In the last few days we have seen an interesting disclosure about Tony Blair’s government’s approach to looking after the constitutional interests of England. This issue is usually referred to, within the media and Establishment as the “West Lothian Question”.
Although the issue was first raised by Tam Dalyell, the then MP for West Lothian, by calling it the West Lothian Question the media and Government disguised the fact that this question isn’t at all about West Lothian, but is entirely about England and England’s place within the constitutional framework.
Many questions have been asked in the past about why it was that England was left out of Labour’s devolutionary scheme, when Labour was considering devolution for Scotland and Wales. When he was a Minister, Jack Straw used the National Interest/Security exemption to refuse to release the Cabinet papers on this decision and thus to avoid the ruling of the Information Commissioner ordering their production.
All Jack Straw’s efforts have now come to nothing with the answers given by Kim Howells to this Coalition Government’s West Lothian Question Commission under the Chairmanship of Sir William McKay, which I gave evidence to earlier this year (here is a link to that evidence >>> http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/my-evidence-to-mckaywlq-commission.html ). Kim Howells in the BBC website article below frankly confesses that, knowing that the English question was difficult to answer except by creating an English Parliament, the Labour Cabinet deliberately set about trying to avoid dealing with the question at all.
Now that the cat is out of the bag on this particular issue, it is interesting to see that one of the chief architects of Scottish Devolution, the capo di capi of Labour’s Scottish Mafia, Gordon Brown, will come out at this week’s Edinburgh Literary Festival, with a speech no longer using his old expression of “The Nations and Regions of Britain” (where the regions were England), but now he is talking about “Scotland and the UK” separate entities!
So I wonder if we will find that, after all the huge financial transfers from England to Scotland organised by Gordon Brown; and the transfers of whole Government offices to Scotland, such as the UK’s tax collectors; and the use of untold billions of the Defence budget spent in Scotland, not only in doing the vast investment in the infrastructure of Faslane but also the current building of two aircraft carriers in Scotland instead of on Tyneside; after all this, are we now to find that Gordon Brown was a Scottish Nationalist after all?
Here is the BBC article on Kim Howells’ disclosure:-
24 July 2012
McKay Commission: Labour 'avoided devolution questions'
Labour made a "conscious decision" to stay away from the West Lothian question, Kim Howells says
The previous Labour government decided to avoid dealing with the "very difficult" questions created by devolution, says a former minister.
Kim Howells said Labour opted to "stay well away" from the implications for MPs' voting rights.
The former Pontypridd MP gave evidence to the McKay Commission meeting in Cardiff into the West Lothian question.
The question asks whether Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish MPs should have a vote on English-only matters.
'Small anomaly' It was first posed in the 1970s by Labour MP Tam Dalyell, whose constituency at the time was West Lothian. Dr Howells, whose ministerial posts included time in the Foreign Office and education, was on the cabinet committee that drew up the post-devolution settlement after the Labour landslide at the 1997 general election.
He told the commission that the then Labour government made a "conscious decision" to "stay well away from" the question.
He said: "We never discussed it. We had all heard of the West Lothian question.
"We all knew Tam Dalyell and knew the questions Tam was asking were very difficult questions."
Since the creation of the Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies, and the Scottish Parliament, Dr Howells said he could not see an alternative to the creation of an English parliament - although he added: "I'm not in favour of one by the way."
Creating a grand committee of English MPs would be "just another way of avoiding the West Lothian question" and would "generate a demand for an English parliament", he said.
Former First Minister Rhodri Morgan told the commission: "On a scale of anomalies I would call it a pretty small one."
Mr Morgan posed an alternative "West Glamorgan question", citing the example of English Conservative MPs who rebelled against local government re-organisation in their own constituencies, but voted for it in Wales.
Most bills which pass through parliament affected public spending, he said, making it difficult to ring-fence English-only votes.
Asked if that meant all MPs should be allowed to vote on bills with resource implications, he said: "I can't see how they can be excluded."
