Campaign for an English Parliament

The Campaign for an English Parliament has a fringe stand and debate at the UKIP party conference which starts tomorrow (Friday 3rd).

Our chairman, Scilla Cullen, recently met with UKIP’s Deputy Leader, David Campbell Bannerman to discuss the party’s policy on devolution who invited the CEP to hold a fringe event at this year’s conference.

Our tireless roving campaigner, Eddie Bone (of “Battle Bus” fame), will be at the conference along with veteran campaigner, Jools Asher, who is bravely negotiating the three different trains and four hours of travel to get from the West Midlands to Torquay.

The CEP’s debate is at 12:45 Friday lunchtime and the room is expected to fill up pretty quickly.

Eddie and Jools will be handing out this flyer, which has been tailored to address the most common concerns UKIP members have about devolution.

The British Minister for English Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, has announced the axing of another English British government department as part of the massive public sector spending cuts the British are targeting at England.

The Audit Commission, which audits local authorities in England to ensure they are providing value for the council tax they spend (council tax that increases every year in England but is frozen in Scotland and Wales),  is being axed and its job being handed to the private sector.

Last month the British English Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announced that Sport England is to be merged with UK Sport, leaving England without a body concentrating on English sport whilst the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish continue to have both their own devolved sports bodies and UK Sport working for them.

In June, the British Chancellor announced plans to abolish an extension of free school meals in England – free school meals are being extended to another 100,000 primary school children in Scotland this year.

Earlier this month, the British Home Office announced changes to the way English police are going to be paid, making English policemen on average £5k per year worse off.  Meanwhile, the Scottish government is recruiting record numbers of police officers.

The British Prime Minister, David “There is plenty of Scottish blood flowing through these Cameron veins” Cameron, urged (not ordered) the Scottish government to start preparing to make budget cuts for 2011/12.  The British government’s cuts started immediately in England, they were deferred for a year in Scotland by which time they will probably have got their extra tax varying powers, enabling them to change the tax system in Scotland to suit their needs.

For the last 4 years, opinion polls have consistently shown that us “Sour little Englanders” want our own government, running England for the benefit of the people of England, not an anglophobic British government pillaging the country to buy the affections of the celts.

The Conservatives have a front organisation called “There’s nothing British about the BNP“.  I wonder how long it’ll be until the English nationalist community sets up their own campaign: There’s nothing English about the Conservatives?

David Cameron announced his “Big Society” initiative today to fix our broken society and transfer power from government to local people (video).

It’s my hope – and my mission – that when people look back at this five, ten year-period from 2010, they’ll say:

‘In Britain they didn’t just pay down the deficit, they didn’t just balance the books, they didn’t just get the economy moving again, they did something really exciting in their society.’

Whether it is in building affordable housing, tackling youth unemployment, inviting charities to deliver public services…

…the people in Britain worked out the answer to the big social problems.

A big part of that answer is the Big Society.

I think we are on to a really big idea, a really exciting future for our country and today, I hope, is one more, big step towards that.

One word was missing from his speech – England.

The Big Society is an England-only initiative.  It’s all about local government, communities, local transport, transport, housing – all devolved responsibilities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The British government is planning to expropriate the contents of accounts belonging to English people that haven’t seen any activity for 15 years to fund a “Big Society Bank” to pay charities and community groups to run local services where the British government have cut back too far.  Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish bank accounts will be left untouched.

The British media have, of course, faithfully complied with the British government’s deceit, allowing British politicians to talk about “Britain”, “out country” and “the country” when they mean England.

The Telegraph said:

the Big Society, was relaunched yesterday, as Mr Cameron unveiled a jam and Jerusalem Britain run along the lines of a bumper church fete

The Guardian quotes Ed Milliband saying:

People in the voluntary sector know that, for all the talk of a big society, what is actually on the way is cuts and the abandonment of community projects across Britain.

The BBC has even gone as far as removing a quote from David Cameron this morning talking about the Big Society and “Britain”.

England is facing the lions share of funding cuts – far more than its fair share.  Charities and voluntary groups in England are facing big cuts in public funding whilst the British government is increasing the burden on them.  Taxes are going up yet we’re getting less for our money … but only in England.

