Divorce !

I’ve always been a bit cynical about opinion polls but there’s one which has really leapt out at me today. These are its results:

Conservative 17% Labour 37% Lib Dem 22% SNP 21%.

In case you hadn’t already guessed, this is a YouGov survey in Scotland.

It means that for all the progress they have made south of the border, the Conservatives in Scotland would be just over one percentage point up on their showing in 2005.

No one really seems to know what will happen tomorrow. My own gut feeling is that most of the polls are slightly understating the Conservative position, and that Cameron might just sneak an overall majority. Labour are in second place, I think, and the Lib Dems a close third. No science behind this, and it might turn out to be complete rubbish. Part of it, I accept, isn’t based on hard-nosed political analysis, more an emotional anguish (denial ?) about Nick Clegg holding the balance of power, and the orgasmic raptures that would send the BBC into.

Whatever the weather, it is clear that Cameron, who is likely to be the next Prime Minister, is still hugely unpopular in Scotland. Can we really have a situation in which someone rules over one of our countries in which he gets less than one in five of the popular vote ? In mitigation I do know that in 2005 the Conservatives won the most votes in England and yet we still ended up with a Labour (and Scottish) Prime Minister; that the distribution of votes to seats is substantially weighted in Scotland’s favour; and that the Edinburgh Parliament accounts for much of Scotland’s legislation anyway. But that aside, we risk ending up here with something that is just about untenable.

In my eyes every passing day strengthens the argument for a break-up of the United Kingdom. The English have been royally screwed by the Blair-Brown-Cunningham-Dewer-Cook-Darling Raj over the past 13 years but that of itself is no endorsement of an England-centric (virtually England-exclusive) government to do the same back to the Scots. As nations, we are growing wider and wider apart. The Scots have always had a greater faith in a strong State and more centralised control than we have, and these poll results suggest that just at a time when Cameron is at last trying to put forward the argument for a return to individual sovereignty, the Scots endorse yet more of what we’ve been subjected to all these years. The Scottish Parliament emphasises the differences, an English one would just paper over the deepening cracks.

The relationship has been generally been like a stormy marriage. At times, for instance during the first half of the last century when (in a rare show of unity) we saw two World Wars through together, it was a strong and invaluable partnership; two countries united in a common cause. But those days are long gone. That is not to say that we would not once again fight alongside one another if the time came. There is, in the well-worn phrase, more that binds us together than holds us apart. But in terms of nationhood, it is time that went our separate ways. Permanent separation. Leading to divorce. Never to marry again, thanks very much.

Ideally, Scotland would take Northern Ireland with them at the same time. It is, after all, in no small part, a Scottish problem which the English have, in their ignorance, been trying to manage for the last 400 years. When the west-of Scotland Protestants proclaim their support for "the Union", it is that between Scotland and Ulster that they care about most. Let us leave them to it.

And we’ll throw Wales in too. For free.

Slowly But Surely, The English Awake

The Womble's heart was gladdened to see so many St George's flags flying today. It seems that the English are finally waking up to the fact that they have a nationality of their own.

The pubs seemed to be keenest of all to fly the colours, doubtless driven in part by the need to generate a celebratory sentimement in these dark socialist days. One village in particular on the outskirts of Bradford made an especially decent effort, and it was good to see plenty of people joining in and celebrating the day. The Womble stopped on his way home to take some photos.

Let's enjoy such images while we can: before the pubs go bust and the flags get banned.

Compliments Of The Day

Just a quickie to wish my readership a very happy and prosperous (hah!) St. George's Day.

May the day soon come when we govern ourselves.

Sign Here, Please

Downing Street petition proclaiming that Jerusalem should become the National Anhem of England.

English Inequity - What's Your Prescription ?

I see that the Northern Irish government has announced its intention to abolish prescription charges.

This follows the decisions of the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament to do the same in their respective countries.

For the same thing to happen in England, - ie. to have prescription charges paid for mainly by English taxpayers - we need the support of the British government, at the head of which we have a Scottish Prime Minister and a Scottish Chancellor.

It's a strange old world, eh ?

I so, so want us to leave the Union...

Sniff, Sniff...I Smell...Scottish Labour

Something stinks about the takeover of HBOS. And at the heart of the smell lie Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.

Darling has said quite openly that he has sought assurances from Lloyds TSB about jobs - Scottish jobs. Nothing about the English ones. In Halifax alone, 6,500 people are employed by HBOS. But Halifax is in England, and I can't find anything about the Chancellor lobbying to save jobs there. Instead, with seemingly indecent haste, Lloyds TSB has said that the new headquarters will be in Edinburgh.

We know that the government has been very closely involved in this. So, what have we got ? We've got a Scottish Prime Minister - representing a constituency commuting distance of Edinburgh - and a Scottish Chancellor, whose constituency is in Edinburgh. We've got a key by-election coming up, in Scotland. We've got competition rules being waived by the government. And we've got a deal that prioritises Scottish jobs ahead of English ones.

