which the BBC will celebrate and examine aspects of Scottish culture, art, film-making, heritage, landscape and psyche.'. (BBC Press Release) .

'A Portrait Of Scotland discusses the artists and paintings that have reflected the changing face of Scotland since the Reformation, The Fighting Scots reviews the history of Scots in the British Army. Scotland On Screen celebrates classic movies and their Scottish locations, there is a programme on Touring Scotland, another on the cult of the Munros, and Michael Portillo chairing a discussion on the possibility of Scottish independence.The season also features documentaries on the legacy of Calvinism in Scotland, on Tweed, the fabric and industry, and on Balmoral, the Royal Family's most private residence and its links to Scottish traditions.

'Can anyone imagine the BBC running anything like that for England?' asks Scilla Cullen chairman in her Autumn message to Campaign membership. 'Just imagine the BBC doing a programme, for example, on Sandringham and the Royal Family's links to the English countryside. It would not as much as enter its head to run a programme on the history of English regiments in the British Army. For the BBC, as an unspoken but governing ideology, there isn't an England. There are Brits and there are the Scots and the Welsh, but there are no English as a distinct people in the same way. Every time he is on the Wimnbledon screen, Andy Murray is a Scot. Tim Henman was always and only a Brit. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, Cardiff the capital of Wales. But never once in all my lifetime have I heard the BBC ever talk of London as the capital of England, which it is.

'For the BBC there is the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. That's it. It officially organises itself into what it calls 'the Nations and the Regions', the nations being Scotland, Wales and NI and the regions being its divisions of England into such regions as the North West, the West Midlands etc which have no roots at all in England's history and culture.

'There is BBC Scotland, there is BBC Wales, there is BBC Northern Ireland. But in letter after letter from the BBC Head Office to the CEP, the firm statement is that they will not have a BBC England.

'Instead England is balkanised into a myriad of local stations: BBC Devon, BBC Manchester, BBC Lincolnshire and so on. 'England is too big to have its own BBC station like Scotland and Wales', the Head of the Dept. of 'Nations and Regions' writes to the CEP Media Unit. Yet there is a BBC World Service. Scotland, Wales and NI each has its own Trustee on the BBC Trust Board. England hasn't any. It has an Alison Hastings representing 'the regions'.

'This hostility to the idea of England as a distinct nation goes deep into the psyche of the British Establishment, of which the BBC is a major player culturally and politically,' writes Scilla Cullen. 'It regards the very idea of England as a threat to the narrow Establishment notion of Britishness, dominant but narrow. The BBC is consciously hostile. It is holding back the growth and enjoyment of Englishness, which is as much a direct consequence of the 1998 Devolution legislation as is the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. Over the last eleven years the English people have become aware of themselves again as a distinct nation, very aware that they have been deprived of self rule which has been granted to Scotland and Wales, whose MPs can still make legislation for England's internal affairs and have obtained immense benefits for their countries which are denied to England.

'The BBC will have to dragged kicking and screaming into running a season of programmes on England as a distinct nation with its own distinct culture and history. If and when that happens, which in due course it will, it will mean that after 300 years of being denied it has its own identity, the British Establishment has finally accepted the fact that the United Kingdom can change and still exist.

contact:

Mrs Scilla Cullen CEP Chairman Tel: 01438 833155

Email: scilla.cullen@dsl.pipex.com

The English Hating Jack Straw - What He Thinks Of England - Never Forget...

2009-08-24T00:17:00.005+01:00

Anti-English bigot Jack Straw declares that the English are the violent and oppressive scourge of the UK .

Back in 2000, Jack Straw, now "Justice Secretary" let rip with a history-rewriting anti-English rant at the BBC:

Speaking in the BBC Radio 4 documentary, Brits, Mr Straw will say that the English used their propensity to violence, "in Europe and with our empire".

"I think what you have within the UK is three small nations who've been over the centuries under the cosh of the English," he tells the programme.

"Those small nations have inevitably sought expression by a very explicit idea of nationhood."

Absolute Anglophobic cobblers.

Don't forget.

St George's Family Tree

2009-08-23T23:56:00.000+01:00

Arthur Aughey - "Celtic"

2009-08-08T23:23:00.001+01:00

English Parliament Online is well worth a look. And of great interest is Arthur Aughey's piece on:

Diceyean Theory (or England's Case for Home Rule)

Dicey believed that Home Rule would deliver for England the disadvantages of Celtic separatism without the advantages of Union. The CEP claims that the English are now required to sacrifice their legitimate claims to nationhood in the interests of maintaining a Union which satisfies only the needs of the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish.

What fascinates me the most about Aughey's piece is his use of the "Celtic" word. Now, we all know that the Scots, Irish and Welsh are not Celts. I'm half-Scots, and my Scots side contains several differing (and typical of Scots) elements.

We know that the "Celtic" thing is quite a recent invention.

So why does Arthur Aughey insist in perpetuating the myth? After all, these nations hardly have much loyalty to each other, do they? Look at Ireland, partitioned by a Welsh UK Prime Minister (England suffered the IRA bombings, of course); look at the Barnett Formula - each "Celtic" nation looking after its own ends...

There seems to be something very unhealthy in perpetuating the Celtic myth.

Surely it's far better to look at what is happening to each nation of the UK, including England, without resorting to a racist ancient white tribe myth which apparently binds together three of the nations, but excludes the largest?

WalesHome.org - The Romans In... England?

2009-08-08T22:27:00.003+01:00

I'm starting to tire of this kind of crap from Wales:

Melding’s analysis starts by focusing on the history of the Welsh identity and its political manifestation. Beginning by examining the idea of Welshness under Roman and Norman political control in England, he concludes that the ascension of the Tudors to the English crown did far less for this country than the printing of the Bible in Welsh.

There wasn't an England when the Romans were in Britain.

It's really time that Wales was left to face a few realities.

Like survival alone or as an EU region.

Either way, Wales would be free of England, free of having England to blame for everything, right from the year dot, when England did not even exist (and Wales did not exist in Roman times, either!).

And those Welsh who fancied it could continue to indulge their racist ancient white tribe myth.

And we wouldn't have to put up with it.

Scots Are Not Celts...

2009-07-26T23:04:00.005+01:00

Here's some bigoted twerp called Ben proving himself in a Telegraph comments thread:

How did English youth "learn" "hostile drinking" from "the Scots", Simon? Were there cells of subversive Celts hidden, mole-like, in every English pub, ready to spring into action as agents-provocateurs as eleven o'clock approached?

As usual, an interesting and sensitive article has been ruined by the inane bigotry of the Heffer-lump.

The pub is a glorious manifestation of Englishness; Hefferish bigotry is its disgusting and ludicrous dark side.

Celts? An ancient white tribe, surely? The Scots are all sorts - Anglo-Saxon, Pict, Asian, etc.

The "Celtic" ancient white tribe myth is the "disgusting and ludicrous side" to Scottish bigotry. And whilst we're at it, let's not forget Welsh and "Cornish" bigotry.

By all means defend the Scots, Ben, but the Celts were something else entirely. Largely a romantic invention of recent centuries some would say.

Lord Richard Of Ammanford And The Barnett Formula Lords Report - Is The Campaign For An English Parliament On Holiday?

2009-07-24T00:19:00.005+01:00

From Wales Online:

Lord Richard, who led a review into the Assembly’s powers in 2003-04, is not a man to mince his words. Barnett has given Scotland and England more than they need and Wales and Northern Ireland too little.

Lord Richard of Ammanford may not be a man to "mince his words" - but he is a man to tell lies. Any clear headed, unbiased assessment of the Barnett Formula reveals that it is most unfair to England, indeed, its creator, Lord Joel Barnett, states that is so (here).

England gets the least and it shows.

That's why they have free NHS prescriptions for everybody, including the very rich, in Wales.

But where is the Campaign For An English Parliament's response to Lord Ammanford's statement? Have we missed something?

Deliciously Yorkshire (and Humber) - Out To Destroy Historic Yorkshire - And England, Of Course

2009-07-18T16:02:00.006+01:00

As the historic county of Yorkshire heads towards abolition and absorption into a tinpot region of the EU, we take a moment to ponder: whatever would Amos and Mr Wilks have thought?

We all know that the North East voted 78% against regionalisation in a referendum, and that they were the only area of England allowed a say.

Which the UK Government then ignored and went ahead, breaking up England into nine regions, in consultation with the EU, on the old "divide and rule" principle.

And from that has come groups like "Deliciously Yorkshire" - the "regional food group" for "Yorkshire and Humber".

That fine old EU region.

"Use the local sourcing directory to find producers from across the Yorkshire region. The directory will help you to find fresh, local food and places to dine out," burbles "Deliciously Yorkshire".

But non of the daft twits leaping on to this particular band wagon seem to have noticed the "Humber" or "region" bit. Many would profess to be "proud" Yorkshire men and women, but few seem to know much about what Yorkshire actually is - an ancient English county, part of the ancient country of England - and what it is not - a bland region of the UK and EU.

What a bunch of wallies!

But the production team of the soap Emmerdale think that Yorkshire is a region:

Martin Radmall, from the production buying team of Emmerdale, which is filmed at Harewood, said: "The Emmerdale farm shop will have similar messages to the regional food group, such as supporting local producers and products and buying seasonal, local food. We're very pleased to include such high-quality products from the region; the Emmerdale families will be spoilt for choice."

So there you are, Yorkshire is a region. Emmerdale says so.

Remember, don't buy English (the Scots and Welsh support buyers nationally in Scotland and Wales, but we don't as England doesn't formally exist). Don't support Yorkshire either - it's being dissolved into one of nine EU regions in what was formerly England. No, support "Deliciously Yorkshire (and Humber)" - another one of those groups dedicated to the abolition of the ancient country of England, and, in this case, the ancient county of Yorkshire.

Because Yorkshire and Humber is not Yorkshire.

Links:

Deliciously Yorkshire - http://www.deliciouslyorkshire.co.uk/dy/

The Regional Food Group - http://www.rfgyh.co.uk/

Lord Richard Of Ammanford: Let The People Of England Die For Want Of NHS Equality And Give Wales, My Country, More Money

2009-07-17T20:29:00.007+01:00

The House Of Lords Barnett Formula Committee has made its report. Headed by a, we feel, bigoted, anti-English/England Welshman, the Committee comes up with some astounding cobblers:

"When the Committee considered a range of indicators of need it became clear that Wales and Northern Ireland have greater needs per head of population than Scotland and England – the current allocations made through the Formula give Scotland more funds, per head of population, than appears to be justified when compared to Wales and Northern Ireland and their needs."

And what does England get?

Health apartheid (more here) and premature deaths? We don't need medication, do we, Lord Richard?

Lower spending across the board? We don't deserve any better, do we, Lord Richard?

And what does Wales get?

Free prescriptions and lots more?

To make the English jealous, as Rhodri Morgan childishly squawked (more here).

Why on earth was, what appears to be, an English-hating Welsh racist appointed head of the Lords Committee on the Barnett Formula?

And as for saying Northern Ireland, which does best of all out of the odious formula, needs more money - good grief!

Inland Revenue: Bank Of England Out, Royal Bank Of Scotland In...

2009-07-14T17:18:00.003+01:00

Incredibly, Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and the rest of the Scottish Raj at Westminster are at it again:

During 2009 the Bank of England will no longer handle the Inland Revenue transactions. The bank accounts will in future be operated by the Royal Bank of Scotland and by Citibank. If you make electronic payments to the Inland Revenue, you will need to update your records to ensure that the payment goes to the correct bank account. Full details will be being issued in the near future.

Great business for the Royal Bank of Scotland, of course.

We know that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling pledged to put Scotland first in all they did way back in 1989, but this is getting ridiculous.

Big hat-tip to the Cross of St George blog. Read it all here.

Just how much more are the sheep of England prepared to take?

Andy Mycock - Yet More Drivel About The "Union"...

2009-07-14T15:47:00.004+01:00

Dr Andrew Mycock is co-founder of something called the "Academy For Study Of Britishness", based in Huddersfield.

