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Wednesday 13 May 2015

THE UK TURNED UPSIDE DOWN



THE UK TURNED UPSIDE DOWN


Back in the 17th Century there was a popular song called ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ which it is said that the band of the British Garrison played as they marched out after the surrender at Yorktown to the American rebels to make the point they thought that it was contrary to the natural order of the world for “Yankee Doodle” to have beaten the world conquering Red Coats of the British Army. Here is a link which includes the tune third >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-N0ckzU1mI


Above is a picture of the surrender at Yorktown.

Although no such tune was played in the recent General Election it may be, with hindsight, that the result in Scotland will be seen as a similarly epoch marking change. Yorktown occurred before the United Kingdom came into existence in 1801 with the Union with the Kingdom of Ireland. It did of course however come after the foundation Union of the United Kingdom in 1707 between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland to create the new United Kingdom of Great Britain.

It is the United Kingdom of Great Britain which is again under threat as a result of the almost total victory of the Scottish National Party in Scotland reducing each of the three British Establishment parties to a rump of one MP only. It isn’t now only Conservative MPs that there are less of in Scotland than pandas. The same applies to both the Liberal Democrat MPs and Labour MPs! It is the 56 (out of 59) SNP MPs that will over the next 5 years until the next General Election on the 7th May 2020 that will mark out the increasing need for a nationalist voice for England. There is of course only one political party that is interested in being that voice, which is of course the English Democrats.

That brings me on to the next most interesting result in the General Election which was the nemesis of UKIP. All the academic commentators including Drs Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford had pointed out in their studies that UKIP’s appeal depended to a very large extent upon an English nationalist base.

It always was a contradiction that a party with a British nationalist leadership should actually depend upon an English nationalist support base. UKIP, despite the books and articles published about it, which I think should have been a matter of detailed and careful study by the leadership of UKIP, failed to learn the lesson and during the course of the General Election published a manifesto which managed to barely mention England let alone provide for a proper English nationalist vote winning set of policies. As a result UKIP had left clear space on the political spectrum for the Conservative Party to “triangulate” them.

We therefore then had the spectacle of a specifically English manifesto being launched by the Conservatives. It was therefore a strange backdrop to the great change of heart that seems to have occurred amongst the electorate at the last moment that in fact the party that was ticking most of the boxes of English nationalism (with talk of reducing immigration, an EU referendum, English votes for English laws, and an English manifesto and talking up the need for fairness for England) should in fact be the generally fairly anti-English Conservative and Unionist party whose Leader not so very long ago had been talking about his determination to fight “Little Englanders” wherever he found them!

In contrast the party that had been talked up as being a potential voice for English nationalism, namely UKIP, went from bad to worse not only with his interview by their MEP for Scotland in which he made clear that he thought UKIP were all about maintenance of the British Union (rather than of course about England). Click here >>>
https://youtu.be/QSuT0JjgSjY

Then, a few days later, UKIP actually launched a specifically Scottish manifesto without having done anything of the sort for England. Nigel Farage even talked about increasing the Barnet Formula rip-off of English taxpayers to give the Welsh yet more of English taxpayers’ money!

The UKIPs mis-positioning of itself on the English question, which for some commentators seems wholly inexplicable but seemed quite inevitable to me, given what I have seen of the internal party politics at the leadership level of UKIP, not only left the Conservative Party in a good position to undermine UKIPs appeal, but it also undermined UKIP’s position in trying to get the English white working class vote to come over to them in many former Labour seats. (Click here for an academic article on this >>> http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-shy-english-nationalists-who-won-it-for-the-tories-and-flummoxed-the-pollsters/ ).

So far as Labour was concerned the Conservative appeal to English nationalism and also their scaremongering over the impact of the Scottish National Party, not only insured an even more massively impressive result for the Scottish National Party in Scotland, but also unsettled some of Labour’s support in England.

Whilst the Conservative appeal to English nationalism has delivered a bumper and largely undeserved harvest to the Conservative Party in this election, the long term effect may well be of much greater interest to us English nationalists.

