England's Freedoms

How much longer can the government in London allow the UK to slowly drift apart? The Universities in Scotland will soon be charging English students top wack fees to to study there. That is, £9,000 a year for a four year Scottish Degree, £36,000. Perhaps one could live with that if the English were served the same as the rest of Europe, but they are not.

Due to European law, the Scottish government has to treat the rest of Europe as though they were domestic Scots – they cannot charge them. However, a loophole lets them charge the English. So, university education in Scotland is free to all across Europe, except for the English!

Can I ask, has anyone in Scotland actually thought this through? The Scots have always bashed the English – ever since Culloden and before that too! The English have shrugged it off with a smile, but now a real resentment is building. Are we or are we not a United Kingdom or a federation that is growing looser by the minute – so loose it might just drift apart?

Just think:

• Scotland’s NHS is not being squeezed for cuts
• Scotland’s council tax is frozen for five years
• Prescription charges are free in Scotland
• So is Hospital parking
• Old age care is free in Scotland
• Scotland’s Local Government is not seeing thousands of redundancies
• Scotland gets appreciably more funding per head than England
• Scotland has it’s own focussed parliament
• I could go on…

I don’t blame the Scots, it is the British Government who have allowed this. The Scots have simply looked after themselves but the people of England have no one to look after them.

It is time that a Parliament of England sat once again in Westminster, with a sole purpose to look out for the interests of the people of England.

“Consider every teenager in Birmingham who is going to lose their education maintenance allowance; every young person in Cornwall who is discouraged from applying to university by virtue of the increased tuition fees; every large family in inner London who will face cuts in housing benefit and may lose their home; every frail pensioner in Norfolk struggling to meet increased care costs. That teenager, that would-be university student, that large family losing their home, that frail pensioner; they are all subsidising-effectively paying for-Scotland’s handouts of free tuition, free personal care and frozen council tax. I object. This house faces welfare reform bills with many of us pleading with the Government for £75 million here and £100 million there for some of the most vulnerable people in our community, yet £4.5 billion is going to Scotland on no other basis than that it always has done. Where is the Treasury’s much vaunted financial prudence? Where, indeed, is our collective moral compass? It is not fair. It is not right. It is not decent and it should end-gradually, slowly; I accept all that, but it should end.”

House of Lords debate on the Barnett Formula. 15 June 2011

Link:http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2011-06-15a.852.0

The apologists for rescheduling the Bahrain Grand Prix use the excuse that “sport brings people together.”  I wonder?

I took a break from fighting for a Parliament for England  – I gave the Ironsides the morning off and sat down with the Times and a bowl of Bran Flakes (I give up a lot for the cause.)  Emblazoned upon my broadsheet (iPad actually) was a picture of Mr Andy Murray holding aloft the cup he won at Queen’s yesterday.  Whilst he beat many of the worlds best I am sure, I felt no great joy whatsoever.  The reason was simple.

I am not a great sport fan unless it involves hounding cavaliers off the battlefield.  (Ah, Naseby, now there was good scrap!)  Nevertheless, I do take an interest when it is at a national level, whatever the sport.  If England were knocked out of an event, the other countries of the UK would get my support.  Then came the world cup of 2010.

I was quite taken aback when I heard a certain Andy Murray, of whom I was a great supporter, state that if Scotland were out of any competition, he would back anyone but England; in fact ABE became a three letter acronym oft repeated in the media.  In what was a naive view at that time, I thought the UK was a family that would always pull together – it appears not to be the case.  Over that period I heard many Scots backing the ABE view, the first dawning that all was not well within the UK.

Therefore, when Nadal recently beat Murray in the French Open, I wore a satisfied smile.  In my case, sport set asunder rather than bring together.

Any traveller coming into the UK on Sunday and who bought the Sunday Times would have read an article entitled “Care bills for elderly capped at £50,000”.  Having read the article, they may well deduce that the UK’s old folk were in a tough situation, possibly having to sell their homes to fund the first £50,000.  Had they read any other Sunday paper it is likely there would have been similar stories leading to the same conclusion.  Well that conclusion is simply wrong!

