Even if they are the main ones.
The English Democrats’ Peter Davies has won the Mayoralty of Doncaster. The previous incumbent, Martin Winter, was criticised over failings by Doncaster Council following the death of seven children on the at-risk register. Davies’ first actions were to say that he wanted to stop funding Doncaster Gay Pride and translation services in the borough.
Hardly what one would call progressive measures.
They are also uninformed policies; as comes out in this interview (transcript courtesy of Luke Akehurst) with Toby Foster of BBC Radio Sheffield, Davies doesn’t know how much Doncaster Gay Pride costs or earns and can’t scrap translation services under existing laws. Other flagship policies include reducing the number of councillors (he doesn’t have the authority) and doesn’t know which jobs are the ‘PC jobs’ he wants to cut. In fairness to him, he has accepted a reduced salary of ?30K.
Beyond that, there is a problem with the English Democrats: the nature of some of the people attracted by their ideology.
There seem to be two schools of thought that lead to an English parliament as the answer to the West Lothian question; one is that some conception of natural justice requires an even-handedness in passing legislation that the current form of assymmetric devolution cannot deliver.
The other is that a nation qua nation requires some form of political existence to achieve some sort of teleological objective. That, in and of itself, I don’t have a problem with, although I disagree with it.
The problem is some of the fellow-travellers that position attracts; crudely put, the soi-disant civic nationalism attracts ethnic nationalism.
By way of an example, Matt O’ Connor of Fathers 4 Justice was originally slated as the ED’s candidate for the Mayor of London. He withdrew, however, when it turned out that the EDs had entered into an electoral agreement not to contest seats that the racist England First Party were to contest.
As reported in the East London Advertiser, O’ Connor said
“I realised the English Democrats were working with ‘England First’ and had no choice other than to resign there and then.
The Little Man in a Toque has further background on certain parts of the EDs’ preparedness to work with racists.
My concern here is not specifically about Davies, but those who give him advice and support and the risks of an alternative centre of gravity for racists from the BNP. While some of this rag-bag set their policies around Britain, there are others who are very similar but prefer to set England alone as their leitmotif.
Doncaster is one of only twelve local government areas plus London to have directly elected mayors (the rest follow below the fold). A total of four have independent mayors; Frank Branston in Bedford; Stewart ‘H’Angus the Monkey’ Drummond in Hartlepool; Tony Eggington in Mansfield; and Ray ‘Robocop’ Mallon in Middlesborough.
xD.
| District | Type | Mayor | Party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedford | non-metropolitan district | Frank Branston | independent |
| Doncaster | metropolitan borough | Peter Davies | English Democrats |
| London | English region | Boris Johnson | Conservative |
| Hackney | London borough | Jules Pipe | Labour |
| Hartlepool | unitary authority | Stuart Drummond | independent |
| Lewisham | London borough | Steve Bullock | Labour |
| Mansfield | non-metropolitan district | Tony Egginton | independent |
| Middlesbrough | unitary authority | Ray Mallon | independent |
| Newham | London borough | Robin Wales | Labour |
| North Tyneside | metropolitan borough | Linda Arkley | Conservative |
| Stoke-on-Trent | unitary authority | Mark Meredith | Labour |
| Torbay | unitary authority | Nicholas Bye | Conservative |
| Watford | non-metropolitan district | Dorothy Thornhill | Liberal Democrats |
Table courtesy of Wikipedia.
I do think the EDP are on the slide and it’s precisely because of that reason – they are too prepared to (i) deal with ethnic nationalists and (ii) put up candidates who aren’t up to the job. There’s a need for at least one new political party that is prepared to deal with the issue of England’s nationhood and national future (the Scots and Welsh have no problem at all with theirs) – and hopefully not as anti-EU or as Little Englander as UKIP.
As you may know, I am not a fan of nationalism and think that a parliament for England would be a bad idea. I did a piece for The Pod Delusion here on that issue.
Apart from those objections, I simply don’t feel that there’s that big a movement for an English parliament (which is different from people who want an answer to the West Lothian Question). It would, though, be far better for the debate if the EDP made it clear that they’re not going to work with anyone, no matter how unpleasant they are, just because they’re an English nationalist.
Your last point is interesting – I wonder if there are any people who want an English parliament who are pro-EU.