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.
Continue reading “The BNP aren’t the only ones to worry about”