Ah the joys of the unfair devolution settlement- whilst the other nations of the Union can do what they like, England is in effect governed as a colony.
Now I had once thought that a decent proposal to 'save the Union' would be to have an English Parliament, with a sort of federal Parliament in Westminster. But then I thought, why the hell do I want to save the Union in the first place ?
I appreciate there is a sort of sentiment we can all attach to this Union, but when one looks at it in purely economic terms, it is time to cut loose.
Why do I want to send ex amount of my hard earned money to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so that they can have :
- Free medical prescriptions
- State funded care for the elderly
- No university tuition fees
Well, fine. I suspect neither Scotland or Wales and certainly not Northern Ireland could really afford any of the above, if it were not for the vast flow of funds, from England to the rest of the UK, under the wonderfully inept 'Barnett quota ' (the mechanism which allows for a vast subsidy of the non English parts of the realm) .
So it is either England gets her own Parliament and be equal with the other countries of the UK, or we all go happily or amicably to the divorce courts.
Otherwise, it will be time to create an English version of Plaid or SNP - lets say English Nationalist Party or the Party of England. [Cue the left cries of 'facist', 'nationalist', 'racist', 'little Englander' - as the English are 'not allowed' to be patrotic because we are all horrible thugs as per left liberal london types and Mel Gibson] which will be dedicated to removing England from the UK (and also, as an aside from the EU).
1 comments:
Coo gosh, Lordy Lav. Your bloggington is looking a bit different, full of snow-covered mountings and clouds and stuff. Very impressive and aristocratic, I must say.
Mind you, it ain't always easy to read some bits (like the title and sub-title; black on dark blue, don't ya know?).
You might wish to consider some re-colouration.
But all that stuff at the side is clever. You aristos understand these things.
Oh, and you are right about the Barnett Formula.
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