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If it's good enough for the Scots -It's good enough for the English.
By
Simon Heffer
Daily Telegraph -November 29-2006
ONE of the more astonishing features of our politics is the way in which really quite clever and experienced people fail, from time to time, to see the blindingly obvious. ONE example is the way in which some of those around Tony Blair - and for all I know Mr Blair himself - have believed, on and off over the past few years, that it might be possible to stop Gordon Brown becoming PM. Another was the even more foolish, and much more widely held fantasy that granting devolution to Scotland would not , sooner rather than later lead to a rampant rise of Scottish nationalism.
As the more astute among you will immediately realize, these two concerns are inextricably linked. I begin to suspect that the likely timing of Mr Blair's departure from office in the late spring or early summer of has been set to cause the most difficulty for his probable successor. For on May 3, the third elections for the Scottish Parliament is now governed by a coalition of Labour and the Libdems. However, the SNP was five points ahead of Labour in the poll published this week. That this is no flash in the pan can be judged from how the Scottish Labour conference in Oban last weekend was dominated by big beasts of the Cabinet, from the Prime Minister downwards, warning the assembled multitude that waste, devastation and quite probably complete apocalypse would follow for Scotland if it elected the SNP.
The SNP reported a further groundswell of interest as a result of these attacks, and a Labour internal poll revealed yesterday that the SNP's lead had extended to 8 per cent
So: imagine you are Mr Brown, and you have just become Prime Minister of the [so-called] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Imagine, too, that the people of Scotland have a few weeks earlier, elected an SNP government to rule them - a minority government, no doubt, but a government none the less. You, as Prime Minister of a nation that is about 85 per cent English, are yourself Scottish. You sit for a Scottish seat at Westminster. Your fellow Scots have , however, put into power a party committed to calling a referendum on whether Scotland remains part of the [so-called ] United Kingdom.
More than two thirds of the 85 per cent of the foreigners over whom you rule want (according to a poll just published by The Sunday Telegraph ) an ENGLISH PARLIAMENT And all concerned have the temerity to do these things despite the fact that you yourself, sensing trouble ahead, have spent much of the past two or three years making regular cynical and implausible speeches about"Britishness". Oh dear! Please forgive a moment of self-regard, which I introduce purely (well, almost purely) because it is relevant. Eight years ago , I wrote a book entitled
'NOR SHALL MY SWORD: THE REINVENTION OF ENGLAND' It appeared a couple of months before the first Scottish elections and it made the following points. FIRST, that devolution would lead inevitably to SEPARATISM . SECOND, that if the Scots wished to separate from England, there was nothing we could ,or should, do to stop them (oh!, if only Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886 had been passed, etc etc) THIRD, that this might actually be beneficial to the English taxpayer. FOURTH, that in any political system the rulers ignore the rights of majorities at their peril: and that the inevitable consequence of denying the ENGLISH, the same rights as the SCOTS -a referendum on their own separateness, and allowing any wish for separateness to be expressed in an INDEPENDENT ENGLISH PARLIAMENT -would lead to towering resentments. The way in which this book was received speaks much of the flavour of those bless enlightened times. It had a rave review from Alex Salmond, the leader of the SNP. Michael Portillo, then in the middle of reinventing himself as a proto-Cameronian, addressed the work in a tone that suggested the men in white coats would be coming for the author with a matter of hours. When I read The Sunday Telegraph not just that 68 per cent of my fellow English now want their own ENGLISH PARLIAMENT -but that 59 per cent would be happy for Scotland to be fully INDEPENDENT
-I know we will never be able to build the madhouses fast enough.
It is not hard to see why the English feel these things. FIRST, they have had largely alien rule for the past ten years. SERVE YOU RIGHT, -the Scots would say, recalling the Thatcher years, when they, too, felt occupied. But the Scots sought and received, a remedy for their alleged sufferings; all the English now want is equal treatment. SECOND, the English have been treated to the most preposterous justifications of why Scottish MPs should still vote in the Westminster Parliament on matters that, in Scotland, are dealt with by the Parliament in Edinburgh. Foundation hospitals and top-up fees are only on the statute book because of the help the Government received from Scottish MPs with no interest in the matter.
No Wonder, with a much smaller majority now than when those measures went through, Labour is desperate to retain this lobby-fodder. Increasingly, though, in a era when we are all feeling grotesquely overtaxed, there is the question of money. Sixty per cent of those questioned in THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH poll resented the far higher per capita public spending in Scotland compared with England. The revenue powers of the Scottish Parliament do not have to be used to fund handsome new capital projects in Scotland - not least their extravagant new Parliament building - [Just a reminder that we were first told that it would cost approx. £41,000,000 but ended up at £400,000,000 -at least. When our NICE (not really very nice!) refuses to agree for essential medicines at a cost in one case of £2.50 a week and many other instances which are denying life saving treatment it is no wonder there is so much great anger at the increased subsidy in Scotland.]
-while the English taxpayer is standing by to have his pocket picked. As an article on this subject in this month's Prospect points out, per capita spending is 30 per cent higher in Scotland, but the GDP per capita is five per cent lower. Despite this Herculean level of bribery of the Scottish voter, growth rates simply do not improve.
