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

"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 very easily.

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

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.

For a start the 'Anglo Saxons' never called themselves that, and the newcomers married into the existing population to form the early English - as proven by DNA studies in places like Oakington. And a 'Celtic' fringe? There isn't one. DNA proves that too. Edward Lhuyd's 1707 'Celtic' linguistic label did not rewrite people's DNA. The Scots notion hopped over the water from Ireland, and the Bell Beaker People displaced around 90% of the island's Neanderthal population.

Insular? This island?

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.

A lot of this disadvantage comes from the 1707 linguistic label 'Celtic', applied to the Welsh language and other 'insular' languages by Edward Lhuyd (the 'insular' label also being a Welsh invention although the English language, with its all its quirks and richness was created in England but doesn't qualify for the 'insular' label) and later expanded into a fake ethnicity for the Welsh, Scots and Irish. 

Wasn't Wales a web of competing factions and kingdoms, slugging it out internally, not a peaceful, united polity? Yep. Wasn't Ireland partitioned by a Welsh PM with avid backing of Protestant Scots? Yep. 

Didn't Scotland attempt its own colonisation project at Darien, blame the English (as always) for its failure, then enter the Union, thus creating Britishness as a nationality and being disproportionately active in the British Empire, then blaming the English (as always) for the whole enterprise? Yep. Wasn't the Poll Tax invented by a Scotsman called Douglas Mason and implemented there a year early at the behest of its own Secretary of State - and then the English (as always) were blamed? Yep. Weren't the Scottish Clearances carried out by the Scots, and then the English (as always) were blamed? Yep.

And meanwhile the most ethnically diverse country, England, gets less per capita spending via the Barnett Formula (even declared unfair to England by its own creator, the late Lord Joel Barnett), meaning that those just above the poverty line in England pay nearly £10 per prescription item, while millionaires get then free in the far less ethnically diverse Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland, money scooped largely from the tax payers in England.

Because everything historically was the fault of England, apparently.

And then there is the little question of the West Lothian Question, in which non-accountable MPs get to vote - and sometimes decisively - on legislation affecting only England.

You see what a mess the so-called UK is?

Lord Donald Cameron of Lochiel - Another England-Hating, Scotland-Glorifying 'UK' Government Parasite - Snout in the Trough, Hands in Our Pockets...

Goodness! Scotland now has a First Minister, its own parliament, an unfair say on legislation passed for the much larger and ethnically diverse country of England (the West Lothian Question) and the Barnett Formula - reviled by its late creator, Lord Joel Barnett!

Note how the Scottish Secretary of State (why do we need one now? We don't. We have a Scottish First Minister and parliament to confer with. How much is he paid?) avoids any mention of England in his House of Lords speech, and is basically an anti-England, UK Parliament gravy-train rider, paid for by England, and continuing the long tradition of a racist, resentful elite in the UK: Scotland - a tiny country of five million, free prescriptions for millionaires, keeping all its tax payer money, and getting loans from the so-called UK Government whenever it wants.

The five million people in Scotland compare to how many in England? And they have ALL this privilege. Surely not a healthy way to run a united kingdom, is it?

Donald Cameron resorts to the disgraceful obfuscation technique of referring to the 'UK' as a country twice in his spiel. The UK is a NATION, a so-called union of countries. If that was not so, Scotland would hardly have screeched for it own parliament - and Donald Cameron would not have jumped on the gravy train there. The UK is a democratically corrupt nation. It is not fit for purpose.

And Cameron's waffle about the Hebrides and the 'busy streets of London'? Both could be dealt with by the UK Parliament and local politicians representing those areas within it. Scotland already scoops far more from the pot than England proportionally via the Barnett Formula AND its own politicians and government buildings, on top of its snout-in-trough attendees at the 'UK' Parliament.

Donald Cameron slyly omits to mention that his own country, Scotland, has full recognition as a country, and that flag waving jingoism, historical revisionism, and a strong sense of exclusivity are all the rage there.

The 'UK' Parliament will do anything to preserve the travesty of the so-called UK - and is, itself, riddled with hatred for England. Yes, the most ethnically diverse UK country of all. The people of England have had no say in the type of government they want and have not been asked if they agree with asymmetric national devolution.

We have simply had a ruling UK elite trying to regionalise us out of existence.

We are ruled by devious hogs.

Remember, all this benefits a tiny number of UK residents - the five million in Scotland, a country which (falsely) lists itself as a Celtic Nation (based on the racist white Celtic myth, originating in 1707) and even its millionaires don't pay for  prescriptions and its people receive more spending per head of population than the people of England. 

Wake up. Racism is alive and well in the so-called UK. And a lot of it is courtesy of our governing bodies - and absolutely part of the exclusive, jingoistic nature of the smaller countries of Scotland and, to a much lesser degree, Wales.

Read all about it at the disgraceful 'UK Government' website:

HERE

And

HERE

BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat Programme Covers Up Truth About Tuition Fees...

It was my grave misfortune today to catch a snatch of the BBC Radio 1 "Newsbeat" programme. The subject was: 'DO You Trust Politicians?' - in particular with regard to university tuition fees - and the opinions were sought of various young audience members. There was one who thought we should follow Scotland's leadership and have none. There was the Scottish one who declared that it was terrible that in England the fees should be charged. There was the presenter who referred to the "UK" when he meant England and Wales only.