Of course the Big Society is a mask for public sector cuts.  We absolutely have to make every effort to cut the deficit and cut back on spending but whilst England is subsidising the rest of the UK, we must all face the same cuts.  It is not fair or reasonable to expect England to face disproportionately high budget sector cuts, pay more for less and then work for free to fill in the gaps in public services.

Two very important questions have to be asked about the Big Society scheme:

• Will the Big Society Bank give more English money to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland?
• Will the money given out by the Big Society Bank result in Barnett Consequentials – payments to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to top up their subsidy because England has been given some money?

As soon as we can track down a British government department that will take responsibility for the Big Society (the Cabinet Office says that us mere mortals aren’t allowed to talk to David Cameron or any of his staff) we will ask these very questions.

A report commissioned by the Welsh government says that Scotland’s subsidy under the Barnett Bribe should be cut by £4bn if funding is allocated based on need rather than population and political expediency as it current is.

The Welsh government has been promised a referendum by the Brits on turning the Welsh Assembly into a Welsh Parliament and a commission has suggested that the Welsh government should have the power to vary income tax by 3p – a power the Scottish government already has.  The Brits have also promised the Scottish government more powers over taxation and an independence referendum will be held some time soon north of the border.

And England? The West Lothian Question has been kicked into the long grass with a promise of an unspecified commission at some point in the future with no changes to the unconstitutional and institutionally racist system of imperialist British government of England in the meantime.

The Campaign for an English Parliament is urging all English patriots to resist the urge to take down their flags after England’s disappointing performance against Germany and show the world that we are not a country of part time patriots.

There is more to England than its football team, more to be proud of than making it into the final 16 of the world cup and more to be disappointed about than losing 4-1 to Germany.  It’s time for the part time patriots to become full time patriots and leave their flags up and celebrate England every day, not just once every couple of years.

England is for life, not just for football.

I would love England to win the World Cup but if – as seems likely – we don’t make it to the finals, the disappointment will be tempered somewhat as long as we give the Germans a damn good thrashing this afternoon.

The Coca Cola world cup goal celebrations advert really is excellent – the song is great, the celebrations are funny (especially the Japanese player jumping backwards over the advertising hoarding) and my kids can’t wait for it to come on.

But Coca Cola seem to be a little confused judging by the flag waving at the end of the advert – they’re either confused about the difference between England and Britain or they’re confused as to which teams are competing in the world cup because the English flag is missing but the British flag is there instead.

There is no Team GB or Team UK or Team British Nations, Regions, Provinces and Crown Dependencies located in the British Isles in the world cup.  In fact, until the Brits force a Team GB football team on us for the 2012 Olympics (it will only have English players as the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish FA’s won’t take part because they know it’s an attempt to replace national sides with a British team) there is no British football team and hasn’t been since 1972.  So why is there a British flag instead of an English flag in Coca Cola’s advert?

We’ve asked Coca Cola to explain and we’ll let you know if they tell us!

In December last year the then Minister for Justice, Jack Straw, vetoed a Freedom of Information request for the minutes of a 1997 Cabinet Ministerial Meeting on Devolution to Scotland and Wales and the English Regions.

Jack Straw decided that releasing the minutes would damage the principle of collective responsibility of the cabinet, suggesting that the cabinet was far from united on the subject of devolution.

The question is, what are they trying to hide from us?  We know that there was a concern that devolution would lead to the break-up of the union by pandering to the secessionalist elements in Scotland, a concern that has since been shown to have been ill-founded as support for independence in Scotland has actually fallen.  There was a concern that Wales would vote no but it scraped through with a 50.3% yes vote.  And of course there was a concern that England wouldn’t accept being dismembered and ruled by the glorified county councils they called Regional Assemblies – they were right on this occasion because England rejected balkanisation overwhelmingly, even if John Prescott refused to accept defeat.

We can only speculate on what they have to hide because a Freedom of Information request by the CEP for the same minutes a few weeks ago has also been refused by the Cabinet Office.  We will, of course, appeal the decision but if our suspicions – that the meeting discussed the deliberate disenfranchisement of the English electorate and undermining of the integrity of the English nation for electoral gain – are correct, we expect the request to be vetoed again.  After all, if our suspicions are correct, the cabinet members involved can expect to face treason charges.  It’s just a shame the previous British government protected themselves by abolishing the death penalty for treason shortly after the cabinet meeting on devolution.

