Redcar and the Barnett formula

In my last post I described some good news (at last) for the North East of England as the Redcar Steel works re-opened. I also mentioned how the region has been so badly treated by successive governments.

The North East of England is, obviously, part of England. No surprises there. Consequently, like the rest of England the North East pays substantially into the Barnett formula. The Barnett formula provides a huge subsidy to Scotland. It was a stop gap quick fix for a long past Scottish funding problem that was supposed to last a year. While the funding issue may be long gone the Barnett formula is still with us 20 years later.

Nobody in government has the balls to cancel it.

Each person in Scotland get an extra £1200 a year spent on them compared to their English counterparts (i.e. like the good folk of the North East). This amounts to no less than a 11p in the pound tax break for the Scots. (See Yorkshire Post here)

In a time of national penury, if anyone should get such a tax break, surely it should be North East England rather than the whole Scottish nation.

Much of Scotland is wealthy - very wealthy. It is not right that poorer parts of the UK end up losing their services and opportunities simply to subsidise and placate the ever greedy Alex Salmond and the Scottish Parliament.


The Barnett formula is intrinsically unfair.

Ask yourself this:

Should poor (or even well-off) English working people be paying extra to support the likes of like Sir Fred Goodwin (Scottish resident). Should English tax payers support Scotland so it can offer free student education to not only Scottish students but other European students as well? While English students wanting to study in Scotland have to pay the full whack?

Scotland has plenty of resources. Even if Scotland wants to remain part of the Union then the Barnett formula should be abolished or at least modified so that subsidy is given on basis of need not national boundary. But if Scotland wants out of the union, well, by all means, in that case the Scots should spend their taxes however they want.

If the Scots want independence then it is their right to pursue it. Trying to buy them off with this dirty little Danegeld called the Barnett Formula is as repulsive as it is unfair.

But if that is how it is going to be, then what is good for the Goose is good for the Gander. Please do not expect my taxes to subsidise Scottish largesse or anything else for that matter.

English taxes are desperately needed elsewhere - like bringing jobs to Yorkshire and the North East

Erasing English Politics

My friends at the BBC (of which I have none) have, on their sumptuous website, a main page for each of the countries within these islands.

Tonight we are going to play a little game with some screen shots I have just taken.

Now this is a simple little task. A bit like "I Spy" or "Spot the Difference".

The question is: 

What is the missing topic on the page header....( If you need to cheat...look just above the date)

Northern Ireland:

Scotland:

Wales:

OK so far? 

Now what was the name of that insignificant little country that I have forgotten? 

OH Yes....

So my English dinlows have you noticed the missing little two words? 

That little something the 50 million souls in England clearly cannot be trusted with?

Maybe we grubby little Englanders cannot cope with the stress and strains of (Ugh!) English politics. Maybe it is a good thing that those kindly dears at the BBC have banned it from  polluting our gaze or warping our poor little minds.

It is so good to see that our great benefactors and guardians in Broadcasting House are looking so kindly down on us mere English plebs. 

Goodness! Just Think. 

English people interested in (Ugh!) English Issues? Whatever next?

Heaven Forbid! We'd be wanting an Assembly  next!

But our benefactors at the BEEB also have another brilliant idea. They are trying to breath some life into the corpse of John Prescott's regional dismemberment, er sorry, I mean regionalism plan. 

So they have this:

Oh Joy! Some regional info.

But no politics. Even here the nice kindly people at the BEEB wouldn't want to frighten the simple English folk with any mention of politics. Goodness No.

Much better that England is a Political Free Zone. All politics relating to England and an English identity are airbrushed out, just in case it confuses the English  or possibly frightens the horses.

The BBC can proudly state that their web pages and programs are scourged of English politics. Hurrah!

To end on a serious note: How the hell are any of us in these islands going to progress our democracy while 50 million are airbrushed out of the political landscape?

This not only demeans the English it diminishes the Scots, Welsh and Irish too. If the English cannot be trusted with an Assembly, you have to ask, are the other assemblies and parliaments just tokens? Simply there to appease nationalists rather than progress our democracy?

While the English issues are ignored by the political classes (and the bloody BBC), then the democratic freedoms of everyone in these islands is diminished.

How First Past The Post Harms the Tories

Due to the unfairness of the First Past the Post voting system, the biggest losers in Scotland have been the Conservatives.

During the 2010 election, the Conservatives polled 18% of vote in Scotland but gained less than 2% of the seats. Without a fairer distribution of the votes in Scotland, the Conservatives will never be able to gain their fair Scottish representation.

Here is some Scottish Election data from the last two general Elections, 2005, 2010. Spot the (several sets of) unfairness:

Below, is the result table from 2010 General Election for Scotland. Again, spot the unfairness.