Dr Mycock states in an article entitled "The Challenges of A Disunited Kingdom" over at the naffly-named "Our Kingdom":

For most public, high-profile relationships, when rumours of a rocky patch surface there is plenty of 'advice' around. So it is with that most celebrated political marriage: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Intense debate has raged about its imminent break-up or whether Britishness can be 're-forged'. The recent publication of the Calman Report has energised such debates in Scotland though with significantly less impact in England which would appear to be more concerned about on-going quandary of whether Andy Murray is British or Scottish.

We ask: How much was the Calman Commission reported in England? And how much are devolution issues reported in England? We ask not for the first time, but these do not appear to be the sort of questions that occur to Andy Mycock.

Interestingly, he makes this comment:

If the English are finally sent packing [from Scotland and Wales].

What on earth does Dr Brit Mycock mean by that? Is he sharing in the demonising of the English? You know, like Jack Straw, the old, old tune about how the English were thoroughly nasty in UK history and "subjugated" those around them?

Mr Mycock also tells us:

Many young Asians see Englishness as exclusory, ethnicised and linked with cultural practice such as binge-drinking and sexual promiscuity. Conversely, young white youths see Britishness ‘tainted’ by multilculturalism, meaning Englishness is a more instinctive identity. For some, British identity is a looser, more flexible identity that can mean anything or even nothing. The push for independence at a time of such significant societal transition and community tensions in England could have significant implications, particularly for young Asians who may feel isolated and excluded.

Um, in recent years we have seen changes in this area as Englishness has emerged from the vaults. But of course the Government must lead. And the UK Government demonises or ignores England and Englishness all the time. New arrivals in England have Britishness rammed down their throats.

Desperate Dr Mycock also says:

If separatist nationalists seek to consistently adhere to the principle of self-determination then surely those BOTs who wish to remain part of the UK have an input in debates about its future? The conspicuous absence of policies on such issues would suggest that separatist nationalists assume that England would undertake all post-imperial responsibilities and their associated costs, though Perryman and other English progressive nationalists fail to acknowledge such complications.

We have heard such things mentioned. But there has been no suggestion that England should shoulder the burden of decision and expense alone.

Dr Mycock obviously doesn't suffer as a working class person would from the worst effects of the West Lothian Question, health apartheid, etc.

He makes us fume!

We do realise that the article covers a lot more ground, but we wanted to pluck out a few England-relevant points.

And it's quite clear to see where Dr Andrew Mycock is coming from.

He ends:

Current government approaches in reforming the UK state are piecemeal and often ill-defined, thus stimulating more uncertainty. But those who seek its hasty demise must provide a more coherent and comprehensive view of the post-Union settlement, or they might simply replicate or even intensify divisions within British society.

This makes us so angry!

Let the people be heard!

Just as they were in Scotland and Wales.

And the fact that he ends on the phrase "British society" whilst actually discussing something that would have brought about its end? Read again:

Current government approaches in reforming the UK state are piecemeal and often ill-defined, thus stimulating more uncertainty. But those who seek its hasty demise must provide a more coherent and comprehensive view of the post-Union settlement, or they might simply replicate or even intensify divisions within British society. (our emphasis throughout)

So, if Britain was no more there would still be British society, would there?

My God! We're glad we're not clever!

CEP Press Release: Racist? Illegal? Not when it concerns Scotland

2009-07-13T11:46:00.002+01:00

RACIST? ILLEGAL? NOT WHEN IT CONCERNS SCOTLAND.

A VOICE FOR SCOTLAND? OF COURSE -A SECRETARY OF STATE AND A WHOLE PARLIAMENT.

A VOICE FOR ENGLAND? NONE AT ALL.

JOBS FOR SCOTLAND? PERFECTLY LEGAL.

JOBS FOR ENGLAND? ILLEGAL AND RACIST.

‘The past week has highlighted how differently Scotland and England are treated’, said Michael Knowles member of the National Council of the Campaign for an English Parliament. ‘A leaked memo from shipbuilders BVT revealed the possibility of large-scale redundancies on the Clyde, affecting both its Glasgow shipyards, Scotstoun and Govan (but, interestingly, not Rosyth in Fifeshire which borders on the constituency of Gordon Brown). Immediately both the UK Scottish Department and the Scottish Parliament swung into action. ‘The UK government is determined to stand by the Clyde,’ announced Jim Murphy Scotland’s Secretary of State. ‘The order book is full. Jobs are guaranteed for at least the next 7 years. We have a commitment to the Clyde, we’re here for the long-term.’ And SNP MSP for Govan, Nicola Sturgeon, deputy First Minister in the Scottish parliament waded in behind. ‘We must have a guarantee from Gordon Brown that the Ministry of Defence will not force the closure of any Scottish shipyard.’

‘Contrast all that with how England is dealt with. The shipyards of Devonport, Portsmouth, Appledore, the Medway, Camel Lairds in Birkenhead, the Tyne and Barrow in Furness, they have all either been reduced or closed, even on occasion work taken from them and transferred to the Clyde, and not one single UK minister even speaks out. There is no voice for England, there is no minister for England, there is no parliament for England. England simply has no recognition. None whatsoever. It’s lost somewhere in the bowels of the UK state.

‘When English workers demonstrated recently for British jobs for British workers at the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire, they were told that their demand was illegal. Even racist. But Scottish law demands that in Scotland preference is given to any workers living within 40 miles of a site. The Scottish Parliament exists for no other purpose except to get what is best for Scotland. The legislation for the Welsh Assembly even states that the whole point of the Assembly is to ‘focus on the concerns of the Welsh nation’

‘The CEP welcomes anything that can give the people of Scotland and Wales the best of everything. All it asks is that the same is done for the people of England. A voice for England. A First Minister for England. A Parliament for England. In other words, Equality within the Union for England. How refreshing it would be to hear a First Minister for England announcing in the face of the threat of job cuts: ‘The UK government is determined to stand by the Tyne or Appledore or Devonport or Barrow…We must have a guarantee from Gordon Brown that the Ministry of Defence will not force the closure of any English shipyard.’. The deep truth is that no UK minister is happy to employ the word ‘English’. That is the one taboo in UK politics that has still to be broken.

Isn't "Land Of My Fathers" A Fine Example Of Welsh Racism? Plus BBC Bias And Edith Bowman And T In The Park - ENOUGH!

2009-07-08T23:10:00.010+01:00

From the Daily Mail on-line:

Opera singer Katherine Jenkins opened the Ashes today with a rendition of Land of My Fathers.

Cricket chiefs chose the Welsh hymn as they feared that the mainly local Cardiff crowd would not get behind the home team.

The soprano performed to the sold out Sophia Gardens in a striking red dress. Her performance was followed by both the English and Australian National Anthems as well as the hymn Jerusalem.

Um, God Save The Queen is the BRITISH, not the English National anthem - just as relevant to Wales as to England - and isn't Land Of My Fathers a rather bigoted, exclusive hymn to be sung as a national hymn for Wales? After all, we know that the vast majority of migrants settle in England, but what about those who settle in Wales, for whom Wales is NOT the land of their fathers?

Today, I had the grave misfortune to listen to BBC Radio 1, which was asking Welsh cricket spectators what they thought. One of them put forth the opinion that "Wales is better than England".

Would the BBC have broadcast an English person saying that England is better than Wales?

But I feel all this is positive. The break-up of the dis-united Kingdom is coming, this has brought more attention to the facts, and just where a lot of the jingoistic, exclusive nationalistic stuff is actually coming from. Wales, in this case, preening exclusively, with both hands buried deep in England's pockets.

Hopefully the day is not too far away when Wales will truly discover what it is like to be a proud, historic nation - when it finally stands on its own two feet.

And the same for Scotland. I suffered Edith Bowman extolling the virtues of "Scotland's biggest music festival, T In The Park" about five times in a her BBC show, which runs for about three hours. With Ms Bowman it's usually "The UK's biggest this" or "The UK's biggest that".

And to think that the vast majority of people being forced to pay for her organisation live in England. Scotland is another jingoistic little nation, with its hands buried deep in England's pockets.

But on Radio 1, it's like England doesn't exist, or the station broadcasts gross anti-English bias and brainwashing such as that heard on The Surgery - when its Welsh presenter Aled came up with the bright idea that the English were not loyal to England, but to the (imposed EU/NuLabour) regions. The whole Surgery theme was that old familiar song "Aren't the English racists one-and-all?". That show was produced by Anna Bowman. Another BBC Radio 1 Bowman! Read all about The Surgery incident here.

But despite of, or probably because of all this, England is coming back.

Good luck to Scotland and Wales in the future.

And welcome back, England!

CEP: Gordon Brown puts Scotland first, not Britain

2009-07-07T11:56:00.000+01:00

"On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament last Wednesday July 1st Gordon Brown published an article in the Scottish Daily Record," stated Philippa Cullen of Lower Froyle in Hampshire in her end-of-month message to CEP members in the county.

"It reeked with Scottish nationalism. Coming from a British Prime Minister who should put Britain first and speak equally of each nation of Britain it was outrageous. Yet it was totally consistent with his written pledge of March 31st 1989 when as 'one of the leaders of Labour's campaign for devolution' he signed the Scottish Claim of Right vowing 'to make the interests of the Scottish people paramount in everything he said and did'. His government, he says, 'has never stopped focusing on delivering for the Scottish people'.

"In the article he celebrates 'Scotland’s rich and vibrant political history'. He talks of 'the bravery and brilliance of Scots in uniform', no mention of the English who make up the vast bulk of the British Army, Navy and Air Force. He describes how he 'had campaigned for a fairer future for Scotland' and how he had made policy that 'pays off for the Scots. Our decision to build two state-of-the-art aircraft carriers at shipyards including Govan, Scotstoun and Rosyth has secured thousands of jobs in Scotland and protected Scots' hard-earned savings'. He omits to mention that the preservation of shipbuilding jobs in Scotland had been at the deliberate expense of England's shipyards, particularly Devonport and Tyneside.

"He exhibits breathtaking effrontery by saying that 'the Scottish people rightly felt frustrated in recent decades as unpopular decisions were made on health, education and policing', while knowing full well that his fellow Scottish Labour MPs in the UK Parliament have taken away English MPs' choice on foundation hospitals and university tuition fees by voting against them and imposing these against English wishes.

"Unashamedly he boasts that the Scots can enjoy 'influencing decisions in Westminster' while making no mention of the West Lothian Question. He trumpets on about 'Scottish solutions to Scottish issues on things such as free personal care for the elderly, tuition fees, free travel for the elderly and prescription charges', as if England doesn't have exactly the same issues; and as if he is unaware, which he most definitely is not, that in terms of tax revenue it is the English taxpayer who pays for the extra benefits the Scots now enjoy. In terms of tax revenue Scotland is unable to pay its own way. 'The Union Government invests billions of pounds in Scotland beyond the Scottish Parliament’s £35 billion annual budget' he writes. What he does not write is that 90% of the Union Government's revenue comes the English taxpayer.

Because of devolution, Brown writes, 'Scots could finally start taking more control of our daily lives'. Note his use of the word 'our'. He smugly says "For the first time in 300 years, Scotland once again had its own parliament’. There is no fiercer opponent of England having its own parliament and the English having 'control of their daily lives'. than him; and he is using all the instruments of the British state to try to make sure it never happens. He boasts of 'hosting a working dinner in my home in Fife for leaders from all the Holyrood parties'. Would he ever as much as think of getting representatives of the people of England together 'to focus on delivering for the English people'?

As Brown so rightly says in the article, more truthfully than he realizes: 'In short, devolution gives Scotland the best of both worlds'

Co-Operative Supermarkets - Good With Food, Flying The Scottish Flag And Hating England...

2009-07-01T19:36:00.005+01:00

Ooh, the Co-op! Another anti-English bunch of supermarket bigots!

Waking Hereward reports on their latest TV ad - in which the Saltire and the word "Scottish" is used to describe some burgers, but no word at all and the Union Flag is used for English sausages.

For the "great British barbecue", of course!

Humph!

Read all about it and see the ad by popping over to Waking Hereward.

CEP: GORDON BROWN’S ‘PROGRAMME FOR ‘BRITAIN’ DEFIES AND DENIES THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF THE ENGLISH NOTION OF DEMOCRACY.

