CEP: September rallies for England against the indifference of our 550 English MPs

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Tuesday, 26, Aug 2008 12:00

Unfortunate England that does not have MPs of the calibre of those of Scotland and Wales who have got such a brilliant deal for their constituents!

That will be the rallying cry of CEP members who will be campaigning from Sept 6th to October 1st in open air rallies and in meetings from one end of England to the other, in Berwick on Tweed, Manchester, Birmingham and Bournemouth, bringing the attention of politicians and media to the injustice and unfairness for England of the 1998 devolution legislation. On September 6th there will be an open air rally and leafleting in the market place, Marygate,Berwick. From September 13th to the 15th the CEP will have a stall at the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth, on September 20-21st CEP members will be leafleting delegates to the Labour Party in the city centre, in Albert Square and St. Peter's Square, Manchester and on October 1st they will be having a stall at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

The purpose of it all is to put the case to media and politicians that England should have its own parliament, elected separately from the Union Parliament, with the same powers as the Scottish Parliament and with its own Executive. The CEP demands that England should have the same political and constitutional recognition as Scotland as a distinct nation within the Union, able therefore to give to the people of England the same -huge- benefits that the Scottish Parliament has been able to get for its people. The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly give political and constitutional recognition to the Scottish and Welsh identities and nationhood. The CEP wants the same for England.

It is the CEP case that it is grossly unfair and unjust that the Scots should get free university tuition, denied in England, free personal care for the elderly, denied in England, a freeze on council tax, free central heating installation for pensioners, and access to the best cancer and eye treatment drugs. Likewise, free prescriptions and free hospital parking as in Wales.. It should be the English people who decide for themselves what they want for themselves, not the British Parliament.

'It is the CEP case,' Scilla Cullen, chairman, sending out her pre-party conference message to members, 'that each of the three nations of this island should stand in the same relationship to the Union government and to each other. It is wrong sort of Union where two of the three, Scotland and Wales, has devolution and all the benefits that have come from it while England has not. It is a wrong sort of Union where the peoples of Scotland,.Wales and Northern Ireland receive £1500 more per person than the people of England.for spending on their health and education. It is an even more wrong sort of Union where it is the people of England who pay for 80% of that extra expenditure but receive none of it themselves. Each English taxpayer pays £281 more each year to subsidise Scotland alone. The so-called United Kingdom has become grossly unjust, unbalanced and unfair.'

It is a gross scandal that England has 550 MPs in the Union Parliament and they do nothing at all about it. People can rightly ask what they draw their big salaries for and what they think they are in the Union Parliament for if not to represent the interests of their constituents. 'Unfortunate England that does not have MPs of the calibre of those of Scotland and Wales who have got such a brilliant deal for their constituents!' declared Scilla Cullen.

Contacts

Michael Knowles

CEP media officer.

Tel: 01260 271139 email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk

Scilla Cullen

Chairman

Tel: 01436 833155 email: scilla.cullen@thecep.org.uk