The true fact is that the articles do not feature care in the UK, they feature care across England.  Repeatedly we hear about NHS cuts, Local Authority redundancies, et al.  In no case do the papers make it clear that these are English sacrifices, they do not affect Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Is it simply ignorance or is there connivance with the power elites who love things the way they are?  It does seem a massive carelessness to fail to highlight such facts.  The article regarding Care actually says “…crisis over Southern Cross, Britain’s biggest private care home provider…” the implication being this is a British problem – it is not. 

Furthermore, the articles states, “About 20,000 people a year are forced to sell their homes…”  That is correct, but these are just English people.  It also states “The Treasury will be reluctant to take on any major liabilities in relation to care for the elderly until the deficit has been reduced…”  Just think about that.  The UK Treasury wants to wait to address the problem with English pensioners until the UK deficit is reduced.  Meanwhile other parts of the UK get old age care funded.  Is not the funding the other parts of the UK amongst other things that helped run up the deficit?

Please, please, please, do not let then get away with it.  Write to the press asking them to be more accurate when describing the facts.  They must not be allowed to get away with this!

We’ve all seen the game, three cards, all you have to do is find the queen, how hard can it be?

Easy money.

It’s called a short con, you never stand a chance, everybody there is in on it and they all have their parts to play. A team game with only one objective, get you to put your money down on their shabby little cardboard box. After that it doesn’t matter, it’s like there never was a queen.

I was reminded of it recently when I came across an article on Blue Labour. A little more research turned up this little gem –

“In England we need an English Labour Party, and we need to start a debate about the democratic representation of England, and the issue of English votes for English laws.” -Jonathan Rutherford.

Politicians often share many attributes with the best con artists and it’s often an education to watch them at work. A couple of big names talking up English culture and what not, followed by a carefully orchestrated yet feeble attack on what is described as a ‘dangerous direction’ for the party.

A team game with only one objective, get you to put your mark against their name.

Now that Labour are in opposition it’s obviously their turn to charm the nationalists and I’ll be interested to see if they do as well as the Tories did. The Tories consistently made big statements regarding ‘English Votes on English Laws’ and an ‘English Grand Committee’ but having been in power for sometime now these issues have been consistently shuffled to the bottom of the deck.

It’s like there never was an English Question.

Old Labour, New Labour, Red Labour, Blue Labour, roll up, roll up, everyone’s a winner!

Easy money.

Francis Drake

The Patriot

“What an English King has no right to demand, an English subject has a right to refuse”

                                                                                                                    John Hampden 

In 1635 Hampden refused to pay an illegal tax and championed English dreams of liberty. His actions resulted in the return of parliamentary democracy to England and ended the tyranny of King Charles I. He was acknowledged as ‘Patriae Pater’ by a grateful England and with his last words he prayed that England’s people would never lose their freedoms or rights.

Nearly 400 years later, I wonder what Hampden would have made of our current predicament? Would he have meekly paid the taxes imposed by Scottish and Welsh politicians upon the English?

Taxes imposed in order to fund their lavish public spending programs, taxes hidden with subtle name changes, taxes which only apply to those living in England.

I think Hampden would have known injustice when he saw it, that he would have stood up to be counted just as he did all those years ago. I think he would have known that prescription charges are not ‘charges’ at all but a health tax levied against the English and that tuition fees are not ‘fees’ but an education tax levied against the English. Only England pays these taxes in full and soon the other nations of the UK won’t pay them at all. That the English are singled out for extra taxation in order to fuel the endless spending of others would have roused men like Hampden into action.

Hampden is long dead and it appears that his contemporaries are few and far between. England remains gagged while the other nations voice their demands and complaints. This imbalance is evident in the distribution of public funds and the collection of ‘fees & charges’ which illustrate a huge geographical bias. Those with the right UK postcode receive free healthcare, a free education and lower taxes while those unfortunate enough to live in England are financially deterred from education and are made to pay for basic medicines.

If we are to end this geographical discrimination and these unfair taxes we must have representation for those living in England, we must have a voice equal to the voices of the other nations and we must have England recognised as a nation in its own right.

We must have a parliament for England.

(This contribution came from my good friend Francis Drake, another true Englishman.)

Have we become too fixated upon the ‘poor’?

