CEP: England victimised yet again by United Kingdom government

CEP: England victimised yet again by United Kingdom government

The Council tax in England will be going up in April by just under 5%, more than twice the limit on pay increases being imposed by the Union Government. The average Council Tax bill in England will go up by £115 per month. Meanwhile in Scotland the proposal of the Scottish Parliament under its Scottish National Party leadership is to freeze council tax, and for that the overwhelming majority of Scottish councils are fully in support.

The injustice to England since devolution just goes on and on. In addition to having itself acknowledged under the Union Government as a distinct nation enjoying Home Rule Scotland now enjoys free eye care, free dental check-ups, free access to cancer drugs, and free personal care free travel countryside for the elderly. With a Scottish Prime Minister and a Scottish Chancellor of the Exechequer Scotland is getting benefits denied to England,while it is the English taxpayer who is paying for them.

The injustice does not stop there. Despite the council tax increase local services are being cut back. The Union Government under Brown and Darling, while making more and more demands up local councils even as the cost of existing services and the council’s wage bill increase, is not increasing central government subsidy in line with increased costs.

‘Little wonder a recent Yougov poll found that the Council tax is the most unpopular tax of all. ‘67% of people in England resent it more than any other’.', says Veronica Newman, secretary of the Campaign for an English Parliament. ‘The way England is being victimised just has to stop. The people of England cannot just be expected to pay for the benefits of devolution which Scotland is getting while getting none of them themselves and no parliament of their own either. The people of England should be able to decide for themselves how their money is to be spent. It’s time England had a patriotic government with patriotic MPs just as Scotland has.’

MPs on English prison officer discrimination

I wrote to our five Shropshire MPs a fortnight ago asking the following question:

Dear MP,

You have all had correspondence from the Shropshire branch of the Campaign for an English Parliament and from myself personally in the past.

The Shropshire branch of the CEP has a blog at http://cepshropshire.blogspot.com and I intend to write to all the Shropshire MPs on behalf of our members from time to time when notable examples of anti-English discrimination come to light for comment which I will then post on the aforementioned blog. Obviously, if no response is forthcoming then I will have to note that fact on the blog.

How about we start with today’s announcement that MPs have voted overwhelmingly to remove the right of English and Welsh prison officers to strike on the same day that the Scottish Executive announced that it had no intention whatsoever to remove the same right from Scottish prison officers. Could you please tell me how you voted, whether you brought up the fact that English prison officers are being discriminated against and what your opinion is on the discrimination.

Stuart Parr
CEP Shropshire

Mark Pritchard replied very quickly with the following:

There is a democratic deficit at present. This has to change. It is the Labour government who have brought this about - not the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party is committed to the Union - and that is why David Cameron MP is right to examine the issue of establishing an English Grand Committee - allowing English Mps to vote on those matters that effect English constituencies only. Creating an English Parliament would be costly, would create a new layer of politicians and civil servants, and would fracture the Union even further.

Mark Pritchard MP

Daniel Kawczynski replied with the following:

Stuart

This vote was a very difficult decision for me. I was not going to vote to remove the right of English and Welsh prison officers to strike. I believe in peoples' rights and am against the State being able to curtail peoples rights and liberties. Being able to strike is an important right. I changed my mind at the last minute as colleagues convinced me that the ramifications on society from a prolonged strike of prison wardens would be dire. The Labour government only gave them the right a few years ago as a ban had been in place for a long time. They now decided to change that legislation and re-introduce the ban.

Let me have your thoughts on this if you would please. I am raising the West Lothian Question a lot as are my colleagues. The scandal of the ever growing differences between the two of us is unsustainable.

Daniel

Philip Dunne, Owen Patterson and David Wright all failed to respond.

England excluded from the affairs of the union

CEP Press Release: Tuesday, 15 Jan 2008

Today January 15th behind closed doors in a room in Portcullis House in Westminster in London, England’s capital, six of Scotland’s MPs and MSPs will meet to decide what further powers to give to the Scottish Parliament. England, which makes up 80% of the Union population, has 550 of its 650 MPs and contributes 85% of its wealth, is being totally excluded from the discussions. No English MP is invited. This will be their second meeting, the first was in November of last year

The Scottish Six are: Des Browne Labour MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun and (part-time) Secretary of State for Scotland, Alistair Carmichael Lib-Dem MP for Orkney and Shetlands, David Mundell Conservative MP for Dumfrieshire, Clydesdale and Tweesdale, Wendy Alexander Labour MSP for Paisley South, Annabel Goldie Conservative MSP for the West of Scotland and Nicol Stephen Lib-Den MSP for Aberdeen South.

They are meeting in a state of intense inter-party anxiety. One thing unites them, their opposition to the Scottish National Party. The latest You-Gov poll for the Scottish Daily Express has put the SNP nine points ahead of labour in the constituency vote, and of course streets ahead of the Lib-Dem and the Tory parties. They meet under the banner of defence of the Union. Their principal concern however is the survival of their parties in Scotland.

