Parliamentary reform requires a parliament for England. The effrontery of the England of the Regions propaganda compounds the failure of the Union of the United Kingdom within the collapse of democratic representation and its expression in the Westminster Parliament.
Scotland, Wales, and northern Ireland answer to their local electorates on all and any matters of immediate significance to those voters - health, education, housing, infrastructures and, in Scotland's case, some weighting of tax burdens and the facility to initiate legislation.
England is to be governed by an Executive whose leader is unelected in England (and unelected in his own Party), and whose Party has been defeated in Scotland yet uses Westminster MPs from Scotland to maintain control in England.
This Westminster Executive disposes of all the powers of the Crown, which are used without reference to the Westminster Parliament in the case of England, but are ceded to the Scottish Parliament in the case of Scotland and, to a lesser extent, some of which are ceded to the Welsh and northern Irish Assemblies in matters concerning those countries.
The powers of the whips at Westminster are a function of this Executive power (the whips do not derive their control from charm or even force of character), and from the powers of prime ministerial patronage. Any Westminster MP sitting for a Scottish, Welsh or Irish seat can hope for advancement only from the Westminster Executive, so they do precisely what they are told, although what they're ordered to do will apply only to England for anything affecting normal everyday life. They do not represent English voters, nor do they care what they want.
Until this Parliamentary reform is carried out, all other discussion is a waste of time.
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8 comments:
Quite so HG quite so
The ageing, constitutional rubbish that is put out by Labour apologists for Brown and his apparatchiks is particularly disgraceful.
I prefer the in your face 'we've got Brown in at last, we've waited decades for this' lot.
At least they own up that they've finagled the corporatists into position and now there'll be payback for turning off the life support systems (as Croydonian so memorably put it) for all the collapsed industrial sectors of the last century.
Sadly they are being manipulated too, but that's another post.
You keep up a break neck speed HG. I am relieved I no longer try to . I was voted most missed blog though.....
sniff sniff
Hello People - I am in desperate need of votes in the Blogpower wards -where I am being crushed by the forces of reaction. Follow the link on the right hand side of my blog and vote for me in cats 1 and 14!!
I voted for you N, and for you M. lots of times.
Little awkward fact which rather destroys your analysis is that at the last General Election Labour had a 40+ majority over other parties in English seats.
Another awkward fact is that we do not change our Constitution unless it is voted on at a General Election or a referendum - that's what democracies do. I don't remember ever having had the chance to vote for an English Parliament or a Party which supports its introduction. Personally, I would prefer a Northern English Parliament.
Even if there was an English Parliament - there would still need to be a British Parliament to handle matters which transcend all the others - and I would want it to be democratically elected.
Where were you when a Thatcherite majority in Southern England was imposing its evil views on a Labour majority in Scotland, Wales and Northern England - or when a majority of London MPs voted against the removal of city wide goverment for London. It's funny how you arguments only seem to cut one way.
BTW who are the "corporatists" behind Brown - corporatism has to a "corporate body" behind it - even your own supporters are confused on this.
When I think that my grandfather and father actually tried to help and defend people like this within the trade union movement, sought medical support for those injured at work, payments for those families left without a wage-earner in industrial accidents, sought insurance against misfortune with contributions from employers, sought increments in income in times of higher growth, higher profits, and inflation, and support during times of economic recession - these kind of welfare wages and benefits Labour Party fodder, bought and sold by Brown's handouts and motivated by Scargilloid ridiculous rhetoric, make me feel sick.
You're are not even a proper workingman , you live off other people's work and taxes and your pretence to any kind of true Labour status is just another measure of the depths the Labour party has sunk to.
Absolutely pathetic - you know nothing of my personal circumstances or family history - needless to say you are totally wrong!
There are plenty of hard working intelligent people who support the Labour Party who don't depend on state handouts. When people start playing the man rather than the argument it is usually a pretty sure sign that they have lost the argument!
PS the linking between Brown and Scargill is ridiculous in the extreme - read anything about how Laboour recovered after 1983.
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