The BNP have changed their constitution to allow “non-indigenous Britons” to join, but now it is being claimed that their new rules “indirectly” discriminate against black and Asian people:
[P]rospective members had to sign up to principles including a duty to oppose the promotion of any form of “integration or assimilation” that impacted on the “indigenous British”, and a requirement to support the “maintenance and existence of the unity and integrity of the indigenous British”.
So what precisely are the BNP doing? Oh, yes, asking their members to sign up to their principles… which is precisely what every other party asks its members to do.
I think its pretty clear that the BNPs membership policies are not discriminatory. It’s just that their principles and policies are racist – but anyone who is racist can join.
Over the past decade, support for an English Parliament has grown, from 18% to 29% – and 40% believe that the current “Barnett forumla” system is unfair.
The way devolution has been set up to work currently is untenable. There is a massive democratic deficit as Scotland and Wales both have:
There is no denying that the current system with a Scottish Parliament and Welsh and NI Assemblies is not acceptable and not democratic. This is also exascerbated by the fact that MPs in Scotland and Wales still represent smaller constituencies than those in England.
The crux of the issue is that people in Scotland and Wales have two votes – one for Holyrood or Cardiff and another for Westminster, whilst those in England have just one, for Westminster. That alone is undemoctratic, and when Scotland and Wales have more MPs than their population warrants, it becomes even more so. It may have been justifiable before devolution, but no longer.
The Barnett formula is wrong because it is not based on any form of need, but purely on population, and drastically skewed towards Scotland and Wales.
We need proper and fair devolution. And we need it soon, before support for an English Parliament grows to a level where it becomes massively divisive to the country. Properly thoughtout and well-implemented devolution will ensure that the United Kingdom remains united for another three hundred years.
England cannot and must not be ignored in the devolution debate. Although support is not yet so high as to make it a serious poliical issue for this general election, if nothing is doine to address it, by the next general election (or the one after that) it certainly could be.
The mere prospect of Gordon Brown remaining as Prime Minister in a hung Parliament meant that the pound collapsed.
If the mere prospect of five years more of Brown sends the markets downhill, what damage would five more years do?! As the world’s buiggest bond funs manager, Pimco, says, we need drastic action to deal with government debt. Which only the Conservatives will do.
Labourites often accuse the Conservatives of “talking down the economy/pound”. This proves that campaigning for Labour and talking up their chances are the ones talking down the economy…. which jujst proves that it is unpatriotic to be a Labour supporter!
He shouldn’t be. I don’t think that non-doms should be allowed to sit in Parliament, in either Chamber. Hence my pleasure when Zac Goldsmith give it up. But the sheer hypocrisy of Labor over non-doms is astounding.
The Guardian has published the amounts received by Labour and the Conservatives from non-doms since 2001. Using some Excel formulas, the following stats emerge:
CONSERVATIVES
Lord Ashcroft personally donated £77,930
Bearwood Corporate Services donated £5,086,185.15
In cash: £1,626,365.69
Non-cash: £3,537,749.46Conservative total: £5,164,115.15
LABOUR
Lakshmi Mittal donated £4,125,000
Sir Ronald Cohen donated £2,550,000
Caparo Industries PLC donated £45,000
Cash: £6,720,000Labour total: £6,720,000
So Labour have received more than £1.5 million more from non-doms than the Conservatives… and all of it in direct cash donations. So it is Labour who is far more “unpatriotic” than the Tories over this. (And lets not forget about the Lib Dems and their £2.4m from non-dom and fraudster Michael Brown.)
I still can’t help but snigger every time the term “non-dom” is used though…
