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.