I only did one blog posting about the election. And now, two days later, the election should all be in the past and the winning party should be getting on with governing the country. But it hasn't worked out like that, has it?
England voted for a fresh start. 82% of the nation, in 532 constituencies, via the ballot box sent the collective message "Bye bye Gordon". A government of England would have 297 Conservative MPs, 191 Labour MPs, 43 LibDem MPs and 1 Green. Enough to carry forward the Conservative manifesto and dig the country out the enormous hole it finds itself in (well, actually the enormous hole that Gordon Brown put us in). The bottom half of England - taking a line from the Severn to the Wash - voted even more overwhelmingly for the Conservatives (C 191, L 48, LD 30 I 1). So why can't we have what we want? Its simple, it can be summed up in one word. SCOTLAND.
Scotland, a nation which has its own parliament which has many devolved powers.
Scotland, a nation which has benefited from high levels of public spending due to the generosity of the English taxpayer.
Scotland, a nation whose banks were bailed out by English taxpayers.
So now we have Scottish socialist MPs (Labour and SNP) swarming down over the border, heading south to London to prevent the democratic will of the English, despite the Scots having their own parliament. Scottish MPs voting on many matters that affect the English only since so many policy areas have been devolved to the Scottish parliament. Scottish MPs voting on matters that don't affect their own constituents!
Wake up good people of England! This is a constitutional crisis.
We need to regain control of our democracy. If the Scottish people want a system of big government, central control, high taxation and high public spending then they should be allowed their choice as an independent nation. It might resemble Albania, Cuba or North Korea but it would be their choice. And the English likewise should be free to live under a system they have chosen. Where we find ourselves (both English and Scots) after this election is INTOLERABLE. So e-mail your local MP [I already have, but then he and I are on first name terms :-)] and tell him/her to put pressure on his/her party leader to break the Union and let both proud nations go their own way with the governments of their choice. David Cameron, in particular, needs to ditch his out of date attachment to the Union.
Here's a link to a great article about this in the Sunday Times.
Another interesting article in The Independent that concludes with the sentence "Although not many English yet realise it, their independence movement started last Thursday."
[And just to let you know how things went locally. The candidate I was helping got more than 50% of the votes cast in our constituency. I was invited to the count which declared at 2.40am. I stayed awake until 5am watching the other results on the TV. The neighbouring constituency, the town of Ipswich, turned blue and turfed out a Labour minister. In fact now, every square inch of Suffolk is Conservative!]
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9 comments:
Congratulations to your chap.
(And, please note, I'm not even mentioning where I live.)
Suzanne - thanks! As someone who has moved about the country, you really should come and take a look at Suffolk. Cheap housing, great climate, beautiful countryside, quiet roads and very friendly people. Like going back in time. And better to get in now before swarms of refugees from an independent Scotland, seeking work and a better life, move down here.
Despite Scottish roots on my mother's side, I have been of the opinion for many years that Scotland should be a completely separate country but, of course, the English were the only nation of the UK denied a vote on devolution, so no democracy for the English. Just what was a Labour Government afraid of and, remind me, have they ever answered "the West Lothian question"?
bantambabe - I never realised you were a MacBantam. Labour were obviously afraid of losing their block Scottish vote in Westminster and have always ducked the West Lothian question.
Our Conservative MP in Lincolnshire had a similar overwhelming majority: he has lived in the consituency for many years and does a very good job looking after us.
I am married to a Scot and he agrees it seems nonsensical for the Scottish vote to have had such a huge impact on the situation we are now facing.
Trish - the Left would probably caricature your MP as baby eating devil but that reflects more on them than him.
I've met many pleasant sensible Scots and I'm sure your husband fits that catagory. Living in England and marrying an English girl certainly supports that view! The Thatcher years certainly didn't help the national situation (as opposed to the nationalist situation).
So what d'you think about that then! Handshakes outside Downing Street of two party leaders seems quite unheard of but there you have it. Being a Tory myself but living in a Lib Dem constituency I'm kind of happy that this has happened. Maybe we'll get something done in the area. Then again...
CJ xx
CJ - even a few days later it is still hard to believe. I think we needed a coalition given the state of the nation's finances. Some difficult times ahead but at least now we've got a bright and energetic new government in place to sort things out.
I'm afraid there's not going to be a lot of spare money around to get anything done for awhile.
Like the pictures of Shotley and surrounds, know it well, "Ganges" is where I started a long Naval career, 58 - 85. The bridge wasn't there then and Felixstowe was much more of a backwater as was Harwich and Ipswich, all very different now. Pin Mill was/is a beautiful
"port". My son went to RHS Holbrook.
I have settled in another place steeped in Naval history, namely, Portsmouth.
Until there is a change in the voting system England will continue to be airbrushed out of existence which, I think, will be accomplished within 2 - 3 generations. England will become a patchwork group of irrelevant European "regions" competing for more and more of a financial pot that will be getting smaller and smaller.
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