When told by Mr. Tilbrook that the cost of setting up and running an English Parliament would come from savings by closing the regional assemblies in England, Mr. Galloway claimed that no such assemblies existed and that the voters of the North-East (of England) had voted in a referendum against having one. Mr. Tilbrook said that he was wrong; the assemblies are there and that the referendum he referred to was about turning the unelected North-East (of England) Assembly into an elected assembly. Steven Uncles National Membership Secretary & South East England Area Chairman English Democrats E-Mail: StevenUncles@EngDem.org Tel: 01322 225 995 Mob: 07931 390 029 Fax: 07884 662 240 (& Voice Mail) Web: www.EnglishDemocrats.org.uk Cam: www.EngDem.org "Over 300,000 Votes on 4 June !" "I voted English Democrats on 4 June 2009"
Mr. Tilbrook dismissed the claim put to him by Mr. Galloway that some might have an anti-Scottish agenda and, during Mr. Galloway’s interview, he recalled that someone in England describing himself as an ethnic Scot had asked to be a candidate for the English Democrats at the last General Election because that person, like everyone else in England, was affected by the unfair UK devolution arrangements (in which England has no Parliament of her own).
Asked by Mr. Galloway to define Englishness, Mr. Tilbrook said his party did not and neither did the anti-UK Scottish ‘National’ Party who were not asked such a question. He said that the English Democrats welcomed those who cared for England and that membership of the party was open to all aged 16 or over who agreed with the party’s aims and wanted to further them.
If the UK did not become a federal state (with England having - like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - a national legislature of her own) then people in England could get fed up with the current devolution arrangements and we could be looking at the end of the UK, Mr. Tilbrook warned.
On his Talksport radio programme on 19.6.2009, Mr. Galloway gave his backing to the proposal to turn the UK into a federal state. After his interview with Mr. Tilbrook had ended Mr. Galloway said that there are no cultural differences between the different parts of the UK ; that all parts of the UK shared a common culture, language and experience and that he did not want to see the 300-year old UK Union break up.
Steve in Carlisle then telephoned Mr. Galloway’s programme on Talksport radio to say that the UK Parliament’s powers should be reduced saving money which could then be used to set up and run an English Parliament. He suggested that the British Parliament could either sit in the House of Lords; in Wales or in Scotland (where the UK Cabinet had already met once in recent years).
Monday, 22 June 2009
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