Category Archives: barnett formula

ENGLAND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT ON SPENDING – CONFIRMED YET AGAIN BY HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY

ENGLAND DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT ON SPENDING – CONFIRMED YET AGAIN BY HOUSE OF COMMONS LIBRARY

The House of Commons Library published a paper in November last year which was brought to my attention recently.  The report has the figures for the financial year 2016/17 of the Barnett Formula.  The Barnett Formula determines that differential spending on UK citizens depending on which of the UK countries those citizens live in. 

The summary of the House of Commons research paper shows that England has the lowest national average spent on every man, woman and child.  This was £8,898 in 2016/17.  In Northern Ireland by contrast, it was £11,042. 

If you live in the English “Regions” of the South East, East of England, East Midlands, South West or West Midlands you get less spent on you than even the average of England.  It is only in London that British Government spending is more than even one of the other Nations of the UK.  It is slightly more than Wales.  London has £10,192 for every man, woman and child, instead of the Welsh average of £10,076!

This Barnett Formula spread in payments, which advantages Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is only for so-called “identifiable expenditure”, which is about 88% of the total public spending of the UK.  So the costs of the Foreign Office and of membership of the EU, and of Foreign Aid and Defence parts of the 12% of total public spending are not covered by the Barnett Formula. So also no allowance is made for the policies under which the British Government has headquartered British State agencies in Scotland and Wales, as for instance the DVLA and HMRC.  This is of course a yet further method of increasing the British State subsidy to those nations. 

It is worth pointing out that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get yet a further method of subsidy at the moment through the EU.  The contributions to the EU which come out of English Taxpayers’ pockets (as that is the only part of the UK for which there is a net tax revenue) are funnelled back to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as EU payments, under the so-called “Conduit Effect”.

Some of the additional subsidy to London is not part of the Barnett Formula but is explained by the British State spending money on the security of its political class with its large expenditure on armed police to guard the State’s buildings, the provision of diversity barriers and all the other paraphernalia of running the British State. 

The other aspect of this of course is that London is now in John Cleese’s words “no longer an English city”.  The subsidy coming into London is from the predominantly English Regions to the predominantly non-English communities within London.  This is the fiscal background to the anti-English, metropolitan, inter-nationalist, multi-culturalism of the Labour Party’s predominance in London. 

Here is the House of Commons summary and also there is the link to the report itself which you can download>>>http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2018/08/separate-scot;lands-13bn-black-hole-revealed/

In the last few days The Scottish Conservative Party under their multiculturalist Leader, Ruth Davidson, have been gloating again about Scotland’s “Union Dividend”.

Here is a quotation of part of their press release:-

“Scotland now raises eight per cent of UK total revenue, while receiving 9.3 per cent of spending.

Total spending per person in Scotland for 2017/18 was £1576 per head higher than the rest of the UK, compared to £1448 per head the previous year.

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said:

“If Nicola Sturgeon wants to continue her threat of second referendum, she has to come out and explain where she would find £13 billion to fill this deficit.

“Assuming that can’t be done, the prospect of another divisive and unwelcome vote must be removed for good so Scotland can focus on what really matters.

“Yet again, the union dividend has been made clear.

“By being part of the UK, Scotland received an extra £1576 for every man, woman and child last year above the UK average. For a family of four, that’s more than £6000 in additional public spending.

“If Scotland was to be ripped out the UK, this spending would be slashed drastically, meaning schools, hospitals and infrastructure would be hit.

“Any Scottish Government would also have to massively increase taxes and borrowing to help make up the difference, something the hardworking public simply wouldn’t accept.

Here is the link to the original on the Scottish Conservatives’ Website>>> http://www.scottishconservatives.com/2018/08/separate-scotlands-13bn-black-hole-revealed/

As a demonstration of how “Fake News” looks here is the text of the Telegraph’s article about this with its minor editing of the Scottish Conservatives’ Press Release:-

SNP urged to ditch plans for indyref2 as figures reveal Scotland’s £13 billion deficit is four times the size of the UK’s

22 AUGUST 2018 • 

Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to abandon  her threat of a second independence referendum after official figures revealed that  Scotland ran up a £13 billion deficit last year that was four times the size of the UK’s.

