Change to voting will not affect the nation
Gordon Brown kicked off his leadership campaign with a speech on Britishness in Scotland, the least British part of the UK.
In his speech he said: “The SNP want Scotland separate from the UK and want to force Scotland to choose between Scotland and Britain”.
On the Tories he said: “The Conservatives want English votes for English laws and want the English to choose between England and Britain”.
On the former he is correct and I personally wish the SNP the best of luck. The sooner England loses the financial, social and political liability that is Scotland the better. We could spend the £11.3bn annual subsidy on cancer treatments in England instead.
On the latter, however, he is way off the mark. The Tories are merely trying to find a way of stopping MPs elected in Scotland - such as Gordon Brown - from voting on matters that only affect England. As Gordon Brown can do next to nothing that affects his own constituency in Scotland, banning him from interfering in English affairs would leave him with next to nothing to do.
English votes on English legislation is a fatally flawed idea but at least the Tories are recognising that there is a problem.
Contrary to Gordon Brown and Labour’s assertions, banning MPs not elected in England from voting on English legislation or even establishing an English Parliament, will not lead to the break-up of the union. Giving Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland their own devolved governments hasn’t lead to the break-up of the UK so there is little reason to believe that merely evening the political inbalance in England would.
Stuart Parr
Telford
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Letter: Shropshire Star
Saturday, September 09, 2006
letters to shropshire newspapers
I am proud to be English even though that may be a politically incorrect thing to say. I used to be proud being British, but that was taken away in 1997 when Tony Blair and his crew set out to make me a third class citizen within the UK.
Despite being the oldest unified country in Europe with more than a thousand years of continuous history, as far a Westminster and Brussels are concerned, England does not exist. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: ‘Despite the political, economic, and cultural legacy that has secured the perpetuation of its name, England no longer officially exists as a governmental or political unit unlike Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.’
When Gordon (please let me be prime minister) Brown is pontificating about ‘the nations and regions of Britain’ he is using Labour speak for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (as the nations) plus the Euro regions that cover the area once known as England. Labour has no love for England, its most ardent support have always come from Scotland, Wales and the immigrant communities, that’s presumably why they have let 500,000 more in during the last twelve months or so. Scotland, incidentally, only has about 1% of the UK’s immigrants despite having more than 30% of the land surface.
You might think that the Conservatives would champion equitable treatment for England, after all 94% of their votes in the 2005 General Election came from here, but no. They are, for reasons best known to themselves, obsessed with ‘preserving’ the Union at all costs, even if that means perpetuating apartheid against the people in England.
Annabel Goldie, leader of the Tories in Scotland, said at the beginning of September: ‘David Cameron and I will deliver the Parliament and the policies which Scotland needs, and its people deserve.’ But evidently ‘Dave’ has no similar plans for the downtrodden suckers of England who are bled dry to give our fellow ‘British’ citizens a better lifestyle.
It’s not just Herceptin where England’s peoples get third best; there are other cancer drugs too that are not available here in this part of the UK. Our NHS, education, public transport, treatment of the elderly and more, are grossly under-funded when compared to the rest of the UK.
A MORI poll published on 8th July 2006 showed 41% of those living in England were in favour of an English Parliament. Wales got its Assembly with only 25% of its voters saying ‘yes’, Scotland its parliament with 46% of its electors saying ‘yes’.
We in the Campaign for an English Parliament are not party political, we are simply trying our best to rouse the people of England to stand up for themselves and their country. Join us before it’s too late.
Yours sincerely,
Edward Higginbottom
Co-ordinator, Shropshire Branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament
Despite being the oldest unified country in Europe with more than a thousand years of continuous history, as far a Westminster and Brussels are concerned, England does not exist. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says: ‘Despite the political, economic, and cultural legacy that has secured the perpetuation of its name, England no longer officially exists as a governmental or political unit unlike Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.’
When Gordon (please let me be prime minister) Brown is pontificating about ‘the nations and regions of Britain’ he is using Labour speak for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (as the nations) plus the Euro regions that cover the area once known as England. Labour has no love for England, its most ardent support have always come from Scotland, Wales and the immigrant communities, that’s presumably why they have let 500,000 more in during the last twelve months or so. Scotland, incidentally, only has about 1% of the UK’s immigrants despite having more than 30% of the land surface.
You might think that the Conservatives would champion equitable treatment for England, after all 94% of their votes in the 2005 General Election came from here, but no. They are, for reasons best known to themselves, obsessed with ‘preserving’ the Union at all costs, even if that means perpetuating apartheid against the people in England.
Annabel Goldie, leader of the Tories in Scotland, said at the beginning of September: ‘David Cameron and I will deliver the Parliament and the policies which Scotland needs, and its people deserve.’ But evidently ‘Dave’ has no similar plans for the downtrodden suckers of England who are bled dry to give our fellow ‘British’ citizens a better lifestyle.
It’s not just Herceptin where England’s peoples get third best; there are other cancer drugs too that are not available here in this part of the UK. Our NHS, education, public transport, treatment of the elderly and more, are grossly under-funded when compared to the rest of the UK.
A MORI poll published on 8th July 2006 showed 41% of those living in England were in favour of an English Parliament. Wales got its Assembly with only 25% of its voters saying ‘yes’, Scotland its parliament with 46% of its electors saying ‘yes’.
We in the Campaign for an English Parliament are not party political, we are simply trying our best to rouse the people of England to stand up for themselves and their country. Join us before it’s too late.
Yours sincerely,
Edward Higginbottom
Co-ordinator, Shropshire Branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament
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