I just fired off another letter to the Shropshire Star on the subject of England being shafted. Don't know if it'll get printed or not but I'll keep plugging away until somebody notices.
I wonder how many Shropshire Star readers have heard of the Barnett Formula? This formula was devised many years ago to calculate the distribution of government money to the nations of the UK. It was intended as a one or two year solution but has been perpetuated by subsequent government so that it now forms a core part of the fiscal policy of the UK government.
Under the Barnett Formula, a Scottish person now receives an average of £1,300 per year in government money than an English person. A Welsh person can expect an average of £1,100 per year and a Northern Irish person £1,800 per year more than an English person. England is a net contributor to the United Kingdom.
The main thing that keeps this and other discriminatory policies against England is the fact that England has no devolved government to fight for it, whilst the Scots and Welsh do. An English parliament acting in the best interests of England can only be a good thing - English people comprise 5/6ths of the population of the UK but have no control over domestic policy in England.
The government have stated their intention to divide up England into artifically created regional assemblies despite the first referrendum on the subject rejecting it overwhelmingly. Shropshire would be included in the West Midlands region - how many Shropshire residents feel like they belong to the West Midlands? How will England's most rural county fare if environment and transport were the responsibility of a regional assembly sitting in Birmingham?
Many MP's, even Tony Blair himself, have said that they would not support an English Parliament because they do not support the break-up of the United Kingdom or the creation of unnecessary extra layers of government. The Scots and Welsh have been calling for independence for years, the english have not. Why would English devolution mean an end to the United Kingdom when Scottish and Welsh devolution does not? Why would an English Parliament be an extra unnecessary layer of govenment when the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are not?
England is the only country in Europe that has no direct political representation. It doesn't even appear on official EU or UK government maps of the UK. As far as they are concerned, the United Kingdom comprises of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and 9 English regions. Scottish and Welsh MP's cast deciding votes on English-only matters while English MP's have no say on the same matters in Wales or Scotland. English public bodies such as the English Tourist Board and Visit England have had the word English replaced with British. The Labour Party had a campaign slogan - Scotland Forward, Not Back; Wales Forward, Not Back and Britain Forward, Not Back for England.
Slowly but surely, the government are attempting to remove any trace of England from the United Kingdom. The question is, why pick on England?