The fact is of course that for the first time one of the major British Establishment parties (since the First World War) has appealed to and called upon English nationalism to help it. In the long term I think that can only do the English nationalist cause good as English nationalism has now become much more of a mainstream phenomenon.

Interestingly I am aware that even the Conservative Party had great difficulty in placing stories that were pro-English nationalism in the “mainstream media”. Also their very appeal to it raised a storm of protest by all sorts of media luvvies. One of the results is that the media has come out of cover and exposed itself as being infested with Anglophobes (anti-English).

The Anglophobic British media is a factor in national politics in England which we English nationalists need to deal with. In my view we need to be looking at an assertive policy of attempting to get anyone who comes out with Anglophobic views not only prosecuted, but, if at all possible, excluded from journalism by Ofcom. Until we make Anglophobia as dangerous to the careers of journalists as racism, Islamophobia and homophobia are currently seen to be, we cannot hope to make an effective breakthrough without being unfairly blocked or attacked by the Anglophobia British mainstream media.

The other feature of course of the General Election was the probable end of the Liberal Democrats. Given that the only purpose to many of its voters of the Liberal Democrats Party was simply that it was a vote for none of the above and, as it turned out, that only a few of their votes were actually for Liberal Democrats’ policies it is difficult to see them making a recovery or indeed of there being any point in there being any such recovery.

In short, I think this General Election will turn out to be a sea change that nationalists will look back on with some affection as we move more towards nationalism as the driving force in our politics!

21 comments:

  1. A reply to an earlier blog entry stated that the English Democrats need a change of leader. I don't agree with that, but I do think that we need a change of leadership emphasis.
    When a person decides how to vote, he is likely to ask himself, "What can this lot do for ME?" So reference to "traitors" and "hanging etc" won't answer that question. I believe that we place too much emphasis on the "sugary" elements of English nationalism, such as "Jerusalem", flying the Flag of St George, and a St George's Day bank holiday, (all of which are inportant, but need to be addressed AFTER we achieve any influence.)
    To acquire that influence, I suggest that we stop presenting ourselves as a bunch of quaint eccentrics and place our emphasis on determining precisely how much English taxpayers' money is sent to Scotland and Wales, (I've seen figures as large as £49 billion but we need to find the correct figure,) promising to recoup that (by scrapping the Barnett Formula) and to use it to give the English, this, this, this, this and that.
    There's then a chance that some notice might be taken of us, that we will start polling four and five figures, instead of the current two and three and that we might start achieving some of our objectives.
    Clive
    Weston-super-Mare
    (I polled 311 votes. I need only another 25000 and I can win the seat, next time.)

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    1. Clive, You are right that the party's direction has to change, but the party has to be more than the anti-Scottish party (Not everyone hates the Scots or the Welsh, at least not sufficiently to change how they vote). It has to address the bread and butter issues that affect their lives and the lives of their families. Culturally and ethnically, the provincial English are closer to the Scots than they are to the new Londoners. The subsidies to Scotland and Wales are as nothing compared to how much is spent on things like Cross Rail and now HS2 which only serve London's interests.

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    2. The SNP wants to scrap the Barnett formula too, and raise their own taxes in Scotland, but Westminster is resisting that. If the EDs were to drop the anti-Scottish rhetoric they could work with the SNP towards the aim of separation which both parties want.

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    3. Add the £13 billion foreign aid budget to the £49 billion from Barnett and an English Government would have around £60 billion to spend - in England.
      Steve,
      Ilminster

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    4. Clive,
      Consider this scenario - because of a huge surge of personal recognition in Weston-Super-Mare, your popularity and your vote rises to 25,000 next time around. The second candidate gets a thousand or two fewer votes than you. But we now have proportional representation (PR) you still might not get elected because so many EDs do not have as much recognition as you do and get 0% of the vote. PR was devised to stop small parties like the English Democrats getting a toe hold.

