Campaign for an English Parliament

The Calman Commission has released its report after months of gathering evidence and deliberations.

The gist of the report is that devolution has been good for Scotland, that the Scottish government should be given more power but they shouldn’t be allowed to raise their own taxes instead of leeching off the English taxpayer because that would be inconsistent witht he United Kingdom.

The Calman Commission was created by the unionist Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem parties with a unionist brief of reviewing devolution within the union.  This is, of course, what devolution is in the UK – devolving power from the British government to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments whilst keeping them in the union.  But the “union at all costs” attitude prevails throughout the report and there is a clear agenda underlying every conclusion that is made.

There is a section that examines what devolution caused – the rise of the SNP to form a Scottish government, for example.  There is no mention of the formation of the CEP (we even gave them a submission) or a handful of English nationalist political parties ranging from the pro-devolution English Democrats to the pro-independence English Independence Party.  There is no mention – possibly because they didn’t ask – of public feeling in England which has shifted perceptably in the last decade from indifference to a majority supporting devolution for England and an increasing number supporting full independence.

Most significant of all the findings of the Calman Commission is their belief that Scotland should continue to receive the full fiscal advantage that it currently enjoys, spending English taxes without having to worry about where the money is coming from.  The Commission says that the Barnett Formula should be looked as “in future”.  Meanwhile, the English taxpayer can continue subsidising the entire UK, including Scotland at over £11bn per year.