England - not even a whisper
There's some talk in the election campaign about:
# health
# education and training
# local government
# social work
# housing
# planning
# tourism, economic development and financial assistance to industry
# some aspects of transport, including the Scottish road network, bus policy and ports and harbours
# law and home affairs, including most aspects of criminal and civil law, the prosecution system and the courts
# the Police and Fire services
# the environment
# natural and built heritage
# agriculture, forestry and fishing
# sport and the arts
# statistics, public registers and records
Ref see here
But in reality the Westminster election is only about English health, English education and training etc etc - with the proviso that the overall funding of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations is related to that of the English system decided by the UK parliament.
And yet not a word about England is heard.
The Conservatives are the only main party to have any attempt to out the imbalance right with their measures on English votes for English laws. In my opinion it doesn't go anywhere near enough.
Lets see if any of that smarmy Lib Dem self righteousness can extend to the real democratic deficit in this country - the English Question ?
No - thought not.
4 comments:
Why is it that they daren't speak of England during the run up to the election?
But I'll answer that myself - it's an election for the whole of UK, and all parties are campaigning in all parts of Britain.
Do they, any of them, specifically mention Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland?
@MrsR - yes they do. Both Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will have separate leaders debates, party election broadcasts and I think manifestos.
Read some of Gordon Brown's own election leaflets in Fife ( see The Straight Choice Web site and search for the postcode KY1 ).
Also the fact that general election policies often only apply to England is almost never mentioned.
Today Dan Hannan has a piece on ConservativeHome in which he says England does not need a parliament, just more localism. Wrong. The United Kingdom is made up of 4 nations. Three of them have Parliaments/Assemblies, one doesn't. How can that be fair?
@Sepoy Agent : I agree. Dan is taking the same line than the Lib Dems and Labour take - break England up - the United Kingdom of the nations (Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) and regions ( All English ).
There is something important about a nation. I think English politics ( both right and left wing or even Fib Dem ) would be quite different from UK politics. This is what both Scotland and Wales have found.
The problem now is that every time Scotland or Welsh politicians need to be bought off, its the English who pay but are also denied the right to govern ourselves.
I will no doubt return to this issue after the general election.
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