2009-06-30T16:11:00.000+01:00

English democracy is representative democracy. The people who make the laws that govern a country must represent the people they govern and be answerable to them. On that basic principle England’s Parliament was founded almost 800 years ago in 1253. That same principle lies at the heart of English Common Law and the jury system. When Scotland united with England with the Act of Union in 1707, it accepted the English way of democratic government.

‘But the ‘Programme for ‘Britain’ announced yesterday by Gordon Brown in England’s ancient House of Commons is nothing less than outright repudiation of England’s way of democracy’. That is the declaration of the Campaign for an English Parliament. The main proposals of the Programme cover housing, health and education. Not one of them will apply to Scotland because Scotland through its parliament is self-ruling in all matters of housing, health and education. In these three important areas of government Brown is proposing legislation for England only.

Yet Brown is MP for the Scottish constituency of Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire. He does not represent one inch of England’s territory and not one single English voter. And he is not answerable in any election to any English man or woman. He is the principal legislator for England, yet he does not represent England in any of these very important matters and he is not accountable to any English person.

What is more, when at next year’s General Election he stands for re-election in Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath, because he is not a member of the Scottish Parliament, he is not answerable even to his own electorate for any matter concerning housing, health and education. Our system of government has become twisted and deformed.

In terms of what is most basic to the very meaning of English democracy, to have an MP representing a Scottish constituency making legislation for England in matters on which he was not elected by and is not accountable to any electorate is not just wrong, it is politically and constitutionally perverse.

In the statement of the ‘Constitution Unit’ to the House of Commons Justice Committee in November 2007, what is ‘closest to a complete answer’ to this situation created by the nature of the 1998 devolution legislation ‘is an English Parliament?’

Contact:
Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit
Tel: 01260 271139

Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk

Daniel Hannan: "Break Up England - Problem Solved!"

2009-06-30T15:51:00.002+01:00

Daniel Hannan, star of YouTube, and undemocratic, cheesy-arsed, gravy train-riding MEP for South East England, advances his own plan to save the UK, and break-up England. As usual, it's not devolution for England, decided by the electorate in England, it's devolution in England, the break-up of the nation, orchestrated by the UK Government and the EU that is the desired course of action.

As for the issue of devolution, this Hannan has a definite end-game. There is no power bestowed on the Holyrood Parliament under the 1998 Scotland Act that could not, in England, be exercised by counties and cities. The decentralisation of power in England is, of course, a meritorious goal in itself. But a happy consequence of English localism would be the rectification of the lopsided 1998 settlement: all Westminster MPs would find themselves on the same footing, dealing with defence, foreign affairs and immigration. Domestic questions - health, education, policing, social security- would be decided more closely to the people. All clear?

So, each county or "region" of England is awarded the same powers as the Scottish parliament? Completely unworkable. And undemocratic.

The people of England need a referendum on how they are governed - the same thing the Scots and Welsh were given.

Despite being last year's YouTube hit, Hannan is a wally.

In fact, the anti-English arrogance of the likes of guzzling Hannan make me sick.

Fuck off, man - let the people decide!

Cambridge City Council - Twisted Hitlers: Misinforming Abused Women and Pouncing On Cigarette Butt Droppers...

2009-06-30T00:39:00.005+01:00

Scotland - UK Supermarkets Agree To Bolster Anti-English Scots' Bigots

2009-06-26T23:50:00.007+01:00

The Scotsman:

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Richard Lochhead today revealed eight major supermarkets have signed an agreement with the Scottish Government to help promote Scottish produce in their stores.

And he released figures showing a 21 per cent increase in demand for Scottish food products over the past two years, despite the economic downturn.

Mr Lochhead unveiled the new retailers' charter – signed by Aldi, Asda, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Morrison's, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose – as he published the Scottish Government's next steps in the first-ever national food and drink strategy.

Well, that's all fine and dandy. Great for English-hating Scots' bigots who can't bear to buy English, as well as people who simply see Scotland as a country alone, with no loyalty due elsewhere. Which it is not.

And I noticed recently that Sainsbury's and Tesco have changed the packaging on their sausages in England so that you can now buy such delights as "BRITISH Pork Licolnshire sausages".

And I've also heard that Tesco is intent on cleansing Englishness out of existence by renaming the (very) few English lines they have as "British" (more here).

There are indications that the major supermarkets have refused to brand English products as English to appease anti-English Scots' bigots. Read the CEP's findings here.

When it comes to our anti-English, Scots-biased supermarkets, we personally vote with our wallets and purses.

How about you?

A big kiss to the Witanagemot Club.

Peter Osborne - Mail Online - Woefully Ignorant About The British Parliament...

2009-06-24T19:05:00.003+01:00

From Mail Online, Peter Osborne socks it to us:

Labour's sinister revolution will tear Britain's 700-year-old constitution to shreds in weeks

Yesterday was perhaps the darkest day in the 700-year-old history of the British Parliament. This magnificent institution on the banks of the River Thames, the scene of so many of the greatest episodes in our national life, suffered two hammer blows.

You may as well not pursue the rest. Peter Osborne, in his first sentence, has already displayed his appalling ignorance of British history.

Yesterday was perhaps the darkest day in the 700-year-old history of the British Parliament.

There was NO British Parliament 700 years ago. And "Britain" did not exist as a political entity.

My goodness, how much do these wallies get paid? And who passes work like this for publication? Thank heavens for the blogosphere!

Lord Richard of Ammanford - Basically Says Fuck England!

2009-06-18T17:03:00.006+01:00

Wales On-line picks up on odious New Labour toady Liam Byrne praising up the Barnett Formula (despite its creator, Lord Joel Barnett, saying its unfair to England). Wales On-line makes quite a fair fist of it, pointing out:

In 2007-08 the Government spent £7,535 per head in England, £8,577 in Wales and £9,179 in Scotland.

Liam Byrne declares the Formula "fair enough" - keep pocketing the dosh whilst you can, Liam, the gravy train's heading for the cliff - and then some English-hating racist, apparently CHAIRMAN of the Inquiry, blasts in:

Mr Byrne was challenged over his “fair enough” assessment by the inquiry chairman, Lord Richard of Ammanford, who said: “It doesn’t actually mean anything. Look at the difference between Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland – is that fair?”

So, this Lord Richard of Ammanford is CHAIRMAN of the Inquiry, but quite plainly doesn't give a shit about England? And why doesn't he mention England? Because it's not "pure" or so-called "Celtic" enough? And yet, despite not rating a mention from his Lordship, England is getting the worst deal of all!

Lord Richard of Ammanford is highly biased and certainly not committed to what's good for ALL - get him OFF!

David Cameron - Just As Much An Anti-English Wanker As Gordon Brown...

2009-06-07T01:29:00.004+01:00

Voting Conservative is, for many people, voting for the lesser of two evils.

And one of the things which adds to the sense of evil emanating from David Cameron's Tory Party is the not-so-great man's anti-English spoutings ("sour little Englanders!"), and Scots jingoism (like describing certain of his ancestors as "Scottish Empire builders" - who "conquered all sorts of parts of India").

And, of course, David Cameron has recently once more been up to his beloved Scotland, promising to "rule" that country with respect.

Not so, England, of course. Bugger the Barnett Formula, the West Lothian Question and health apartheid - better dead English people than a broken Union!

Whilst the Tories did very well in the local elections in England, they could have done much better. And in addressing the legitimate concerns of the electorate in England could have helped to halt the successes of the odious BNP.

On Conservatives.com, whilst relaying news about the English local elections, the site couldn't even bear to write the country's name. Read about the "local elections [UK rump, obviously] - 2009 live results" here.

David Cameron is just as much an anti-English wanker as Gordon Brown. He just talks posher.

Glenys Kinnock - Another Anti-English Appointment By Gordon Brown...

2009-06-05T18:54:00.003+01:00

Amazing that Glenys Kinnock is to be the UK Minister for Europe.

Why? How?

We can only assume it's another of Gordon Brown's anti-English appointments. After all, Gordon signed the Scottish Claim of Right in 1989, vowing to put Scotland first in all he does, but he obviously wants to look after his other fellow so-called Celts as well ("Celt" - the ancient WHITE tribe myth, forming an, in reality, entirely imaginary fraternity between the people of Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Ireland).

And we must remember what Glenys' hubby, dear old Neil Kinnock, once said about England in the sporting arena:

"I am pro-Britain in everything I do. I always support Britain. I support the British Lions on every occasion. I support any and every Welsh team on every occasion. And I support any and every team on every occasion when they are playing against England."

Glenys is probably of much the same ilk. She'll suit so-called "Celtic" Gordy down to the ground. Don't expect her to do a thing to advance England's interests. Quite the reverse.

CEP: The UK establishment denies constitutional justice to England

2009-05-28T22:56:00.001+01:00

The UK establishment avoids addressing the most outrageous constitutional injustice of all. It is the way England is being treated.

'The whole UK Establishment of politicians and media are rampaging about, like ferrets in a warrren of their own making, frothing, slavering and sweating over constitutional reform. But very deliberately they are all, every single one of them, ignoring even to mention, let alone address, the biggest political and constitutional injustice of all in the UK system of government. It is the way they are treating the nation of England.' That is the message of the National Council of the Campaign for an English Parliament which met in Holborn in London on Wednesday May 27th to discuss the political crisis now facing Britain and its implications for England.

'And not just the politicians and the media. The academic Establishment as well. The very day we met Professor Vernon Bogdanor fellow of Brazenose College, professor of politics at Oxford, former tutor of David Cameron, advisor to the House of Commons Justice Committee on constitutional matters, was writing in the Guardian newspaper that there had been 're-distribution of power to politicians in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and London'. We can only suppose that journalists and members of parliament can be excused the glaring mistakes they make when it comes to understanding the UK political system when the Oxbridge dons they consult can get it so hopelessly wrong. Likewise in the course of last week the Justice Committee itself and the Institute for Public Policy Research has produced publcations on devolution which deliberately shy away from addressing the fundamental shortcomings of the 1998 legislation.

'In the 1998 devolution legislation Scotland and Wales were given political, constitutional and legal recognition as distinct nations within the UK. Not England. They got independent self-rule through having their own parliament and assembly, Scotland got as much as 75% independent self rule. England got nothing. England politically and constitutionally does not even exist. Scottish and Welsh MPs can legislate in what is historically England's own House of Commons on every single aspect of English life. No English MP can as much as discuss Scotish matters, let alone legislate on them. Scottish MPs like Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling can make laws about education, health and social services, culture, sport, media, the list is endless, in respect of England. But the utter constitutional stupidity is that they have no say at all as MPs in those very same affairs in their own Scottish constituencies. Only Members of the Scottish Parliament have. Thanks to devolution Scottish students pay no university fees, Scottish pensioners no personal care charges, do not need to sell their houses, all Scottish council tax is frozen, the Welsh pay no prescription charges, the Scots and the Welsh pay no hospital parking charges. But the English people have to pay in every one of these instances. And worse than that, much worse, through their taxes, to the amount of £281 extra per person per annum, the English people pay for the benefits which the Scots and the Welsh receive and which they themselves are denied.

'The Guardian newspaper, just to take one example, devotes pages after page to pundits like Vernon Bogdanor pontificating on constitutional reform of government. The three Party leaders, Brown, Cameron and Clegg, are competing with each other to come up with the most sellable and vote-winning, programme. Not one of the whole lot of them throughout the UK Establishment, thinks of England. But we are thinking of England. The People of England are 80% of the UK population. Our people deserve justice. They deserve national recognition. They deserve the same degree of self-rule as the Scots have got. They deserve the same benefits the rest of the UK has been given, and given so lavishly. We will not rest from the 'mental fight' the English poet and mystic Blake demands of us, to achieve Jerusalem, the goal of justice and equality, for England.'

Contacts

Michael Knowles

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

The Justice Committee On Devolution - Politicians Still Do Not Want England To Have A Say In How It Is Governed...

2009-05-24T01:11:00.004+01:00

In its report, Devolution: A Decade On, The Justice Committee had decided that devolution for England is unfinished business, and that England is locked in a "pre-devolution timewarp".

"But England, which has 84 per cent of the population, is the unfinished business of devolution-stuck in a pre-devolution time warp, while the rest of the UK has moved on. The funding formula is also a relic from earlier times, taking no account of the current need of the various nations and regions of the United Kingdom."