This is the same Gordon Brown who accused Gilian Duffy of being a bigot for complaining about too much immigration, who was in the government that let in another 3m from the third world to rub, not the Conservatives but the English people's noses in further diversity. The problem is the English working classes are conservative as well which is why Marxist Labour had to import third world votes. This is the same Gordon Brown who called Cumbria sickeningly white. I don't think Gordon Brown ever thought the third world hordes would ever cross the border and that he could destroy England, get their votes for the Labour Party and then Scotland would be independent leaving England as a multicultural hell-hole. Unfortunately, one million English have fled to Scotland to get away from cultural enrichment which is upsetting the Scots a bit. When I told a Scot that England would eventually be an Afro-Asian country he looked disbelieving but I don't think he had travelled too far south. Now, however, I gather the Pakistanis and other muslims are flooding into Glasgow and even Aberdeen so it has backfired on you Gordon and your Scottish pal Tony Bliar. But Alex wants more immigration and already the Scots are getting peed off. I am going to erect a big sign next to the big blue and white sign with its saltire stating Welcome to Scotland/Failte gu Alba which says, "especially anybody from the third world and if you are muslim all the better!!"
ReplyDeleteThe UK government is making sure that Scotland gets its fair share of 'cultural enrichment',
Deletejust like France,Germany,Sweden,Norway,Ireland,Holland, etc, etc.
There is an international conspiracy by an unholy alliance of Marxists (the Frankfurt School) and Global Capitalism to destroy nations. The EU, the UK government under Cameron, Clegg (earlier, Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown) and European governments are part of that conspiracy to turn the whole world into 'consumers' and 'shoppers' so as to line the pockets of the world's international freebooting robber baron oligarchs.
DeleteAs for the Marxists, they are counting on Capitalism to destoy nations and create a global proletariat
You forget that it started before Mrs T. In most countries in Europe, like Sweden, the decision to multiculturalise was taken in 1968, the year of revolutions. I am not sure when it began here. Coloured immigration began in 1948 and Enoch Powell was instrumental in respect of the health service. But I do not believe that he was ever part of the conspiracy and in 1968 realised his mistake and the ultimate consequences. Perhaps by then he had been made privvy to the conspiracy but did not mention it as he would have been painted as even more of a looney by the establishment. The great enemy of the English people was Edward Heath. It is hard to know if he was being paid as he certainly ended up with a lot of cash. He was behind our entry into the EU and letting in all the Asians in the 1970s. He was definitely a liberal. You are right the aim has been to destroy all established communities and create newer smaller ones. A nation is just a homogeneous community writ large. Now we have the black community, the Asian community and of course the damning description of the ethnic English, the white community. My father-in-law who left school at 14 but was bright rumbled this break up of the communities lark. He also said, I don't understand it we are going to end up black. High IQ ethnic Europeans, especially those of the protestant north are a threat to their creation of a world of consuming individuals and must be bred out. How they think they will benefit from a third world Europe is a bit of mystery to me. They think they are brighter than we are but I think they must be pretty dumb.
DeleteThanks for an explanation as to why the Marxists are allowing the globalisation of the plutocratic few to have free rein. It is something that has always confused me. Obviously the Marxists could not have done it without help, the peoples of Europe would not have allowed it, although isn't the EU the Marxist wing of it all, after all Barroso and Merkel are both ex - or not - commies.
DeleteLabour MP Donald Dewar, Scotland's first First Minister described himself as "a Scottish nationalist with a small 'n'". How many English MPs would describe themselves as "an English nationalist with a small 'n'"?
ReplyDeleteScottish nationalism was considered eccentric, now it is 'banal'. English nationalism (unlike UKIP) was never eccentric, but it is not yet 'banal', i.e., commonplace, like Tory, Labour and Lib Dems (altho the Liberals were always eccentric).
Nationalism in Scotland is anti English blindness. The Scots have been hoodwinked into another kind of dependency far worse than the benevolent English variety.
ReplyDeleteThe tiny ethnic nation of the Scots will be decimated by the immigration that will destroy a proud and distinct and uniquely valuable Scottish people and their culture.
I still can't believe the canny Scots haven't seen through Salmond - yet.
I hear that the muslims are thinking of having their own tartan. Well done for embracing Scottish culture!!?? I suppose there will have to be green in there for Pakistan and red for the rivers of blood that are to flow.
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