Official figures on the state of the country’s finances also disclosed a record “Union dividend” of nearly  £1,900 for every man, woman and child in Scotland.

That figure is made up of public spending that was £1,576 higher per person north of the border in 2017/18, while Scotland’s public sector tax contributions were £306 less per head.

The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures – the difference between what the country raised in taxes and what it spent – revealed a total deficit of £13.4 billion, or 7.9 per cent of GDP -down from 8.9 per cent in 2016/17. The UK’s spending deficit was just 1.9 per cent of GDP, down from 2.3 per cent.

Overall, Scotland’s public finances showed a slight improvement, thanks to North Sea revenue rising by more than £1 billion.

The First Minister claimed the figures proved Scotland was “on the right trajectory”, when considered alongside recent positive labour market statistics.

She added: “With the limited economic powers currently at our disposal, the actions we are taking to promote sustainable economic development are helping to ensure that the key economic indicators are moving in the right direction.”

However, the Scottish Conservatives said the finances of the rest of the UK were improving faster and the gap between the two was widening, with Scotland now raising eight per cent of total UK revenue, while receiving 9.3 per cent of spending.

Murdo Fraser, Tory finance spokesman, said Ms Sturgeon needed to ditch plans for a new bid to break-up Britain or explain how she would find the billions required to file Scotland’s economic black hole in the event of independence.

He added: “If Nicola Sturgeon wants to continue her threat of second referendum, she has to come out and explain where she would find £13 billion to fill this deficit.

“Assuming that can’t be done, the prospect of another divisive and unwelcome vote must be removed for good so Scotland can focus on what really matters.

These figures confirm that being part of a strong United Kingdom is worth nearly £1,900 for every single person in ScotlandDavid Mundell

“Yet again, the union dividend has been made clear. By being part of the UK, Scotland received an extra £1,576 for every man, woman and child last year above the UK average.  For a family of four, that’s more than £6,000 in additional public spending.

“If Scotland was to be ripped out the UK, this spending would be slashed drastically, meaning schools, hospitals and infrastructure would be hit.

“Any Scottish Government would also have to massively increase taxes and borrowing to help make up the difference, something the hardworking public simply wouldn’t accept.

UPDATED DIFFERENCES IN UK GOVERNMENT FUNDING BETWEEN THE NATIONS OF THE UK


THE UPDATED DIFFERENCES IN UK GOVERNMENT FUNDING BETWEEN THE NATIONS OF THE UK

Back in 2009 the cross-bench independent House of Lords Committee enquiring into the Barnett Formula funding allocation system reported that England was subsidising Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to the tune of £49 billion a year. 

Here is a link to that report >>> The Barnett Formula Report with Evidence published 17 July 2009

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldbarnett/139/139.pdf

Given the years that have passed since I think it is worth reviewing what public spending is now in the 3 different Nations and in the Province of the United Kingdom. Here are the figures:-

THE PROVINCE OF NORTHERN IRELAND

Population 1.9 million

Public spending per head £14,018 (approx. £14,263 after deal)

Social security 43 per cent: local politicians effectively refused to approve benefit cuts in 2015 and received a £585 million package to soften the blow over four years

Health 19 per cent: funding cuts for GPs have forced some frontline services to be withdrawn and over 6,500 patients waited over 12 hours in A&E last year

Education 13 per cent: Northern Irish pupils are the highest performing in Europe at primary level for maths but a third of GCSE entrants do not achieve five A*-C grades

Public sector workers 25.2 per cent

Private sector workers 74.8 per cent

THE NATION OF ENGLAND

Population 55 million

Public spending per head £11,297

Social security 45 per cent: cuts to benefits have failed to offset the spiralling cost of pensions, which under the DUP deal will still be protected by the triple lock

