English Voice Debate (1) – Independence For England?
Surely the denial of an English Parliament is a human rights issue? If this is the case, the English have a duty to ask ‘is it because we don’t have rights – or is it because we’re not seen as human?’
THE NATIONAL LIBERAL PARTY – NLP – has a Twitter feed @NationalLiberal which provides links to various local, national and international news stories and debates. One of the NLPs most popular tweets – in terms of retweets and comments – has been our call for an English Parliament.
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For some bizarre reason, England is the only ‘Home Nation’ which doesn’t have its own Parliament or Assembly. Our call for an English Parliament is made on the basis of Self-Determination and equality. The NLP has no interest in imperialism – indeed, we are anti-imperialists. It also follows then, that we have absolutely no interest in building Empires. Nor is our call for an English Parliament an attempt to lord it up’ over others – or for England to be treated as a special case. All we’re asking for is for England to be treated the same as the rest of Britain.
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Indeed, as issue 1 of English Voice – the voice of the National Liberal Party in England – noted:
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‘The Scottish Parliament sits at Holyrood, Ulster has Stormont and the Welsh have the National Assembly for Wales. The only people who don’t have a say in the running of their own country are the English!’ (1)
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For those who say that England doesn’t need its own Parliament as it has Westminster, issue 2 of English Voice had this to say:
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‘We do not recognise Westminster as an English parliament. It may be situated in England – but it’s not specifically for the English. It’s a UK parliament and we want to be liberated from Westminster’s absolute rule’.
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The NLP are not the only ones calling for an English Parliament. The Campaign for an English Parliament (2) has been doggedly and heroically plugging away for nearly 20 years to ‘stimulate a national conversation on England and work towards a referendum on an English parliament that will speak in the interests of the English people; that is democratically accountable to England alone; that represents and is representative of the English nation – an English parliament that is recognition of English nationhood.’
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However, probably the most high-profile campaigner for an English Parliament is Labour MP for Birkenhead, Frank Field (3). Earlier this year he had an article in the Daily Express (4). Here he called for the abolition of the House of Commons and an English Parliament to be established in its place. This would be on ‘a par with parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.’ He also called for the House of Lords to be abolished. ‘In place of the Lords should be a ‘Common Senate’ to which Northern Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English parliaments would send legislation for scrutiny, just as now with the Commons sending its legislation to the Lords’.
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Our friends at Nations without States (5) and the St. George’s Committee (6) have f eatured and debated his ideas.
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Returning to the subject of the popularity of our tweets calling for an English Parliament, we’ve noted that many of those who like and retweet our comments express strong support for the concept of an independent England. And for this first English Voice debate, we’d like to see how widespread this view is.
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First, let’s state our position. The NLP is well-known for its position on Self-Determination. At the last General Election it called for the creation of an English Parliament and stated:
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‘We will work to create a federal United Kingdom with constituent parliaments for each nation (including England), We will support decentralisation to the most practical level.
We are decentralists and believe in equality, popular sovereignty and national self-determination. We are very much in support of the individual against the might of the state. Thus we oppose centralism – which can be dogmatic, undemocratic and totalitarian in nature’.
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The NLP is also noted for its strong commitment to free speech. That’s why we – in association with English Voice – would like to open up this debate to all English Advocates who believe in some form of self-determination for the English Nation. We invite anyone who is interested to have their say in the comments section once they see this article on our Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313/
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It goes without saying that some views will not reflect official NLP policy, but that is the essential nature of free speech! Therefore, we ask what form of self-determination should England have? Indeed, should there be Independence for England? Let the debate begin.
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(1) To get hold of issues 1 and 2 of English Voice – the voice of the National Liberal Party in England – just e-mail natliberal@aol.com and ask for your FREE pdf copies!
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(3) Frank Field MP has always been very outspoken on immigration and population. He is ‘old school’ Labour, in that he is in tune with and completely understands the concerns of ordinary voters who are broadly ‘patriotic socialist’ in outlook. Many people across the political divide respect him as he is a very good, hard working and honest MP.
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Date: November 22, 2017
Categories: Articles, Party News