I would like to have a chat with you away from the comments board for some insights, if that is OK.

If you email Rumbold and ask him to forward my email to you, I’ll contact Rumbold myself to give my permission for him to do so.

This is backed up by an Ipsos MORI poll, published by the Ministry of Justice who found that “BME”s (Black and Minority Ethnic) strongly feel themselves to be English above being British. See here for the PDF http://governance.justice.gov.uk/british/

It makes perfect sense for BMEs to identify more strongly with an English identity, with its values (real or imagined) of tolerance and fair play. Why would they identify more with an identity that reflects the BNP, Empire and sectarian violence of Northern Ireland and Scottish football?

The converse is an oft repeated lie that is put about by those who fear any kind of collective identity or kinship within England. It seems that Thatcher’s “there’s no such thing as society” has been swallowed hook line and sinker by some on the left.

Thank you, you are a gentleman.

Good luck with the campaigning and the leaflet delivery, the election may throw up some unexpected surprises!

Asians in Scotland consider themselves Scots, but Asians in England do not? I beg to differ – I have Asian friends who are English, and considering the way the UK establishment tries to negate and even demonise Englishness, I see that as something rather wonderful. The Scots put “Scottishness” and Scotland to the fore, and have their own national government.

All in all, I detect something odd at work here in certain comments. It is all very well to vilify the English, but the commentors are, I suppose, perfectly nice, non-bigoted, “right on” people?

In that case, I accept that you have an honourable and entirely legitimate point of view. (I should have known that there was something suspect about the NE referendum, but I didn’t.)

There is nothing that you are saying that I feel contradicts my own political philosophy, although we obviously disagree on detail.

It is, however still up to me to deliver some more leaflets!

No, my group is not aimed primarily at English sports fans. I also pointed out my interest in the mix of local traditions, cultures and communities in England. The sports teams were an illustrative point.

Thanks for the link to the English Progressives, though. However, their objective seems to be focused on independence; mine is the resolution of the English Question in both a political sense and a cultural sense. But perhaps there may be some common ground. May be worth an email…

Douglas, one of the reasons the 2004 North-East referendum went so badly is that the proposed Regional Assembly’s area and powers were dictated from the centre, without consultation with the grassroots. The passing-up of powers from already-emasculated County Councils to the Regional Assembly was another reason for failure. If Labour had consulted the grassroots as to how the region is constituted and what powers would be devolved downwards from Westminster, there might have been an assembly there now.

I am also aware of the SNP’s abstention policy with regard to English matters. My point 4 about the Barnett Formula is that EVoEL won’t work without its reform because while it stands as it is, English matters may have a knock-on effect for Scotland, Wales and NI because there may be an effect on funding. But I personally have no problems wiht your suggestion. As I stated earlier, my own preference would be a federal system, where each of the constituent nations have their own Parliament with the same responsibilities, “devolution max”, including natural resources, and the federal parliament dealing with foreign affairs defence, etc. If Scotland votes for independence, I will support that too. Self-determination, IMHO, is a fundamental right.

Watch out for these folk from Kent. You never know what they could get up to if they get riled!

http://tinyurl.com/s573z

By the way, compared to jellied eels, deep fried Mars Bars are a delicacy! When all this comes to pass I’ll make sure any food parcels I send you include one!

This just gets better and better. Just after (I think) it was free care for the elderly or some other progressive idea from Hollyrood, the good folk of Berwick upon Tweed thought they’d prefer to be run from Hollyrood rather than London. If you keep seeing the North of England as a place of which you know little then either they will come a-knocking at our door and beg to be taken in or they will want to, at the very least, secede too. Cornwall also has it’s own nationalists. London may well achieve it’s -not so- secret ambition of being a modern city state, but perhaps not quite on the terms it wants…nor the way it expected.

Heh. I have a feeling that Cumbria would become the site of just about every project nobody else wants to live near to (including a Sangatte-style refugee camp which helpfully hands out booklets about speaking Scotch and deep frying to encourage them to slip across the border).

An independent Scotland could no longer discrimate against English students at Scottish universities either, as it would be illegal under EU law.

Just watch out for the French. In the 16th century the Guise saw Scotland as an extension of their property.

I had intended to add an addendum to my last post to the effect that you lot would probably chose either Cumbria or Northumbria as your new nuclear site, just out of spite.

It is SNP policy to remain within the EU, so I suppose it would be a sort of Auld Alliance, especially if the looney tunes anti – EU voices got a grip on the, by then, English Parliament. We’d probably join the Euro pretty quickly too, no matter what Alex Salmond says to the contrary.

