The Union Of The Kingdom At Stake

English democrat flies the Union flag in Doncaster, says the Observer, commenting on the surprise victory of the English Democrats in Thursday's elections. They can't help making that Labour dig about flags and fascists, though : "the English Democrats are routinely called right-wing (every public building would have to fly the Union flag)". What a pity it was the Union flag and not that of St George, otherwise the Guardian's man could really have gone to town on the fascist English patriot spiel (something he wouldn't dare do in Scotland or Wales, of course).

I think they're out of touch. Both the Union flag and the flag of St George have long since passed out of the grubby possession of the fascist parties and football thugs. The irony is that we are going to see a lot more flag waving, and a lot more people waving the flag who previously would not have done so, than ever before. And that's because it is becoming clearer and clearer to people in England that their national sovereignty - and more than that, their very identity - has been mendaciously stolen from them. Stolen, ignored and treated with contempt.

The devolution of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was not a gift of generosity by the Labour government but the craven compliance of apparatchiks to their master's plans, ie the EU.

Many people in England are growing sick of being ignored or treated with contempt. Many people still believe not just in the nationhood of England (and of Scotland and wales) but also of the Union. The steps taken by the Blair government to further the regionalisation plans of the EU have already introduced fissures in the Union. Whether those fissures can be fixed or whether the situation is going to become dangerously unstable is yet to be seen. Those working for independence in Scotland and Wales are playing a dangerous political game - for their own personal ends, of course, but the consequences could be disastrous for all of us in these islands.

This is all a result of the EU and the compliant servility of the British government. The EU wants no political union in Europe except itself. The existence of the UK and its success is an affront to their authoritarian world-view.

The results of the EU elections will prove interesting, to say the least, but one thing you can be guaranteed of - that mainstream politicians and their ignorant friends in the media will avoid dealing with the realities of EU power and its mendacity.

I'm Boozing For Britain!

Much merriment in the press about Liam Byrne's Demos pamphlet, A More United Kingdom, produced at the behest of Gordon Brown to come up with jolly wheezes to make us proud to be British.

What's causing the merriment is no 13 of the 'Twenty-seven ways to celebrate a national day': namely, 'through drinking'.

Presumably not through binge drinking, or underage drinking.

A lot of suggestions centre around organising public events and festivities (street parties, carnivals, etc) without taking into account the nightmare of regulation confronting anyone wanting to do anything in public these days - (health and safety, banning terrorists, paedophiles, people wanting to take photos, etc, etc).

I had to dig around on the internet to find the original text of the pamphlet, since our wonderful professional journalists rarely provide details of their sources. You can read it as a free pdf here (I certainly wouldn't waste £10 for a hard copy).

It's a patronising load of guff, as you'd expect.

Give me the booze, Liam, and fuck off.