Now it's English devolution, Clegg style.

[Workingman]

He wants England's biggest cities to become local hubs in order to decentralise government, a sort of regional devolution. Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and the other core cities would have elected "metro mayors" able to set local income tax rates and so on. We, the people, have already rejected regional assemblies and elected mayors. Which part of "No" doesn't he understand?

It is quite easy to decentralise, all it needs is for Clegg and his chums in Westminster to stop being London centric with every damned thing. It certainly does not need another layer of government, quangos and advisers to achieve it.

[KateLMead]

The Man Is. a Nutter

[medsec222]

I am entirely in agreement with Kate. Hopefully UKIP will become the third largest party instead of the LibDems and we will see the last of him.

[Kaz]

The man is an idiot

[cromwell]

There is a heavy push for "English devolution", giving more power to the regions from central government. This seems very similar to EU federalism, with EU regions being run from Brussels and no more national governments.

Which is probably why Cleggy is so much in favour of it.

It's not been in the news much, but a poll for the IPPR, a left wing think tank, showed 54% of people thought that England should have it's own parliament. The likes of Cleggy don't want this at all and are afraid that English nationalism will become more popular, following the example of Scottish nationalism.

[Workingman]

Cromwell, if you get round to following any of the comments blogs of newspapers and TV you will see many English demanding an English parliament if the Scots vote "No" and get devo-max.

For many of them it is not a request it really is a demand, and it is across the board. Any party offering it will get in on a landslide. Quite scary from my POV.

[cromwell]

You can see why though WM.
Scotland has it's own parliament. Wales has it's own Parliament. So does NI. (OK, so they are called Assemblies).

So it's OK for a Scot to have their own Parliament, if the Yes vote prevails.
But the English have the prospect of becoming members of... a "region"?

Scotland is a country, but England isn't?
There is no defence for this. What's fair for one is fair for the other.

[Workingman]

But wouldn't that really be the end of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

As someone who has never had any nationalist tendencies I do find it quite frightening.

[medsec222]

Three out of the four countries have their own Parliaments so the logical conclusion is for England to have its own Parliament as well.

[Kaz]

I honestly feel we are much stronger together!!!!