Indeed I’d imagine the French would fast track our admission, should England be seen as the successor state, which is a pretty big assumption. Indeed, they might do it on purely strategic grounds! As far as I know, they don’t call us ‘Rosbifs’, and when they come here en masse the worst they do is chat up our womenfolk.

Quite nice, civilised folk, the French. And fellow Europeans….

Hmm.

This has absolutely nothing to do with a certain rugby score yesterday, has it?

No doubt if England is wiped out by nuclear weapons the nuclear cloud will stop at Gretna Green and go no further.

If we don’t have Trident how will we restrain the French- or is Scotland planning to reintroduce the Auld Alliance?

Would an independent Scotland be allowed back into the EU, especially as the French now need to vote on all new countries applying to join?

There does seem to be a pretty fundamental difference of opinion on this point. As Alex Salmond pointed out:

“The Scottish Parliament has voted against the ‘Son Of Trident’, a majority of Scottish MPs reject it and it is going to be a central issue in the general election campaign.

“At a time when Westminster is imposing cuts in public services to deal with Labour’s recession – with much deeper cuts planned in the future – and the Scottish Government’s budget is falling in real terms for the first time since devolution, to waste £100billion on weapons of mass destruction is indefensible and obscene.

“Any way you look at it – on moral, financial, or defence grounds – renewal of Trident is completely untenable and I believe that position can prevail in the general election.

Hmm… I think you should site your Trident base on the Thames, round and about where London Bridge is. See how much you like it then.

It is our part of the country that has paid for your ludicrous foreign policy and ‘world stage’ ambitions which most Scots do not agree with, whatever their political party.

I agree that Westminister wastes the money. As will a Scottish government. All governments do.

Personally I am quite happy to remain a United Kingsom, providing the political disparity is sorted out. I don’t really mind funding less developed areas like Scotland.

http://www.snp-bannockburn.org/scotlands-oil.html

Who, exactly are the parcel of rogues these days?

What the hell did Westminster do with the oil revenues anyway? Decent husbandry and a move to alternative energy sources like wind, wave and tidal would have done at least three things:

It would have created a new manufacturing sector,

It would have created alternative jobs.

It would have made us all far less dependent on Middle East Oil or Russian Gas.

Scotland does have a decent energy policy which ought to outlast the final drop of North Sea Oil… Unlike the rest of the UK.

Frankly, the sooner we spit up the better. Then, and only then, will we only have ourselves to blame…

I would be perfectly happy to let Scotland have the rapidly-dwindling North Sea Oil reserves if the Barnett formula was scrapped. However, the moneybothers me less than the unfairness when it comes to voting.

Dave Dyke:

I would love to reform the EU. I just don’t know if it is possible.

Interesting post.

Full disclosure, I am Scottish and I am a member of the SNP. So, perhaps surprisingly, are a lot of Scottish Asians and even some people that live here that would probably write ‘English’ on a census form.

That said, I think you are on the right side of the debate, so you’ll maybe excuse me for making a few points that, I think, ought to be considered.

If I recall correctly the opportunity for internal devolution within England was offered at around and about the same time as Scottish devolution. Wikipedia seems to back up my memory:

Within England, regional devolution has only extended to London where the Greater London Authority has greater powers than other local authority bodies. Proposals for other Regional Assemblies in England have been indefinitely postponed following the rejection in a 2004 referendum of proposals for the North East.

That it not to say that things haven’t changed, they may well have. (I had forgotten about London, which seems to see itself as a bit ‘special’ anyway )

Secondly, the SNP do not vote on matters that exclusively apply to England. Though there is sometimes a debate about how that applies in practical terms. Your arguement is therefor with mainly Labour (and to a far lesser extent, the Liberals) who would both be unable to bring their Scottish MP’s to bear on purely English legislation. It has always struck me that if devolution were to be made to work then what the SNP do voluntarily ought to apply to all Scottish MPs. But that is certainly a Scottish, or English or even perhaps Welsh viewpoint. It is certainly not a British one. (I’ll leave NI out of this because I know very little about it.)

You say, at 4, that you wish to reform or eliminate the Barnett formula. Well, I’d be willing to negotiate!

Perhaps for starters we could abandon the idea that the present arrangements for dealing with Scotlands’ natural resources should be a retained matter? We want control over that, completely and utterly. Are you happy with that as a quid pro quo? And no dicking about with jurisdictions either, thanks very much!

Here is another, perhaps for now more minor but equally annoying, aspect of the imperialism that we still see.

http://joanmcalpine.typepad.com/joan_mcalpine/

Frankly, I think we’d be better off as three separate nations, but I would say that, wouldn’t I.