Health 24 per cent: the Red Cross warned in January that NHS England faced a “humanitarian crisis” amid chronic bed and staff shortages and long waits for care

Education 14 per cent: Many schools are facing real-terms budget cuts under the government’s new funding formula and last year the number of A*-C grades at GCSE saw its sharpest decline since 1998

Public sector workers 17 per cent

Private sector workers 83 per cent

THE NATION OF SCOTLAND

Population 5.4 million

Public spending per head £13,054

Social security 41 per cent: legislation to give the Scottish government control over 11 benefits has been introduced in Holyrood, which the SNP hopes will ease Westminster cuts

Health 21 per cent: only 5 per cent of A&E patients wait more than four hours despite a staffing shortfall and £100 million bill for locum doctors

Education 13 per cent: literacy and numeracy rates have declined or flatlined since 2012 but fewer pupils are leaving school with no qualifications

Public sector workers 21 per cent

Private sector workers 79 per cent

THE NATION OF WALES

Population 3.1 million

Public spending per head £12,531

Social security 46 per cent: Wales’s population is the most deprived in the UK

Health 21 per cent: the Welsh NHS has repeatedly missed targets despite high investment and is suffering from a shortage of full-time nurses

Education 13 per cent: Welsh students score lowest in the UK for science, reading and maths and Carwyn Jones, the first minister, says that the country’s schools are “crumbling”

Public sector workers 20.8 per cent

Private sector workers 79.2 per cent

These figures do clearly show the effect of England’s subsidy to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They have more public sector spending on every man, woman and child and they also have a higher level of State employment. All of that is dependent upon the English taxpayer.

It should also be noted that these figures do not include capital spending and that is split in the same sort of way which explains why Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish politicians are so keen on HS2, since as a result of that money being spent in England, they will get extra windfalls of tens of billions of pounds of English taxpayers’ money!

So far as Ulster is concerned, Theresa May’s DUP deal is the latest subsidy windfall for a Province long reliant on the English taxpayer.

As the Times recently put it:-

“The £1.5 billion price tag for the DUP’s confidence and supply deal — equivalent to an extra £530 for every resident of Northern Ireland — has caused raised eyebrows at Westminster and across the rest of the UK.

But in one respect the windfall is nothing new: The Province of Northern Ireland has long received the most generous funding of any region.

Despite its population of just 1.9 million, public spending per person is higher in the province than anywhere else in the UK: £14,042, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Almost a third (27.4 per cent) of the Northern Irish workforce is employed by the public sector, compared to just 17 per cent across the UK as a whole. Tuition fees remain heavily subsidised and prescriptions are free, as is domestic water. Unlike the other devolved administrations, Northern Ireland runs its own social security system but the money flows directly from the Treasury.

This high public spending and low tax revenues means Stormont’s budget deficit — £9.6 billion in 2014 — is equal to a third of Northern Ireland’s total economic output.

Though that figure is vastly higher than most other developed economies, Northern Ireland defies easy comparison for one very obvious reason: “the Troubles”.

As DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson pointed out last week, decades of conflict have posed huge structural challenges for its economy. Resolving the Troubles has in practice meant the Exchequer alone footing the bill in the absence of significant inward investment from the private sector.

Keen to preserve the delicate constitutional settlement at Stormont, Westminster effectively allowed local politicians to refuse to implement the worst cuts in the coalition years. Not for nothing did the Northern Irish historian John Bew say: “The only thing that unites Northern Ireland’s parties is the way they hold out their hands for money. It’s the SNP on crack.”

Though it is hoped that a planned reduction in Northern Ireland’s corporation tax rate to 12.5 per cent next year – in line with the Republic – will help rectify the imbalance in public and private spending, the DUP deal means a long history of state subsidy will continue.”


