Tom Waterhouse (Abingdon, CEP): The creation of a Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly has seen powers over health, education, policing and transport devolved away from the UK Parliament at Westminster to Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. There are now parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which have First Ministers to speak up for them. Generously subsidised with money from the English taxpayer, Scotland has been able to abolish university top-up fees, provide free long-term personal care for the elderly, and say “No” to new nuclear power stations and road-pricing. Meanwhile England’s students leave university with crippling debt, its elderly have to sell their homes to afford personal care, and its motorists are hit with ever more taxes. How has this been allowed to happen?
The answer is simple. There is no-one to speak for England. There is no English Parliament. No English First Minister. Not even a Secretary of State for England, even though, despite devolution, there is still a Secretary of State each for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Policy for England is decided by the UK Parliament, which, however, seeks to act according to what is best for the UK as a whole. The Chancellor and future Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, must do what is best for the UK whilst representing a Scottish Parliamentary seat. So too must UK Ministers Douglas Alexander, Des Browne and Alistair Darling. Hence the growing sense that England is being ignored and sidelined. There is also growing support for balance to be restored to the UK with the creation of an English Parliament; a recent ICM poll commissioned by the Campaign for an English Parliamentfound that 67% of people supported the idea. Previous polls by Ipsos Mori and the BBC have put support at 68% and 61%. Only with an English Parliament will there be justice for England. An English Parliament is surely England’s right.