The committee found there were a number of solutions presented as possible alternatives to the current system but none appeared to provide a definitive solution to the problem.

Some called for the creation of additional devolved parliaments such as an English one or several based on the English regions while others have sought to redress the problem of the West Lothian question with English-only votes in parliament or a reduction in the number of Scottish and Welsh MPs.

"Those which deal to any major extent with the West Lothian question, like an English parliament and English votes for English laws, raise significant problems in a state where one of its constituent territories has 84 per cent of the population".

It's a bit too late to worry about that. Having started the process of devolution by respecting the existence of Wales and Scotland as nations, and giving their peoples a vote, the UK Government has no other option but to similarly respect England and extend the same right to the people of England.

It awes me that these politicians are still chuntering away, trying to decide our future, whilst in no way recognising our right to be treated in exactly the same way as the UK Government treated the Scots, Welsh and later the Northern Irish.

The arrogance of it!

Meanwhile, the findings of the committee don't appear to be widely reported at all in England.

The media is burying the devolution issue again, it seems...

England 2018 - Brandish Those Scottish Colours And Be Proud!

2009-05-20T18:05:00.007+01:00

Ah, England 2018...

But hang on a bit! What's a Scots constituency MP doing there - unelected as PM, unaccountable to the electorate in England, and not terribly popular anywhere?

And why is David Beckham, delightful Nivea boy and "does my dick look big in these designer underpants? Go on - buy a pair!" merchant, holding a scarf which appears to be in Scots saltire colours?

Does the Scotland football team brandish blue and white and red and white scarves?

No?

Very sensible.

Big hat tip to Tommy English. Sorry, Tom, I nicked your picture!

The Celts - A Modern (And Highly Exclusive) Fantasy?

2009-05-14T20:16:00.003+01:00

From the fascinating Bloggin Fae the Burn blogspot:

However, anti-Englishness seems, in some quarters, to be acceptable. Northern Ireland-style sectarianism has often been described as "Scotland's Secret Shame" - but others now see anti-Englishness as a much bigger problem there. (Have a look at this page, and some of the posts - especially no. 109). The label "Celtic" can be one way that English people are alienated and branded as outsiders. Politics, nationalism and romantic nonsense are a heady combination - one which has even crept across the Atlantic into Appalachia.

Being half-Scots myself, I've always been highly sceptical about the "Celtic" thing, and the way it is used in a racist context: "We Scots/Welsh were here before you ENGLISH..."

The book, The Atlantic Celts looks like a fascinating read...

MILLIONS of people around the world think of themselves as Celtic and believe that their remote ancestors in the British Isles were Celts too. But many British prehistorians now argue that the idea that the pre-Roman peoples of the isles were Celts is misleading and probably just wrong. Why?

One fundamental, startling reason, is that no-one in Britain or Ireland called themselves "Celts" before 1700. Our earliest evidence for the identities of these peoples - the 2,000-year-old writings of their Greco-Roman neighbours - records Celts only on the continent, most notably the Gauls of modern France. The inhabitants of the isles were already called "British" and "Irish", and these were distinguished from the continental "Celts".

So where did the idea of insular Celts, ancient and modern, come from? It appears in the 18th century. "Celtic" came into use in the context of the isles as the result of the work of a pioneering linguist, the Welshman Edward Lhwyd, who demonstrated that Scots and Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and related languages were also related to the extinct tongue of the ancient Gauls. He chose to call this family of dead and living languages "Celtic". Soon it was being used as an ethnic label for living peoples, and was applied to ancient monuments too. It became fixed in popular consciousness with remarkable speed. A century later, in "Rob Roy" Sir Walter Scott could refer to an 18th-century Highlander as a Celt without elaborating; his readers knew what he meant. By then, modern Celticness, and an ancient Celtic past, were part of agreed popular history. It has come to be believed that the Celtic ancestors were invaders from the continent.

I believe that the rapid uptake of belief in Celtic identity, and Ancient Celtic roots, was driven by the perception among Welsh, Scots and Irish that their several identities were in danger of being swamped by the new English-dominated superstate. Celticism provided an alternative, shared, non-English identity. Celtic identity, then, and British identity, are twins, both initially political creations of the 18th century. This in itself is nothing very surprising: every such identity is created at some time, for good contemporary reasons. Scottish and English identities also have such histories, but can be traced back much further. It is also almost universal for ethnic or national identities to claim roots in the distant past, which may be authentic or may be exaggerated, or spurious; it is an important way of legitimating our sense of self, and our claims to our place in the world.

Archaeology was a late addition to all this, only really developing in the later 19th century. As early discoveries were made, they were interpreted according to the already established Celtic model. Many seemed to fit it well: Britain, Ireland and Gaul all have hill-forts, and some magnificent ancient metalwork decorated in similar, exquisite patterns. But more recent research has probed much deeper into the Iron Age past and has found not evidence for Iron Age Celtic invasion, but basic continuity from earlier prehistory; these peoples were, mostly, already here.

Also, the evidence for types of houses, settlements, farming and economy, the way people lived, the things they made and used, and the ways in which they disposed of their dead, are not uniform and often not even very similar. There seem to have been many different peoples living in Britain, probably with a multiplicity of identities. It is implausible that they all thought of themselves as sharing common Britishness, let alone a wider Celticity.

The idea of overarching identities linking vast areas appeared briefly with the Romans, and more recently with the quite new ideas of Britishness, pan-Celticness and now, European integration. It is up to the peoples of the present to decide whether they wish to establish a Celtic Union, or a United States of Europe. But projecting Celtic identity on to the ancient peoples of the Britain may, ironically, be to rob them of their many, diverse, real self-identities.

The Times Online - A Mission To Misinform The People Of England About Devolution - Bill Pickering As An Example...

2009-05-13T00:00:00.005+01:00

Is Times Online, in the wake of its recent Populus Poll on devolution, and its shrieks about how successful devolution has been for Scotland, and how everybody supports it, being rather biased in its comments threads?

Comments published seem very few, and a deluded Scot often seems to be allowed the last word.

Take this:

"Dave, I'm afraid you're just plain wrong - the UK Government's own figures show that Scotland is a net contributor to the Union.

Granted, it receives a superior grant than many of the English regions, but Northern Ireland gets even more, as does old London town.

Bill Pickford, Arisaig, Scotland"

Click on the red text to go to the Times article and the comments thread.

From The Guardian:

Tax revenues from Scotland almost match the country's £49.2bn a year public spending - although only if all North Sea oil and gas revenues are attributed to Edinburgh, a controversial allocation.

Click on the red text for the article.

And so it should be "controversial" - some of the oil and gas is England's.

The Tax Payers' Alliance found:

North Sea Oil has not funded the Scottish spending gap, despite Scottish Nationalist claims to the contrary. In only five of the last 23 years have North Sea Oil receipts exceeded the cost of higher funding paid to Scotland. Even with current high oil prices, the income from the Scottish share of North Sea Oil only just covers the spending gap, and North Sea Oil output is projected to fall by 50 per cent by 2020.

Click on red text for more.

And why should Scotland claim any of the oil for itself? This is supposed to be a "union" - surely resources are supposed to be SHARED?

And what's this "superior grant" Mr Pickford refers to? Scotland benefits from the Barnett Formula, whatever varying levels of public spending across England, England does not.

But Bill Pickford clearly does not know that. And yet The Times allows this man the final word in the comments thread.

And as for "English regions" - what the heck?!!

Perhaps I'm being a little hasty. But several people, including myself, have contributed to this comments thread to correct Mr Pickering. And the comments have, so far, been unpublished. Not even one of them has appeared.

CEP Press Release: CEP: MPs resorting to the Nuremberg war trials defence

2009-05-12T13:15:00.001+01:00

‘If ever there was a moment when we really could do with England starting again just like Scotland with its own parliament, and shedding all the inanities, the vanities and the corrupt practices of both past and present in the way we are governed, it is now.’ That was the message put to all CEP blog readers by Gareth Young, Brighton member of the Campaign and co-editor of its website http://www.thecep.org.uk/wordpress/blog/

‘If a British politician has ever told you that the reason that they don’t want an English parliament is because it would mean ‘an extra layer of politicians’ and ‘extra cost’, then now you know the real reason why. They don’t want an English Parliament because it will drive their Westminster gravy train up against the buffers. We have seen how Scotland, the moment it got its own parliament, free from the tentacles of Westminster and its centuries of corrupt practice, established the clearest of guidelines and rules for their MSPs. The moment two of its members were found to have broken its rules, they were made to resign. Here, we have scores of Cabinet ministers, shadow cabinet ministers, junior cabinet ministers and backbenches milking the system which they and their colleagues past and present set up; and to date not one single resignation. They have preached ‘Britishness’ and British democracy but have undermined the concept through greed. They are money-grubbers feather-bedding their lifestyles. They have no claim to govern England. England needs a clean sheet to start again.’

‘Their argument ‘I complied with the rules’ is in essence the notorious Nuremberg Defence,’ Michael Knowles head of the CEP Media Unit has added to Gareth’s message. ‘Not of course in scale. Of course not’. Yet legalistically and morally in essence the same. The war criminals argued in Nuremberg that they obeyed the law; here MPs argue they have complied with the rules. There is no conceptual difference. In Nuremberg exposure of wrongdoing was followed by retribution. There is no retribution whatsoever in this case. And these MPspr expect to get away with it all just by ‘apologising’ and saying it will be enough to change the rules. Not at all. They so argue because they want to hang on to monies which in the ‘court of public opinion’ they unfairly obtained. There has to be retribution. Either MPs should pay back the monies they took from the public purse, or they should face prosecution for breaking the law if, for example, they have not paid capital gains tax where it was owed. Or both. There is no gainsaying it any longer. England needs its own parliament where it can start again, with a clean sheet, with new men and women, bound by new rules, this time in this modern age subject to the full force of freedom of information legislation, transparent and translucent.’

David Cameron - Another Tyrant?

2009-05-11T20:18:00.004+01:00

"People who stand for public office put themselves forward as people who will rule over the rest of us."

So says David Cameron, who has stood for public office and is an MP - and possible Prime Minister in waiting - making a statement as part of the MPs' Expenses scandal.

RULE?

But surely our elected representatives should serve? OK, there must be leadership, at times difficult decisions must be taken, but I don't like the emphase on RULING on Mr Cameron's part.

And from what I've heard of his refusal to listen to the calls of the people of England for democratic parity within the so-called United Kingdom, I am very concerned that Cameron really does intend to RULE - refusing to listen to our wishes, and simply letting the devolution inequalities continue.

Do politicians these days really see themselves as RULING the electorate? And not as our elected representatives?

Hopefully this attitude is not too widespread, but David Cameron obviously has more in common with Gordon Brown than what he terms "Scottish blood" in his veins.

All hail the New Ruler in waiting!

God Help England!

God Help Democracy!

The Campaign for an English Parliament welcomes the result of the Times Populus poll

2009-05-11T17:43:00.001+01:00

A special Populus poll for The Times, to mark the tenth anniversary of the first elections to the Scottish Parliament indicated that in England and Wales 41 per cent support the idea of an English parliament.

However, Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP), addressing a meeting of CEP members, asked why people in Wales were consulted about whether they supported an English Parliament 'The people of England were never consulted whether they wanted an Assembly for Wales or a Parliament for Scotland. Surely it is the people of England, not the Welsh, who should to be consulted if they want an English Parliament?'

'And why,' Mrs Cullen queried further, 'were we not given the figures for England? Clearly if the Times had cared to separate out the figures for England in this matter, the percentage in England supporting an English Parliament was most likely to be higher and in line with other recent polls that return figures of between 60 and 70%.

'We hear ad nauseam,' she said, 'Establishment pundits and the British government telling us that there is “no demand” for an English Parliament, yet again and again when asked, the people of England do want parity with the other countries of Britain. In the three most recent opinion polls their support ranged from 61% to 68%. Clearly the demand in England is at least as high at that in the referendum for the Scottish Parliament, namely 44%, characterised by those same pundits as “the settled will of the Scottish people”, and much higher than the 25% of the Welsh electorate that voted for devolution.. And what irony that the present government was elected by just 21.59% of the electorate.