HOW MUCH ENGLISH MONEY WILL BE USED TO BUY DEMOCRATIC UNIONISTS’ SUPPORT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS?

HOW MUCH ENGLISH MONEY WILL BE USED TO BUY DEMOCRATIC UNIONISTS’ SUPPORT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS?
The current level of Barnet Formula style annual block grant from the English taxpayer to Northern Ireland is standing at £10.4 billion per year.  That is somewhat more than the total net subscription/subsidy to the European Union that so much of the argument during the European Referendum campaign was about! 
That adds up to a subsidy to every man, woman and child in Northern Ireland of £5,437 more public money than they will averagely have paid in taxes being paid to the population of Northern Ireland which is as per the 2011 Census, £1,810,863 (£1.8m).   This means that, as set out in the House of Commons Briefing Paper number 04033, published on the 8th March 2015, whereas the average Government spend per head in England was £8,638 in Northern Ireland it was £11,106. 
Dominic Lawson, the son of Mrs Thatcher’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson, and who is a former Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, wrote in the Sunday Times on June 18th (see below) that “there are no more successful shakers of the magic money tree than Northern Ireland’s politicians”.  The question is how successful will the DUP be in shaking the English magic money tree? (or as I would rather put it picking English pockets!).
I seen reported rumours of an extra 1.4 Billion or an extra £2.5 billion and have even heard a rumour, which like all such rumours of course is un-attributable and unverifiable, that the demand may even be an extra billion for every one of the ten DUP votes in the House of Commons.  If the latter is true, that would of course then lead to a doubling of the figures which I gave above, with over £10,000 of English Taxpayers’ money being spent on average for every man, woman and child in Northern Ireland!
In the past we in the English nationalist Cause have tended to compare our country’s treatment with that of Scotland.  This is partly because of the success of the SNP in highlighting the independence issue for Scotland and thereby successfully blackmailing the British Political Establishment to try to buy Scottish votes for the Union.  This latest development will of course not be generally about buying Northern Irish votes for the Union, but specifically buying the votes of the 10 DUP MPs in the House of Commons.
It will be interesting to see whether English People do begin to realise that they are being taken for fools with perhaps by as much as £20 billion of cuts on English hospitals, schools, roads, students etc., because of the fact that that money has been spent in Northern Ireland.
As mentioned above Dominic Lawson wrote in an article on June 18 2017, 12:01am, in The Sunday Times
“We are all being DUPed into a merry splurge”
In the article he writes:- “The DUP is socially conservative — reflecting the communities it represents — but in other respects it is to the left of the party May leads. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is populist. Its manifesto opposed the Conservative policy of removing the pensions triple lock and introducing means-testing for the winter fuel allowance. At the same time it advocated that the province be exempted from the BBC licence fee and air passenger duty. Its determination on this last point is apparently what’s holding up the deal: the chancellor, Philip Hammond, is understandably reluctant.
You get the picture. There are no more successful shakers of the magic money tree than Northern Ireland’s politicians. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last month showed that while Scotland consumed £2,824 more in public expenditure per capita than it raised in taxes — a source of irritation to the English — the average inhabitant of Northern Ireland consumed £5,437 more public money than they paid in taxes. There has been a payment from London to Ulster of about £10bn in each of the past three years, slightly more than the UK as a whole has been paying — net — to the EU.
Obviously, the latter is to foreign countries, while the colossal transfers across the Irish Sea are to poorer fellow countrymen and women, with all the demands of solidarity that status entails. But it is quite a racket. To give just one example: if a legal chambers in London gets a call from Northern Ireland, the clerk will take it with a song in his heart. While legal aid in England has suffered drastic changes in allowable charges, in Ulster legal aid is, as one practitioner put it to me cheerfully, “still the same old gravy train”.
In England legal aid was one of the non-ring-fenced areas of spending that most felt the effects of what David Cameron and George Osborne offered as the solution to a national credit card maxed out by Gordon Brown: “austerity”, they called it, and the word stuck.”


