The Striking Out of England (again)

So, my shabby little Englander mates, the voting is over. But for the moment let us forget about the FPTP/AV referendum and the local elections. We need to remember that, for some of us, there were some other far more important elections.

These were parliamentary elections in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

I know I may be just an ugly, narrow, sour faced little Englishman but I get an uncomforable feeling that in all these elections there is something missing.

So, I would like to ask my fellow non too bright little Englanders a question.

We know there was an election for a parliament in Northern Ireland
We know there was an election for a parliament in Scotland
We know there was an election for an assembly in Wales.

The question to you, my grubby little Englanders is this:

Can you spot the deliberate ommission?

Which country is missing? Which country didn't get to elect its own parliament? In fact which country doesn't even have a parliament, or an Assembly. Or even a small tin shed for that matter.

Take a look at the bastions of democracy at the BBC Here. Notice how there is a heavy duty section on the politics and political make up of  each of the three countries that have had elections. But the non country of England merely gets an "Around England" section.  All you get here is  local election results and a set of regional blogs.

Regionalism was John Prescotts attempt to dismember the non country of England and so confirm its non existence. Unfortunately for portly John, some time back, the good people of the North East told him where to get off. But obviously nobody told the oligarchs at the BBC.

Of course Billothewisp must do his part and support our noble leaders by helping to erase the non country of England. Previous posts on this Here and then Here have explained the only thing Billothewisp can do is strike out every reference to England and the English. That is until this injustice is addressed and we grubby, sour faced little Englanders get own own parliament, just like everyone else in these islands.

You know it makes sense.

England Erased Revisited

Ana the Imp has set me off. (see Ana the Imp Here)

Back in the dark days of 2002, John Prescott was planning to "regionalise" England as some sort of final solution to the West Lothian problem.

Some earnest chap wrote in and complained about the fact that he had no opportunity of expressing himself as English on the Census form. Just about every other ethic/cultural/national was there to be chosen from except English.

Luckily a copy of the 1984 style reply is still around. See link - (Prescotts reply courtesy English Ed)

But I thought I would share the following little gem from this reply directly with you. (I don't see why I should be the only one with boiling blood pressure.)

[quote]
Firstly, I assume you are referring to the census form that has no facility for stating English nationality.This is because there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of parliament and accession.
[unquote]

But don't stop there. Read all of it. Then think how lucky we are we still have a country at all.

England Erased

Good evening my fine fettled fellow little Englanders.

Billothewisp has a request.

I would like to try and compile some documentation on the airbrushing out of the English identity and the villification of Englishness.

My first port of call was going to be the notorious letter that hailed from the offices of John (pass the pies) Prescott in 2002.

You may remember it. If you don't, make sure you are sat down or at least stood well clear of breakable objects before reading the following snippet (all I can currently find....)

Ready?

[quote]
…there is no such nationality as English as laid down by various acts of Parliament and accession. Persons born in the United Kingdom are citizens of the United Kingdom and are therefore British/English.
[unquote]

Now, I really need the full text of this letter, vile and poisonous though it is. If you have a copy could you attach a link to it as a comment to this post?

Thanks

Billothewisp

A Scottish Debate – In England

Billothewisp has been drinking too much cider. He is annoyed. My apologies to my fellow ugly, sour faced, little Englanders..

But what the hell is going on?

Here I am, sitting in the middle of rural Dorset in the non country of England listening to a Scottish debate on the coming election. (BBC News channel)

A similar debate will not occur for my non country. No parliament. No assembly. No representation.

There will be no English debate. England has been abolished. At least in the minds of those who seek its demise.

So then, even by the ruling elites corrupt standards, where is the missing, bastardised regionalism?

So where are (at least) the Regional debates? Tell me. I want to know.

The ugly brutalised dissection of England into a set of regions was supposed to mirror the other countries within these islands.

So then: Where are the regional debates?

We have a Scottish debate, a Welsh debate, a Northern Ireland debate.

At least, where is the Northumbrian debate? The Wessex debate?

Of course they will never happen.

The truth is that there are no regional debates because publicising the false regional dissection of England would risk questioning English identity. Likewise there will be no English debate because that would destroy the grand regionalism master-plan.

England and the English are patient and tolerant.

But there are limits to everything. To put it mildly.

This is unfair.

The Striking Out of England

Today at mid-day I had no lunch. Not one morsel passed my lips. Even the bloody "Oily Rags" I have to work with had their "Ham" sandwiches and "Muesli" snackbars. But I had nothing.

Anyway to kill the pangs of hunger, I decided to surf to the BBC website to read the news instead.

BilloTheWisp decided to navigate to politics. More precisely to this page. Nice layout! Lots of fine words (well, they do get nearly 3 Billion quid a year from you suckers) but....

There was something missing.

Underneath the headline stories there was a section Scottish Politics. Another for Northern Ireland Politics and finally a third for Welsh Politics. Really, there was something missing. Neanderthals are really built for stability rather than speed so I had to mull it over for quite sometime.

What could it be? Then it came to me. In a flash. Or more a rumbling of discontent, a bit like the rumbling of my unfilled belly. There was no mention of English Politics. Not one word. Let alone a heading. It was as if England had been airbrushed out of the political make-up of the UK.

BilloTheWisp is a trusting sort of chap, though a bit hairy. Consequently, I have decided that until justice is served and fairness established for England by the establishment of an English Parliament, I will follow the lead of the exceptionally well fed at the BBC by airbrushing England out. This will undoubtedly also save any embarrasment to our leaders in England, who of course, cannot be our English leaders anyway, because England does not exist. Let alone have any political representation.

Unfortunately this Neanderthal centric blog is mainly about England. Consequently I felt it would be rather messy to simply remove all references to England and the English. So please excuse this simple Neanderthal who, instead of airbushing England out, will now ensure that any reference to the non country of England is now struck out from this blog instead.

I hope that will enable all of us who live in England to stop worrying about silly things like democracy and fair-play. We can then get on with paying our English taxes into the Barnett formula so the other real countries around us can flourish and push forward leaving us English ever wistful for the fiction of the non country of England