'Nevertheless, the will of the people of England continues to be studiously ignored by the British Political Class. Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties have set their faces against an English Parliament. They see it as a threat to their power and their whole life-style. We hear that David Cameron has said he will treat the people of Scotland with respect if the Conservative Party is returned to power at the next general election. Will that respect be extended to the wishes of the people of England? The Conservatives tell us that the UK cannot afford an English Parliament. The CEP says that we cannot afford the dubious, excessive, immoral practises and expenses of the members of the British Parliament. An English Parliament will be the golden opportunity to bring in root and branch reform of the corrupt way in which the Union Parliament operates.'

Contact:

Scilla Cullen: Tel@ 01483 833155 Email: scilla.cullen@thecep.org.uk

David Cameron - Brown Nosing His Beloved Scotland Again - And Leaving England Out In The Cold...

2009-05-11T15:30:00.003+01:00

God, how we dislike David Cameron. And Gordon Brown, of course. But here is Cameron "Scottish blood in my veins" again, this time in The Telegraph, promising to "rule Scotland with respect".

Not England, of course. Nope, we are "sour Little Englanders" - and the West Lothian Question, the Barnett Formula and health apartheid matter not. Better a deprived England, better dead English people on the so-called NHS, than a broken so-called Union.

If Cameron gets in it will be because Nulabour has been so foul, it will certainly be no endorsement of the man or his political morals.

God, how we dislike David Cameron...

Prodicus: 1982 and 1986 Are The 1970s...

2009-05-10T14:28:00.008+01:00

As a sideline here, we like to point out instances of "'70s hype" as we call it. You know, times when interesting events of other decades are assigned to the 1970s, thus making it seem the most dramatic and colourful decade ever? This is a very common occurrence.

Today, we find Prodicus saying:

Would it be that Brenda Dean who, with her brothers and sisters in That Great Movement of Theirs, even today the Labour Party's paymaster, held the Byzantine British publishing industry firmly by the throat until, in the 1970s, Eddie Shah, Rupert Murdoch (and in the 80s, Margaret Thatcher) finally dragged it out of the mediaeval swamp and into the modern era and broke the lethal grip of the trade unions on the freedom of the British people?

Er, would that be the Eddie Shah who had a set-to with the unions in 1982, lasting seven months? Is 1982 the "1970s"!? Would that be the Eddie Shah who set up Today newspaper, Britain's first colour national daily, in March 1986? And would that be the Rupert Murdoch of 1986 Wapping fame? Is 1986 the "1970s"?

It's bizarre. it's rampant. the '70s are everywhere! Even when they shouldn't be! But it does help people not to mention '80s. Even when they really should.

UPDATE:

Prodicus has been in touch, telling us it's "a fair cop".

"What ho. A fair cop. My mistake on the chronology, now corrected. Mrs T passed the legislation and Shah and Murdoch used it. I was in publishing in the 70s (plenty of union s**t) and 80s (more off same during the breaking of the stranglehold). I still have the scars."

Understood, matey. The relevant legislation in the Shah scenario dated from 1980 and 1982. We make a bit of hobby of spotting instances of the 1980s being rewritten to the 1970s. You wouldn't believe how often it happens! From the BBC to the UK Press Association, proclaiming '80s events are '70s is absolutely piggin' RAMPANT!!

CEP: At last, an English MP speaks up for England and English jobs

2009-05-08T23:39:00.001+01:00

'All classes of nuclear submarines in Britain will be based at Faslane on the Clyde in Scotland from 2017'. That was yesterday’s announcement from Bob Ainsworth Minister of State for Defence. As from 2017 there won’t be a single nuclear submarine based in any English naval port. There will be no jobs for an Englishman or woman in the maintenance and service of the British nuclear fleet as from 2017.The four Vanguard class submarines, which carry Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent, are already based in Faslane. But from 2017 the remaining three nuclear-powered Trafalgar Class submarines, which do not carry nuclear warheads, will be moved from Devonport in Plymouth to Faslane. All the 10,000 plus jobs plus a similar number in the industries immediately supplying the bases will go from Devon to Scotland.

‘This is the most blatant act of discrimination against the English workforce yet carried out by this Scottish-led government in its eleven years of existence,’ David Wildgoose, Vice Chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament, has stated in an emergency letter sent to all CEP members. ‘I urge every single member to write to their MP to object to this injustice. Britain's entire nuclear submarine fleet is to be based at Faslane on the Clyde. This government is allowing the "Scottish agenda" to threaten English jobs. Gordon Brown is taking jobs away from the English workforce of Devonport to ingratiate himself with this own Scottish countrymen and women in the hope of preserving Scottish votes in the coming local and EU elections on June 4th and the General Election next year. It is downright wrong. It is downright discrimination.

‘I agree wholeheartedly with the condemnation of the decision made by Gary Streeter, the MP for Devon South West who has said: "I fear that the Devonport naval base is going to be allowed to wither on the vine over the next five to 10 years. It has had 320 years of history. We will have the amphibious fleet, but that is three boats and not much else. That is not going to replace all these frigates and submarines". I agree with Mr Streeter when he says he is particularly angry because English jobs were being jeopardised by an attempt to appease the Scots.

And Mr Wildgoose reminded the CEP membership that for the last two years, in one press release after another, the Campaign has been trying to bring public attention to this Scottish-led UK government’s policy of transferring naval shipyard employment from Devonport, Tyneside, Barrow on Furness and Appledore to the two Scottish yards of Faslane on the Clyde adjacent to the Glasgow heartland of the government’s support in Scotland and to Rosyth right next to Gordon Brown’s own constituency. ‘We must make our objections known to our English MPs. English MPs must stand up for the English workforce'.

Contacts:

Michael Knowles CEP Media Unit,

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

Times Poll On Devolution Is Seriously Flawed And Highly Misleading...

2009-05-08T15:29:00.004+01:00

The Times has carried out a survey on attitudes to Scottish devolution south and north of the border, and its headline trumpets:

70% of Britons support devolution for Scotland, poll suggests

Well, I hate to be a party pooper, but as 42% of those surveyed in England desire an English Parliament, and 52% believe that Scots constituency MPs should not be voting on English matters, the poll hardly suggests that everything in the garden is lovely. Also, consider the facts that only 911 people were surveyed in England and Wales (together) compared to 500 in Scotland - suggesting, as usual, that Scots' opinions are far more important than those from elsewhere in the UK.

And when you consider there are around 60 million people in England, as compared to around 5 million in Scotland...

But, apart from all this, the Times poll strikes us here at WENAP as another prime example of the media in England seeking to hide the facts about devolution - the headline suggests that everything in the garden is rosy, and as the media fails to inform people in England about the detrimental effects of devolution on its citizens, surely the poll is a complete and utter farce?

This particular quote from the Times reveals how absurdly ill-informed the majority of people are, thanks to the likes of the Times and the BBC:

It [the survey] found that 65% of people in Scotland and 73% in England and Wales believed relationships between the two countries have not changed since before devolution a decade ago.

And what about this? -

The Times newspaper survey found 70% of people north of the border and 70% in England and Wales thought devolution had been good for Scotland.

We believe that devolution has been good for Scotland - unfairly so - but that doesn't mean we support the current situation, and the Times headline states: 70% of Britons Support Devolution For Scotland. This is completely skewed and misleading.

Also, if the survey was about "relationships between the two countries" - our emphasis - meaning England and Scotland - why on earth were people in Wales surveyed on this point? What position are they in to judge?

Until the media in England opens up about the facts regarding devolution, then all such polls are a waste of time.

But, even taking that into account, we are surprised and gratified that 41% of those polled in England desire an English Parliament and 52% do not want Scots constituency MPs voting on English legislation.

Read the full Times report here.

The Press Association Report On England And Britain

2009-05-02T23:12:00.005+01:00

A few weeks ago, we caught the UK Press Association deliberately mangling facts by misquoting a newspaper report. That was due to '70s hype, the strange affliction gripping so-called journalists, who will take a concrete fact about a past event occurring in, say, the 1980s or 1990s, and rewrite it as '70s, mangling the information from the original news source - and basically telling lies.

For instance, a one-off, out-of-the blue happening in the mid-1980s according to the original news source (and all other sources!) becomes a series of happenings in the '70s and '80s, when reported by the PA.

Today, the Press Association reports:

A Tory spokesman said: "The Labour party needs to drag itself into the 21st century and start apologising to the people of Scotland and Britain for the depth of the recession it's created."

Scotland AND Britain? But Scotland is Britain, Britain came into being because of the Union of England and Scotland.

Another bizarre Press Association mangling of fact? No, not in this case, we suspect. After all, there's no '70s hype involved.

CEP: Open letter to the Calman Commission on Scottish Devolution and the British Government from the campaign for an English Government

2009-05-02T12:18:00.002+01:00

We read in the Times online of 28th April 2009 that radical plans to give the Scottish government control of up to half of the income tax raised north of the Border and most of the revenue from North Sea oil and gas are being considered by economists advising the Calman Commission.

We are told that the commission, chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman, was charged by the three main Unionist parties (Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative) to find ways that the existing devolution settlement can be made to work better for all parts of the UK. We must assume that all parts of the UK includes England but most of the gas fields are in English waters so who is to negotiate on England’s behalf? Who has the authority to ensure that the interests of the English taxpayers are protected? Indeed who speaks for England?

We are further told that the commission is set to back borrowing powers for Holyrood as one of its main recommendations when it reports later this year. While not explicitly stated, the inference from other reports is that the borrowing will be from the British Government the vast majority of whose funding comes from England. With the example of the toxic assets of the Scottish banks before us should not England be consulted before its people are touched for any loan? And what guarantee do the people of England have that such debts will be administered by those with the best interests of England at heart?

If Holyrood is to get most of the revenue from British North Sea oil and gas-will the Scottish government then take on most of the cost of the failure of the Scottish Banks or will the enormous national debt, taken on by the British Government on behalf of those banks, remain a millstone around the necks of the English taxpayer for a generation?

The Calman Commission had a remit largely specific to Scotland. In a united kingdom why does Scotland gets to debate about Scotland with a Scottish PM, Scottish Chancellor, Scottish Speaker, without reference to the rest of the Union? At least Wales and Northern Ireland have their own Assemblies to argue for their interests. England as usual, is left with nothing but the bill.

It is imperative that an English Assembly or Parliament is convened in order to protect the interests of the people of England who are currently unrepresented nationally in the British constitutional settlement.

Scilla Cullen

Chairman, the Campaign for an English Parliament

Contact:

Scilla Cullen.01439 833155

Email:

scilla.cullen@dsl.pipex.com

Happy St George's Day And Slaying Alexis!

2009-04-23T13:16:00.006+01:00

We've recently had a couple of rather bitchy comments containing such delights as "what an amusing blog you have here!" and then picking up on issues covered on WENAP, ignoring many of the points raised, and basically wittering on endlessly in a British Unionist or Scots Bigot manner.

One such point was that the Tories originally raised the idea of community service for youngsters in England, and New Labour merely stole the idea. But that does not detract from the fact that Gordon Brown is seeking to impose this on England alone, whilst pretending it will apply to BRITAIN. Nor the fact that it won't apply to his own constituents.

We don't have time to devote to "water muddiers", a couple of whom have even become followers of this blog so that they can monitor posts and flood us with time-wasting nonsense. We are all very busy people and this blog is maintained simply because we feel that every little bit of the blogosphere devoted to the cause is worthwhile.

So, such followers have been banned. Honestly, we haven't heard bitching like it since the days of Dynasty!

This is one dragon (we imagine in pastel pink economy-sized 1980s shoulder pads) we have now slayed.

Enjoy St George's Day!

Google Does St George's Day And Shakespeare's Birthday

2009-04-22T23:15:00.004+01:00

In the past on this blog, we have criticised Google for ignoring England's national day. But last year and this we have been very pleasantly surprised to see Google bucking its trend with witty and appropriate St George's Day logos. 2009 is the best yet - and the clever doubling, the joint marking of Shakespeare's birthday, makes us very happy indeed.

Thank you, Google!

And happy St George's Day, England!