Over the last few weeks I have heard ministers and other politicians talking about the many planned cuts.  In nearly all cases, any mention of a cut was followed by an explanation of how the ‘poor’ will not suffer.  In other cases, the first retaliation was that the ‘poor’ would be hardest hit.  It occurred to me that maybe we have taken our eye off the ball.

It is true that one measure of a civilised society is how it treats its poorest and disadvantaged members.  Can this treatment get out of all proportion?  It appears to me that since 1997, the total focus of the government has been built upon creating a “fairer society”.  Great marketing speak.  Just what is a fairer society?  Well it seems to me it was taking from the ‘rich’ and giving to the poor.  The ‘rich’ appeared to be anything that had money and the ‘poor’ were those that did not.

In amongst the ‘rich’ was business; to the Left, the rich capitalists who lived off the back of the hard working poor.  In the eyes of the Left, Business was a bottomless pit that could be constantly plundered for cash.  If not for cash, Business contributed to the ‘fair’ society by taking on health and safety laws and other red tape – oh yes, we would be fair to our people.  On top of the money they took from business in being spreading fairness, Labour borrowed billions of pounds, doubling, if not tripling, the National Debt.  In doing so, they have risked killing the goose that lays the Golden Egg – Business!  What is frightening, in his desire to be seen as protector of the poor, David Cameron is going to make the same mistake.

It is predicted that the national debt will be £1.3trillion by 2015/16 and still rising.  What a legacy to leave the next generation.  More and more of our national wealth will be going to pay the interest on this enormous debt.  The only way we can begin to address the situation is to have e really healthy business base in place.  British business will provide jobs, pay taxes and bring wealth into the country and yet we actually have so little.  It has been estimated that 53% of our population lives off the state in one way or another – how on earth can it be that so few are actually funding so many?

What we have allowed to develop is a nation that is hooked on dependency, a dependency on the State.  How is that dependency fed – from fewer and fewer individuals who do not look to the State.  It is no wonder the National Debt is where it is.  All of labour’s so called improvements have been funded on borrowed money.  We are living way beyond our means people – wake up.

We must unleash business, free it from all the red tape and some of the ludicrous taxation it carries.  Until we create jobs and wean people away from the State Sector and the dole queues we are in serious trouble.  At this rate we will end up like Greece and that will be far more painful than any cuts we are seeing today.

The question is, has Cameron the cojones to do it?  The jury is out, but it ain’t looking good.

So the election has come and gone. How have the nationalists fared? Let’s just say not very well and if you consider the collapse in the BNP vote, it would appear that many people are returning to the traditional parties or simply not voting at all. So, what does this say for English Nationalism?

If we continue down the current path, it might be another twenty years, if ever, before nationalism begins to impact upon the political scene at Westminster. Can the country wait that long? We may be little more more than a small sub-unit of a federal EU by then and still funding Scotland’s spending luxuries!! So what do we nationalists do?

I believe we are focussing to much upon process rather than objectives. We are all just doing what is usually done in such situations; form a party, push leaflets through letter boxes and hope people will vote for us. Given the annual nature of local elections and the longer cycles of national elections, this approach could take years and is really expensive. Where as many people strongly sympathise with our cause, they still vote conventionally because we are to small to impact upon many of the major day-to-day issues facing them. If your family is facing a crisis because your job is not looking good, English Nationalism is not got to help you much – your problem is here and now. So the usual processes are not going to be effective in winning sufficient votes and they will not be effective quickly enough.

So let’s go back to our objectives. What do we want? We want a self-determining England that is not run from Brussels. We want our England to be on a fair footing when compared to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and not be the cash cow for the UK. Some may even want England out of the UK. The question we have to ask, is our main goal to achieve these objectives or to form a successful political party? I suspect the former is the correct answer – and can our beloved country await the latter?

There are a number of single objective campaigning organisations within England that are striving towards the objectives we are seeking. The best known is probably the Campaign for an English Parliament (The CEP), but there are others such as Justice for England and the European Referendum Campaign that are all working hard at persuading people of their cause. All these campaigns require support and funding as well becoming highly activist on the ground.