It is a glowing, and ghastly , example of the evils of the SUBSIDY CULTURE
And, quite clearly, not only is it not doing the ENGLISH
-taxpayer any good, it is also not doing the SCOTS any long - term good either.
Scotland is on its way to sovietisation
The amount of GDP spent in the public sector, at 50 per cent, is 10 per cent higher than in the [so-called] United Kingdom as a whole. £11 Billion more is spent in Scotland than is raised in revenue there. The SNP says this takes no account of the oil revenues. BUT, should Scotland ever become INDEPENDENT, there will have to be an interesting discussion about the nature of territorial waters, and the origins of the money used to develop the oilfields. There might also be a DEBATE about whether Shetland, in the event of independence, would want to be part of [sovietised] Scotland, or would prefer to remain a dependency of England, or would like to revert to being a part of NORWAY. So far, all the decision -making in these matters has been placed on the Scots. THAT HAS TO STOP!
The English deserve their referendum, too, on whether they wish to remain in any sort of UNION with Scotland. If they can have their OWN PARLIAMENT WHY shouldn't ENGLAND
[WE all know about Lord Falconer's comment that he wouldn't like England to have her own PARLIAMENT as it would BULLY Scotland. The soon he and his tartan hangers-on depart England on the high-road back to Scotland the better it will be for those who live on this side of the border.] If [Scotland] wishes to separate, then why should the ENGLISH subsidise them?
Above all, why should the rights of the English majority be aggressively denied? I know this is horrid for Gordon brown, who , like Napoleon, or Stalin, or Hitler, aspires to come to a distant province or satellite STATE and take over the MOTHER COUNTRY. BUT he and his friends started this process: It is a shame, given how very brilliant we are always told he is, that he wasn't clever enough to realise how we might finish what he had started. * * * [Font altered-bolding & underlining used-comments in brackets]
* [The tragedy was that Gordon Brown put the his ardour for a united party above personal ambition whereas if he had moved earlier onto the backbenches in opposition to Iraq and fought to rectify the great injustices to the English people he would have succeeded as the leader of the ENGLISH PEOPLE whatever his ancestry. He held on to the vision of 'Britishness' when to support such an IDEAL was an affront to the English who could see clearly that they were being denied their just rights whereas he and his numerous countrymen around him were gathering up their emoluments and at the same time to enslave the English in an European State with the proud name of ENGLAND eradicated from their homeland. If for once Mr Brown had put himself into to the mindset of an Englishman he would have realised the great wrong and as the man we all know he would have righted the wrong.]
IN ORDER TO HONOUR OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOURS AND OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR WISH FOR INDEPENDENCE SOMETHING THE MAJORITY OF THE ENGLISH UNDERSTAND WE STATE HERE FROM THE Arbroath Manifesto sent by the Nobles and Commons of Scotland to the Pope in 1320
'We fight not for glory nor for wealth nor for honour but for the freedom which no good man will surrender but with his life.' * NOVEMBER/06
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* * 13th October,2007
So You Want Out Of The EU
THEN WHY NOT SIGN THE RENUNCIATION of EU CITIZENSHIP http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OptoutDetails from petition creator With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty the people of Britain were given DUAL CITIZENSHIP -both EUROPEAN and BRITISH The extra tier of citizenship was thrust upon the people without their consent -and in many cases knowledge. The PEOPLE of GREAT BRITAIN should be allowed the option of opting out of the EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP if they so wish. The GOVERNMENT will then be able to provide those who have opted out with BRITISH DOCUMENTATION -only such as British (not EU) passports, driving licences and other national documents. EU laws will also NOT APPLY to those who HAVE OPTED OUT OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
[PETITION OPEN UNTIL OCTOBER 08]
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Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION to the EU
* GORDON BROWN WANTS TRUST-BUT WHY WON'T HE TRUST YOU? * 67% want powers back from EU-ICM poll-June 21-2007-95% of British people want a REFERENDUM * FOR A REFERENDUM SIGN TODAY ON LINE * July 18-2007 ALSO JOIN THE 10 DOWNING STREET PROTEST Readers can add their support to the growing clamour for a REFERENDUM on the '"REFORM TREATY" by signing up to a 10 Downing Street 0n-line petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EU-treaty-NON/
The Petition reads as follows: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to guarantee that the British people will be permitted a binding REFERENDUM on any and all attempts to resurrect the EU " CONSTITUTION" (and any or all of its content) regardless of nomenclature." Deadline for the PETITION is 31st January,2008 Eurofacts 27th July 2007. * 'The Spirit of England' by In London on St.George's Day -1953 *
VOTE -2007
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE TO SET YOU FREE
THE UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY THE QUESTION THAT THE VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY THE CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND CORRUPT ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT?
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER BUT SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES. *
ONLY WILL BRING DEMOCRACY BACK TO THE ENGLISH PEOPLE *
SCOTLAND -ITS PARLIAMENT -WALES-ITS ASSEMBLY-ENGLAND-STILL AWAITS ITS PARLIAMENT-WHY?
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* [All underlined words have a separate bulletin
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