This is government interference of the very worst order. It is a gross and outrageous abuse of power.

Do These Guys Understand The Problem ?

When will the Conservatives get it ?

Last autumn Malcolm Rifkind, after months of deliberation, came up with a half-baked plan to deal with the West Lothian Question. At its core was the idea of a Grand Committee (a sub committee of Parliament, more like) to discuss English-only matters. At best it went about halfway to addressing the imbalance created by devolution for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And then, just when you thought (as I did) that no Tory could conceive anything worse, up pops Kenneth Clarke.

This latest scheme proposes that Parliament votes on second readings, and only England-based MPs should vote in the Committee and Report Stages on legislation affecting only England. Then the whole of Parliament votes on the Third Reading. In other words, Parliament (including MPs from outside England) has the power of veto.

The idea is flawed because it absolutely fails to address the central problem, which is that MPs from outside England can bulldoze through legislation that does not affect them. Clarke's measures would not have prevented Foundation Hospitals being imposed upon us when the majority of English MPs voted against the bill, nor would they have stopped our students being wacked with university tuition fees.

The Conservatives have once again failed lamentably to grasp either the nettle or the fact that there is a fundamental injustice at the root of our parliamentary constitution, and in so doing they have failed the English people. I know it's not their fault that new Labour only did half a job when establishing devolution, but it's up to the Conservatives to create a fair and equitable solution. Instead they have come up with another sop that does not stand up to scrutiny. The English should treat it with the contempt it deserves.

Bitter ? Me ?

Prescription charges in England are due to go up again - to £7.10 - from 1st April. In Scotland, prescription charges will be reduced to £5 from April and will be free from 2011. In Wales, prescription charges have already been abolished.

Meanwhile, car park charges have been abolished in Welsh hospitals, and won't be reciprocated in England, partly because it compromises Britain's attempts to reduce its carbon footprint (Welsh cars don't emit carbon, obviously).

And to cap it all, Members of the Welsh Assembly are set to get a pay rise of 8.3%.

Isn't it nice of us English people to subsidise these nice little breaks for the Scottish and Welsh out of our own taxes ? And isn't it absolutely fine that Parliament / Assembly Members in Scotland / Wales can votes these measures through by themselves without the English having a say, but any attempt to do the same in England would be subject to the scrutiny of Scottish and Welsh MPs ?

Seems fair to me...

English Anthem

We're being asked to post this by members of the Witanagemot Club to show support for the England rugby team ahead of the Six Nations, which starts on Saturday.

Suits me.

Hat-tip: Little Man in a Toque

More Imposition By The Scottish Raj

I know I keep banging on about the English being screwed by the Parliamentary system, but if you can't bang on in a blog, where can you ?

The Queen's Speech would have been inordinately depressing had we not heard it already; as it was it was just tedious. One thing that was noticeable was the number of bills that won't affect Scotland, and the one that's most likely to send the Womble On Tour Temper Gauge into the red zone is the Education and Skills Bill, which plans to force people to stay on in education or training until they're 18.

This is an utterly foul, illiberal, top-down, Statist measure which is typical of a socialist government that thinks they know better than everybody else. Why we should make it illegal for anyone aged 16 or 17 to go out and earn a living is completely beyond me.

Of course, the Scots and Welsh need not worry, because it's not going to happen there. Or it might happen there, but only if the parliaments there say so. But it will happen in England, and only because a shed load of Scottish and Welsh MPs, without whom the bill would be lost, will force it through. Just like Foundation Hospitals and Tuition Fees.

No wonder new Labour think that the best thing to do with the West Lothian Question is to stop asking it.

Right Questions, Wrong Answer

I remember when I was doing maths problems at school I'd sometimes get all the method right, and then blow it at the end by still coming right with the wrong answer.

Football teams can perfect their build-up play and still blaze the final shot five yards over the bar.

A golf swing can be perfect.....OK, you get the idea.

The thing is, it can apply to magazine editorials, too.

Yesterday's Spectator leader, describing Sir Malcolm Rifkind's Grand Committee proposals as the way to "save the Union", illustrates the point.

The analysis of the problem is perfect: the West Lothian question remains answered, nay, ignored, by new Labour; increasing resentment among English voters, feulled by the outrageously unfair Barnett formula; the prospect after the next election of the Conservatives holding the majority of English seats, but of Labour being the largest party in Westminster, led by a Scottish Prime Minister whose Sottish colleagues force unpopular legislation on the English majority.

It is clear to pretty much everybody except the government that this cannot continue. Even the Liberals have grasped that - just. Where much of the Right's thinking - Spectator included - falls apart is in what to do about it. We really have to fight for more than this crazy Grand Committee idea. The English deserve better than to have one inequality replaced by another, especially when it is an utterly unworkable one.

Rifkind's idea might encourage the government of the day to by-pass Parliament more than they already do, invite them do dress up English legislation as British to suit then own ends and place the Civil Service in the impossible position of having to serve one master to introduce legislation and another one to implement it. Not only does it only go halfway in dealing with the injustice it is supposed to address, it is, logisitically, a non-starter.