The value of English subsidies to Wales

The value of English subsidies to Wales


On Monday, 12th December, I was invited by the Law Society of England and Wales to a reception in the House of Lords to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Prime Ministerial Office of a famous solicitor – David Lloyd George (cue lots of jokes about whose father or grandfather “knew” Lloyd George!)

It did however give me an opportunity to talk with various interesting people including a Welsh law professor who candidly said to me that he felt that the Union of the United Kingdom was well worth keeping for Wales solely because the Welsh needed English subsidies!

The learned professor also made clear that he felt that without English money the Welsh standard of living would be drastically reduced.

I agreed with him about the standard of living, but naturally politely avoided agreeing with him about the merits of the Union!

I wonder if, looked at the other way around, how many English people would say that paying subsidies to Wales is of benefit to us English?

Here is a detailed paper bythe Welsh Assemblyon this >>> http://www.assembly.wales/NAfW%20Documents/09-012.pdf%20-%2026032009/09-012-English.pdf

What do you think?

Five reasons for English Independence (of many!)


I was recently challenged for reasons to justify our call for English Independence. In reply I drew these up.

What do you think?

Five reasons for English Independence (of many!):-

1. Democratic Self Government – the natural state for a modern democratic nation >>> http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/my-evidence-to-mckaywlq-commission.html ; and

2. Fiscal autonomy – to end the “Barnett Formula” subsidies which the HofL report of 2009 stated were then over £49 Billion per year >>> http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldselect/ldbarnett/139/139.pdf; and

3. End “Barnett Consequentials” ie For every £10 Billion spent by the UK in England on a Capital project a further £1 Billion has to be given to Scotland eg HS2 £50Billion = £5 Billion bunce! and

4. Prevent Unionist plans to beak up England into “Regions” because “England is too big”! eg >>> http://stv.tv/news/politics/1371867-gordon-brown-sets-out-vision-of-more-federal-constitution/ and >>> http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/my-submissions-to-local-government.html

5. Dissolution of the UK equals automatic and immediate exit from the EU >>> http://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/uk-to-be-python-esque-dead-parrot-after.html

The English pay £140 each for the EU

The English pay £140 each for the EU


Scotland’s taxpayers are no longer a net beneficiary of EU largess and now pay in £64 per person more than they get back from Brussels, according to a new economic analysis published.

David Bell, Professor of Economics at the University of Stirling, calculated that Scots now pay more than £1.4 billion towards the EU every year and receive almost £1.1 billion back through the UK’s rebate and funds such as Common Agriculture Policy payments.

However, the English on their own contribute more than that averaging £140 for each and every person in England.

In comparison, the Northern Irish pay a net sum of only £31 per person, while the Welsh are net beneficiaries to the tune of £164 per person because they receive that much more than they pay in.

Here is a link to the original article>>> http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14537100.Scottish_Labour_considers_becoming___39_independent__39__party/

A very good way of explaining the unfairness at the heart of the UK?



Payment for running siblings’ new cars


Back in 1999, the parents of three children bought two of their offspring, a new BMW, each. The third received nothing.

For the next 15 years, they did not acknowledge their third child’s existence although they forced him to pay the running costs of his siblings’ new cars.

However, after those 15 years, circumstances forced them to recant slightly and they bought their third child a second-hand moped. He still had to pay his siblings’ running-costs.

By coincidence in 1999, the British government granted two of the three countries of Great Britain (Scotland and Wales) their own parliaments and with them, selfdetermination. The third, (England) received nothing. For the next 15 years, the British government refused to acknowledge England’s existence, although they forced her citizens to pay the running-costs of these Scottish and Welsh parliaments, enabling the Scots and Welsh to enjoy freebies which they were denied.

However, after those 15 years, a Scottish independence referendum forced them to recant slightly, and the people of England have been told we’re going to get EVEL (English votes on English laws). We will continue to be made to pay the Scots’ and Welsh running costs.