Sir Alec Jeffreys: DNA Database And The Innocents

2009-04-15T01:59:00.004+01:00

It was on the 10th of September 1984, at 9.05 am, that Sir Alec Jeffreys, in his lab at Leicester University, accidentally made a world-changing discovery:

Said Jeffreys: "I was on my own in the darkroom at 9.05 on September 10, 1984, when that pattern came up and I twigged what we had stumbled upon. Just that single bit of X-ray film threw open a door we didn't even know was there. It opened the whole science of forensic DNA."

This 1980s discovery has had a tremendous influence on crime detection, and, less happily, led to the setting-up of the current UK National Database. Which, as we all know, retains the DNA of many, many innocent people.

Now Sir Alec has spoken up in an interview with the Guardian:

"My view is very clear that if you have been convicted of a crime then you owe it to society to be retained on that database for catching in the future should you reoffend. But the retention of entirely innocent people is a whole different issue. There is a sort of presumption here that if they haven't committed any crime now, then they will in the future."

He also called for improved genetic testing procedures, warning that the current system could result in a miscarriage of justice.

Jeffreys' genetic discoveries at Leicester University in the mid-1980s enabled the establishment of the national DNA database 10 years later; it is now the largest in the world, storing details on more than 5 million people.

Thank you, Sir Alec, for speaking out against the guilty-until-proven-innocent ethos of the Database. Click on the red text to read the Guardian article.

"Smeargate" - What A Lack Of Imagination!

2009-04-13T23:29:00.005+01:00

Like many people, I've been following the events concerning Mr McBride and Mr Draper and "Smeargate" all weekend with great interest.

The only thing which dampens my interest is "Smeargate". I'm tired of "Gates". My palate is seriously jaded. We've had all sorts since Watergate - including Sharon-Gate (EastEnders) - and I now find the -Gate thing instantly boring. And is this any way to attract the interest of those even younger than myself - many of whom already have zero interest in modern politics and view the '70s as prehistoric?

Is it supposed to be evocative? Instantly put us in the picture, whet our appetites to "read on"? I was born in 1965 and I don't even remember Watergate. The -Gate thing makes the whole McBride/Draper affair seem dull, nothing new and the latest in a long series of similar events, stretching back to the early 1070s, sorry I mean 1970s, IMHO.

Whereas in reality the suggested abuse of modern technology for political gain is fascinating, worrying and "of the moment".

But "Smeargate"? Yawn...

Night, night, folks...

Gordon Brown Tells Lies Again - England Once More Becomes "Britain"

2009-04-11T20:03:00.005+01:00

What an absolute liar Gordon Brown is!

Here he goes again:

Writing in the News of the World, Mr Brown insisted: "It is my ambition to create a Britain in which there is a clear expectation that all young people will undertake some service to their community, and where community service will become a normal part of growing up in Britain."

Two mentions of "Britain" in one sentence, but the dishonest toad has no authority on this matter in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland - only in England, where he is not accountable to the electorate.

We really do need an honest Government which is accountable to the electorate in England. The sooner we vote this England-hating Scots-elected dictator out, hiding as he does behind the smoke and mirrors of a fictitious "Britain", the better.

"I'm Being Picked On Because I'm A Woman," Says Sexist Person Jacqui Smith

2009-04-09T12:21:00.005+01:00

Well this made us smile.

No, Jacqui, you're not being "picked on" because you're a woman.

You are being scrutinised because there are certain questions being asked about your integrity.

You are being heavily criticised because of your dictatorial nature, enforcing illegal measures like the DNA Database - on this blog we call you "Hitler In Knickers". The Hitler mentality, of course, is not gender specific.

Here you have been criticised because you are sexist - your recent speech to a women's group in which you stated that "violence against women and girls is unacceptable in any form" - inferring that violence towards men and boys is fine, was completely unacceptable. We grew up in an area where a lot of the women were very prone to initiating acts of violence.

This latest whine of yours reveals just how desperate you are. Are we supposed to say, "Ah, poor Jacqui, how un-chivalrous we've been?" Do you want the old fashioned pedestal chivalry as well as equality? You have a highly paid top government job. Your behaviour should be above reproach.

It doesn't wash. Equality means you take the brickbats as well as the bouquets, without screeching: "Oh, poor me, I'm a woman!" After all, you have a Women's Minister to look after you, and various initiatives we men could only dream of.

But then that's "equality".

You really are a scoundrel.

CEP challenges Ed Miliband's opposition to devolution for England with a call for a national conversation for England

2009-04-06T12:31:00.001+01:00

Writing for the new ‘Labour Space’ website Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has come out with strangely contradictory opinions on devolution. On the one hand he has endorsed devolution for Scotland and Wales because, he says, ‘devolution provides democratic accountability for decisions in Scotland and Wales which used to be made centrally’ On the other, when it comes to England he demands that decisions should still be made ‘centrally’ by UK Parliament MPs like himself. ‘He is still very Establishment,’ says Gareth Young of the CEP, ‘unable to live with a UK that is rapidly changing before his very eyes. He’s a captive of yesterday still, there is a lack of political imagination. The world has moved on.’

Replying to Miliband on the same Labour Party website Gareth Young put it to him straight. ‘You say you do not see a parliament for England as the answer to the lack of democratic accountability which is probably the main constitutional and political problem England is now experiencing; and your Labour colleague Jack Straw very predictably has joined you stating that ‘I am wholly opposed to an English parliament.’. Fair enough. But the two of you – you might not quite see this- are just two people out of 50 million English men and women. Just two. No more.

‘What are the facts about public opinion on this matter? Your government’s Ministry of Justice, headed by Jack Straw, has never commissioned any research into the level of support for an English parliament or English votes on English Laws. And by never, I mean never; not once, not ever.

‘However, all the following polls have found a majority in favour of an English dimension to government, whether it is an English Parliament, English Votes on English Laws, English independence or a combination of the three: ICM for the Telegraph December 2007, ICM for the Campaign for an English Parliament April 2007, YouGov for the Sunday Times April 2007, BBC Newsnight Poll January 2007, Daily Mail ICM Poll January 2007, ICM for the Sunday Telegraph November 2006, IPSOS MORI for the English Constitutional Convention June 2006 and YouGov for the English Democrats Feb 2004.There can be doubt that what has galvanised the outcomes of those polls, which you should have the openness of mind to consult, is the degree to which the people of England resent with justifiable bitterness the way in which devolution has benefited the Scots and the Welsh while doing nothing whatsover for them.

‘Mr Milband, it all amounts to evidence of public opinion that you and your government colleagues should not ignore. You are happy to declare support for democratic accountability for Scotland and Wales.yet oppose it for England. The outcome of the coming General Election might well give you cause to change your mind. We call on you to support a National Conversation on England; we call on you to come out from the Westminster bubble and give a hearing to the people of England'

Contacts:

Gareth Young -

http://ourengland.labourspace.com - joint co-ordinator the CEP website www.thecep.org.uk

Email: gpy1973@yahoo.co.uk

George Orwell: It was 1980. It was 1982. It was 1984. It's 2009...

2009-04-06T00:43:00.003+01:00

According to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of George Orwell's 1984, the author was originally going to set the action in 1980. Then, as the years and the writing of the book went on, 1982. And finally he decided on 1984.

And here we are now, with our database and CCTV State in 2009. Seems a far more appropriate setting than what, in reality, turned out to be the era of Thatcher, Reagan, shoulder pads, Spitting Image, Greenham Common, The Miners' Strike, Rubik's Cubes and Apple Macs, doesn't it?

Is the Government and, indeed, the EU, using Orwell's 1984 as a guide?

I simply can't believe what's happening. And as I start today knowing that all our internet movements are now being monitored... I can't help wondering...

What the fuck is going to happen to us?

Where is it all going to end?

The DNA Database: Jacqui Smith - She Of The Hitler Mentality - Simply Doesn't Understand "Innocent Until Proven Guilty"...

2009-04-06T00:02:00.006+01:00

Yep, here she is again Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, old Hitler in Knickers and Ms Honesty-Plus herself.

The National DNA Database has been declared illegal by the European Court Of Human Rights and the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.

But Jacqui Smith doesn't want to know. This woman, who has charged some of her husband's porn viewing to the taxpayer and been called into question over her accommodation expenses, makes vague burbling noises about some changes being made at some point. Not enough. The UK DNA Database is immoral and illegal and Jacqui Smith and this government should be sued by every person currently on it who has not been convicted of any crime.

Oh, and Jacqui Smith should be fired for having aroused suspicions about her honesty and worthiness to hold public office. Guilty until proven innocent does, after all, seem to be a notion she strongly favours. When it comes to others.

And today is the day that internet snooping begins.

It's all totally unacceptable.

The evil that men do. And persons, too, of course.

Tommy Sheridan, The Daily Record And Socialist Unity - Rewriting Poll Tax History

2009-04-02T12:12:00.005+01:00

Ugh, this makes me seethe! An article appearing in The Daily Record and Socialist Unity once again rakes up the Poll Tax - and in a not-very-clever reworking of history, we are led to believe that it was the Scots who "spread" the Protest Campaign to England and Wales! Yep, apparently we English were bleating around like a load of sheep, as usual! It took the brave and noble Scots to energise us.

Rubbish! The arrogance of it!

I find this particularly offensive as I joined an anti-poll tax group in England in 1988 and we were going great guns by the beginning of 1989. Indeed, there were similar groups all around England before the end of 1988.

But was it worth it? After all, with history being rewritten at the Daily Record and Socialist Unity, one can hardly believe that the English had any gumption on the matter at all before the Scots showed them the way.

Drivel!

Here's some stuff about the campaign in England in 1988 and 1989 -

http://80sactual.blogspot.com/2005/05/say-no-to-poll-tax.html

This one by Maria

Thatcher's First Term Began Thirty Years Ago! That's Not AT ALL Remarkable...

2009-03-31T18:32:00.004+01:00

I am so bored with the likes of the BBC and just about everybody else wittering on about Margaret Thatcher coming to power in 1979.

I mean PURLEASE! What was so remarkable? The only remarkable thing I can recall was the fact that she was a woman, Britain's first female PM. Labour and Tories were in and out like fiddlers' elbows in those days.

It was Thatcher's alliance with Reagan (elected in 1980), the Falklands (1982) and two subsequent re-elections that made her truly memorable. This attitude that 1979 was such a watershed is entirely inaccurate.

History is being rewritten.

And the changeable, turbulent years of Thatcher's reign dim beside the absurd assertion that a Conservative hegemony until 1990 was assured in 1979.

BBC Anti-English Bruce Robinson Article Altered - But It's Still Anti-English!

2009-03-31T12:44:00.004+01:00

The BBC British History on-line article about the Great Fire Of London has been altered after complaints -

With the country also at war with the French and Dutch, paranoid xenophobia - a familiar English trait - was rife.

"Of the period" has been inserted after "familar English trait". But this is still wrong to my mind, still anti-English. Did Bruce Robinson have a Tardis so that he could nip back and do an Esther Rantzen-style vox pop? And even if paranoid xenophobia was rife, surely it was not confined to the English alone in the world?

The article's better. But still not right.

BBC Decides That Bruce Robinson Is Fine - The English Do Have Paranoid Xenophobia - Absolutely, Without A Shadow Of A Doubt!

2009-03-31T11:43:00.003+01:00

All of us that have ever complained to the BBC recognise the pro-forma, with a few relevant points inserted just to show our pathetic protestations have been read, that the BBC sends out when rejecting complaints. And the Cross Of St George forum reports that this is just how they are treating the complaints about their designation of the English as paranoid xenophobics.

With the country also at war with the French and Dutch, paranoid xenophobia - a familiar English trait - was rife.

(click on red text for BBC British History article by Bruce Robinson)

So this trait is always around, but rife at certain times.

And it's peculiar to the English.

Can you imagine the BBC referring to the Scots, Welsh or Irish in such a way? Or indeed anybody else?

The BBC are once more treating the English - and England - with contempt, and attempting to incite hatred of anybody professing to be English.

Gordon Brown - Stamping Out England: The British Language

2009-03-29T22:23:00.003+01:00

‘So should there be a citizenship test that is stronger for people who want to be part of this country? Should the rules that we apply for citizenship take more aspects of British culture, British history, [the English] language into account?’