In 1997 the Labour Party led by Scottish MPs Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Donald Dewar, Robin Cook and Des Browne was convinced that a devolved Scottish Parliament would kill off the SNP for good. It did not. The Scottish First Minister is Alex Salmond. They believed that giving to Scotland complete power over all its internal affairs such as health and education would stop the rise of Scottish nationalism in its tracks. It achieved the exact opposite. They believed that keeping the power of Scottish MPs in the Union Parliament to legislate in every single matter for England while excluding English MPs from any say in Scotland’s internal affairs would go unnoticed by the English people. But the last ten years of devolution has dramatically witnessed the biggest rise in English patriotism ever. In addition the resentment of the English people against the rampant injustice inflicted by the 1997 legislation upon them is now filling every MP’s postbag. 58% of English people want Scotland to go independent, 72% want their own separate English Parliament.

The Scottish Six are meeting behind closed doors, no English representation allowed, to decide what extra powers to give to the Scottish Parliament to keep the SNP at bay. What lessons they might have learned over the past ten years are their business. What is England’s business however is the knowledge that these Scottish MPs think they can play fast and loose with United Kingdom constitutional matters without consultation with England which is 80% of the Union. What is England’s business is the sheer brass of these Scottish MPs giving even more powers to Scotland and even less say for England in Scottish matters while keeping for themselves the right to legislate for England in every single thing.

‘The next ten years,’ says Mrs Scilla Cullen, Chairman of the Campaign for an English Parliament, ‘will see all this put right. The constitution of the United Kingdom cannot be made to serve just the interests of Scotland’.

Shropshire Star: The root of the problem should be addressed

This was in tonight's Shropshire Star ...

The root of the problem should be addressed

Daniel Kawczynski is right to be concerned about the funding of schools in Shropshire but fails to address the root cause of the problem.

On the 11th December in Parliament he said “Coleham primary school in Shrewsbury receives, on average, £711 less per pupil than the national average”. Is this £711 less than the English national average or the UK national average?

English schools are already at a disadvantage because the British government doesn’t spend as much on education in England as the Scottish Parliament does north of the border. The Scottish Parliament can afford to spend more because of the £11.3bn annual subsidy it gets from the English taxpayer under the Barnett Formula.

What the Scottish Parliament has done for Scotland in the last few years has shown the indisputable benefit of having a devolved national government – something a succession of Scottish ministers (including Gordon Brown) have continued to deny
to the English.

Gordon Brown promised to make health and education his priority when he was appointed as Prime Minister. Not only is he doing a terrible job of it but he has nothing to do with health and education in Scotland where he was elected because it’s the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.

If Mr Kawczynski wants to solve the problem of poor education funding he should first address the cause of this and many other problems in England – the lack of an English Parliament.

Stuart Parr
Campaign for an English Parliament

NHS Constitution

Read this then read the letter I just sent to my turncoat Liebour MP.

Dear David,

Your Prime Minister has somehow, against all the odds, managed to make me
even more annoyed today than he has since he was appointed as your
leader.

I was pretty incensed when he announced that his priorities as Prime
Minister would be the English education system, the English health system and
the English housing system even though he has no mandate over any of them.
Today I see that in return for the health system that we are paying for through
our taxes, your Prime Minister has decided that we must have
“responsibilities”. But only in England.

The medical treatment which the English will be entitled to will still
be inferior to the medical treatment his own Scottish constituents are entitled
to and they will continue to receive their superior service without the
“responsibilities” that the English must have.

David, YOU have a responsibility. Your responsibility is to your
constituents, NOT your party. Gordon Brown was not given a mandate by his
Scottish constituents to tell English people what they must do to receive
medical treatment. I assume you do understand that none of your Prime
Minister’s proclamations on health, education, housing, etc. affect his own
constituents - he has no more right to tell your constituents what medical
treatment they can and can’t receive than you have to tell his constituents what
medical treatment they can and can’t receive.

I cannot adequately express in polite terms how disappointed I am that you
condone this unconstitutional, undemocratic and immoral system of
apartheid. How can you continue to support your party when it is doing
everything it can to maintain the system that allows the Scottish ruling
elite to make decisions in your constituency when neither they, nor you, can
make the same decisions in their constituency?

If you play a part in breaking our health, education
and housing systems I can - and will - vote for someone else who won’t
do the same. Gordon Brown’s constituents won’t care what he does to the
English NHS or schools - they’re more likely to vote for him if they can see
that he’s screwing the English over!

Poll after poll has shown that English people are fed up with your Scottish
MPs interfering in English-only legislation. Poll after poll has shown
that English people want their own government like the one your party gave to
Scotland. It’s time you started doing your job David - represent your
constituents, not your party.

Stuart