We weren’t asked. The Scots and the Welsh got a referendum – we didn’t. The Scots and the Welsh each got a brand new BMW. Now, after 15 years, we’re being told we can have a second-hand moped – “take it or leave it”.

Clive Lavelle Weston-super-Mare English Democrats

Is England "Better Together" in the UK? Some Fiscal Facts.

Here are the latest British official estimates of the tax raised in each of the three ‘home’ nations and province to the end of the 2012/13 financial year.

These figures should not be treated as exact to the last million because there are difficulties in allocating revenue to particular parts of the UK, for example, with corporation tax, but they are broadly indicative of what each country collects in tax. 

There are two sets of figures to show the differences when oil and gas is allocated on a geographical and a population basis.


Table 1 Total HMRC Receipts (Geographical Split of North Sea Revenues), £m 2012-13

UK                England    %           Wales      %       Scotland   %        Northern Ireland %
469,777   400,659 85.3%    16,337 3.5%   42,415 9.0%       10,331   2.6%

Table 2 Total HMRC Receipts (Population Split of North Sea Revenues), £m

469,777   404,760 86.2%    16,652 3.5%   37,811 8.0%        10,518    2.6%

Compare this with public spending for each of three small home countries in the calendar year 2013 (ie Not including UK spending on Welfare, Pensions, Defence, Aid, Foreign Affairs etc):
 
Scotland      £53.9 billion – deficit  of £12 billion approx. between tax raised and money spent
Wales            £29.8 billion – deficit of £13 billion approx. between tax raised and money spent
N. Ireland         £19.8 billion – deficit of £9 billion approx. between tax raised and money spent

So an identifiable £34 Billion a year subsidy from England to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and no contribution from them for any UK expenditure which therefore all comes from the pockets of English Taxpayers.
Better Together?

NB differences between tax raised and money spent are based on Table 1 figures which give the most favourable interpretation of Scotland’s tax position (£16.1 Billion for Table 2 Figures).

Independence Debate hots up!

Ian Bell, the Sunday Herald Columnist, wrote for his Scottish readers this article published on Sunday 24 August 2014

The Anglophobia that never was


IT all sounded ominous.

IT all sounded ominous.

“English backlash”; “Scots will pay a heavy price”; “English reject”: no matter the ending, the independence referendum would be tear-stained. Salty tears, too, familiar to those greetin’-faced Jocks.

In headline patois, the proposition was this: vote Yes and you’ll be sorry; vote No and it’s sorrow all the way. Affirm independence and you can forget a shared currency or a helping hand internationally. Reject independence and the bribes will stop. We’ll have you by the Barnett consequentials. Westminster over-representation no more. West Lothian Question no more.

GK Chesterton’s people of England, the ones who have “never spoken yet” in his poem The Secret People, appeared to suffer a change of heart. That they spoke through a sociological survey didn’t add much to the poetry. That they were talking through researchers in Edinburgh and Cardiff was a small contribution to the irony stockpile. The crack of backlash, predicted so long and so eagerly by some, was loud.

Well, yes and no (so to speak). The latest instalment of the Future of England Survey of 3695 adults, conducted by YouGov as part of research by the universities of Cardiff and Edinburgh, had a discord in the battle hymn. When they were done backlashing, the (surveyed) people of England expressed a wish – 59% to 19% – for the United Kingdom to continue. There was a nuance to their alleged exasperation.

It was as much as to say: stick around, and welcome, but we’re changing the terms of the lease. Stick around – for we like having you around – but once you’ve done trashing the place you’ll pay your whack, or lose the privileges we granted. No more hush money. No more hogging the parliamentary conversation. And if you must flounce off, don’t come running to us for a sub or a reference. But, Scotland, please don’t go.