Notice the massive unfair seat allocation.  Particularly see the benefit to Labour and the grossly unfair penalisation of the Conservatives. In 2010, Lib-Dems actually got roughly the correct vote/seat ratio. If you divvied up the seats according to vote share Labour should have got 24 -25 seats, each of the other parties should then have got about 11 seats each

In Scotland, using the First Past the Post voting system, the Conservatives (and the SNP) are punished in exactly the same way that other minority parties are punished across the the UK. The people of Scotland end up with an unrepresentative grouping at Westminster, which strongly leans away from what a sizeable voting minority wish for, leaving these minorities with reduced  representation, or as with the Conservatives, with trivial representation.

Scotland may not  be a Tory heartland under any voting system, but under First Past the Post the Conservatives are guaranteed an insignificant representation.

There used to be a phrase used to define those Conservative who rejected the old class base system. A phrase used to define Conservatives who sought to promote the best interests of the whole of the UK. They used to be called One Nation Tories.

So how can these "One Nation Tories" today still support First Past The Post, especially when it harms their cause so badly as shown above?

By supporting FPTP the Conservative simply entrench themselves in their English heartland and so fail to be a One Nation party. Conservative party supporters need to look to the long term, not just the petty gains to be made in the short term by staying with an outdated and unfair voting system.

Vote for AV on Thursday.

What about England Dave?

It is good to see that David Cameron has honoured his promise and visited Scotland within one week of taking office. It looks like the Scottish parliament is going to get more tax raising power so it can raise more of its own revenue. Hopefully this means they will be less dependant on Westminster and ultimately the English taxpayer.

The new coalition government has also made some promising statements about repealing the despised Barnett formula and there is a prospect of something being done about the West Lothian issue i.e. Scottish votes on English matters in the Commons.

That is all good news.

But whatever way you cut it, the lack of any form of English assembly is still a running sore. We need at least debate on an English parliament and the future of the Union.

It is simply unfair and undemocratic that all the other countries of the UK have their own parliament/assembly and yet the English have nothing.

The counter argument, often given, is that the UK parliament is also the legitimate English parliament. This infers that then the UK is really England plus colonial outposts. That is an idea that most people within these islands of all nationalities would find distasteful. (and quite rightly so)

The English currently have only a subset of the democratic rights inferred on other UK nations. It is easy to believe that this is simply so England can be bureaucratically administered and can then be used as the cash cow to finance profligacy elsewhere.

I appreciate that there are a mass of problems that this new government have inherited , especially related to our ruined economy. They of course, must be addressed urgently and first.

I do hope though, that these current pressing needs are not used as a subterfuge to sweep the English issue under the carpet.

More Money for ScotlandSay the Liberals

News from the Liberal Doo-Dahs suggest more money should be spent on Scotland. As you may remember, the Liberals, are led by .. Er, Um...Thingy.

That is the infinitely forgettable young suit who, with his dad, rules over our Mung bean eating friends in the Liberal Thingy-whatists.

A brief diversion from the topic of this post follows, as I try to remember his name. Avoid as you wish.

---diversion starts here---

But what is his name? Something to do with Christmas as I recall. Rudolph? Santa? No.
Something about hell also breaks into my memory. Daemon? No? Nick? Yes!

Its Nick!

As in old Nick or St. Nick!!

But Nick What?

Ah Yes! Its Nick Griffin!

But no. No. That's not right. Same sort of meaningless drivel but he is more nasty and less woolly than our Liberal Doo-Dah Friend.

A derogatory electronics term comes to mind: Kludge. Yes that's describes the Liberal ping-pongs.
Nick Kludge, Klodge,Kleege, Cleege, Clegg. Clegg!

Its Clegg!

Nick Clegg Rules over the non-carnivorous plant hugging Liberal-wot-sits

But never mind he is not the point of concern about this post.

---diversion ends here---

The report concerning more money for Scotland is in this BBC report here.

It looks like another of the Liberal Bing-Bongs wants to spend even more money on our Scottish brethren. This is despite the Scottish being given 117% of the funding per head of the English riff-raff. Courtesy of the Barnett formula.

Of course this unfairness does not really matter. The English have no parliament or representation so how are they going to complain?

As one of the unrepresented English riff-raff may I suggest to my ruffian English colleagues that they give our erstwhile and ferociously sincere Liberal bing-bongs a piece of their mind. They could do this while being door-stepped during the coming electioneering.

One topic for discussion may be the selective amnesia the bing-bongs have concerning the financial and electoral injustice done us sour faced cruel little Englanders.

Remind them how close they have come to political oblivion in the past.

Then further remind them that the ugly and despised English have long political memories. Especially about those who have swindled them out of their fair share of resources in order to buy votes and toady up to others in our Island.

I expect their eyes will glaze over and you, my English barbarian associates, will be regarded as assorted forms of lunatic. But never mind.

Unlike Thingy and the rest of the Liberal Ding-Dongs, English democracy has a future.

Why has this country of ours been so badly treated? Why have the English become the despised whipping boys and cash cows for the rest of these islands?

When they have to answer such questions, then maybe our lettuce crunching friends in the Liberal flip-flops may get the idea that each part of these island deserve the same representation, financial allocation and fair play.