That's Gordon Brown, banging onto Matthew d’Ancona, editor of The Spectator on his pet theme of "Britishness". To Matthew d'Ancona, the West Lothian Question, the Barnett Formula, Brown's unaccountability to the English on a vast range of issues, don't seem to exist. But then Matthew is a confirmed Brit, dedicated to ignoring anything that may stand in the way.

Like equality.

However, Mr d'Ancona does step in and insert [the English] into Gordon's blethering about "Britishness". The squared brackets indicate that "the English" is a writer's insert. So what Gordon Brown actually said was:

‘What are the responsibilities of citizenship in the modern world?’ he asks. ‘So should there be a citizenship test that is stronger for people who want to be part of this country? Should the rules that we apply for citizenship take more aspects of British culture, British history, language into account?'

The British language? Gordon's determination to stamp out England and Englishness is becoming plainer by the day.

And once again Gordon refers to Britain as a country. It is not, it is a so-called union of countries - England, Scotland and Wales, as the devious Prime Minister knows very well indeed.

March 1989 To March 2009 - 20 Years Since The Invention Of The World Wide Web

2009-03-27T23:46:00.002Z

An historic document.

It's twenty years since Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at CERN, in Switzerland.

Well done that man!

The genesis of Mr Berners-Lee's Web idea can be traced back to June to December 1980, when he built ENQUIRE, his first computer program for storing information, whilst working as consultant software engineer at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

He left CERN, returned in 1984, and in 1989 invented the World Wide Web.

He wrote the first web browser in 1990 and soon many of us who had eyed the rise of home computing in the '80s with unease, were happily surfing the Web.

From 1989 invention to today - a world unimaginable without the Web.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Adrian Sanders (Lib Dems) and Ken Purchase (Labour), Glib, Smart-Mouthed Hatred Of England

2009-03-27T12:56:00.002Z

Marsha Singh has tabled an Early Day Motion to make St George's Day a public holiday.

Ken Purchase, Wolverhampton, Labour, and Adrian Sanders, (Torbay) Lib Dems, then leapt in with two daft amendments, which make plain their smug hatred of England.

These MPs are rotten to the pips. Health apartheid? Who gives a damn? The West Lothian Question? Ditto. The Barnett Formula? You guessed it. What the hell are their constituents doing electing these people who wilfully work against their best interests and pour scorn on their country?

Adrian Sanders is probably the most pathetic of the two (it's very close run) as he comes up with an alternative bank holiday to "benefit the UK tourist industry" - obviously unaware that Scotland and Wales are far better provided for, having retained their own tourist boards and representation through the "British" site whilst England, once again, is the poor relation.

When it comes to sneering, smug and out of touch people, not fulfilling the roles expected of them, Adrian Sanders and Ken Purchase are difficult to beat. But then I suspect that they are very typical indeed.

Toque has the whole story here - and remains far calmer and more eloquent than myself!

"Being British" - Gordon Brown At It Again!

2009-03-25T22:53:00.004Z

Here's Gordon Brown pursuing his Britishness agenda again - this time in relation to the recession. He never misses an opportunity, does he?

From The Guardian:

Without a clear sense of national identity, "we give ourselves a false sense of who we are", said the PM. "We define ourselves by race or ethnicity – which would be a disaster for a country that has many people with different backgrounds as part of it. Or we just describe ourselves in terms of unchanging institutions, which would mean that we were frozen in the past."

Um, actually Gordon signed the Scottish Claim Of Right in 1989 - a pledge to put the people of his native Scotland first in all he did.

So, why is simply being "British" not good enough for himself and his own people, the Scots? Why did he pledge to put the Scots above the rest of the British? Also, "British" means, basically, English, Scottish or Welsh. It is a synthetic nationality born in the days of Empire.

I can't help wondering why Gordon Brown describes Britain as a "country" - it is not, it is a (so-called) union of countries, England, Scotland and Wales.

And English, Scottish and Welsh are nationalities - not races - so inclusive civic identities in each of those countries would not see people fragmenting into "race or ethnicity".

Gordon Brown is a Prime Minister without a mandate, representing a constituency in Scotland, which has its own parliament. This means that around 75% of the legislation his government passes does not affect his own constituents. Mr Brown is such a liar and twister. He fair takes my breath away.

The forthcoming BBC Radio 4 documentary on Britishness by the editor of the Spectator, Matthew d'Ancona, sounds like more New Labour propaganda, especially designed to keep the people of England under-funded - and under the Scotsman's thumb.

Daniel Hannan and Nigel Farrage Tell It Like It Is. Gordon Brown Grins.

2009-03-25T20:49:00.003Z

Daniel Hannan tells Gordon Brown a few home truths at the European Parliament.

Nigel Farrage follows it up. No mandate dictator Gordon Brown is amused.

Jacqui Smith - Very Devious...

2009-03-25T11:17:00.003Z

Jacqui Smith, old Hitler in Knickers herself, is at it again: not content with an illegal DNA Database and CCTV everywhere, etc, she now proposes training people, like shopping centre managers, to inform on "suspicious" types.

Shopping centre and store managers will be among 60,000 British workers trained for action on a new frontline against terror.

The workers' army is at the centrepiece of a new government anti-terror strategy unveiled today by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, who said police, security and intelligence agencies could not be “solely” relied upon to tackle the threat.

The strategy will involve enlising the "widest range" of people and making other citizens more vigilant about the threat of an attack, Ms Smith said in a round of broadcast interviews this morning. It could also see official funding withdrawn from organisations that flirt with extremism, even if they remain within the letter of the law.

Jacqui Smith plays on the terrorism threat, plays on fear, to enslave us. I know I'm out of step with the vast majority of people on this subject - but you see, I'm not keen on EastEnders, reality TV shows and the latest "It" people. And I can't stand Big Brother.

Bruce Robinson Of The BBC - The English Are Paranoid Xenophobics

2009-03-23T23:25:00.006Z

The BBC likes to slur the English. It calls us racist, narrow-minded, snobbish, yobbish - you name it, if something slurs the English, the BBC loves it.

Recently, we've heard the BBC's anti-English hatred on the Welsh-produced Dr Who and we've heard it on BBC Radio One's The Surgery. I'm sure there are many other examples. But the CEP Media Watch has come up with a staggering example.

Here's the BBC's Bruce Robinson, writing about The Great Fire Of London on BBC British History:

With the country also at war with the French and Dutch, paranoid xenophobia - a familiar English trait - was rife.

Yoiks - so paranoid xenophobia is a familiar English trait?

Why? When? After all, England has seen many waves of immigrants. Why are WE in particular regarded as being paranoid xenophobics by the BBC? Sure, there are some problems, but there are in Scotland and Wales, too. In fact, in most places.

I've written to hate-filled old Auntie:

I was shocked at this comment on the BBC's "London's Burning: The Great Fire" article by Bruce Robinson:

"With the country also at war with the French and Dutch, paranoid xenophobia - a familiar English trait - was rife."

At times of war, paranoid xenophobia is, regrettably, often rife - and this is not confined to the English. I find this article offensive in the extreme, it is at the very least an example of anti-English bigotry and one unlikely to endear English people to the readers of the article.

I request that this comment is removed. I cannot imagine that this would have been written about the Scots or Welsh, although the BBC has often had cause to report outbreaks of xenophobia in those nations - including racist attacks on the English.

The BBC is gaining a reputation for anti-English bigotry, and now seems to be attempting to inflame public opinion against the English. I am very concerned.

The BBC truly defies belief at times.

Education For Simon Walters, Daily Mail Writer: Tony Blair Is SCOTTISH Not English...

2009-03-17T11:48:00.005Z

The recent story in the Daily Mail about the Labour party bod who said "I don't speak Glaswegian" and was accused of racism, was laugheable.

Being half-Scot myself, I'm often hard put to it to understand my Glaswegian relatives. English speaking Welsh folk are perfectly clear to me, as are most English accents, but give me broad Norfolk and I'm lost.

But the Daily Mail article writer, Simon Walters, seems to want to use the article to soap box a little and a peculiar anti-English chip on the shoulder, a desire to malign and stereotype, creeps in:

"It is not the first time a prominent English figure has been accused of racism against another part of Britain. Tony Blair faced a police investigation after allegedly bawling ‘******* Welsh’ when Labour did badly in an election there."

Um, Tony Blair is SCOTTISH, born and bred in Scotland, and of mixed parentage. Here's Tony talking about his grandfather:

"If we were naughty," he said recently, "he'd come after us with that stick and say, 'Ah'll gie ye a richt skelpin.'"

Despite Tony's own attempts to blur his origins for political purposes at times, the fact remains that he was born in Scotland and that makes him Scottish. Unless, of course, his background doesn't stand up to ethnic purity tests in the eyes of Simon Walters? But then, surely, Scottish is a nationality, not a race? Any other assertion is racist.

But what really sticks in the crop about Simon Walters is the fact that he can write a load of inaccurate nonsense, but true examples of racism in the UK - including the Barnett Formula and West Lothian Question, both levelled against the English, don't seem to exist to him.

Is North Sea Oil Owned By The Shetland Isles?

2009-03-17T11:28:00.002Z

Whilst we know that SOME North Sea Oil and Gas is English, does the majority belong to Scotland should it go independent?

Found on-line...

"Is North Sea Oil Owned By The Shetland Isles?

To answer this question you need to do some research into the history of Udal Law in Shetland. The Shetland and Orkney Udal Law group (SOUL) can be found on the Internet and highlights the main points of the argument.

Basically, although Shetland and Orkney are acknowledged as being under Scottish rule since the annexation, the annexation was not entirely legal. Shetland and Orkney were pledged as part of a dowry payment in 1468/9 with the understanding that sovereignty would not be handed over and the islands would be redeemed at a later date when the money could be raised.

The Scottish Crown was fly - even though the Danish/Norwegian Crown made several attempts to regain control of Shetland and Orkney, the Scottish Crown refused. Shetland was increasingly brought under Scottish rule and the issue of sovereignty was never fully addressed.

Under Udal law, outright ownership of land included the seabed - so if Shetland is still legally Scandinavian and Udal law has never been completely replaced, then the seabed around Shetland belongs to Shetland and not to Scotland.

North sea oil around the Shetland basin therefore belongs to Shetland and the Scottish Crown is well aware of this. To openly address the issue of Shetland's sovereignty is thus to make this public knowledge...and the British parliament wouldn't want that...now would they?"

Fascinating!

Clive Anderson And Alfie...

2009-03-17T10:47:00.003Z

Alfie has been in touch with TV and radio personality Clive Anderson about a disparaging and inaccurate remark he made about Englishness on the Loose Ends show:

When on Loose Ends Sarah Miles raised the question of Englishness, somewhat tangentially to the main thrust of our conversation, I attempted an off-the-cuff and, I hope, amusing explanation as to why England or Englishness might be unpopular.

If I had specified 200 years of imperialism I think your point, as far is it goes, would have been a fair one, as perhaps I would have been confusing England and Britain (or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , or in later years the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)– an error that almost everyone risks falling into from time to time – but one which I would have wanted to avoid in the context of the conversation we were having, however light-hearted.

In fact according to the BBC transcript of the programme I said

I think it’s a few hundred years of imperialism that have made England very unpopular.

This is vaguer, but I think more apt. In any event , I had in mind not just the years of the British Empire but also the centuries before that in which English kings, queens and state attempted, with some success, to acquire dominion over the rest of the British Isles and elsewhere. All in all I think there is a perception that Britain, and particularly England, has over long periods of history sought to rule parts of the world beyond its borders. While there is much to be proud of in England’s history it is perhaps understandable that this has provoked a certain amount of resentment in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and overseas.

"Amusing"? "Off-the-cuff"? Surely his remark was simply a typical example of the determination of a certain type of person to make the people of England feel guilty? To make us shoulder the blame for all that is now perceived as "wrong" in the British Isle historically? It's a familiar ploy, but not amusing or "off the cuff". I've read such nonsense at least a thousand times over the years.

Clive Anderson is a fine example of what is wrong in England today. There he sits, on his tumpty, loads of dosh, unaffected by health apartheid and the Barnett Formula, convinced that the people of England deserve the West Lothian Question and that the English alone in the British Isle have been aggressive. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - not so.

Nonsense.

And as for imperialism... didn't Scotland bankrupt itself during a colonial venture BEFORE the Act of Union?