Otherwise, the stats spoke. So 56% to 12% were reported as believing that levels of public spending in Scotland should be cut to levels – notional and in practical terms fictitious – called the UK average. So the claim on a post-independence currency union was rejected by 53% and supported by just 23%. So 62% said Scots MPs should be banned from voting on “England-only” laws.

In one question, the largest number (36%) thought the residual UK should have no truck with supporting Scotland’s membership of the EU and Nato. Elsewhere, fully 37% (against 21%) agreed that England and Scotland are drifting apart regardless. A big number – 53% against 10% – denied the claim promoted by Alex Salmond that it will be happy families after independence.

The survey found some English pragmatism to suit the Scottish majority taste. There were 42% (to 25%) prepared to say that Holyrood should control “most” of domestic taxation, given the removal of what’s called a subsidy, in the event of a No vote. There was a better than two-thirds showing that border controls would be a nonsense in the event of Yes. Still, it all made the “Scotland, don’t go” idea seem anomalous.

Personally, I’ve always thought it the easiest argument for independence. If you happen to be English, and if you happen to be fed up with what you call Anglophobia, and griping subsidy junkies, and the denial of English democracy, and appeasement of the northern neighbours, and Scots who refuse to see what’s glorious about Britain, put your back into Yes. It can all be solved in a few weeks.

That pat solution would not answer all of England’s questions, however. For one thing, the survey findings seem (to me) to have far less to do with a backlash, or with an animosity towards Scotland, than with Chesterton’s ordinary folk speaking up, finally, to say: “What about us?” Those ordinary people are less interested in withdrawing public spending or the chance of democracy from Scots than in asking why they can’t have the same. A very good question.

A truly representative parliament? An NHS still holding out against private-sector zombies? Free, mostly free, personal care for the elderly? So on and ever on. If you happen to be in Liverpool or Newcastle and contending with a government that, as usual, you didn’t vote for, what might you say? You might say Scots are subsidised while you struggle. You might notice one set of numbers and ignore another to show the first isn’t true. But you will find a reason to speak, finally.

The singer Billy Bragg and a few others have pursued this line for a while. They treat a Yes vote in Scotland as an opportunity, even an inducement, for England. They see profound imbalances and inequalities in that country, especially in the relationship between overbearing London and the rest, and they accept that it might not be Scotland’s job to make up the numbers should progressive England falter. It is an idea of solidarity by inspiration and emulation.

Pick through the survey stew and you find some sense. If Scotland can say it is not well-served by the nexus of Westminster, City and media, much of England can say the same.

Ken Livingstone used to like to remind Scots that some boroughs in his London were as poor as any districts in the islands. This was, and is, absolutely true. It was also beside the point. Part of the reason why England’s democracy needs to be broken apart on the wheel of devolution is to prove that you needn’t point a finger at others to get justice for yourself.

An English majority for a continuing UK suggests that animosities, where they exist, do not run deep. The desperate search for demented Scottish phobias has not been well-rewarded. The cheering-for-all during the Commonwealth Games turns out to have been more typical than the Daily Mail’s internet cybernat hunts. True hatred between Scotland and England is as hard to come by as truly irrational people.

The sole reason to worry comes from those behind the headline trench warfare. Did they want that English backlash so badly? Did they reason that Scots would react, for we have form, to old-fashioned provocation and show our colours as – what’s the formula? – ethnic separatists with weird notions about our neighbours? It didn’t work. It won’t work. It’s not true.

Just before the First World War, GK Chesterton published a novel containing a few poems. One of those has to do with St George. The writer called it The Englishman. I always think the last lines would suit those who sit in London offices and yearn for a resentful England.

But though he is jolly company

And very pleased to dine,

It isn’t safe to give him nuts

Unless you give him wine.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/columnists/the-anglophobia-that-never-was.25112516
My reply was:-

Dear Mr Bell

Re: The Anglo-phobia that never was” – Sunday, 24th August

I enjoyed your article, but, with respect, the point about the opinion polls is somewhat undermining the No Campaign’s pitch as they demonstrate that the inducements to vote No which have been promised by Unionists in fact may be politically undeliverable.