The English must treat it as such.

Rifkind's Grand Sell-Out

Sir Malcolm Rifkind claims that his proposals for a "Grand Committee" of English MPs voting on English matters represent "the unfinished business of devolution". I bloody hope not.

The Grand Committee is a half-baked contrivance, a gimmick and a sop. If this is the best we can come up with as an answer to the flagrant injustice that currently assials our consitution, then God help us. The very least we could hope for in implementing it would be that it were a halfway house, a staging post to the Real McCoy. Better still would be to have nothing whatever to do with it, and hold out for what the English Question really merits, which is either a devolved parliament or, as an apparently increasing number appear to desire, full-blown indepedence.

There is so much wrong with the idea of a Grand Committee in its abject failure to provide equality within the Union that it is difficult to write succintly about it. But to put it briefly:
..it creates yet another different tier of government, when what is needed is simply a mirror image of the Scottish Parliament;
..it would be left to the UK government to implement laws passed by the Grand Committee, and there is huge potential for mischief on behalf of the former when expected to implement legislation passed by the latter which it doesn't like;
..there are vast difficulties in defining what constitutes "English-only matters", not least of all because the under the Barnett Formula bills that alter English spending influence the amount of money that received by the devolved governments;
..it completely fails to deal with the unfairness within the Barnett Formula anyway;
..it doesn't stop a Scottish MP having ministerial responsibility over England despite the fact that - the almost redundant Scottish Office apart, the reverse could not apply.

I suppose you could see it a progression that at least one of the main parties has been forced to take the English Question seriously enough at least to put forward a serious proposal (if that's what they end up doing). But the reality is that this is a timid response to an issue which requires boldness and radicalism. It is a fudge, and the English should treat it as such.

The Closed Shop Of The 21st Century

Interesting video here about the disparities between England and Scotland covering many aspects of government spending and support. I have to say I cannot assure all the statistics herein but the sentiment is valid.

It feels a bit odd as a libertarian to be complaining about my country being the subject of less government spending than another one. But it's not as simple as that.

As an Englishman, I get considerably less spent on me than I would if I were a Scot. But in return, Scots have considerably more say in the running of my country than I do in the running of theirs. We all know about Foundation Hospitals and University Tuition Fees being pushed through in the last Parliament by Scottish MPs when the same measures didn't apply to them. We also know that the Conservatives got more votes at the last General Election than new Labour. Meanwhile the Scottish Parliament continues to vote through expensive measures - free school meals for the first three years and a promise to scrap subscription charges among them - which they do apparently without cost to the Scottish taxpayer.

That's what makes it wrong. There is an element of representation without taxation within the British constitution at present and this government shows absolutely no inclination to do anything about it. Very slowly the English are waking up to the unfairness of it all but for me it's all happening far too slowly.

Twenty years ago I was a committed Unionist, proud of the Union Flag and what it stood for. But for me now the case for maintaining the Union has passed. It's served its purpose by getting us through two World Wars and various other crises. There are values that unite us but no reason for continued unification. This is one union of which I'm a member and in which I want no part.

Please can someone show me the exit ?

English Serfs Told To Shut It

Good to see the new leader of Labour in Scotland Wendy Alexander is doing the cause of English nationalism no harm. See this Times article here.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2364419.ece

Apparently it's perfectly right and proper that the Government spends £1,236 more on every person in Scotland than it does in England, because it's only the same as London subsidising other parts of England. And it's fine that the Scots can vote for free personal care for the elderly, free prescriptions for the chronically ill and and end to university tuition fees, all at English expense. What isn't fine is any English person seeing fit to complain about it.

In telling the English to shut up, Ms Alexander, whose brother Douglas is in the happy position of being able to force things such as Foundation Hospitals and tuition fees on the English by virtue of being the MP for, wait for it....Paisley & Renfrewshire South, has raised a number of hackles on indignant blogs. Personally I wish a lot more Scots would same the same thing. It might finally waken the English up to the outrageously unfair deal we're being subjected to, and may, several years down the line, provoke my people into actually doing something about it.

It'Scot Beyond A Joke

The Barnett Formula continues to create huge unfairness in funding between England and Scotland.

It's emerged that secondary school children in Scotland are having almost 25% per head more spent on their schooling than those in England.

The last time I looked at public expenditure per head of population across our two countries, it was higher in Scotland in every government department. Bar none.

What I don't understand is what it's going to take a) to get the English people to wake up to what is going and or b) when, if ever, our lords and masters are ever going to do anything to put it right.

This excuse for justice is only half the tale, of course. The other half is that Scottish MPs still, as they did in the last Parliament, have the ability to be the deciding factor in the passing of legislation which affects only England. Oh, and by the way, which party attracted the most votes in England at the last General Election ? Clue: it wasn't the one now led by Gordon Brown.