Happy St George's Day

A happy St George's Day to Toque's long suffering readers.

On Wednesday Power2010 projected a large image of the flag of St George onto the Houses of Parliament. The projection didn't last long because the police turned up and unplugged the projector, implying that they were breaking the law, taking the names and addresses of those involved, citing anti-terrorism law, section 44.

This is England. A land without democratic voice, in which the police prevent people from projecting the national flag on a national icon in order to combat "terrorism".

The Power2010 stunt was to publicise the release of today's St George's Day press release which reveals that 68% agree with the statement: "England should have its own parliament with similar powers to those of the Scottish Parliament".

The ICM poll also revealed that an even greater proportion of people in England - 70% - would support "English Votes on English Laws", the policy that Power2010 is promoting as part of its five point pledge.

The ICM poll shows a large majority (70%) of voters say that laws for England should be made by the House of Commons but only MPs representing English constituencies should be able to vote on them. English Votes on English Laws (EVoEL) is one of the five changes to fix politics backed by over 100,000 votes which now forms the POWER Pledge being put to all candidates standing in the General Election.

The poll of 1033 people across England also shows that less than a quarter (23%) of people in England feels either “more English than British” or “English not British”. Almost half – or 46% - of those questioned in the poll say they feel “equally British and English”. 24% of those questioned said they feel either “British not English” or “more British than English”, according to the poll. POWER2010 says this means that the fairness of decision-making matters more to people than Englishness.

On the matter of identity the ICM data reveals that 77% of people surveyed felt English to some degree, so I'm not quite sure why Power2010 believe that 'the fairness of decision making matters more to people than Englishness'. Devolution to Scotland and Wales was sold on the message that devolution acknowledged the dual nature of national identity, recognising both Scottish identity and British identity, or Welsh identity and British identity. The English too have a dual national identity, yet England is denied the opportunity to vote for its own national parliament, despite years of polling that clearly demonstrate public support.

The Power2010 press release continues:

Director of POWER2010, Pam Giddy, said today:

“England was not mentioned once in the leaders’ debate and has not featured at all during this campaign so far. Yet we now know people want a fairer way of making decisions that affect England.

“It suddenly feels like we are on the cusp of seismic changes to the way our politics is done. But so long as the unfair system we have at the moment persists it can only play into the hands of undemocratic voices like the BNP. With all the talk of reform in the air politicians should not duck the English question, but use the opportunity of St George’s day to say where they stand.

It was a shameful disgrace that the word 'England' was not uttered once during the first leaders' debate, a debate that dealt almost entirely with matters affecting only England. What is it about England that Brown, Cameron and Clegg are so afraid of? Like Pam Giddy says, if they don't speak for, to and of England, then others will step into the political vacuum.

Power2010 are encouraging people to ask their candidates for their views on ‘the English Question’, so far unaddressed in this election - you can ask yours here.