Parliament Square Demonstration

Members of the Campaign for an English Parliament gathering in Parliament Square today for their regular demonstration during which they handed out leaflets and by their presence prompted a teacher from a school to explain to his charges about a proposed English Parliament and its difference to the UK one.

The Local View

I attended a meeting of the Bradford and District Senior Citizens Forum on Friday evening and the topic for discussion was council tax and the prospective parliamentary candidates for the Chippenham constituency outlined their respective policies.
When asked if they thought that under an English Parliament Wiltshire would get a fairer share of the central government funding pot there were some interesting, if on occasion predictable, responses.
David McQueen, Green Party Press Officer, standing in for Mark Fletcher, stated that He supported the idea but was in favour of the Swiss model. He felt there should be more power to the regions but the decision will be made by the people of England.
Duncan Hames, Liberal Democrat, admitted that an English Parliament was a big issue. He could see the attraction of the proposal but tended to follow the party line on regions.
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, Conservative, didn't think that it would matter as Wiltshire will always suffer.
Jason Hughes, North Wiltshire Labour candidate, standing in for Nicholas Thomas-Symonds, asked in a derogatory tone, where do you draw the line, Scotland, Northern England? I drew his attention to the fact that the Labour Government had already drawn the lines with the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly!

There is more to the reduction in the number of MPs than money!

David Cameron has proposed to reduce the number of MPs in the UK parliament by 60. Everyone seems to have pounced on the monetary savings this would make and how popular this move would be with the public.

To me there is much, much more to this proposal than money and I agree with John Leonard http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/ who writes "It is this diminishing of our democracy that is my main objection against any such proposals. Such proposals are anti-democratic.What David Cameron and Nick Clegg, more extremely before him, have proposed is the reduction of the nation’s national democratically elected representation whilst retaining the same amount, if not more power in the Conservatives' case (with the speculative repatriation of powers from Europe), of power at the highest level. Such a distillation of power by nature encourages Parliamentary elitism, encourages further distancing of the representatives from the electorate and dilutes the voters’ democratic influence. In short, it is political centralism and furthermore can be perceived as serving only the major political parties and not the electorate".

It is my own understanding, that because the number of Scottish seats was reduced to coerce the UK Parliament into agreeing to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, there is to be no reduction in Scottish MPs but 10 seats are to go in Wales and the remaining 50 seats are to go in England. England, already in democratic deficit when compared to the other UK countries with their own assembly or parliament, is it would appear, yet again to lose out in the democracy stakes.

Ooops! He's done it again . . . . .

Tory leader David Cameron was on Tyneside yesterday (09.01.09) fielding questions from the public>

One member of the audience complained of the huge differences between services in the North East and Scotland.
She complained that free prescriptions, university tuition and care for the elderly in England should be a priority issue for any Cameron Government.
Mr Cameron responded: “I don’t want to do anything that will encourage a sense of English nationalism and distance between the two countries.”

Can you please tell me David, why it is perfectly alright to celebrate Scotland and all things Scottish but to excercise the same celebration of England and all things English is not to be encouraged?

Why, because I am a resident in England, should I be expected to quietly put up with being a second class citizen within the United Kingdom? You are quick to condemn the lack of democracy in other countries but it seems you are only too willing to turn a blind eye to the democratic inequality that is taking place in your own back yard.

Please do not forget that the majority of seats the Conservative Party gained at the last general election it did so with votes from English constituents.

I don’t want to see a separate English Parliament

David Cameron was asked the following question and the answer was published on the Slugger O'Toole blog yesterday.

Q: In his opinion, has the New Labour devolution project in the UK strengthened or weakened the Union? If it is the former, will he then be looking to extend the “benefits” of devolution to England? If it is the latter, how does he propose to remedy the situation?
Mr O’Neill, Belfast
A: "I don’t want to see a separate English Parliament. I think the last thing we need right now is another bunch of politicians on another bunch of big salaries and pensions and all the rest of it. So I don’t think we need an English parliament".

Well David, it may have escaped your notice but it is not what you want that really counts.
The electorate of England deserves the same recognition of their right to decide what they want for their country as the electorate in Scotland and Wales.
If there was an English Parliament there would not need to be as many MPs in the UK Parliament so there would not be the need for "another bunch of politicians on another bunch of big salaries and pensions and all the rest of it".
If England had its own parliament all that would be left for a UK parliament to concern itself with would be defence, foreign policy, the UK constitution employment legislation, social security policy and administration, and transport safety and regulation
The creation of an English Parliament is not only about achieving a devolution settlement that is fair. It is also about encouraging innovation and openness in our democracy.

Setting up an English parliament would be a disaster

Now Jack Straw is at it!

"Setting up an English parliament would be a disaster as Wales and Scotland would demand independence," Justice Secretary Jack Straw was quoted as saying yesterday. Mr Straw, who has overall control of devolution policy at Westminster, said he was opposed to preventing Welsh and Scottish MPs voting on so-called English-only issues.

What he and Gordon Brown have not acknowledged is that it is the people of England who should decide for themselves whether or not they should have and English Parliament not the MPs.

That's two condemnations with no substantial reasoning in one week.

I think they are getting nervous and so they should!

The Dangers of an English Parliament?

Gordon Brown has been quoted as saying "We need to fight attempts to break up Britain from nationalists on one hand, and the dangers of attempting to create a separate English parliament on the other."

Who signed one of the most nationalistic statements in the history of the United Kingdom then Gordon? Yes, I am referring to the Scottish Claim of Right. I don't think you can get much more nationalistic than that.

It was the Labour Government that set the whole issue in motion with the Devolution Act which identified Wales and Scotland as nations and now Gordon Brown is complaining because these actions are coming back to haunt him.

I would like to know why it is any more dangerous to create an English Parliament than it was a Scottish one.

Of course it would mean that a UK Prime Minister would not be able to weild so much power because education, the NHS etc would be devolved to the Scottish and English Parliaments but I cannot see for the life of me why it would be a dangerous move.

It is far more dangerous to ignore the fact that England is a nation and continue treating its citizens with contempt.

Why not create a union of equals and treat all four components ot the United Kingdom the same - that is the only way to preserve the Union Mr. Brown is now so keen on retaining.