We know that there are many Euro-Sceptics in the traditional parties. We know there are many who are coming round to the concept of an English Parliament. If the campaigning groups raise the volume and adopt a higher profile, more and more people will pressure their MPs for answers. If the public are educated to the real facts of what is going on, then they will agitate for change. The Daily Express has already swung in behind the Euro-Sceptics and the Daily Mail would appear to be going in the same direction. Why, because both papers have listened to their readers and realised there might be something there after all beyond a few whining little Englanders!

The campaigning approach will allow people to support the causes (our objectives) without having to align with a particular nationalist party. They can remain Tory, Labour, Lib-Dem or UKIP; no one will use the smear ‘BNP in Blazers’ with them. We know that UKIP already has the 1997 Committee which is pushing to have the cause of an English Parliament adopted by the party. The ground is fertile if we nationalists adopt the right strategy. We become the carriers for ideas that will spread like a virus into the conventional political arena and make those ideas main stream.

England is at five minutes to twelve and we must move quickly. The current electoral approach simply does not give us that time.

Interesting election! But when you hover a few thousand feet above all the comment and discussion, the picture is reasonably clear.

The Tory vote held it’s own because most Tory voters feel that the government cuts are long overdue and they are not really that miserable about things. Tories will always suffer for their country.

The Labour vote went up because all it’s serious defectors from the last election, most who chose Liberal Democrat, went back home to Labour – in the UK at least. Labour were saying at the last election that if you vote for anyone else, you’ll lose your benefits. That is now becoming true, so the turkeys fled from Christmas!

Liberal Democrats are having us believe the electorate wanted to punish the Coalition Government and picked on Nick Clegg to do it, as opposed to punishing David Cameron. Utter nonsense. I spoke to an under graduate the other day. She told me that in 2010 everyone they she voted for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. This time, from what she tells me, she did not know anyone who was going to vote for them again. Extrapolated out, that is hundreds of thousands of votes leaving the Liberal Democrat cause.

The Liberal Democrats made a very public pledge around student fees which won them hundreds of thousands of votes. The young now feel betrayed by Clegg and company. What is worse, their view of politics has been badly damaged and they now believe in the old stereotypes are very accurate. No politician is to be trusted. You have a lot to answer for Mr Clegg.

Scotland? Well done the SNP, but soon your country will see that the promises cannot be afforded, but can you pull off an independence vote before then? Doubtful, and frankly, would you win it anyway?

The English Democrats?  Sitting way out on the fringe where I suspect they will stay for a long time without new leaders and a big injection of funding.

I am beginning to believe that English Nationalism as a political movement is a lost cause and it only has itself to blame.  Over the last few weeks I have been holding a straw poll with a good number of people on the subject.  Those approached have been relatives, friends, business acquaintances as well as clients – quite a cross section.  Some were clearly executives, some self-employed and others plain working folk.  What is more, they are typical of the sort of people the movement has to win over if they are to make political headway.

The responses were quite disheartening.  The overall view was that English Nationalism is a right wing movement, associated with racism and protesters wrapped in the Cross of St George.  Some had experienced some unpleasantries on the Internet whilst others had read of EDL activity in their newspapers.  Two commented on hearing very recently about the infiltration of the big beast of the movement, the English Democrats, by the BNP on the BBC Politics Show.

A couple of those I spoke with were people I had previous discussions with.  Since our earlier conversation they were very clear about their views having spent time researching on the Internet – “lunatic fringe” was the phrase one of them used.  I was told that some Labour Party bloggers are now directing people to the British Democracy Forum to see for themselves what is going on.  Nationalism might as well take a shotgun and blow it’s own foot clean off!

The fact that many nationalists don’t seem to take on board is that the Internet footprint is like a dinosaur print in stone – it remains!  Every time you try to move forward it is referred back to and will haunt you for your days.

The English Nationalists have only one real enemy – themselves.  I say this with a heavy heart for without a drastic new modelling, the cause will never succeed.

In 1644 the English Parliament effectively disbanded all it’s separate armies because of their leader’s squabbling and formed a new force, the New Model Army.  (The original English Redcoats.) Yes, certain leaders fell by the wayside, but it set out with a force that believed in what it fought for and was committed.  It was mockingly called the ‘New Noddle Army’ by its enemies, who soon changed their tune when the NMA soundly thrashed them!

I would appeal to all those who really believe in the Cause of England to consider such a change today.  How much more defeat will it take before the message gets home?