English Democrats

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

I only learned of this political party a few days ago. So I looked up their website and read much. I guess their basic message is that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own parliaments of sorts and England doesn't but should have one. They go on to point out that English money subsidises these Celts to a higher level seen in any part of England. Well, when I looked elsewhere at some decent economic research, that is true. However, it also true that when you compare income v. expenditure, all of England are net recipients apart from London, the East and the South East. The North East has subsidies which compare well with the Celtic places.

There are many underlying themes in their message. One seems to be to dump Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and for England to go it alone. I find it superficially appealing even though I live in Wales. However, here I suspect that this party is paying to much attention to the braying nationalists in those places and is unaware of the silent majority. I have almost no evidence for this but I do note that when Wales was polled on the prospect of a national assembly, it was a damn close run thing. I doubt if Wales would vote for independence for all the froth spewing out of Plaid Cymru.

Scotland may be another matter but who cares? We've extracted most of the oil and spent the revenue so they can fuck off and dream of Bannockburn. And if the Scots secede then we can dump all those Scottish MP's including Gordon Brown. And , of course, we'd rebuild Hadrian's Wall, but this time we'd man the turrets with machine guns and put up with electric fences. Like to see them leaping over them in their kilts with their willies dangling.

Northern Ireland? I just don't know. You'd think that the Catholics would vote to join the South based on the troubles of the past 40 years. But would they? Ireland is so damn expensive that the their locals who live within a reasonable driving distance of the border, actually shop in the North. The recent decline of the value of the pound against the Euro will only increase that.

Do I want an English Parliament? Hell no, just another layer of bureaucracy housed in new and expensive buildings and strutting around as though they were important. The Scottish and Irish used existing buildings for their outfits but the Welsh had to build a multi million edifice down on the Bay to house theirs and the roof is already leaking. And, course, the English would have to site their parliament somewhere kinda neutral and out of London. Milton Keynes? Well as they say, 'Happiness is Milton Keynes in your rear view mirror.'

And the English Democrats just don't leave matters there. It's not just the Celts that get sniped at, it's other foreign people notably the Moslems. Well, I too am getting tired of the extremism of some and what I see as the efforts of others not to offend them on issues where we need to be offensive - like the beating of kids in evening classes. But these so called Engliah Democrats just focus on the bad and ignore the fact that the majority of Moslems go about their daily business peacefully.

The English Democrats are plausible and their manifesto is by and large reasonable. But you and I know that nationalism such as this always has a hidden side and if/when they get to power, the outcome will be evil. There is a smell about them and it smells of the British National Party, our very own little Nazis.

I shall continue to criticise the British government and all the hypocrisies in this land but I have no wish to change its basic institutions.

English Democrats? Fuck 'em.