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    5. I'm not anti-Scottish or anti-Scotland. (That's a Politically Correct misinterpretation.) I'm anti-English funding of Scottish freebies. I like Scottish people and I like Welsh people.
      As for PR, its introduction may well give smaller parties like ours a "toe-hold" because our sympathisers and supporters would feel more inclined to vote for us, with each vote for a party counting towards its chance of success: something which is patently not the case under first-past-the-post.
      And yes, I have considered that working with the SNP to secure the dissolution of the UK and consequent emancipation of England could be the way forward. I want England and Scotland to be independent neighbours, friends and allies.
      Clive,
      W-s-M.

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    6. You will never get anywhere then. The English EMPHATICALLY don't want the United Kingdom to break-up. There is no polling evidence to suggest that is the case and certainly no evidence in how people vote. You should concentrate on being an English DEVOLUTIONIST party and pointing-out UKIP's glairing faults ie their complete lack of any intellectual credibility or coherence with regard to their farcical immigration policies and their idiotic economic policies which are even worse than the Tory Party's and that is saying something. Manic globalism only appeals to the very well-off which is why UKIP totally failed to win any Labour-held seats.

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    7. Barry, Devolution to what? If to an English parliament, the Scots and the Welsh would leave immediately. If to the regions, that would be the end of England as a country; just what Brussels wants - a step nearer to the 'Europe of the Regions' of the ever-closer-union philosophy.
      English independence is the only logical (and honest) policy.

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    8. Barry, You are right that Ukip lacks intellectual credibility and coherence. Also, Ukip's strategy is in tatters.
      On the other hand, the English Democrats don't appear to have yet managed to formulate a winning strategy. When it comes to building the party, they seem to be unable to learn from experience and to have gone up a cul-de-sac, standing isolated candidates all over the place where the only outcome is bound to be lost deposits, see Clive's story above.

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    9. Barry, Red Ukip failed to win any Labour held seats, and because of Red Ukip, Blue Ukip failed to win any Tory held seats and lost one seat to the Tories.
      Ukip has lost its way and alienated most of its support, much of which returned to the Tory fold - a direct result of the Red Ukip strategy.

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  2. The word's of 'The World Turned Upside Down'. (Perhaps the bandmaster was having a bit of a joke at the expense of his cavalier commander the lord, Lieutenant General Cornwallis).

    "You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
    You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
    The waste land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
    Your digging do distain and your persons all defame
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    Your houses they pull down, stand up now, stand up now,
    Your houses they pull down, stand up now.
    Your houses they pull down to fright poor men in town,
    But the gentry must come down and the poor shall wear the crown.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now, stand up now,
    With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now.
    Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold
    To kill you if they could and rights from you withhold.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    Their self-will is their law, stand up now, stand up now,
    Their self-will is their law, stand up now.
    Since tyranny came in they count it now no sin
    To make a gaol a gin and to serve poor men therein.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    The gentry are all round, stand up now, stand up now,
    The gentry are all round, stand up now.
    The gentry are all round, on each side they are found,
    Their wisdom's so profound to cheat us of the ground.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now, stand up now,
    The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now,
    To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise,
    But the devil in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
    The clergy they come in, stand up now.
    The clergy they come in and say it is a sin
    That we should now begin our freedom for to win.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst priests, stand up now, stand up now,
    'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests, stand up now.
    For tyrants are they both even flat against their oath,
    To grant us they are loath free meat and drink and cloth.
    Stand up now, Diggers all.

    The club is all their law, stand up now, stand up now,
    The club is all their law, stand up now.
    The club is all their law to keep poor folk in awe,
    But they no vision saw to maintain such a law.
    Glory now, Diggers all.

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  3. Clive,
    You did rather well, your vote was actually large enough to register. Some of your ED comrades did not get enough votes to register and were recorded as 0%. That was the fate of the nearest EDs to you - Bath 63 votes, Monmouth 100 votes, (and the other token candidate in the border town of Berwick - 88 votes). The EDs are never (never is a long time) going to win against the Tories. The South is blue. The EDs must concentrate on the industrial North.
    The Tories tolerated the Lib Dems (perceived by voters as "nice Tories" and safe to vote for, but when the chips were down and the country seemed to be heading towards another hung parliament, the Tories were ruthless. In the industrial north, the Tories are likely to tolerate the EDs for taking votes off Labour, as they were grateful to Ukip this time round.
    Also, the EDs should be preferable to Ukip, for the Tories, because it will be generations before the EDs pose a threat to them in the blue South, whereas Ukip is a real and present threat in the South's Tory held seats.