In particular any promise to maintain the proportion of public spending currently spent in Scotland stands little chance of being honoured. So NO voters may well be voting for a £1,500 per annum cut in their living standards!

Do you think that thought will make a difference?

Yours sincerely

Robin Tilbrook

Chairman,
The English Democrats

English Shipbuilding Jobs sacrificed to buy Scottish votes to sink their Independence Referendum!

This is our press release at today’s sad news for Portsmouth and for England’s 1,000 years of Naval history. What do you think?

English Shipbuilding Jobs sacrificed to buy Scottish votes to sink their Independence Referendum!
Today’s story of MoD shipbuilding jobs in Portsmouth being lost and their capacity being transferred to the Clyde is a nakedly political story of chicanery and deceit at the heart of Government, the MoD and at the peril of English defence capability. http://news.sky.com/story/1164634/bae-announces-1775-shipyard-job-losses
It was becoming obvious that the huge English taxpayer subsidy to Scotland under the Barnett formula (which the House of Lords reported in 2009 was £32 Billion a year) was no longer sufficient to guarantee a NO vote so the motive for this cut is to bribe Scottish Voters in the heartland of Scotland’s central belt which has already been ear-marked as the crucial swing battle-zone in next year’s Independence referendum.

This is being done by a government headed by a man who has already declared that his National Identity is not loyal to English Interests when he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that: I am a passionate Unionist, … and I’m a Cameron, there is quite a lot of Scottish blood flowing through these veins.

Robin Tilbrook, the Chairman of the English Democrats said:- “Not only have the MoD been dishonest about their motives in cutting well over 1,000 English jobs but also what happens to England’s ability to defend herself if Scotland votes for Independence anyway. This is an extraordinarily foolish and incompetent decision made for the worst of motives which is reckless as to English National Interests!”

Further information from:

Robin Tilbrook
Chairman, The English Democrats,

Notes to Editors:
The recently published 2011 Census showed that England has over 32 million (32,007,983) people (or 60.4%) who have stated they have only English National Identity. A further 4.8 million (4,820,181) people (or 9.1%) stated that their National Identity is ‘English and British’.

In sharp contrast with this nearly 70% being English there were only a mere 10 million (10,171,834) people (or 19.2%) who claimed to be ‘British Only’. A substantial proportion of these ‘British Only’ appear, from cross referencing with the results of the Census’ ethnicity question, to be of non English ethnicity (ie Scottish, Welsh or Irish).

The Office for National Statistics nationality statistics can be found here)>>>http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-286262. The Nationality results are at: 2011 Census: KS202EW National identity, local authorities in England and Wales.

Demand for English Independence is increasing rapidly in England and although reactive to the movement for Scottish Independence it is not dependent on it. The June 2011 ComRes survey done for the BBC showed that then there was 36% support for England to be a fully Independent Country irrespective of the result of the Scottish Independence Referendum.

Key facts about the English Democrats:

The English Democrats launched in 2002. The English Democrats are the English nationalist Party which campaigns for a Parliament for England, First Minister and Government, with at least the same powers as the Scottish ones within a Federal UK; for St George’s Day to be England’s National holiday; for Jerusalem to be England’s National Anthem; for a Referendum to leave the EU; for an end to mass immigration; for the Cross of St George to be flown on all public buildings in England.

The English Democrats are England’s answer to the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.

The English Democrats’ greatest electoral successes to date include winning the Directly Elected Executive Mayoralty of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and the 2012 referendum; We won the referendum which triggered a referendum to give Salford City an Elected Mayor; In 2012 we saved all our deposits in the Police Commissioner elections and came second in South Yorkshire; In the 2009 EU election we gained 279,801 votes after a total EU campaign spend of less than £25,000 (giving the English Democrats by far the most cost efficient electoral result of any serious Party in the UK).