Comments on: The West Oxfordshire* Question

by: Neil Harding

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 03:41:22 +0000

Regions are the way to go. It is not fair to compare England, Scotland and Wales etc. as equal regions of Britain just because they are countries. They are not equal regions because of the population discrepancies. An English Parliament would effectively end the Union.

As unity points out, both the constitutional anomalies and South East dominance of an English parliament is no better than South East dominance of Scotland used to be in a UK parliament.

Scotland suffered 18 years of Tory rule despite never voting for it. The same could happen to the North of England. Also don’t forget that an English Parliament is overriding the wishes of Londoners who have already voted for regional rule.

Saying that, we do need change and more regional government is the answer. The regions of England would be similar in size to Scotland and less government from London would be a good thing for those outside of London.

And before you say the North East rejected regional government. It was quite clear, that what they rejected was weak regional government. Give proper devolution of powers and the people will grasp it.

by: shaun walker

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:43:32 +0000

their is no need for regional assemblies,and the people who promote them are not unlike the fifth column during the war.do the people of cornwall,liverpool,bristol etc,think that if they are all granted reional automny,the taxes raised would be shared as is required,not a hope.the rich south east,would say south east taxes for the south east,no sharing,good bye england.but as an english nation all helping each other we would soon turn this beloved country of ours around.and to answer a point i would rather have an honest english idiot as P.M.,than a lying two faced self serving brilliant scot,any day.

by: Prodicus

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 11:39:13 +0000

Good blog but could you make your sentences a little bit shorter? I get exhausted easily. Are you a decendant of Bernard Levin, by any chance?

by: MatGB

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 21:10:44 +0000

Dave, perhaps, I guess, but you could say the same for Wessex, Dumnonia or Mercia if you wanted. I wouldn’t, but you could. The N/S divide is a weird one, and I personally dislike it because it normally becomes “rich south, poor north”, but I live in the poor south that happens to also be horribly expensive. Ah well.

DK; personally I don’t want an EP, but if we got one, it would have to effectively replace Westminster for most decision making and effectively reduce the number of MPs substantially.

I want to bring power much closer to me if possible, and contingent within this would be a reduction in the number of people at Wesminster, in a much greater way than was done to Wales/Scotland. We’ll see, I guess.

by: Devil's Kitchen

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 06:59:11 +0000

… an English Parliament within a federal United Kingdom would offer a far superior outcome to that offered by Cameron’s appalling hybrid…

Apart from the no doubt appalling cost. I would only be happy to see this is the Westminster Parliament was scaled back in a massive way. And since we are mostly ruled from the EU these days, it could probably get along with about 50 MPs…

by: Not Little England

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 23:50:09 +0000

The West Oxfordshire Question and Tory Hypocrisy…

Petty partizanship is all I can really see in the Tories EVOEM proposals. That and the break up of the Union. For the Conservative and Unionist party to come up with a policy that will, inevitably, create a constitutional crisis, means they have utte…..

by: Unity

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:34:34 +0000

The reason I specifically reference the North-South divide is knowing the CEP is a broadly conservative (small ‘c’) constituency, and therefore one inclined to dismiss regionalisation on principle.

As such the appeal to Northern smei-autonomy is more difficult to dismiss out of hand, it having a degree of historical precedent lacking in other regions.

by: MatGB

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 22:11:22 +0000

Very well put sir. Please stop reading my mind, it’s freaky. However, writing the sort of thing I can’t in July is appreciated.

Problem with EVOEM not covered above: Westminster legislation can override Holyrood by ORder in Council, ergo there is no such thing as an “English matter” as Westminster remains sovereign, power devoled is power retained.

Also, us Westcountry types, while we’ve got too many Tories for our liking, are just as annoyed with the SE dominance, and do just as bad if not worse; the North just gets ignored and allowed to collapse, we get to collapse and wathc house prices rise as the bastard SE types buy up holiday homes.

Provincial assemblies that meet occasionally to form an English Parliament would be good I think. I think I’ve nearly squared the circle in my mind, I’ll write it up when work isn’t hell.