Nigel Farrage on an English Parliament

The Talking Clock asked UKIP's Nigel Farrage whether the West Lothian Question requires an answer?. Here's his reply:

Of course it does. Of course it does and ummm… I think the, the, the UK constitutional arrangement at the moment is, is a bit of a mess, I don’t think it was clearly thought through and I have deep sympathy with the view that the English are getting a rotten deal. I have deep sympathy with that. I do not want to see extreme English nationalism, but I do think there is a genuine desire for Englishness that is out there and I’m very much in favour of a federal UK - very much in favour of it.

I think it works on every level, you know, if Scotland, England and Wales have their own ability to run their own things and we do things at a national government level rather like the, rather like America does – I think that is the long term solution and I’m very much in favour of it and yes, I would like to see – you know – an English Parliament sitting in Westminster for a certain number of days every month dealing with English only issues and I think the way we sort of try and pour scorn on Englishness is why we’ve got this rebellion – and, it’s a very English rebellion but you know, on St. George’s Day now, you see the flag everywhere. Well, twenty years ago, you didn’t so there is something going on there and I feel a part of that and I have a feeling, I have a feeling that we can get to a situation where the English, Welsh and Scots and Northern Irish all get on really rather better perhaps than we are at the moment.

I heard Nigel Farrage speak at the 2003 Campaign for an English Parliament conference, and I'm fairly certain that Farrage was extremely luke warm on the idea of an English Parliament back then. If I remember correctly he told us in no uncertain terms that we were wasting our time and we should forget about campaigning for an English parliament and concentrate instead on campaigning against the EU, which was a federalist plot to undermine British sovereignty (ring any bells James?). Anyway, he's made progress because he's now an advocate of an English parliament within a federal United Kingdom. Nigel, you've changed! For the better.

Read the Farrage interview in full here.