St. George's Day in Salisbury

There was a high level of interest in the Campaign when Chris Green and other members of the CEP set up a stand in front of the library on 23.04.11. As has become the norm members of the public came to the stand to hear what the Campaign is about and offer their support. Thanks to Chris for organising the event.

Wiltshire members of the CEP campaign in Salisbury

Photo: Chris Green talking to a student about tuition fees

On Saturday 24th April 2010 members of the Wiltshire Branch met outside the library in Salisbury.
The weather was kind and the public were intersted in our message, most agreeing that England should have a parliament of its own.
We also discussed the democratic deficit with the Green Party candidate Nick Startin and Independent candidate Arthur Pendragon both of whom were broadly in favour of an English parliament.

On learning that the Labour candidate Tom Gann was campaigning in the market square nearby we took it in turns to go and ask him questions. The outcome was that he believes that England should be divided into regions without a referendum asking if this is what the people of England as a whole actually want.

Our apologies go to the remaining prospective parliamentary candidates who missed out on our campaigning.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our members and supporters.

Wiltshire meets Westminster 18.11.09

Two members of the Wiltshire Branch at the Parliament Square protest

THE FUTURE OF ENGLAND?

THE FUTURE OF ENGLAND?



A MAJOR CONFERENCE BEING HELD BY THE CEP TAKING PLACE IN ROOM 10 IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18TH 5pm to 7pm (SAME DAY AS THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT) WITH FOUR DISTINGUISHED WRITERS AND CAMPAIGNERS.

George Monbiot (Guardian newspaper and environment campaigner)
Peter Facey (Director: Unlock Democracy)
Paul Kingsnorth (author of 'Real England: The Battle against the Bland')
David Wildgoose (vice-chairman The Campaign for an English Parliament)
Chair: Scilla Cullen
It is eleven years since the 1998 devolution legislation. Scotland and Wales now have their own Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. They have forged ahead since, re-creating and expanding their own distinct national identities and achieving major benefits and advantages for their peoples. But England has got nothing from devolution. Why should English students pay tuition fees and emerge from university laden with debt while Scottish students don't? Why should Welsh people pay no prescription charges while English people do? England still has no constitutional existence of its own and no national institution of any kind as 'a forum where the concerns of the nation can be debated' (the Welsh White paper). England is disadvantaged. The situation is gravely unjust to the people of England. Scottish MPs can now take part in legislation that concerns England only, can even be ministers of departments which deal only with England, without being accountable to any electorate. The Union is dangerously unbalanced. There are massive cultural, environmental and political issues involved. From many angles the people of England are being left out and overlooked. It is a situation that cannot continue. Nor should it. The Union should be a Union of equals or it is no Union.'

We are looking for an open debate. We want your contribution.
Anyone wishing to attend please phone Scilla Cullen (CEP ChaIrman) on: 01438 833155 or email: scilla.cullen@dsl.pipex.com

Scottish Professor and Welsh MP say the people of England do not want parity

In the last week we have had a Scottish Professor and an Welsh MP telling us that there is no enthusiasm for an English Parliament during the BBC's celebration of 10 Years of Devolution.

Apart from blatantly ignoring opinion polls to the contrary, it is none of their business.

They speak for countrys whose populace has been asked if it wants a national body to represent it while the people of England are persistantly denied the same opportunity.

52% of people in Wales would vote for the Welsh assembly to have full law-making powers

It was reported on BBC News tonight that 52% of people in Wales would vote for the Welsh assembly to have full law-making powers.

I hope they are not holding their breath in anticipation.

BBC News reported on 26.01.07 that Newsnight found 61% of people in England supported an English Parliament.

Who took any notice of this opinion poll? Certainly not the Labour Government who continue to ignore the will of the people at every turn.

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.

CEP stands up for English university students

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

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

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

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

In England university students have to pay £3145 each year of their university life. Students loans then have to be repaid at 4.8% interest rates after graduation.
Welsh students don’t have anything like the fee burden English students have.Their fees are only £1255 pa.’

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

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

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

Brown must do better

It appears that Gordon Brown wants to introduce regional mayors in England to redress the imabalance caused by devolution.

Scottish Parliament = regional mayor

Welsh Assembly = regional mayor

Northern Ireland Assembly = regional mayor

The question is, will the people of England be duped into believing that a regional mayor is equivilent to devolution of power on a national basis.

I for one will not fall for that one.

Mr. Brown must do better than that for England.

Fairness and opportunity for everyone

In the newsletter to Labour supporters sent by Alistair Darling after today's budget this slogan was included:-

Labour's choice: Fairness and opportunity for everyone in Britain to secure a strong, sustainable future.

I guess nobody has told him that devolution has led to gross inequality for those of us living in England then.

EDM 1037

It is interesting to note that 52 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion objecting to the reporting of Nick Robinson of the BBC.



This is just 3 more than signed EDM 670, EDM 266 and EDM 1319 combined, all of which relate to English governance and identity.



Perhaps there is some irony in the fact that 6 of the MPs who signed EDM 1037 are from constiuencies in Scotland

What a niggle!

So, according to Ken Clarke, the West Lothian Question is a niggle and it is OK for Wales and Scotland to have a sense of seperate identity but not England.

Perhaps he should take note of the YouGov poll which shows that members of the Consrvative Party, more than those of Labour or the Lib Dems, consider themselves to be primarily English.

Hopefully, for his sake, they are the average Englishmen he mentions and think that Westminster is the English Parliament.

Berwick Poll

So, Christine Grahame thinks Westminster should take heed of the ballot that took place in Berwick on Tweed which indicated that 60 percent of the population want the Scottish border moved south to include them.

Why does she think that Westminster will take any more notice of this poll when several polls by MORI and ICM show that more than 65 percent of those questions want an English Parliament?

Perhaps as this issue is relating to our PMs native country it will receive a sympathetic hearing where as demands for an English Parliament fall on deaf ears.