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:

Their own Parliament or Assembly with various law-making powers

More MPs than their population justifies

Scotland and Wales benefit massively from the Barnett formula, gaining £1-1.5k extra per person every year – all paid for by English taxes!

There is no denying that the …

A decision has been reached to hold a series of debates regarding the future of the entire country, between the two men vying to be Prime Minister for the next five years and Nick Clegg.
Yet some are not happy. Specifically, Ieuan Wyn Jones and Alex Salmond (the leaders of Plaid Cymru and the SNP, by the way) as well as UKIP and the Greens, who are threatening legal action because they haven’t been invited to take part.
But why should they? None of them are really national parties – only the …

Sometimes Welsh and Scottish nationalists seem to put just a little too much importance on their narrow sectarian interests. This is a prime example:

In a letter dated December 3, 1941, the Welsh Parliamentary Party wrote to the Prime Minister to demand a meeting to discuss a petition on the Welsh language.
Four days later – the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbour – Mr Churchill wrote in response: “Much as I should like to meet the deputation of the Welsh Parliamentary Party, I regret that, owing to the many tasks which fall …

The Welsh language is a symbol of Welsh nationalism. But is it really important enough to destroy their economy over?

A bid by the Welsh Assembly Government for more powers to make laws to promote the Welsh language has been published.
The legislative competence order (LCO) includes the right to require some private companies to use the language, including energy and telecoms firms.
But some MPs may resist the idea that using Welsh could become a legal requirement for private firms, and the bid was criticised by business leaders…
The private companies which could …

If you want to have wind power provide the government’s 20% renewable energy, you’ll have to give up Wales to wind turbines.

An area the size of Wales would need to be covered in wind turbines to meet just a sixth of the nation’s daily energy needs, according to a new study that has cast doubt over the Government’s push for wind energy.
Professor David MacKay, a physicist at Cambridge University, said ministers would have to look at other forms of alternative energy, like tidal power, if they were to meet their …

Over on ‘Bites, yesterday I commented on the news that Swansea council accidentally placed an out-of-office reply on a road sign.
The problem may have been avoided if they’d have used an online translator. However, as is well known, the results are from entirely accurate. The best example of this is translating something back into the source language – and seeing how it varies from what you typed in first time round.
So, time for a quick game. What was the source text I originally typed? Gold star for the winners (or …

The Welsh national dish…

I believe that the Union Flag should change now to reflect the four nations of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales…Changing an iconic image such as the Union Flag may appear to be more difficult to achieve than 200 years ago, but nonetheless I believe the change is right.- Ian Lucas MP (Labour)
WTF? That is an absolutely absurd idea. The Union Flag is an iconic image, and there’s hardly an easy way in which to combine the Welsh dragon into it without it looking absolutely stupid. …

Today is “Devolution Day” in Wales, a decade since the referendum narrowly in favour of devolution, which is now claimed by First Minister Rhodri Morgan to be the glue which unites Wales and allows it to “grow up”. Bloggers such as Ordovicius want the Welsh Assembly to gain more powers and become a parliament like that in Scotland. I can but agree with him that it should be – and there should be an English Parliament as well.
But will – or could – this lead to the situation that Belgium …

It seems that even some on the Left are coming around to the inherent problems with the current constitutional situation:
Pressure mounted yesterday on Labour to curb the power of Scottish MPs at Westminster and the “unfair” funding formula which channels public spending to Scotland.Gordon Brown, himself a Scottish MP, was urged by a Left-of-Centre think-tank [IPPR] to remedy the perceived constitutional unfairness stemming from the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.As a result of devolution, English MPs can no longer vote on key issues such as health and education …