PaulRogan

The Tories nationally are now proposing a ‘Grand Committee for England' in response to the above question. Well, does that address the inequalities within the United Kingdom for England? That's another question and Nick Robinson's blog contains some interesting commentary and views, link follows-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2007/10/question_of_sco.html

I understood New Labour's Harriet Harmen to say in a recent interview in response to the Tory proposal; it is not right to break up the United Kingdom. But hasn't it already been broken up by the Blair/Brown/Prescott trio's devolution of Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland? That just left England to be broken up in the next and final stage of Euro Regional integration.

England is still a Country, a Nation and the only question for me is, "will our People rise up to defend her?"

On the ‘Brighouse Question' will local Tories accept an extrapolation of the same national proposal and agree to setting up a Committee for the Greater Brighouse Area? (Same sauce for goose and gander). All we have at present is a proposal for a toothless body for the entire lower valley. 'Typical' & 'Fudge' are the two words which spring to my mind, in response to the Tories solutions to both ‘West Lothian' and ‘Brighouse' questions.

By the way. extra and more expensive tiers of Government, either locally or nationally form no part of the English Democrats solutions to New Labour's Euro mess or Tory fudges. Want to know more? Send me an email.

Inexorably we are moving towards a single European State. Many are fearful of this. Most, according to opinion polls do not want to see English or British sovereignty lost. Some are vociferously opposed to the process of Euro integration. One such voice (The UK Column) appears to accuse the Conservatives and all their senior figures as complicit in the formation of a European Super State. Link:- www.devonportcolumn.org.uk

The clock is certainly ticking on the ratification process of the ‘Treaty' agreed by Gordon Brown last week.

There should be a referendum on this. Irrespective of whether this is a constitution veiled as a treaty or not. The People have a right to express their view on this single subject, even at this late stage. It should not be woven into any other national issue by Party manifestos or policies. This issue should not be clouded by solutions to the NHS, crime, inequalities in society or anything else. Simply, the ‘Treaty' Yes or No.

The following link, whilst partisan, makes interesting reading for all. Link:- http://www.eutruth.org.uk/

I would welcome comments or links to other sites to balance the argument.

Feudelism as applied to Dairy farming

Feudalism                             You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

Pure Socialism                    You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you all the milk you need.

Bureaucratic Socialism                Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

Fascism                                 You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

Pure Communism                You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Real World Communism                You share two cows with your neighbors. You and your neighbors bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.

Russian Communism                You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

Perestroika                          You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the Mafia takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the "free" market.

Cambodian Communism                You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Militarianism                       You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

Totalitarianism                    You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

Pure Democracy                  You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

Representative Democracy You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

British Democracy                You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

Bureaucracy                        You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Pure Anarchy                      You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

Pure Capitalism                  You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Capitalism                            You don't have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don't have any cows to put up as collateral.

Enviromentalism                You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

Political Correctness                You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo centric, war mongering, intolerant past) two differently - aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.

Surrealism                           You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Finally and I believe reluctantly, the Tory cabinet in conjunction with it's New Labour supporters has bowed to Government pressure and agreed to set up Area Committees in Calderdale... sorry, committees everywhere else, where they have been successful for years, Forum in Calderdale.

But they wont be talking shops' says a Tory cabinet member. Oh really! A Forum is where there is only talk, a committee is where things get decided and done.

The Brighouse area has been calling for a local area committee for years. In some small way, a means of re-establishing the self-determination it used to exercise when it had a Council of its own. But, don't think for one minute that the Lower Valley Forum is the answer. Both the Brighouse area, the Elland area and other less urban parts are all lumped together. All vying for the means to achieve what each separately (and quite rightly) needs and deserves.

What does this apparent lack of sensitivity to local needs tell us? These Forums are set up more for the benefit of easy administration than to really deliver what ‘The People' are calling for and the Government is seeking to provide.

Of course, I may be wrong, please tell me that I am!

Residents to get bigger voice at http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/Residents-to-get-bigger-voice.3364466.jp

Area panels to advise the council at http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/Area-panels-to-advise-the.3362218.jp

I received a recent letter reminding me that The Halifax Textile Society is to be wound up at the end of the present season. It is sad that there has been such a dramatic decline in what was such an important industry for England and the UK. Those few people still left in the industry have little time and less possibility to financially support such niceties like Textile Societies. It is a sign of the times but it is a sign of better times on the way?

In the House of Lords, Peers sit on the ‘woolsack' as a symbol of the prosperity upon which their positions and the Country relies. What will they be sitting on in a few years time?  Perhaps a stack of politically correct guidelines issued to public sector employees.

With the promises and spin of the Party conference season hitting the headlines. A flurry of leaflets from Labour and canvass letters from the Tories. I'm sure there were some who thought we going to have an autumn General Election.

I was given the following by a local Elector who had prepared this to ask any canvassers who knock on his door.

Quote. To all prospective Members of Parliament

Having reached my sixth decade, and having witnessed over this period the slow strangulation of what now passes for democracy in the UK, I have decided that some common sense and guidance is required for any prospective Member of Parliament. I have therefore laid out the details below which if adopted, as a Party Manifesto would undoubtedly lead to a substantial majority for the Party adopting the obvious.

1. The abolition of inheritance tax

2. The reinstatement of tax credits on advance corporation tax for pension funds

3. The abolition of the Human rights Act

4. The abolition of stamp duty on house sales.

5. MP's and civil servants pensions to reflect the pensions in private industry

6. MP's salaries to be pegged to inflation with fixed expenses only

7. All council tax rises to be pegged to inflation only

8. Council's to be allowed to provide local, practical and limited services only

9. Flat rate income tax to be introduced

10. The House of Lord's to be the final arbiter for all white papers

11. Immigration to be strictly controlled and used for the purposes of skills shortages

12. Laws proposed by the EU only to be implemented where obviously beneficial to Great Britain.

Any politician would tell you that the above measures are completely unaffordable; my reply would be that if politicians were truly accountable for their budgets then the above could easily be absorbed by efficiencies across the board. Unquote.

I told the Elector, I could agree entirely with the spirit of everything on his list and with most of the points precisely. I added that English Democrat plans for the House of Lords was that it become a fully elected all UK Upper House, the Commons becoming England's National Parliament. Also, that our relationship with the EU would be subject anyway to a referendum on the nature of our future membership. Neither caused the Elector any concerns. In many cases I would be happy to support more radical movements along the themes this Elector has signposted!