But nowhere was it mentioned that tuition fees in England were foisted on us by the votes of MPs representing Scottish constituencies whose own constituents would not be having them.

English MPs voted against them. This is the West Lothian Question in action. It was the same scenario with Foundation Hospitals.

But, far from being a vindictive usurper of the will of England's MPs, Scotland was presented on Newsbeat as being a fair-minded, sensible place - one whose lead we should follow.

What a sickening mangler of facts the BBC is.

And how stupid are young people in England to believe it.

Bristol West MP, UK Communities Minister And "Proud Welshman" Stephen Williams - A Celtic Myth Supporter. Apartheid Is Here.

Stephen Williams - Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West has obviously done a HUGE amount of family history research. He confidently asserts that his people (the Welsh) and the Cornish are the oldest peoples on this island.

 From the UK Parliament website:

"Communities Minister Stephen Williams said:

This is a great day for the people of Cornwall who have long campaigned for the distinctiveness and identity of the Cornish people to be recognised officially.

The Cornish and Welsh are the oldest peoples on this island and as a proud Welshman I look forward to seeing Saint Piran’s flag flying with extra Celtic pride on March 5 next year."

 We're delighted here that the Cornish have been granted national minority status, although we are suspicious of the government's reasons for doing so. The people of Cornwall are entitled to go independent and think themselves to be whatever they like as regards their origins. They're not Celts. But if they want to believe they are, then great. I don't want my taxes going towards feeding that myth though. and I don't want the UK Parliament to reflect it as it's simply misguided with more than a faint whiff of racism attached to it I feel. But if the Cornish believe it, that's up to them. Of course, you can be Cornish and separate from the English without the Celtic myth if you so choose to be.

But Bristol West MP and UK Communities Minister, that "proud" supporter of the Celtic myth Stephen Williams, scares us. The man believes in the Celtic thing to such a degree that he thinks the Welsh and the Cornish are "the oldest peoples on this island". Of course, DNA evidence points to the fact that this is not biologically true, and up until recent times the Cornish, Scots and Welsh were not even referred to as Celts anyway. The term "Celtic" came into play around 1700 and largely referred to languages. But this was extended, particularly in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall to include other things - archeological remains and culture for instance, which, in fact were not Celtic at all. A sense of exclusiveness was born and a sense of "We've been here the longest". It is accepted that, at the time of the Romans, what is now the UK was populated by a number of separate tribes, certainly not Celts. Read this - it's interesting - http://networkedblogs.com/SpsJk

But Stephen Williams believes that he is a Celt. And that the Welsh and the Cornish are the oldest peoples on this island. Oldest? Oh no, Mr Williams, the Celts are one of the most recent (invented) peoples on this island. 

Perhaps his "Celtic heritage" is the reason that Mr Williams believes outrages like the West Lothian Question and Barnett Formula are perfectly permissable? After all, the English (the people of England) aren't pure breeds like he believes he is, are they? Thank goodness!

Meanwhile, England, which, in reality, has bloodlines going back just as far as the Scots, Welsh and Cornish (genocide was never practised by ancient invaders) and many that are far more recent, and is far more non-exclusive and cosmopolitan, is only worthy of inferior public spending and a democratic deficit that defies belief.

Oh, Mr Williams, the anti-English, "Celtic" supremacy agenda of the UK Government becomes ever more evident. Thanks to people like you. This is apartheid. And the reasons behind it hold up no better than those for apartheid in South Africa years ago.

These fake "Celtic" peoples, a UK elite, enjoying an invented pride and better public spending than the people of England? This is mind blowing.

And to the people of Bristol West: is it comforting to know that your MP is so deluded and exclusive?

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

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...

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.

Jon Kelly - Racist BBC - The "Celtic Nations"

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?

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

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"!

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

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

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!

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

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. 

For a start, Wales was a principality of England for centuries. Far too small in those days to be a 'nation' in its own right, although recognised as a country within the kingdom of England - Britain did not exist as a nation, England did. A lot of Welsh bigotry is based on myths and legends - the Celtic myth of 1707, for example. Scotland also has more a jugful of that nonsense in its makeup.

'Celtic Nations'? Exclusive, racist baloney! The Barnett Formula (loathed by its late creator, Lord Joel Barnett), asymmetric national devolution, and the resulting West Lothian Question are all examples of the wilful discrimination carried out by the 'UK' Government against its largest and most ethnically diverse country, England.

Oh, and who got the asymmetric national devolution ball rolling? Yep, Tony Blair, a Scots PM.

Serving the five million people of his homeland so very well!

Historically, Scotland was far from innocent in skirmishes with the English (Braveheart is bigoted, jingoistic fiction) and was disproportionately active in the British Empire - and, indeed, had bankrupted itself before its union with England on a colonisation project of its own.

And blame the English for the whole Irish situation? Ah, so Scotland and Wales erect their pulpits and climb into them yet again, do they? And what about the fact that Ireland was partitioned by Lloyd George, a Welsh PM, with full backing of Scots protestants?

And the IRA were happily bombing England.

Don't forget.

Arthur Aughey - "Celtic"

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?

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

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?