Political Economy

It isn’t just David Cameron schmoozing this idea. Now POWER2010 http://www.power2010.org.uk have jumped on the bandwagon whilst engaging in a very worthwhile exercise in deliberative democracy. That deliberative democracy is not the solution to our current woes, that it is not without its problems, one being the narrow basis on which policies are selected – a scientifically chosen sample of 130 individuals (my emphasis) – is clear from my rant below. However do not let this dissuade you from going to their site and voting on what you think are the most important issues for democracy today.

One question I would like to know the answer to is who was allowed to vote on this issue. If it was just the  “scientifically’ chosen English amongst the 130 then that is one matter. However if it was everyone then the vote is invalidated straight away – The English have never been allowed to vote on devolution in Wales, Scotland or N. Ireland!

How Power 2010 could have failed to select an English Parliament as one of their issues I do not know. Over 50% of voters in England regularly support the idea in opinion polls. They do so because an English Parliament gives the people of England  a government of the English, by the English, for the English, just as the Scots, Welsh and N. Irish have for themselves.

Having a glorified Commons Committee, subject to the other nations simply because it is a committee of the House, does not provide a government of the English, by the English for the English. And what will happen after the Commons? Will the bill go through to the Lords to be adjudicated on by the Scots, Welsh, and N. Irish?

Does this proposal require that Cabinet Ministers for devolved matters (Health, Education, Transport, Justice and so on) only come from English constituencies? And will these and only these Cabinet Ministers make decisions in Cabinet about English matters, sitting on the English, yet again, sub-committee?

A clearer example of confused thinking and poorly thought out logic is difficult to find.

Currently three, 75%,  out of the four nations, having 16% of the population, have their own government. In round terms 20% of the people have 80% of the democracy! This is a clear and absolute nonsense and no clearer example of Pareto’s Principle need be given http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto%27s_principle.

When Jack Straw (Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in the Westminster government, that most racist of governments!) claims that the English cannot have a Parliament because they constitute 84% of the population he is not showing his ignorance of Pareto. Misquoting Pareto is a ‘cunning plan’ based on a clear assumption that the electorate are a bunch of ignorant idiots who will not recognise his statement as a misquote, but rather treat it as a clever analysis of the issue, which it is not.

Do not vote for this committee approach. It is disrespectful to the English, it makes the English less equal than the other nations, it is extremely unfair to the English and worst of all it will not work!  Better by far to have a Parliament for the English, an elected House of Lords and a House of Commons with, in total, no more elected representatives than currently are elected or debate matters. No extra cost and much greater democracy!

I suppose Power2010 will come up with the usual excuses for putting forward this idea, along the lines of “It wasn’t us gov.”, or “I was only following the rules” or “The committee we appointed made these decisions” -  (whine, whine, whinge, whinge). Shame on you! This is a disgrace!

David Cameron’s motive for putting the idea forward is clearer. He has already said that he does not want to be “Prime Minster of England”, conveniently forgetting, or perhaps never understanding, that the devolved governments are led by a First Minster and not a Prime Minster – not much respect for the English there, then. The real reason he made the remark is of course about Power. It is correct that most of the work of government occurs in the matters that are devolved; Justice, Health, Education and so on. This means that most of the key levers for getting re-elected or gaining the confidence of the electorate are in devolved matters. Given that 84% of the votes are in the 84% of the devolved English matters you can see how Cameron, Clegg and Brown (and Straw) want to keep these matters within reach of their sticky fingers, close to their greedy hearts and out of Control of the English for ever.

It might be of course that Cameron just wishes to distance himself from Bonar-Law an earlier Conservative Prime Minister, a Scot, born in 1858 in New Brunswick (the Canadian Confederation did not occur until 1867) but raised in Scotland, who referred to himself as the Prime Mister of England [The Making of the English National Identity by K. Kumar, ISBN 0521777364]. Bonar-Law became leader of the Conservative Party  after Aurthur Balfour (also a Scot) and became Prime Minister in 1922 but sadly had to resign in 1923 due to throat cancer. His was the shortest Prime Ministership of the twentieth century and he is known as the Unknown Prime Minister. A name Cameron will not want!

Westminster is in a mess.The Economy is a mess. The war in Afghanistan is a mess. And British politicians in the main parties do what comes naturally. They dump on the English.

So the heavenly duo (they come from up there after all, don’t they) have come up with the bright idea of selling off English Assets. Gordo’s list of quick sales; the Dartford tunnel, the Chanel tunnel, the Tote and so on are all English. When he says that he will be asking local authorities to make sales of their assets he is referring only to English local authorities.

Note that he will not be selling off Scottish assets, even though the two worst offenders in the current Banking crisis are Scottish Banks. That is because Gordo, when he worked on the legislation to form the Scottish Parliament and give the Scots Home Rule, made quite sure that it completely protected the assets of Scottish local authorities so that Westminster could not direct the sale of their assets as he can those of English local authorities.

This means that every school playing field, every public space, every local airport, the pride and joy of the local people as well as a source of employment will be up for sale, quite possibly to foreign European companies flush with back-handers from their governments. And are they going to employ local workers or will they bus in their own people?

However when it comes to preserving their own power and egos it isn’t just plundering English assets that the heavenly duo are so good at. They also deal a good hand in cynicism. On Wednesday  14th October 2009 the government announced a plan to spend £12 million in 130 white working class wards. Where is this money coming from? From the £16 billion of English Assets. In other words the Labour government intends to buy votes in next years general election by returning to the English less than 0.1% of the money it gets from selling their playing fields, leisure centres and employment opportunities.

The Tories are no better. Despite the fact that their web site calls them the English Tories their leader, David Cameron, is on record as saying “I do not want to be the Prime Minister of England”. Well Mr Cameron, the Leader of an English Parliament would be the First Minster, as in the Scottish Parliament. Only someone totally uninterested in England and the English could make that mistake.

The best that can be said about the Liberal Democrats is that they simply ignore England.

Only a few days ago the Sun newspaper transferred its allegiance to the Tories from Labour. Gordo’s response was proudly to  announce that it wasn’t the Sun that would decide who ruled at the next general election, it would be the British People.

Wrong, Gordo! it is the English people, as always, who will decide who rules next.

Will they vote for Gordo, the financial genius who sold off more than half of England’s gold at $275 and ounce or $3.5 billion when at today’s price of  $1063 per ounce it would have been worth $13.5 billion, the financial genius who claimed to have put an end to booms and busts, the financial genius who claimed to have saved the world?

Will they vote for Cameron, surely he must be a Scot, who cares so little for the English that he has stated that he doesn’t even want to lead them?

Will they vote for Nick Clegg, a man indifferent to the aspirations of the English?

Or will they vote for a party that will put England first, that wants England to be a nation once again, a party that cares for England, English jobs and English assets?

Only time will tell!