There’s been some interesting feedback on yesterday’s story about HMV being forced to remove their Anyone But England window displays both in the comments on the press release posted yesterday and by email.

Some of the feedback has been of the predictable “f**k off English” variety, some was the expected “this is ridiculous” type but plenty are congratulating us on tackling Debenhams and HMV.  There was even the obligatory attempt to portray either the CEP or myself (or both) as ethnic nationalists who believe that English means white – that’s not the CEP’s opinion and nor is it mine.  If British nationalists like Sunny Hundal (an “Asian Briton”) disapprove then we must be doing something right.

First of all, let’s just deal with the misconception that English is not a race.  The Race Relations Act doesn’t just cover races in the traditional sense of the word, it also covers national and cultural groups.  It also, importantly, says that race is a matter of perception – something that is defined by the subject.  Tens of millions of people consider themselves English or a mixture of English and British.  Those tens of millions of people perceive themselves to belong to a racial, ethnic, national and/or cultural group and that is all that is required by law to consider English as a race for the purposes of the Race Relations Act.

Legal lesson over and on to the argument that it isn’t incitement to racial hatred.  I will assume most people didn’t bother to do their research to see whether violence towards English people is a problem in Scotland or whether it is worse during the world cup in particular.  You won’t hear much about it in the so-called “English” media but it is a problem and one that a senior Scottish police officer described as having reached epidemic proportions in parts of Scotland.  Ask Ian Smith or the 7 year old boy and his father in the same article if “Anyone but England” is a bit of harmless banter.  Or this woman who was assaulted for being English and it wasn’t even in a world cup year.  Or you could ask the Reynolds family if “Anyone but England” is harmless banter – they were forced from their home in Paisley by racists because they were English.  I could go on but I have a bed to go to.

During world cup years, anti-English sentiment in Scotland (and to a lesser extend, in Wales) runs even higher than usual.  What is absolutely not needed is a national campaign across Scotland by a major High Street brand to stir up even more anti-English feeling or to make being anti-English even more social acceptable and mainstream than it already is.  The intention was to add fuel to the fire of anti-Englishness to sell more “Anyone but England” merchandise – that is incitement to racial hatred.

If a shop set up “Anyone but Pakistan” window displays in the centre of Bradford or Tower Hamlets, there would be no question of it being unacceptable.  It would undoubtedly be considered a provocative act that was likely to increase the level of racial tension there.  So why, when the same thing is done in Scotland towards English people, is there any question that it might be unacceptable?

Ultimately, you have to ask this question: if there was no chance of this being classed as incitement to racial hatred, then why did the police visit HMV and why did HMV decide to withdraw their promotion of “Anyone by England” in Scotland?  Companies like HMV crave publicity and the police don’t just blindly accept complaints unless it is likely that a crime has been committed.

There is enough anti-English sentiment in Scotland without the likes of Debenhams and HMV irresponsibly stirring more up.

Campaign for an English Parliament: HMV withdraws racist window displays

The Campaign for an English Parliament understands that HMV have agreed to withdraw their insensitive and provocative “Anyone but England” window displays and t-shirts from their Scottish stores following complaints from members of the public and a complaint by the CEP to Fife Police for incitement to racial hatred.

During the last world cup, a number of racist attacks were committed in Scotland against English people ^[1] and anti-English racism remains a problem whether it’s a world cup year or not. ^[2]

HMV’s decision to not only stock the provocative “Anyone but England” t-shirts but to make window displays of them in all their Scottish stores, stirring up even more bad feeling towards the English in Scotland at a time when it is already riding high because of the world cup, is criminally irresponsible and the CEP believes that it could be considered incitement to racial hatred. ^[3]

Police officers attended the HMV store in Gordon Brown’s constituency town of Kirkcaldy following our complaint and HMV agreed to remove the display. Debenhams also agreed to remove “Anyone but England” t-shirts from their Welsh stores following a visit from North Wales Police in response to a similar complaint from the CEP a couple of weeks ago.

Stuart Parr, a National Council member for the Campaign, said “The Campaign for an English Parliament will challenge any company that incites racial hatred towards the English. Racism is unacceptable no matter who it is directed against, including English people.”