Way back in June of last year, when Gordon Brown becoming our Prime Minister was just a threat, I reported on the Scottish Claim of Right that Brown had signed and promised to abide by. On this, St. George’s Day 2008, I am proud to have affixed my name to the English constitutional cause.

“We do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the English people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs.
We call for the holding of a national English Constitutional Convention to determine the way forward for a revised constitutional settlement for England.
We declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations the interests of the English people shall be paramount.
We further declare and pledge that our actions and deliberations shall be directed to the following ends:
To assert the right of the English people to live in a sovereign nation state of England, free of foreign control;
To agree a scheme for an Parliament for England;
To mobilise English opinion and ensure the approval of the English people for that scheme;
And to assert the right of the English people to secure the implementation of that scheme.”

As I said in my previous item – this is all about awareness. Until the English wake up nothing will change. You can add your name to the English Claim of Right but you can be far more effective by educating those that do not know.

With St. George’s Day just hours away it wouldn’t feel right not to give it a mention. Now I suppose I just don’t get out enough as the picture was taken in a ‘Clintons’ card shop who told me that they sell this sort of tat every year. Actually, it is more that I try and avoid this sort of shop as much as possible. So it came as a surprise to me – even if I am the only one!

The two real sightings over the last week have been stolen. They both appeared on the same morning dog walk and my wife whipped out her mobile phone to capture them, which, I thought, was good of her expecting, as I was, to be given them for this post.

The request was, however, denied. My good wife – her of the JDOCD, has started a venture of her own entitled… wait for it… ‘The Depp Effect‘ – and the sightings of St. George that I expected to include here have instead been posted on this item – ‘Flying the Flag‘. Competition I have. So I can only show you the one of three originally intended.

Please – if you are English then remember it is St. Georges Day – April 23rd. Try and make a point of informing another Englishman (yes, or Englishwoman) about the political deficit England enjoys. Rouse their passions on the subject and then suggest they go and tell someone else. Spread the word.

Let’s just put one simple fact on the table before moving on. At the last general election, the Conservative party polled more votes in England than Labour. It was the voters of Scotland and Wales that decided the shape and form of the current UK government and, as history shows quite clearly, very few Scots or Welsh vote Tory.

Yet despite this history, the current crop of limp wristed Tories under the leadership of Dopey Boy Dave are still bending over backwards trying to woo Scottish voters away from their traditional Labour loyalties and their shiny new SNP that is, let’s face it, going from strength to strength under the canny leadership of Alex Salmond. In fact, I can see the SNP, if they continue to play their cards right, cutting the Labour party down to size in Westminster next time around. Which just might, from an English perspective, be the match that finally ignites the big debate on the ‘West Lothian Question’ that Labour refuses to have and the Tories seem terrified of.

The odd thing here, of course, is that the Tories are in a prime position to make a rallying call on this issue. Their presence in Scotland and Wales is of such minimal importance that to concentrate their efforts on the English would be both representing their natural support base in an honest way and righting the wrong that Labour’s devolution settlements have caused. At the end of the day, a fairer and proper deal for England is inevitable so what better time to grasp the reins of history than now. Except that they are are showing themselves, as always, to be as limp-wristed as ever and apparently couldn’t find the reins if you tied Cameron up with them.

The big excuse, of course, is that the Tories want to ‘preserve the Union’ and that is actually an aim I have sympathy with. But what they seem unable to grasp – it’s the limp wrists again! – is that the Union can be preserved but that doesn’t mean that it has to remain constitutionally the same. With the current devolution settlement, the Union is under dire threat if nothing is done to redress the balance. I would argue that the Union can be retained and fair representation for all achieved. It just takes vision, passion and political honesty.

Sadly, these are attributes which do not belong to the current crop of Tory masters. Not only are they going to allow their Labour enemies to get away with the damage already inflicted – Scot-free you might say – but they are planning to exacerbate the situation by doing, essentially, nothing. Which plays nicely into the hands of Alex Salmond whose wrists, I might add, have never faltered.

England will not see proper representation under a future Tory led government. Even the unworkable but compromise notion of only letting English MP’s vote on English issues has been abandoned. Instead we just get the proposal that only English MP’s can sit in committee stage on English issues.

It is a lost opportunity for the Tories to regain the initiative, to create a big enough stick to beat Browns Scottish led government with and to reinvigorate political passion and debate in this country. And it is just another sad day for the English who once again are to be deprived of democratic representation.

The so called ‘Barnett Formula” is the means by which public spending is divied up across the nations of the United Kingdom and has been used by successive governments for some 30 years. It has consistently granted the men and women of Scotland considerably more public dosh per head then the men and women of England whose taxes largely pay for it. And we are not talking loose change here – the difference, or ’subsidy’, can be as much as £1500 per person. It is, we have always been told, based on need.

Tony Blair (a Scot) refused to review Barnett as did his Chancellor, Gordon Brown (also a Scot). Now Brown (still a Scot) has the top job, he too refuses to listen to critics of the so called ‘formula’ citing the old mantra of dispersing funds based on need. Brown’s new Chancellor, the man with the dancing eyebrows, Alistair Darling, has also refused a debate and guess what – he’s a Scot. Even David Cameron, or Tony Blair Mark II, has stated quite categorically that the formula works and is here to stay. Poor old David is only a half-Scot and probably wasting his breath anyway as the voters north of the border will show at the next general election.

Is it a coincidence that for the last 11 years a government top-heavy in Scottish ministers, granted power by the weight of Scottish voters and repeatedly shafting the English with legislation (such as university tuition fees) that only applies to England but scrapes through Parliament by the votes of Scottish MPs, should consistently reward their homeland with an outrageous handout from the state purse? Stinks doesn’t it?

What stinks even more, are comments made today by the architect of the Barnett Formula in todays’ Telegraph.

The controversial scheme that gives each Scot a £1,500 subsidy every year from English taxpayers was concocted “almost on the back of an envelope”, its creator has admitted. Lord Barnett said there was nothing scientific about the system, which he revealed was based on “approximate” population figures for the regions of the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
He rejected Gordon Brown’s claim that the formula allocates Government money on the basis of need, and said the Prime Minister was too scared to overhaul it for fear of upsetting Scottish voters.

Spotted this tacked to a farmers gate in the village this afternoon. I nearly missed it as I was trying to work out where the blossom falling from the sky was coming from until my wife informed me it was snow.

Whoever is responsible for this poster really does need some counselling as they are quite clearly extremely confused. In case you are unable to read the small print I will save you the trouble and your eyesight:

Put on your red and white and come along to the village hall to celebrate with us.
Tickets to include a traditional British meal of Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and a very English Pud!!

I don’t know… the older generation of today eh? Not like they were when I was a lad.

Perhaps I should help them out with some Tippex.