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    1. Interesting analysis, but it is less a North vs South argument as rural vs urban; the Tories won Berwick-upon-Tweed, as they did across much of the rural North.

      The EngDems should concentrate on small/medium sized towns across the Midlands, NE, NW and Yorkshire, and foster a new England-outside-of-London political movement with the English Democrats at the centre.

      A good start would be campaigning to have England's parliament moved away from London and the South entirely, preferably to Manchester, Nottingham or York.

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    2. SJ NM, Right on!

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  4. Jack Straw's son Will the Labour Party candidate for Rossendale and Darwen in East Lancashire says that the question of English identity is rising up the political agenda. Well done the EDs in Bury for putting Englishness on the agenda.

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  5. Ukip won shares of 25% or more in places such as Grimsby, Hartlepool, Boston and Skegness.
    It should have been the English Democrats doing that, not Ukip.

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  6. "Warwickshire North was number one on Labour’s must-win list. The Tories had taken the seat in 2010 with a wafer-thin 54 majority. If it was to stand any hope of forming a government, Labour had to more than reverse that margin. As it was, the Tories held it with an improved majority of almost 3,000.

    In what was once Labour’s heartland, an area of the country littered with closed-down pits and villages founded on the mining industry, Ukip managed to gain 8,256 votes. It was a similar story in neighbouring Nuneaton, another vital marginal, where again the sitting Tory handsomely extended his narrow lead, and Ukip took 6,582 critical votes.

    Nigel Farage had spoken of a “purple rash spreading across the body politic”, and in this corner of the Midlands that rash appeared to eat away at the core of Labour's support.

    The Ukip candidate in Warwickshire North, was in no doubt: “The reason the Tories have won the key battleground of the Midlands is that Ukip came to their rescue. We rode into the flanks of the white working class and captured them. I had Tory workers coming up and hugging me.”

    Ukip has nothing to offer these people in North Warwickshire and Nuneaton. It should be English Democrat territory.

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  7. Away from the EDs heartland in the Yorkshire industrial belt, the EDS should be targeting Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

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  8. "Friendly right-wing journalists, felt particularly betrayed when Ukip conveniently fell in love with big government just as Ukip shifted its gaze northwards. And it didn’t help that Matthew Goodwin and Rob Ford (the Ant and Dec of Ukip academics) implied that the new strategy was a stroke of genius.

    The real problem with the Blue/Red Ukip project, however, is best summed up by a YouGov map, which shows that the notion you can build a coalition from this North/South demography is just plain nuts. No serious thinking went into it. And indeed the coalition never got off the ground. Saloon bar and public bar didn’t mingle; instead, Nigel Farage was forced to nip between the two, accepting pints off both, sending out cheerful but confused signals."

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  9. "About two years ago lots of right-wing libertarian Conservatives had persuaded themselves that Nigel Farage’s mission was to construct a REAL Tory party to challenge Dave the Appeaser. He did nothing to discourage them.

    But then along came ‘Red Ukip’ and the switch from Europe to immigration as a focus of protest. Farage had worked out, correctly, that the English working class – while keen to pay as little tax as possible – has little interest in reducing the footprint of the state. And in the northern seats where Ukip desperately wanted to establish a foothold, voters are in favour of government spending so long as it doesn’t go to immigrants or welfare scroungers.

    Creating Red Ukip seemed to make short-term electoral sense, therefore, but the switch was so sudden that it looked unpleasantly opportunistic."

    It is that "Red" Ukip vote that the EDs need to capture.

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  10. Every time a media pundit declares that Ukip is an English nationalist party (as on tonight's 'Westminster Hour'), someone from the English Democrats should make clear that it bloody well is not.

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