Mr Anderson, it seems, belongs in the same bed as Jack Straw. What he says sounds priggish, ill-informed, bigotedly anti-English and hopelessly 1990s.

And, in view of the Barnett Formula, health apartheid and the West Lothian Question, very uncaring indeed.

Mind you, this is the man who even upset the 60s/70s/80s pop group The Bee Gees. Judging by his latest ill-informed outburst, he's enough to make anybody shriek.

UK Government Fails England AGAIN! Please Sign The British Heart Foundation Petition

2009-03-11T22:49:00.005Z

The British Heart Foundation website brings interesting news. The UK Government has yet to commit to a new plan for tackling heart and circulatory conditions in England over the next decade. Typical, eh?

More here. Please read the info and then sign the petition.

Jacqui Smith: Violence Against Women Is Unacceptable, But Who Gives A Stuff About Men? I Know, Let's Have ANOTHER Database!

2009-03-09T14:37:00.004Z

I thought this Government was supposed to look after ALL our interests? Not so.

Earlier, Ms Smith told the meeting violence against women was unacceptable whatever the circumstances.

But violence against men is perfectly acceptable, eh, Jacqui Smith? Years ago, I knew a poor guy who was regularly beaten by his wife. On one occasion, she actually broke his nose with an unplugged iron. He daren't protest, daren't go to the police for fear of ridicule, daren't do anything. He experienced years of misery. But that doesn't matter, eh, Ms Smith? He's a minority (but don't you usually make a particular point of looking after minorities?), and he's male. The scumbag!

And now old Hitler in knickers wants to introduce another database to combat the problem! Oh, Jacqui, you controlling, sexist, power mad person, you!

Jack Straw - Mr Anti-English/Anti-England: England Needs Watching Because The English Are So Violent...

2009-03-09T13:05:00.005Z

Jack Straw, via Toque:

"Is big brother watching you? Are you – innocent and law-abiding – kept awake at night for fear that your door will be kicked in by agents of the state?"

Yes, if a good friend of this blog, a care worker in his early forties, with no police record, arrested on the piffling accusation of one other person, without witnesses, treated like a criminal at Parkside Police Station, Cambridge, released without charge, but now on the DNA Database for life (and, we suppose beyond) is anything to go by.

Jack Straw hates the English. He hates England. Remember this, from the BBC?

Home Secretary Jack Straw says the English had used their "propensity to violence to subjugate Ireland, Wales and Scotland" on the Radio 4 programme Brits.

(Click on red text for more).

The comment shows more than anything Jack Straw's contempt and hatred for England and the English. The fact that he sometimes attempts to muddy the waters by describing himself as "English" is simply a ploy. Jack Straw is British. Nationality is largely a state of mind in the UK and he is British. An English-hating, deceitful, slime-ball Brit at that.

But it seems that Mr Straw thinks the Police State, the loss of individual freedoms in England, is justified. Accept he will never admit there is a Police State. According to him, crime is falling.

Obviously making Orwell's 1984 reality and keeping the people of England, with their "propensity to violence" (the entire English population, according to Straw in his BBC quote) in a Police State, and then denying there is one, is justified.

Harriet Harman - WOMEN'S Minister - Highly Sexist?

2009-03-08T20:19:00.005Z

Harriet Harman is Minister for Women and spends a great deal of time pontificating on "unfairnesses" to the female gender and how wonderful and put-upon she and her gender are.

Now, as this is a non-sexist society, may I ask where is her opposite number, the Minister for Men, to pontificate on "unfairnesses" to the male gender (like International Women's Day) and how wonderful and put-upon he and the male gender are?

Knowledge Of The Barnett Formula Did Not Reach Public Domain Until July 1980!

2009-03-08T11:28:00.003Z

Early knowledge of the Barnett formula stems from a public session on 7 July 1980, atwhich George Younger MP, then Secretary of State for Scotland, gave evidence to theCommittee chaired by Donald Dewar MP3. Some of the durability of the Barnett formula maybe attributable to information about its existence having reached the public domain in thisway. This knowledge allowed the Scottish Affairs Committee to regularly ask the Secretaryof State for Scotland whether that year’s public expenditure changes had been settled bymeans of the Barnett formula. Defence of the formula, against what was suspected to be theTreasury’s desire to change it, became one of the key tasks of the Secretary of State forScotland4. Although reliable information about the formula’s operation was slow to reach thepublic domain, there was clearly a substantial amount of newspaper briefing

Click on the red text for more on the "origins and role of the Barnett Formula". The what?! You know, that little formula whose creator, Lord Joel Barnett, has declared unfair to England. You know, that little formula which discriminates against all citizens of England, creating a so-called "Celtic" elite in Scotland and Wales. You know, that little formula which decrees that they can have and you cannot.

The Labour Party, The Conservative Party, The Liberal Democrats, The British National Party - Racists All

2009-03-06T22:27:00.003Z

We all remember the referendum in the North East of England which voted 78% against regionalisation. Sadly, the rest of us weren't given a say and New Labour continued the break-up of England regardless. Gordon Brown's last act as Chancellor was to swipe £2bn from the English NHS:

From the Financial Times:

However, Mr Brown avoided equivalent cuts to the Scottish and Welsh NHS budgets even though the funding formula for the UK nations suggests they should have shared the pain. That decision leaves him open to criticism that he favoured patients in his home country

Gordon Brown's first act as Prime Minister without a mandate was to create regional ministers in England, and now regional select committees. But those given a say in the North East said a resounding NO to regionalisation. That doesn't matter. The people of England are not allowed to live in a democracy.

Now, the Lib Dumbs are screeching over Labour "unfairness" in the composition of the new Regional Select Committees. Note, NOT over the fact that the people of England don't WANT regions. The Lib Dumbs go even further, stating that their article here "refers to UK" - which it doesn't. Scotland and Wales have their own national governing bodies. The article refers to ENGLAND.

So, lower public spending in England - via the Barnett Formula, health apartheid, the West Lothian Question... and MPs of all parties remain quite unconcerned about the people of England. Keep 'em quite. Put in more CCTV. Keep the DNA Database. Tell 'em it's to combat terrorism. Fool the people. Crush the people.

As charges of racism can brought on grounds of nationality/country of origin, it seems that the major UK political parties - New Labour, the Tories, the Lib Dumbs, and the BNP are ALL guilty of racism.

Now, isn't that a spooky factoid?

The Mandelson Green Custard Incident - Smells Like 1980s Spirit!

2009-03-06T22:00:00.004Z

The Daily Mirror, 1984.

Ooh, the Peter Mandelson green custard incident brought back fabulous memories of the 1980s and Margaret Thatcher's "go to work with an egg" days.

Jacqui Smith - Hitler In Knickers, And The DNA Database Again...

2009-02-27T21:13:00.005Z

Despite the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the UK DNA Database, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has decided that thousands of innocent people will remain on the Database. See the Guardian article here.

Just to give some comfort and joy, here's how one man ended up on the Database.

A good friend of ours, in his 40s, and like ourselves a care worker with a totally clean police record, was accused of "hitting" a neighbour on the arm. Nobody witnessed it. No marks were left. Of course, our friend denied the charge - and the neighbour is well known in his local community as a trouble maker.

But our friend was arrested. He denied the accusation, no further action was taken, but our friend's DNA was taken and is now on the Database.

And that's just one example of how innocent people find themselves on the Database. In a democracy, there can be no excuse for arresting people and retaining their DNA on hearsay. And anybody could find themselves in exactly the same situation. Just accuse somebody you dislike of hitting you on the arm and see what happens to them. This should not be happening. And there is no excuse for retaining DNA already taken. If anything, victims of this abomination should be granted compensation for the trauma they have been put through.

All this is at the behest of Jacqui Smith, whose own good character was recently called into question.

Democracy in England is dead. And we are ruled by people, like Ms Smith, who are evil. No more. No less.

Jade Goody - Unfair "NHS" Screening - England Suffers Again

2009-02-24T23:33:00.003Z

Speaking of reality TV star Jade Goody, Max Pemberton wrote in The Telegraph of another facet of the mockery which is the NHS, and how once again it differs between England and the so-called Celtic nations:

But what she also did last week was to expose the inconsistencies in healthcare in the UK, which make a mockery of the NHS founding principle of equality. On the back of Jade's high-profile case, the sexual health charity Marie Stopes International called on the NHS to lower the age at which women are first offered a smear test to 20. This had been the age when they first began screening until 2003 when it was raised by NHS cancer screening services to 25, after research suggested a negative effect.

This was because experts said that in their early 20s, there was evidence that women had natural changes in their cervical cells, which could be mistaken for pre-cancerous changes. This would lead to unnecessary treatment, which can lead to complications in later life, including difficulties carrying a baby to term. But on closer examination, the debate that Jade has sparked is concerned with the NHS in England only, because the rest of the UK screens at the age of 20. Since devolution within the NHS, there have been numerous examples of inconsistency and unfairness.

Prescription charges, access to medication, waiting times, hospital parking charges; the NHS is no longer consistent across the nation. In a nationalised service, there is something fundamentally wrong if such discrepancies exist. There remains debate about the appropriate age at which screening should begin, with no consensus across other European countries. But it seems ludicrous that people who are served by the same institution receive different treatment based on where they live, when the very ideological underpinning of that institution is the abolition of inequity within healthcare.

Whatever the correct age is to begin screening, young women somewhere in the UK are being let down by the devolved NHS. Either it is those in England, who should be offered it at a younger age and are therefore being exposed to an increased risk of a potentially fatal disease. Or, it is those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who are risking unnecessary, invasive treatment that can result in them miscarrying in the future.

As we often parrot on this blog, it must be remembered that Scotland and Wales have democratic devolved governing bodies, and that England is ruled by the UK Parliament, headed by Gordon Brown, a man who represents a Scottish constituency and is therefore unaccountable to his constituents for around 75% of legislation his government passes - as they have their own parliament.

Aided and abetted by his Scottish Raj and MPs supposedly representing English constituencies, who spurn any recognition of England as a nation, Gordon Brown makes a mockery of democratic representation in England - and if you speak up, he and his cohorts are likely to accuse you of racism.

Whatever your background, WAKE UP to the abuse you are suffering as a citizen of England and the lies that are being spun, the smoke and mirrors employed by the UK Government and the Opposition parties, to keep intact the "UK", which now works against every man, woman and child resident in England. England is being broken up, regionalised out of existence - and we, the electorate across England, are the losers.

David Williamson, Wales On Sunday, Thatcher Multi-Election Winning from '79 to '90? What A Load Of Cobblers!

2009-02-24T17:09:00.004Z

David Williamson writes in Wales on Sunday: "From May 1979 to November 1990, Mrs Thatcher led a multi-election-winning Conservative administration which divided Britain between those who considered the first female Prime Minister a crusading hero and others who believed she was the enemy of the vulnerable."

Rubbish! Mrs T was not multi-election-winning from 1979 onwards. In fact she didn't win her second election until 1983 and her third until 1987. Sorry to be pedantic, but the Wales On Sunday article is a piece of very bad - and potentially highly misleading - writing! Once again, defining events of the 1980s seem to have slipped down the back of the sofa! And surely Thatcher was only the UK's first female Prime Minister, not simply "the first"?

George Monbiot: Great Article - But Smelling Slightly Of Inaccurate Priggishness...

2009-02-17T16:21:00.007Z

"England, that great colonising land, has itself become a colony," chirrups George Monbiot here - fascinating article, well worth a read. Unfortunately, it contains more than a whiff of PC priggishness and inaccuracy. Firstly, BRITAIN was the great colonising land, surely? The Scots were disproportionately involved in the British Empire.

And the Union was "forged by a dominant England"? - not so, the Scots elite were as eager as could be.

George is, apparently, a "global citizen" - lucky him - sophisticated and well-travelled enough to be instantly a part of things wherever he may go. Sounds a bit arrogant and cocky to the likes of us, because, sadly, we can't even afford to take a weekend break outside of England. We could visit Scotland and Wales, of course, but we don't want to run the risk of getting beaten up.

Still, Mr Monbiot has woken up to some of the realities and his article may do some good. In fact it's a great achievement for somebody who comes across (to our tiny, working class minds) as a snobbish, upper middle-class English git.